LETTER XV.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.

THE party of the Marquis of Rockingham and the Duke of Newcastle, had reconciled themselves to that of Pitt and the Grenvilles. Earl Chatham, after trying, in vain, to acquire the entire confidence of George the Third, as he once conquered that of George the Second, saw himself reduced into a dependency which he disdained, upon great parliamentary connexions. Charles Townshend had been cut off by death, amid great schemes which he was hastening into accomplishment, in order to supplant his fellows and rivals, and to gain himself the place of First Minister. The citizens of London, and the freeholders of Middlesex, continuing firm in their attachment to Mr. Wilkes, supported him in the confinement to which he had been condemned, raised him to the dignity of an Alderman, and were preparing to pay his debts, and to make him one of the Sheriffs for the county. The Duke of Bedford's party had, after a multitude of cabals and negotiations, returned, out of the late opposition, into connexion with the Court. By their coalition with the Duke of Grafton, and with those who were supposed to be still more confidentially the friends of the King, the Whigs were hindered from becoming masters of the cabinet; the emancipation of America was delayed; the hope of a redress of those grievances which arose from the irregular prosecution of Wilkes, was still disappointed; and Scots and Tories were` still fortified in their strong holds, or cherished in their lurking places about the Court. Even the eloquence, and the political sagacity of JUNIUS, however powerfully exerted, and however severely felt, could not accomplish more than the petitions of the Livery of London, in obliging the Sovereign to alter his plan of government, or in conipelling the present ministers to retire, and make room for the Whigs. Hence the populace, the agitators in London, JUNIUS himself, and especially the grand phalanx of the Whigs, accounting themselves invincible, since they were at length united, were now preparing to storm the fortresses of administration more vigorously than ever before; and expected, that perseverance and increased activity, would not fail to crown their efforts, in the end, with full success. This Letter, fiercely renewing the general attack on the Duke of Grafton,

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appears to have been written with these views. The last Session of Parliament had closed on the 9th of May; and it might seem to be, in a particular manner, the business of JUNIUS, to maintain the warfare with ministry, while the parliamentary exertions of his friends were, in the recess, necessarily interrupted.

This Letter descends not into any minute detail of facts; but only employs a strain of general expostulation and invective; and reviews, in a manner that the minister and his friends might well understand, the whole series of those contentions between the Crown and the Whig Aristocracy, which had occasioned so many changes of administra‐ tion, and had been prolonged ever since the beginning of the present reign. It dwells, particularly, on that which was now the grand subject of anxiety and clamour among the patriots of London and Middlesex; the illegal appointment of Luttrell to represent that county in parliament. It boasts of the boldness of the petitions from the City of London; and threatens a resistance that should, at length, compel the Sovereign to relinquish his present plans of government, and should drive the minister into disgraceful retirement, without the remembrance of one great or good act of administration, to support his mind under public infamy, or soothe the anguish of his disappointed ambition. Even in this Letter, JUNIUS does not yet descend into deep and close argumentation on the subject of the Middlesex election. Perhaps he had not yet made himself sufficiently master of the subject; perhaps he might fear, lest the dryness of argumentation should not well accord with that popular eloquence which created his fame; or, it may be, that he was willing to let the argumentative part of the controversy take its free course somewhat farther, before he should decisively interpose, on the principle which it well accorded with his pride to adopt, of-Neu Deus intersit, nisi dignus, vindice nodus..

MY LORD,

8. July, 1769.

IF nature had given you an understanding qualified to keep pace with the wishes and principles of your heart, she would have made you, perhaps, the most formidable minister that ever was employed under a limited monarch, to accomplish the

ruin of a free people. When neither the feelings of shame, the reproaches of conscience, nor the dread of punishment, form any bar to the designs of a minister; the people would have too much reason to lament their condition, if they did not find some resource in the weakness of his understanding. We owe it to the bounty of Providence, that the completest depravity of the heart is sometimes strangely united with a confusion of the mind, which counteracts the most favourite principles, and makes 'the same man treacherous without art, and a hypocrite without deceiving. The measures, for instance, in which your Grace's activity has been chiefly exerted, as they were adopted without skill, should have been conducted with more than common dexterity. But truly, my Lord, the execution has been as gross as the design. By one decisive step, you have defeated all the arts of writing. You have fairly confounded the intrigues of opposition, and silenced the clamours of faction. A dark, ambiguous system, might require and furnish the materials of ingenious illustration; and, in doubtful measures, the virulent exaggeration of party must

By one decisive step, you have defeated all the arts of writing.] Writing can be employed, with propriety, against none but beings who are capable of rational design, and still prefer the appearance of good to that of evil. JUNIUS, in this sentence, alledges, that there was, in the measures of the minister against whom he inveighs, an ostentatious wickedness, and an unintelligent audacity, which defied the exaggeration of the satirist, and were not to be touched by his censures.

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be employed,, to rouse and engage the passions of the people. You have now brought the merits of your administration to an issue, on which every Englishman, of the narrowest capacity, may determine for himself. It is not an alarm to the passions, but a calm appeal to the judgment of the people, upon their own most essential interests. A more experienced minister would not have hazarded a direct invasion of the first principles of the constitution, before he had made some progress in subduing the spirit of the people. With such a cause as yours, my Lord, it is not sufficient that you have the court at your devotion, unless you can find means to corrupt or intimidate the jury. The collective body of the people form that jury, and from their decision there is but one appeal.

WHETHER you have talents to support you at a crisis of such difficulty and danger, should long since have been considered. Judging truly of your disposition, you have perhaps mistaken the extent of your capacity. Good faith and folly have so long been received as synonimous terms, that the reverse of the proposition has grown into credit, and every villain fancies himself a man of abilities. It is the apprehension of your friends, my Lord, that you have drawn some hasty conclusion of this sort, and that a partial reliance upon your moral character

A direct invasion of the first principles of the constitution.] By the decision, invalidating those votes of the electors of Middlesex which had been given for Mr. Wilkes, in opposition to Mr. Luttrell.

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has betrayed you beyond the depth of your under-. standing. You have now carried things too far to retreat. You have plainly declared to the people what they are to expect from the continuance of your administration. It is time for your Grace to' consider what you also may expect in return from their spirit and their resentment.

SINCE the accession of our most gracious Sovereign to the throne, we have seen a system of

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Since the accession of our most gracious Sovereign, &c.] It is necessary, that the reader, who wishes to be instructed by the truths in the e Letters, without being misled by their prejudices and errors, should in his perusal of them hold the following principles and facts steadily present in his mind

1. The plan of the breaking down of the great Whig Aristocracy, by selecting ability and loyalty from among both Whigs and Tories, did not begin with Lord Bute, but was conceived and arranged by Bolingbroke; was imperfectly carried into effect, in the opposition guided by Mr. Pulteney, Sir William Wyndham, and Lord Carteret; occasioned, in the struggle between its supporters and opposers, all that uncertainty and weakness of government, which prevailed from the resignation of Sir Robert Walpole, till the Pelhams were fully established in ministerial power; was renewed by Mr. Pitt in 1758, after the Whig Aristocracy had made themselves equally odious and contemptible, by corruption, tyranny, and misfortunes, the fruits of mal-administration; had, in truth, been first exemplified by Lord Clarendon, after the Restoration, and with a still more exact similitude of circumstances, by King William, after the Revolution.

2. The Earl of Bute, in his attempt to carry this plan into effectual and permanent accomplishment, erred in nothing so much, as in not gaihing Mr. Pitt for his confidential friend and ally. `Pitt hated the great Whig Aristocracy, which had ever scowled on his talents, and thwaited, by every artifice, his attempts to rise, by

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