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XX. That he was necessarily a friend to his printer, Mr. Woodfall.

XXI. That he must have resided almost wholly in London, from his correspondence with Mr. Woodfall, to whom he gives notice when he occasionally goes into the country. One of his letters being dated Pall Mall, we may fairly presume his town house was in that street.

XXII. That from his remembrance of the Walpolean battles, his seeing the Jesuitical books burnt in Paris, and his avowal of a long experience of the world, as well as from other circumstances mentioned in his correspondence with Mr. Wilkes, he could not be less than fifty years of age at the time of writing these Letters.

XXIII. That from the hints given to his printer, Mr. Woodfall, we may infer arrangements had been made for his coming into office; which though not accepted by him at the time, were sufficiently important to induce him to write no

more.

XXIV. Finally, that so powerful an attack on the private character of persons of such high rank, being inconsistent with the pen of political writers, in general, who condemn measures, and not character; we may reasonably conclude, that they proceeded from the pen of one who had received a severe wound from some of those individuals who formed part of the existing administration.

From these articles we may, at one view, collect the leading principles of Junius, which Horne Tooke candidly informed him would suit no form of government; indeed many of them appear highly inconsistent with so popular a writer;nevertheless, all which testimonials I have proved are united in the person of Lord Viscount Sackville, with many other documents connected with the life of that extraordinary man, as explanatory of the causes which occupied his pen for upwards of four years in one continued strain of personal satire and invective against the parties who censured his conduct at Minden, in Germany, and who were accessory to his second dismissal in 1766. His interview also with Lord Mansfield, a few days previous to his death, is another extraordinary circumstance, which cannot be accounted for on any other supposition than the sense he entertained of the injury his pen had inflicted on that nobleman, and his unwillingness to leave the world without making him some acknowledgment.

I therefore submit my Enquiry to the public, with confidence that this grand literary desideratum is now fully established; the mystery unravelled; and that the veil which has so long obscured the person of this illustrious writer, is removed for ever.

During my investigation, a book was put into my hands, written with sound judgment and

great ability, by Charles Butler, Esq. of Lincoln's Inn, which contains an interesting Enquiry as to the Author of Junius, undertaken in unison with Mr. Wilkes. The result of their labours amounted to nothing conclusive. The author afterwards touches upon the claims of Mr. Burke, Mr. Glover, Sir P. Francis, and Lord George Sackville, of whom he says:

"The reminiscent well remembers that his Lordship was the person to whom the Letters were first attributed, and that his Lordship had the reputation of possessing literary talents and habits. It is known that Sir William Draper at first divided his suspicions of the authorship of Junius between Burke and Lord George, and that, on Burke's unequivocal denial of it, he transferred them wholly to his Lordship.

"There certainly was an event in his Lordship's life which would sour him against mankind, and fill his soul with bitter hatred against the King in whose reign it happened, and his immediate successor on the throne; against Lord Mansfield, their secret and confidential adviser in all state prosecutions; and against the Duke of Grafton, the brother of Lord Southampton, a strong witness against Lord George in the courtmartial which was held upon him. Something or other might easily have occurred which would have extended this hatred to the Duke of Bedford.

"The event to which we have referred would render concealment necessary; and after Lord George had taken an office in Lord North's administration, and accepted a peerage from the King, it must, if he had any feelings of honour, have made him desire that his authorship of the Letters of Junius, if he were the author of them, should be buried in eternal oblivion.

"To all arguments which may be suggested in favour of Lord George, the author of the ingenious Essay prefixed to Woodfall's edition of the Letters of Junius, objects an expression in a political squib, attributed to Junius, in which he alludes to the supposed tergiversation of Lord George at the battle of Minden. This may be thought a strong, but it evidently is not a decisive argument, particularly if we suppose, what certainly is not impossible, that Lord George had, upon this subject, all the pride of conscious innocence. It must also be observed, that it is by conjecture only, that the jeu d'esprit, in which this expression is found, is imputed to Junius."

The latter part of the above sentence will be found in unison with my own opinion, expressed hereafter, where I have given evident demonstration that the jeu d'esprit alluded to did not proceed from the pen of Junius. I do not offer this extract, containing Mr. Butler's private opinion, as any demonstration in support of his Lordship's

claims, although it is in itself much to the point. No proofs are adduced by him. Private opinion, on a subject of so much intricacy, avails but little, unless substantiated by corroborating cir

cumstances.

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Horne Tooke says, in his answer to Junius, "You have disappointed me. When I told you that surmise, in however elegant language, ought not to pass for proof, I evidently hinted at the reply which I expected." And to this principle: it has been my endeavour to adhere, that the same language might not be advanced against the contents of this volume.

I now take this opportunity of offering my acknowledgment of thanks to my friend William Little, Esq. of Richmond, for his liberality in granting me the loan of many valuable books connected with the subject, and for his readiness in obtaining information for me, necessary to the furtherance of the present undertaking; also for granting me a fac-simile of his Lordship's hand-writing when Secretary of State, which is affixed to an official document preserved among his valuable collection of Autographs.

To Mr. G. Woodfall I have also to present my thanks for his politeness in answering my enquiries on the subject; and for the readiness he evinced to shew me the original letters in his possession. Several were sent by the penny

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