you have distributed to carry the expulfion of Mr. Wilkes, or even your fecretary's share in the last subscription, would have kept the Turks at your devotion. Was it œconomy, my Lord? or did the coy refiftance you have conftantly met with in the British fenate; make you defpair of corrupting the Divan? Your friends indeed have the first claim upon your bounty, but if five hundred pounds a year can be fpared in penfion to Sir John Moore, it would not have disgraced you to have allowed fomething to the fecret fervice of the public.

You will fay perhaps that the fituation of affairs at home demanded and engroffed the whole of your attention. Here, I confefs, have been active. An amiable, accompyou lished prince afcends the throne under the happiest of all aufpices, the acclamations and united affections of his fubjects. The first measures of his reign, and even the odium of a favourite, were not able to shake their attachment. Your fervices, my Lord, have been more fuccefsful. Since you were per-mitted to take the lead, we have seen the 'natural effects of a fyftem of government, at once b.th odious and contemptible. We have

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have seen the laws fometimes fcandalously relaxed, fometimes violently stretched beyond their tone. We have feen the person of the Sovereign infulted; and in profound peace, and with an undifputed title, the fidelity of his fubjects brought by his own fervants into public question, Without abilities, refolution, or intereft, you have done more than Lord Bute could accomplish with all Scotland at his heels.

YOUR Grace, little anxious perhaps either for present or future reputation, will not defire to be handed down in these colours to pofterity. You have reafon to flatter yourfelf that the memory, of your administration will furvive even the forms of a conftitution, which our ancestors vainly hoped would be immortal; and as for your perfonal character, I will not, for the honour of human nature, fuppofe that you can wish to have it remembered. The condition of the prefent times is defperate indeed; but there is a debt

*The wife Duke, about this time, exerted all the influence of government to procure addreffes to fatisfy the King of the fidelity of his fubjects. They came in very thick from Scotland; but, after the appearance of this letter, we heard no more of them.

due

due to those who come after us, and it is the hiftorian's office to punish, though he cannot correct. I do not give you to pofterity as a pattern to imitate, but as an example to deter.; and as your conduct comprehends every thing that a wife or honeft minifter should avoid, I mean to make you a negative inftruction to your fucceffors for ever.

JUNIUS.

SIR,

PUBLIC ADVERTISER.

12. June, 1769.

THE Duke of Graftên's

Friends, not finding it convenient to enter into a conteft with Junius, are now reduced to the laft melancholy refource of defeated argument, the flat general charge of fcurrility and falfehood. As for his ftile, I fall leave it to the critics. The truth of his facts is of

more importance to the public. They are of fuch a nature, that F think a bare contradiction will have no weight with ahŷ mañ, who judges for himself. Let us take them in the order in which they appear in his last letter. I. HAVE

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1. HAVE not the firft rights of the people, and the first principles of the conftitution been openly invaded, and the very name of an election made ridiculous by the arbitrary appointment of Mr. Luttrell ?

2. DID not the Duke of Grafton frequently lead his mistress into public, and even place her at the head of his table, as if he had pulled down an ancient temple of Venus, and could bury all decency and fhame under the ruins? Is this the man who dares to talk of Mr. Wilkes's morals?

3. Is not the character of his prefumptive ancestors as ftrongly marked in him, as if he had defcended from them in a direct legitimate line? The idea of his death is only prophetic; and what is prophecy but a narrative preceding the fact !

4. WAS not Lord Chatham the first who raised him to the rank and poft of a minifter, and the first whom he abandoned ?

5. DID he not join with Lord Rockingham, and betray him?

6. WAS he not the bofom friend of Mr. Wilkes, whom he now purfues to deftruction?

7. DID he not take his degrees with credit at Newmarket, White's, and the opposition?

8. AFTER deferting Lord Chatham's principles, and facrificing his friendthip, is he not now closely united with a fet of men, who, tho' they have occafionally joined with all parties, have in every different fituation, and at all times, been equally and conftantly detefted by this country?

9.

HAS not Sir John Moore a pension of five hundred pounds a year?—This may probably be an acquittance of favours upon the turf; but is it poffible for a minifter to offer a groffer outrage to a nation, which has fo very lately cleared away the beggary of the civil lift, at the expence of more than half a million?

10. Is there any one mode of thinking or acting with respect to America, which the Duke of Grafton has not fucceffively adopted and abandoned?