colonel. My moft gracious Sovereign gives it me as a penfion; he was pleafed to think I deserved it. The annuity of zcol. Irish, and the equivalent for the half-pay together, produces no more than 380 1. per annum, clear of fees and perquifites of office. I receive 1671. from my government of Yarmouth. Total 547 1. per

annum. My confcience is much at eafe in these particulars; my friends need not blush for me.

Junius makes much and frequent ufe of interrogations: they are arms that may be eafily turned against himself. I could, by malicious interrogation, difturb the peace of the most virtuous man in the kingdom; I could take the decalogue, and fay to one man, Did you never fteal? To the next, Did you never commit murder? And to Junius himfelf, who is putting my life and conduct to the rack, Did you never bear falfe witness againft thy neighbour? Junius mus eafily fee, that unless he affirms to the contrary in his real name, fome people who may be as ignorant of him as I am, will be apt to fufpect him of having deviated a little from the truth: therefore let Junius ak no more questions. You bite against a file ceafe viper. W. D.

LET

TO SIR WILLIAM DRAPER, KNIGHT OF THE BATH.

SIR,

An academical education has given you an unlimited command over the most beautiful figures of speech. Masks, hatchets, racks, and vipers dance through your letters in all the mazes of metaphorical confufion. These are the gloomy companions of a disturbed imagination; the melancholy madnefs of poetry, without the inspiration. I will not contend with you in point of compofition. You are a fcholar, Sir William, and, if I am truly informed, you write Latin with almoft as much purity as English. Suffer me then, for I am a plain unlettered man, to continue that file of interrogation, which fuits my capacity, and to which, confidering the readiness of your anfwers, you ought to have no objection. Even Mr. Bingley promifes to anfwer, if put to the

torture.

Do you then really think that, if I were to ask a moft virtuous man whether he ever committed theft, or murder, it would difturb his peace of mind? Such a queftion might perhaps difcompofe

the

the gravity of his muscles, but I believe it would little affect the tranquillity of his confcience. Examine your own breaft, Sir William, and you will discover, that reproaches and enquiries have now power to afflict either the man of unblemished integrity or the abondoned profligate. It is the middle compound character which alone is vulnerable: the man, who, without firmness enough to avoid a dishonourable action, has feeling enough to be afhamed of it.

I thank you for the hint of the decalogue, and fhall take an opportunity of applying it to fome of your most virtuous friends in both houfes of parliament.

You seem to have dropped the affair of your regiment; fo let it reft. When you are appointed to another, I dare fay you will not fell it either for a grofs fum, or for any annuity upon lives.

I am truly glad (for really, Sir William, I am not your enemy, nor did I begin this conteft with you) that you have been able to clear yourself of a crime, though at the expence of the highest indifcretion. You say that your half-pay was given you by way of penfion. I will not dwell upon the fingularity of uniting in your own perfon two forts of provision, which in their own nature, and in all military and parliamentary views, are incompatible; but I call upon you to justify that

declaration

with

declaration, wherein you charge your having done an act in your favour notoriously againft law. The half-pay, both in Ireland and England, is appropriated by parliament; and if it be given to perfons, who, like you, are legally incapable of holding it, it is a breach of law. It would have been more decent in you to have called this dishonourable tranfaction by its true name; a job to accommodate two perfons, by particular interest and management at the caftle. What sense must government have had of your fervices, when the rewards they have given you are only a difgrace to you!

And now, Sir William, I fhall take my leave of you for ever. Motives, very different from any apprehenfion of your resentment, make it impoffible you should ever know me. In truth, you have some reason to hold yourself indebted to me. From the leffons I have given, you may collect a profitable inftruction for your future life. They will either teach you fo to regulate your conduct, as to be able to set the moft malicious inquiries at defiance; or, if that be a loft hope, they will teach you prudence enough not to attract the public attention upon a character, which will only pafs without cenfure, when it paffes without obfervation.

JUNIUS.

LET

LETTER

TO THE D

OF G

VIII.

MY LORD,

Before you were placed at the head of affairs, it had been a maxim of the English government, not unwillingly admitted by the people, that every ungracious or fevere exertion of the prerogative should be placed to the account of the Minifter; but that whenever an act of grace or benevolence was to be performed, the whole merit of it should be attributed to the Sovereign himfelf. It was a wife doctrine, my Lord, and equally advantageous to the King and to his fubjects; for while it preserved that suspicious attention, with which the people ought always to examine the conduct of ministers, it tended at the fame time rather to increase than diminish their attachment to the person of their Sovereign. If there be not a fatality attending every measure you are concerned in, by what treachery, or by what excefs of folly has it happened, that those ungracious acts, which have diftinguished your adminiftration, and which I doubt not were entirely your own, fhould carry with them a strong appearance of perfonal intereft, and even of perfonal enmity