great man: If he is generous at the publick expence, as Junius invidiously calls it, the publick is at no more expence for his lordship's friends, than it would be if any other fet of men poffeffed. thofe offices. The charge is ridiculous!

The laft charge against Lord Granby is of a moft ferious and alarming nature indeed. Junius afferts, that the army is mouldering away; for want of the direction of a man of common: abilities and fpirit. The prefent condition of the army gives the directeft lie to his affertions. It was never upon a more refpectable footing with regard to difcipline, and all the effentials that can form good foldiers. Lord Ligonier delivered a firm and noble palladium of our fafeties inta Lord Granby's hands, who has kept it in the fame good order in which he received it. The ftrictest care has been taken to fill up the vacant commiffions, with fuch gentlemen as have the glory of their ancestors to fupport, as well as their own, and are doubly bound to the caufe of their king and country, from motives of private property, as well as publick fpirit. The adjutantgeneral, who has the immediate care of the troops after Lord Granby, is an officer that would do great honour to any fervice in Europe, for his correct arrangements, good fenfe and difcernment upon all occafions, and for a punctuality and precifion which give the most entire fatisfaction to all who are obliged to confult him. The reviewing generals, who infpect the army twice a-year, have been felected with the greatest care, and have anfwered the important truft repofed in them in the most laudable manner. Their re

ports of the condition of the army are much more to be credited than thofe of Junius, whom I da advife to atone for his fhameful afperfions, by afking pardon of Lord Granby and the whole kingdom, whom he has offended by his abomis

nable

nable fcandals. In fhort, to turn Junius's own battery against him, I muft affert, in his own words, "that he has given ftrong affertions without proof, declamation without argument, and violent cenfures without dignity or moderation." WILLIAM DRAPER.

LETTER III.

TO SIR WILLIAM DRAPER, KNIGHT OF THE

SIR,

BATH.

Feb. 7. 1769. YOUR defence of Lord Granby does honour to the goodness of your heart. You feel, as you ought to do, for the reputation of your friend, and you exprefs yourself in the warmest language of your paffions. In any other caufe, I doubt not, you would have cautioufly weighed the confequences of committing your name to the licentious difcourfes and malignant opinions of the world. But here, I prefume, you thought it would be a breach of friendship to lofe one moment in confulting your understanding; as if an appeal to the publick were no more than a military coup de main, where a brave man has no rules to follow but the dictates of his courage. Touched with your generofity, I freely forgive the exceffes into which it has led you; and, far from refenting thofe terms of reproach, which, confidering that you are an advocate for decorum, you have heaped upon me rather too liberally, I place them to the account of an honest unreflecting indigna tion, in which your cooler judgment and natural politenefs had no concern. I approve of the fpirit with which you have given your name to the publick; and, if it were a proof of any thing but fpirit, I fhould have thought myfelf bound to follow your example. I should have hoped that even

my

my name might have carried fome authority with it, if I had not seen how very little weight or confideration a printed paper receives even from the refpectable fignature of Sir William Draper.

You begin with a general affertion, That writers, fuch as I am, are the real caufe of all the publick evils we complain of. And do you really think, Sir William, that the licentious pen of a political writer is able to produce fuch important effects? A little calm reflection might have fhown you, that national calamities do not arife from the defcription, but from the real character and conduct, of minifters. To have fupported your affertion, you fhould have proved, that the prefent miniftry are unquestionably the best and brightest characters of the kingdom; and that, if the affections of the colonies have been alienated, if Corfica has been fhamefully abandoned, if commerce languishes, if publick credit is threatened with a new debt, and your own Manilla ranfom moft difhonourably given up, it has all been owing to the malice of political writers, who will not fuffer the beft and brighteft characters (meaning ftill the prefent miniftry) to take a fingle right ftep for the honour or intereft of the nation. But it feems you were a little tender of coming to particulars. Your confcience infinuated to you, that it would be prudent to leave the characters of Grafton, North, Hillsborough, Weymouth, and Mansfield, to fhift for themselves; and truly, Sir William, the part you have undertaken, is at least as much as you are equal to.

Without difputing Lord Granby's courage, we are yet to learn in what articles of military knowledge nature has been fo very liberal to his mind.. If you have ferved with him, you ought to have pointed out fome instances of able difpofition and well-concerted enterprize, which might fairly be attributed to his capacity as a general. It is you,

Siz

Sir William, who make your friend appear awkward and ridiculous, by giving him a laced fuit of tawdry qualifications, which nature never intended him to wear.

You fay, he has acquired nothing but honour in the field. Is the Ordnance nothing? Are the Blues nothing? Is the command of the army, with all the patronage annexed to it, nothing? Where he got thefe nothings, I know not; but you at least ought to have told us where he deferved them.

As to his bounty, compaffion, &c. it would have been but little to the purpose, though you had proved all that you have afferted. I meddle with nothing but his character as commander in chief: and, though I acquit him of the bafeness of felling commiffions, I ftill affert, that his military cares have never extended beyond the difpofal of vacancies; and I am juftified by the complaints of the whole army, when I fay, that, in this diftribution, he confults nothing but parliamentary intereft, or the gratification of his immediate dependents. As to his fervile fubmiffion to the reigning miniftry, let me afk, Whether he did not defert the cause of the whole army, when he fuffered Sir Jeffery Amherst to be facrificed, and what share he had in recalling that officer to the fervice? Did he not betray the juft intereft of the army, in permitting Lord Percy to have a regiment? And, does he not, at this moment, give up all character and dignity as a gentleman, in receding from his own repeated declarations in. favour of Mr. Wilkes?

In the two next articles, I think we are agreed. You candidly admit, that he often makes fuch promifes as it is a virtue in him to violate, and that no man is more affiduous to provide for his relations at the publick expence. I did not urge the last as an abfolute vice in his difpofition, but to prove, that a careless, difinterested spirit, is no

part

part of his character; and as to the other, I defire it may be remembered, that I never defcended to the indecency of inquiring into his convivial hours. It is you, Sir William Draper, who have taken care to reprefent your friend in the character of a drunken landlord, who deals out his promises as liberally as his liquor, and will fuffer no man to leave his table either forrowful or fober. None but an intimate friend, who must frequently have seen him in thefe unhappy, disgraceful moments, could have described him fo well.

The laft charge, of the neglect of the army, is indeed the most material of all. I am forry to tell you, Sir William, that, in this article, your firft fact is falfe; and as there is nothing more painful to me than to give a direct contradiction to a gentleman of your appearance, I could wifh that, in your future publications, you would pay a greater attention to the truth of your premises, before you fuffer your genius to hurry you to a conclufion. Lord Ligonier did not deliver the army (which you, in claffical language, are pleased to call a palladium) into Lord Granby's hands. It was taken from him much against his inclination, some two or three years before Lord Granby was commander in chief. As to the ftate of the army, I should be glad to know where you have received your intelligence. Was it in the rooms at Bath, or at your retreat at Clifton? The reports of reviewing generals comprehend only a few regiments in England, which, as they are immediately under the royal infpection, are perhaps in fome tolerable order. But, do you know any thing of the troops in the Weft Indies, the Mediterranean, and North America, to say nothing of a whole army abfolutely ruined in Ire land? Inquire a little into facts, Sir William, before you publifh your next panegyrick upon Lord Granby; and believe me, you will find there is a

fault