LETTER

X.

TO MR. EDWARD WESTON.

SIR,

21. April, 1769.

I SAID you were an old man

without the benefit of experience. It seems you are alfo a volunteer with the ftipend of twenty commiffions; and at a period when all profpects are at an end, you are still looking forward to rewards, which you cannot enjoy. No man is better acquainted with the bounty of government than you are.

ton impudence,

Temeraire vieillard, aura fa recompenfe.

BUT I will not defcend to an altercation. either with the impotence of your age, or the peevifhness of your difeafes. Your pamphlet, ingenious as it is, has been fo little read, that the public cannot know how far you have a right to give me the lye, without the following citation of your own words.

Page 6-1. THAT he is perfuaded that the motives, which he (Mr. Weston) has VOL. I. • alledged,

F

alledged, must appear fully fufficient, with ⚫ or without the opinions of the furgeons.

2. THAT those very motives MUST HAVE "BEEN the foundation, on which the Earl of • Rochford thought proper, &c.

< 3. THAT he CANNOT BUT REGRET that the Earl of Rochford feems to have thought proper to lay the chirurgical reports before the king, in preference to all the other fuf'ficient motives,' &c.

LET the public determine whether this be defending government on their principles or your own.

THE ftyle and language you have adopted are, I confe's, not ill fuited to the elegance of your own manners, or to the dignity of the caufe you have undertaken. Every common dauber writes rascal and villain under his pictures, because the pictures themselves have neither character nor refemblance. But the works of a master require no index. His features and colouring are taken from nature. The impreffion they make is immediate and uniform; nor is it poffible to mistake his cha

racters,

racters, whether they reprefent the treachery of a minister, or the abused fimplicity of a king.

JUNIUS.

LETTER XI.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.

MY LORD,

left

24. April, 1769. THE fyftem you feemed to have

adopted, when Lord Chatham unexpectedly you at the head of affairs, gave us no promife of that uncommon exertion of vigour, which has fince illuftrated your character, and diftinguished your administration. Far from discovering a spirit bold enough to invade the first rights of the people, and the first prin ciples of the conftitution, you were fcrupulous of exercising even those powers, with which the executive branch of the legislature is legally invested. We have not yet forgotten how long Mr. Wilkes was fuffered to appear at large, nor how long he was at liberty to canvass for the city and county, with all the terrors of an outlawry hanging over him. Our gracious Sovereign has not yet forgotten the F 2

extra

extraordinary care you took of his dignity and of the fafety of his perfon, when, at a crifis which courtiers affected to call alarming, you left the metropolis expofed for two nights. together, to every fpecies of riot and disorder. The fecurity of the Royal refidence from insult was then fufficiently provided for in Mr. Conway's firmness and Lord Weymouth's difcretion; while the prime minister of Great Britain, in a rural retirement, and in the arms of faded beauty, had loft all memory of his Sovereign, his country and himfelf. In thefe inftances you might have acted with vigour, for you would have had the fanction of the laws to fupport you. The friends of government might have defended you without fhame, and moderate men, who wish well to the peace and good order of fociety, might have had a pretence for applauding your conduct. But these it seems were not occafions worthy of your Grace's interpofition. You referved the proofs of your intrepid fpirit for trials of greater hazard and importance, and now, as if the moft difgraceful relaxation of the executive authority had given you a claim of credit to indulge in excesses still more dangerous, you seem deter-: mined to compenfate amply for your former

negligence;

negligence; and to balance the non-execution of the laws with a breach of the conftitution. From one extreme you suddenly start to the other, without leaving, betweenthe weakness and the fury of the paffions, one moment's interval for the firmnefs of the understanding.

THESE obfervations, general as they are, might easily be extended into a faithful hiftory of your Grace's administration, and perhaps may be the employment of a future hour. But the bufinefs of the prefent moment will not fuffer me to look back to a series of events, which cease to be interesting or important, because they are fucceeded by a measure so fingularly daring, that it excites all our attention, and engroffes all our refentment.

YOUR patronage of Mr. Luttrell has been crowned with fuccefs. With this precedent before you, with the principles on which it was established, and with a future houfe of commons, perhaps lefs virtuous than the prefent, every county in England, under the aufpices of the treasury, may be represented as completely as the county of Middlefex. Pofterity will be indebted to your Grace for