The Letters of Junius: With Notes and Illustrations, Historical, Political, Biographical, and Critical, Volume 1William P. and L. Blake. H. Maxwell, printer., 1804 - Great Britain |
Common terms and phrases
administration æra ancient appear argument army artifice assertion authority Blackstone Britain British cause character command conduct constitution Corsica court crown declared defence deserved dignity Duke of Bedford Duke of Grafton ELOQUENCE England English expelled expulsion favour friends genius George Grenville Grace Grenville honour House of Commons House of Hanover incapacity insinuate instance interest invective JUNIUS's jury justice King law of parliament legislature Letters of JUNIUS liberty Lord Bute Lord Chatham Lord Granby Lord Mansfield Lord Rockingham Luttrell M'Quirk Marquis measures ment Middlesex Middlesex election military mind minister ministry nation nature never occasion odious opinion opposition orator paragraph pardon parliamentary party passions perhaps person Pitt political precedent present principles QUENCE racter reader reason reign Rockingham seems shew sion Sir William Draper Sovereign spirit suffered sufficient talents thought tion Tories truth virtue votes Walpole Whigs whole Wilkes Wilkes's writer
Popular passages
Page 261 - You are so little accustomed to receive any marks of respect or esteem from the public, that if, in the following lines, a compliment or expression of applause should escape me, I fear you would consider it as a mockery of your established character, and, perhaps, an insult to your understanding.
Page 276 - ... that ought to be dear to a man of honour. They are still base enough to encourage the follies of your age, as they once did the vices of your youth. As little acquainted with the rules of decorum as with the laws of morality, they will not suffer you to profit by experience, nor even to consult the propriety of a bad character. Even now they tell you that life is no more than a dramatic scene, in which the hero should preserve his consistency to the last; and that as you lived without virtue,...
Page viii - 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.
Page 289 - To reform and not to chastise I am afraid is impossible, and that the best precepts, as well as the best laws, would prove of small use if there were no examples to enforce them. To attack vices in the abstract, without touching persons, may be safe fighting indeed, but it is fighting with shadows.
Page 275 - Can gray hairs make folly venerable ? And is there no period to be reserved for meditation and retirement ? For shame, my lord! let it not be recorded of you, that the latest moments of your life were dedicated to the same unworthy pursuits, the same busy agitations, in which your youth and manhood were exhausted. Consider that, although you cannot disgrace your former life, you are violating the character of age, and exposing the impotent imbecility, after you have lost the vigor of the passions.
Page 171 - The spirit of the favourite had some apparent influence upon every administration ; and every set of ministers preserved an appearance of duration as long as they submitted to that influence. But there were certain services to be performed for the favourite's security, or to gratify his resentments, which your predecessors in office had the wisdom or the virtue not to undertake. The moment this refractory spirit was discovered their disgrace was determined.
Page 232 - To a generous mind there cannot be a doubt. We owe it to our ancestors to preserve entire those rights which they have delivered to our care — we owe it to our posterity not to suffer their dearest inheritance to be destroyed.
Page 269 - Belleisle, Goree, Guadaloupe, St. Lucia, Martinique, the Fishery, and the Havana, are glorions monuments of your Grace's talents for negotiation. My Lord, we are too well acquainted with your pecuniary character, to think it possible that so many public sacrifices should have been made without some private compensations. Your conduct carries with it an internal evidence, beyond all the proofs of a court of justice.
Page 144 - I do not give you to posterity as a pattern to imitate, but as an example to deter ; and as your conduct comprehends every thing that a wise or honest minister should avoid, I mean to make you a negative instruction to your successors for ever.
Page viii - 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 depositary of my own secret, and it shall perish with me.