Lord Shelburne will do me the justice to own, that, in September laft, I waited upon him with a joint memorial from the admiral Sir S. Cornish and myself, in behalf of our injured companions. His lordship was as frank upon the occafion as other fecretaries had been before him. He did not deceive us by giving any immediate hopes of relief.

JUNIUS would bafely infinuate, that my filence may have been purchafed by my government, by my blushing ribband, by my regiment, by the fale of that regiment, and by half-pay as an Irish colonel,

His Majefty was pleased to give me my government, for my fervice at Madras. I had my first regiment in 1757. Upon my return from Manilla, his Majefty, by Lord Egremont, informed me, that I fhould have the firft vacant red ribband, as a reward for many fervices in an enterprize, which I had planned as well as executed. The Duke of Bedford and Mr. Grenville confirmed thofe affurances many months before the Spaniards had protested the ranfom bills. To accommodate Lord Clive, then going upon a moft important service to Bengal, I waved my

claim to the vacancy which then happened. As there was no other vacancy until the Duke of Grafton and Lord Rockingham were joint minifters, I was then honoured with the order, and it is furely no fmall honour to me, that in fuch a fucceffion of minifters, they were all pleased to think that I had deferved it; in my favour they were all united. Upon the reduction of the 79th regiment, which had ferved fo gloriously in the East-Indies, his Majefty, unfolicited by me, gave me the 16th of foot as an equivalent. My motives for retiring afterwards are foreign to the purpofe; let it fuffice, that his Majesty was pleased to approve of them; they are such as no man can think indecent, who knows the fhocks that repeated viciffitudes of heat and cold, of dangerous and fickly climates, will give to the best constitutions in a pretty long course of service. I refigned my regiment to colonel Gifbore, a very good. officer, for his half-pay, 12001. Irish annuity; fo that, according to Junius, I have been bribed to fay nothing more of the Manilla ransom, and facrifice those brave men by the strange avarice of accepting three hundred and eighty pounds per ann. and giving up eight hundred! If this be bribery, it is not

the bribery of thefe times. As to my flattery, those who know me will judge of it. By the afperity of Junius's ftile, I cannot indeed call him a flatterer, unless he be as a cynick or a mastiff; if he wags his tail, he will still growl, and long to bite. The public will now judge of the credit that ought to be given to Junius's writings, from the falfities that he has infinuated with respect to myfelf.

WILLIAM DRAPER.

LETTER V.

TO SIR WILLIAM DRAPER, KNIGHT OF THE BATH.

SIR,

21. February, 1769.

I SHOULD juftly be sus

pected of acting upon motives of more than common enmity to Lord Granby, if I continued to give you fresh materials or occafion for writing in his defence. Individuals who hate, and the public who defpise, have read your letters, Sir William, with infinitely more fatisfaction than mine. Unfortunately

for

for him, his reputation, like that unhappy country to which you refer me for his latt military atchievements, has fuffered more by his friends than his enemies. In mercy to him, let us drop the subject. For my own part, I willingly leave it to the public to determine whether your vindication of your friend has been as able and judicious, as it was certainly well intended; and you, I think, may be fatisfied with the warm acknowledgments he already owes you for making him the principal figure in a piece, in which, but for your amicable affiftance, he might have paffed without particular notice or diftinction.

IN juftice to your friends, let your future labours be confined to the care of your own reputation. Your declaration, that you are happy in feeing young noblemen come among us, is liable to two objections. With respect to Lord Percy, it means nothing, for he was already in the army. He was aid de camp to the King, and had the rank of colonel. A regiment therefore could not make him a more military man, though it made him icher, and probably at the expence of fame brave, deferving, friendless officer.-—-—The

other

other concerns yourself. After felling the companions of your victory in one instance, and after felling your profeffion in the other, by what authority do you prefume to call yourfelf a foldier? The plain evidence of facts is fuperior to all declarations. Before you were appointed to the 16th regiment, your complaints were a diftrefs to government ;-from that moment you were filent. The conclufion is inevitable. You infinuate to us that your ill ftate of health obliged you to quit the fervice. The retirement necessary to repair a broken conftitution would have been as good a reafon for not accepting, as for refigning the command of a regiment. There is certainly an error of the prefs, or an affected obfcurity in that paragraph, where you speak of your bargain with colonel Gifsborne. Inftead of attempting to anfwer what I do not really understand, permit me to explain to the public what I really know. In exchange for your regiment, you accepted of a colonel's half-pay (at least 2201. a year) and an annuity of 2001. for your own and lady Dra per's life jointly. And is this the lofing bargain, which you would reprefent to us, as if you had given up an income of 8001. a year for 3801. Was it decent, was it honourable,