what it may, this, at least, is certain, that, circumstanced as he is, with regard to the public, even his vices plead for him. The people of England, have too much discernment to suffer your Grace to take advantage of the failings of a private character, to establish a precedent by which the public liberty is affected, and which you may hereafter, with equal ease and satisfaction, employ to the ruin of the best men in the kingdom. Content yourself, my Lord, with the many advantages, which the unsullied purity of your own character has given you over your unhappy, deserted friend. Avail yourself of all the unforgiving piety of the court you live in, and bless God that " you are not as other men are; "extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." In a heart void of feeling, the laws of honour and good faith may be violated with impunity, and there you may safely indulge your genius. But the laws of England shall not be violated, even by your holy zeal to oppress a sinner; and, though you have succeeded in making him a tool, you shall not make him the victim of your ambition.

JUNIUS

LETTER X.

TO MR. EDWARD WESTON.

SIR,

April 21, 1769.

I SAID you were an old man with. out the benefit of experience. It seems you are also a volunteer, with the stipend of twenty commissions; and, at a period when all prospects are at an end, you are still looking forward to rewards, which you cannot enjoy. No man is better acquainted with the bounty of government than you are.

Ton impudence,

Temeraire vieillard, aura sa recompence.

But I will not descend to an altercation either with the impotence of your age, or the peevishness of your diseases. Your pamphlet, ingenious as it is, has been so little read, that the public cannot know how far you have a right to give me the lie, without the following citation of your own words:

Page 6th.

"1. That he is persuaded that the "motives which he (Mr. Weston) has alledged, "must appear fully sufficient, with or without "the opinions of the surgeons.

"2. That those very motives MUST HAVE BEEN "the foundation on which the Earl of Rochford thought proper, &c.

66

"3. That he CANNOT BUT REGRET, that the "Earl of Rochford seems to have thought proper "to lay the chirurgical reports before the king, "in preference to all the other sufficient mo❝tives." &c.

Let the public determine whether this be defending government on their principles or your

own.

The style and language you have adopted, are, I confess, not ill suited to the elegance of your own manners, or to the dignity of the cause you have undertaken. Every common dauber writes rascal and villain under his pictures, because the pictures themselves have neither character nor resemblance. But the works of a master require no index; his features and colouring are taken from nature; the impression they make is immediate and uniform: nor is it possible to mistake his characters, whether they represent the treachery of a Minister, or the abused simplicity of a King. JUNIUS.

LETTER XI.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.

MY LORD,

THE

April 24, 1769,

system you seemed to have adopted, when Lord Chatham, unexpectedly, left you at the head of affairs, gave us no promise of that uncommon exertion of vigour which has since illustrated your character, and distinguished your administration. Far from discovering a spirit bold enough to invade the first rights of the people, and the first principles of the constitution, you were scrupulous of exercising even those powers with which the executive branch of the legislature is legally invested. We have not yet forgotten how long Mr. Wilkes was suffered to appear at large, nor how long he was at liberty to canvas for the city and county, with all the terrors of an outlawry hanging over him. Our gracious Sovereign has not yet forgotten the extraordinary care you took of his dignity, and of the safety of his person, when, at a crisis which courtiers affected to call alarming, you left the metropolis exposed, for two nights together, to every

species of riot and disorder. The security of the royal residence from insult was then sufficiently provided for in Mr. Conway's firmness, and Lord Weymouth's discretion; while the Prime Minister of Great Britain, in a rural retirement, and in the arms of faded beauty, had lost all memory of his Sovereign, his country, and himself. In these instances you might have acted with vigour, for you would have had the sanction of the laws to support you. The friends of government might have defended you without shame; and moderate men, who wish well to the peace and good order of society, might have had a pretence for applauding your conduct. But these, it seems, were not occasions worthy of your Grace's interposition. You reserved the proofs of your intrepid spirit for trials of greater hazard and importance; and now, as if the most disgraceful relaxation of the executive authority, had given you a claim of credit to indulge in excesses, still more dangerous, you seem determined to compensate amply for your former negligence, and to balance the non-execution of the laws, with a breach of the constitution. From one extreme you suddenly start to the other, without leaving, between the weakness and the fury of the passions, one moment's interval for the firmness of the understanding.