self neglected, and the government going on without his advice or assistance. But this is judging a very great man by a vulgar standard. Lord Chatham had arrived at a climacterical period of human life, noted as critical from the earliest records of medicine, an alteration in the human body, depending on its laws of incrementum and decrementum, rather than a Pythagorean theory of the mystical number seven. This trying period in the life of man, when the grasshopper is a burden and desire fails, with his gouty diathesis, accounts sufficiently for his deplorable state of health; not but that it may have been aggravated by seeing the magnificent pyramid of his fame dilapidated by ignoble hands. A man is often cheerful under the loss of his arms or his legs, and habit frequently renders a deranged condition of health tolerable; but a wounded spirit who can bear? To some very high-minded men, abuse, and even bitter persecution, are more tolerable than neglect. So situated, an ancient Roman would have destroyed himself, and a modern one, others; a condition which a truly great man, and a Christian, would patiently bear under to the destined end; as did CHATHAM then, and NAPOLEON since. In the year 1768, our great statesman resigned the only post he had retained, that of privy-seal. It was remarkable, that on this occasion he did not go to court, as is usual, but sent the seals to his Majesty by his intimate and revered friend Lord CAMDEN. The retired minister's disgust was too manifest, and his resentment too strong to be for ever concealed. He felt, as he declared in the House of Lords, that he had been deceived and duped from a very high source under the guise of particular kindness and marked personal respect. He himself constitutionally and rationally honest, abhorred deceit and hypocrisy. In former ages, and in absolutely despotic governments such a powerful man as Pitt, Earl of Chatham, a minister whose transcendent abilities overshadowed Majesty itself, would have been cut off by some violent death, while the monarch was surrounded by innumerable guards. In the tragedy of empires, BRITAIN-" that precious stone set in the silver sea" *-exhibited to surrounding nations, and to the eye of philosophy, at the close of the eighteenth century, a rare spectacle in her King, his ministers, and his people.f The last scene in this grand drama is to be acted in this new world, "Where shall be sung another golden age, The rise of empire, and of arts, The good and great inspiring epic rage, "Not such as Europe breeds in her decay; * Shakspeare. Lord Malmesbury was sent to Paris in 1796 to offer peace, and it was refused. The following year he returned a second time unsuccessful. George the Third was in 1795 and 1796 dangerously assaulted in his state coach with stones on his way to the parliament house. Soon after there was mutiny throughout the British fleet, and a very alarming rebellion in Ireland. During this state of affairs Bonaparte was carrying his victories over Europe with the rapidity of a torrent, and threatening England with invasion, while the Sovereign suffered a relapse of his insanity, which continued to the close of his long life. "Westward the course of empire takes its way; The fifth shall close the drama with the day; * DEAN BERKELEY, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne. This eminent philosopher, good man, and venerable prelate came to America about 1723, with the hope of establishing a college for the education of our aboriginal Indians. He resided several years on Rhode Island, and tradition says, he there wrote his "Minute Philosopher." One of my parents, who died at 90 years of age, remembered him distinctly. Another aged person had heard him preach a charity sermon in Boston, and described minutely to me his athletic person. He gave his library, his farm, and mansion, called Whitehall, to the Connecticut College, established at New Haven. 10 CONCERNING JUNIUS AND HIS LETTERS. CHAPTER I. THE FIRST IMPRESSION MADE BY JUNIUS'S LETTERS IN OLD BEHOLD then the illustrious CHATHAM, retired, filled with disgust and resentment, yet silent. Was this an absolute retirement from all public cares into the quiet of domestic repose? By no means. The perturbed spirit cannot rest. "O polish'd perturbation! golden care! That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide To many a watchful night!' In less than a year after Lord Chatham withdrew from office, as well as from Parliament, JUNIUS burst forth the champion of the rights of Englishmen, and the stern vindicator of the principles of the constitution. These epistles broke upon the public ear like thunder, at a time, and under circumstances, which gave them remarkable force on a discontented nation. I say nation, for these Ameri * Shakspeare. |