renounced by the houfe of lords;-thefe are the ftrokes, my Lord, which, in the prefent reign, recommend to office, and constitute a minifter. They would have determined your Sovereign's judgment, if they had made no impreffion upon his heart. We need not look for any other fpecies of merit to account for his taking the earliest opportunity to recal you to his councils. Yet you have other merit in abundance.--Mr. Hine,the Duke of Portland,—and Mr. Yorke :-Breach of truft, robbery, and murder. You would think it a compliment to your gallantry, if I added rape to the catalogue;-but the ftyle of your amours fecures you from refiftance.-I know how well these several charges have been defended. In the firft inftance, the breach of truft is fuppofed to have been its own reward. Mr. Bradshaw affirms upon his honour, (and fo may the gift of smiling never depart from him!), that you referved no part of Mr. Hine's purchase-money for your own ufe, but that every fhilling of it was fcrupulously paid to Governor Burgoyne.-Make hafte, my Lord; -another patent, applied in time, may keep the OAKS in the family. If not, Birnham-Wood, I fear, must come to the Macaroni.

The Duke of Portland was in life your earliest friend. In defence of his property he had nothing to plead but equity againit Sir James Lowther, and prefcription against the crown. You felt for your friend; but the law must take its courfe. Pofterity will scarce believe that Lord Bute's fon-inlaw had barely intereft enough at the treasury to get his grant completed before the general election †. Enough

Y 2

A fuperb villa of Col. Burgoyne, about this time advertised

for fale.

It will appear by a subsequent letter, that the Duke's precipitation proved fatal to the grant. It looks like the hurry and confufion of a young highwayman, who takes a few shillings, but leaves the purfe and watch behind him.And yet the Duke was an old offender!

Enough has been faid of that deteftable tranf action which ended in the death of Mr. Yorke; -I cannot speak of it without horror and compaffion. To excufe yourself, you publickly impeach your accomplice; and to his mind perhaps the accufation may be flattery. But in murder you are both principals. It was once a queftion of emulation; and, if the event had not difappointed the immediate fchemes of the clofet, it might ftill have been a hopeful fubject of jeft and merriment between you.

This letter, my Lord, is only a preface to my future correfpondence. The remainder of the fummer fhall be dedicated to your amufement. I mean now and then to relieve the feverity of your morn ing ftudies, and to prepare you for the business of the day. Without pretending to more than Mr. Bradshaw's fincerity, you may rely upon my attachment as long as you are in office.

Will your Grace forgive me, if I venture to exprefs fome anxiety for a man whom I know you do not love? My Lord Weymouth has cowardice to plead, and a defertion of a later date than your own. You know the privy-feal was intended for him; and, if you confider the dignity of the poft he deferted, you will hardly think it decent to quarter him on Mr. Rigby. Yet he must have bread, my Lord;-or rather he must have wine. If you deny him the cup, there will be no keeping him within the pale of the miniftry. JUNIUS.

LETTER L.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.

MY LORD, July 9. 1771. 'HE influence of your Grace's fortune ftill feems to preside over the treasury.-The genius of

THE

Ma.

Mr. Bradshaw inspires Mr. Robinson*. How remarkable it is, (and I fpeak of it not as matter of reproach, but as fomething peculiar to your character), that you have never yet formed a friendship which has not been fatal to the object of it; nor adopted a cause, to which, one way or other, you have not done mifchief! Your attachment is infamy while it refts; and, whichever way it turns, leaves ruin and difgrace behind it. The deluded girl who yields to fuch a profligate even while he is conftant, forfeits her reputation. as well as her innocence, and finds herself aban doned at laft to mifery and fhame. Thus it happened with the beft of princes. Poor Dingley too!-I proteft I hardly know which of them we ought moft to lament ;-the unhappy man who finks under the fenfe of his difhonour, or him who furvives it. Characters, fo finished, are placed beyond the reach of panegyrick. Death has fixed his feal upon Dingley; and you, my Lord, have: fer your mark upon the other..

The only letter I ever addreffed to the King was fo unkindly received, that I believe I shall never prefume to trouble his Majefty in that way again. But my zeal for his fervice, is fuperior to neglect; and, like Mr. Wilkes's patriotifm, thrives by perfecution. Yet his Majefty is much addicted to useful reading; and, if I am not ill informed, has honoured the Publick Advertifer with particular attention. I have endeavoured therefore, and nor without fuccefs, (as perhaps you may remember),, to furnish it with fuch interefting and edifying in-. telligence, as probably would not reach him through any other channel. The fervices you have done: the nation, your integrity in office, and fignal fidelity to your approved good Mafter, have been faithfully

Y3

By an intercepted letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, it appeared, that the friends of government were to be very activee in fupporting the minifterial nomination of sheriffs,

faithfully recorded. Nor have his own virtues been entirely neglected. Thefe letters, my Lord, are read in other countries and in other languages; and I think I may affirm without vanity, that the gracious character of the best of Princes, is by this time not only perfectly known to his fubjects, but tolerably well understood by the reft of Europe. In this refpect alone I have the advantage of Mr. Whitehead. His plan, I think, is too narrow. He feems to manufacture his verfes for the fole ufe of the hero who is fuppofed to be the fubject of them; and, that bis meaning may not be exported in foreign bottoms, fets all translation at defiance.

Your Grace's re-appointment to a feat in the cabinet, was announced to the publick by the ominous return of Lord Bute to this country. When that noxious planet approaches England, he never fails to bring plague and peftilence along with him. The King already feels the malignant effect of your influence over his councils. Your former administration made Mr. Wilkes an alderman of London, and representative of Middlesex. Your next appearance in office is marked with his election to the fhrievalty. In whatever measure you are concerned, you are not only disappointed of fuccefs, but always contrive to make the government of the beft of Princes contemptible in his own eyes, and ridiculous to the whole world. Making all due allowance for the effect of the minifter's declared interpofition, Mr. Robinson's activity, and Mr. Horne's new zeal in fupport of administration, we ftill want the genius of the Duke of Grafton to account for committing the whole intereft of government in the city to the conduct of Mr. Harley. I will not bear hard upon your faithful friend and emiffary Mr. Touchit; for I know the difficulties of his fituation, and that a few lottery tickets are of ufe to his oeconomy

There

There is a proverb concerning perfons in the predicament of this gentleman, which, however, cannot be ftrictly applied to him: They commence dupes, and finifh knaves. Now Mr. Touchit's character is uniform. I am convinced that his fentiments never depended upon his circumftances, and that in the most profperous ftate of his fortune he was always the very man he is at prefent. -But was there no other person of rank and confequence in the city, whom government could confide in, but a notorious Jacobite? Did you imagine that the whole body of the Diffenters, that the whole Whig interest of London, would attend at the levee, and submit to the directions of a notorious Jacobite? Was there no Whig magiftrate in the city, to whom the fervants of George the Third could intruft the management of a business so very interefting to their mafter as the election of fheriffs? Is there no room at St James's but for Scotchmen and Jacobites? My Lord, I do not mean to queftion the fincerity of Mr. Harley's attachment to his Majesty's government. Since the commencement of the prefent reign, I have feen- ftill greater contradictions reconciled. The principles of thefe worthy Jacobites are not fo abfurd as they have been reprefented. Their ideas of divine right are not fo much annexed to the perfon or family, as to the political character of the fovereign. Had there ever been an honeft man among the Stuarts, his Majefty's prefent_friends would have been Whigs upon principle. But the converfion of the best of Princes has removed their. fcruples. They have forgiven him the fins of his Hanoverian ancestors, and acknowledge the hand of Providence in the defcent of the crown upon the head of a true Stuart. In you, my Lord, they also behold, with a kind of predilection which borders upon loyalty, the natural reprefentative of that illuftrious fa