xi 1 11. To his Grace the Duke of Grafton 12. To his Grace the Duke of Grafton 13. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 17. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 18. To Sir William Blackstone, Solicitor General to her 19. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 81 89 96 151 155 · 161 24. Sir William Draper to Junius 25. Junius to Sir William Draper 26. Sir William Draper to Junius 27. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 28. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 29. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 30. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 31. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 32. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser TO THE ENGLISH NATION. I DEDICATE to you a Collection of Letters, written by one of yourselves, for the common benefit of us all. They would never have grown to this size, without your continued encouragement and applause. To me they originally owe nothing but a healthy sanguine constitution. Under your care they have thriven. To you they are indebted for whatever strength or beauty they possess. When Kings and Ministers are forgotten, when the force and direction of personal satire is no longer understood, and when measures are only felt in their remotest consequences, this book will, I believe, be found to contain principles worthy to be transmitted to posterity. When you leave the unimpaired hereditary freehold to your children, you do but half your duty. Both liberty and property are precarious, unless the possessors have sense and spirit enough to defend them. This is not the language of vanity. If I am a vain man, my gratification lies within a narrow circle. I am the sole depository of my own secret, and it shall perish with me. If an honest, and, I may truly affirm, a laborious zeal for the public service, has given me any weight in your esteem, let me exhort and conjure you, never to suffer an invasion of your political constitution, however minute the instance may appear, to pass by, without a determined, persevering resistance. One precedent creates another. They soon accumulate, and constitute law. What yesterday was fact, to-day is doctrine. Examples are supposed to justify the most dangerous measures; and, where they do not suit exactly, the defect is supplied by analogy. Be assured, that the laws which protect us in our civil rights, grow out of the constitution, and they must fall or flourish with it. This is not the cause of faction, or of party, or of any individual, but the common interest of every man in Britain. Although the King should continue to support his present system of government, the period is not very distant, at which you will have the means of redress in your own power. It may be nearer, perhaps, than any of us expect; and I would warn you to be prepared for it. The King may possibly be advised to dissolve the present Parliament a year or two before it expires of course, and precipitate a new election, in hopes of taking the nation by |