THIS edition contains all the letters of Junius, Philo Junius, and of Sir William Draper and Mr. Horne to Junius, with their respectivé dates, and according to the order in which they appeared in the Public Advertiser. The auxiliary part of Philo Junius was indispenfably neceffary to defend or explain particular paffages in Junius, in answer to plausible objections; but the fubordinate character is never guilty of the indecorum of praising his principal. The fraud was innocent, and I always intended to explain it. The notes will be found not only useful, but neceffary. References to facts not generally known, or allufions to the current report or opinion of the day, are in a little time unintelligible. Yet the reader will not find himself overloaded with explanations. I was not born to be a commentator, even upon my own works.

It remains to say a few words upon the liberty of the prefs. The daring fpirit, by which these letters are fuppofed to be diftinguifhed, feems to require that fomething serious fhould be faid in their defence. I am no lawyer by profeffion, nor do I pretend to be more deeply read, than every English gen

tleman

Leman fhould be in the laws of his country. If therefore the principles I maintain are truly conftitutional, I fhall not think myself anfwered, though I fhould be convicted of a mistake in terms, or of misapplying the language of the law. I fpeak to the plain understanding of the people, and appeal to their honest, liberal conftruction of me.

GOOD men, to whom alone I address myself, appear to me to confult their piety as little as their judgment and experience, when they admit the great and essential advantages accruing to fociety from the freedom of the press, yet indulge themselves in peevish or paffionate exclamations against the abuses of it. Betraying an unreasonable expectation of benefits, pure and intire, from any human inftitution, they in effect arraign the goodness of providence, and confefs that they are diffatisfied with the common lot of humanity. In the present instance they really create to their own minds, or greatly exaggerate the evil they complain of. The laws of England provide, as effectually as any human laws can do, for the protection of the fubject, in his reputation, as well as in his perfon and property. If the characters of private men are infulted or in

jured,

jured, a double remedy is open to them, by action and indictment. If, through indolence, false shame, or indifference, they will not appeal to the laws of their country, they fail in their duty to fociety, and are unjust to themselves. If, from an unwarrantable diftrust of the integrity of juries, they would wish to obtain justice by any mode of proceeding, more fummary than a trial by their peers, I do not scruple to affirm, that they are in effect greater enemies to themfelves, than to the libeller they prosecute.

WITH regard to ftrictures upon the characters of men in office and the measures of government, the cafe is a little different. A confiderable latitude must be allowed in the difcuffion of public affairs, or the liberty of the press will be of no benefit to society. As the indulgence of private malice and perfonal flander should be checked and refifted by every legal means, fo a conftant examination into the characters and conduct of minifters and magiftrates should be equally promoted and encouraged. They, who conceive that our news papers are no restraint upon bad men, or impediment to the execution of bad meafures, know nothing of this country. In that

ftate

Itate of abandoned fervility and prostitution, to which the undue influence of the crown has reduced the other branches of the legiflature, our minifters and magiftrates have in reality little punishment to fear, and few difficulties to contend with, beyond the cenfure of the prefs, and the fpirit of refiftance, which it excites among the people. While this cenforial power is maintained, to speak in the words of a moft ingenious foreigner, both minister and magiftrate is compelled, in almost every inftance, to choose between his duty and his reputation. A dilemma of this kind, perpetually before him, will not indeed work a miracle upon his heart, but it will affuredly operate, in fome degree, upon his conduct. At all events, these are not times to admit of any relaxation in the little difcipline we have left.

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BUT it is alledged, that the licentiousness of the prefs is carried beyond all bounds of decency and truth ;-that our excellent minifters are continually expofed to the public hatred or derifion ;-that, in profecutions for libels on government, juries are partial to the popular fide; and that, in the most flagrant cafes, a verdict cannot be obtained for the

King.

King. If the premises were admitted, I fhould deny the conclufion. It is not true, that the temper of the times has, in general an undue influence over the conduct of juries. On the contrary, many fignal instances may be produced of verdicts returned for the King, when the inclinations of the people led ftrongly to an undistinguishing opposition to government. Witness the cafes of Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Almon.-In the late profecutions of the printers of my address to a great perfonage, the juries were never fairly dealt with.-Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, conscious that the paper in queftion contained no treasonable or libellous matter, and that the fevereft parts of it, however painful to the King or offenfive to his fervants, were strictly true, would fain have restricted the jury to the finding of special facts, which, as to guilty or not guilty, were merely indifferent. This particular motive, combined with his general purpose to contract the power of juries, will account for the charge he delivered in Woodfall's trial. He told the jury, in fo many words, that they had nothing to determine, except the fact of printing and publifhing, and whether or no the blanks, or inuendoes were properly filled up in the information;

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