to your last letter shall be short; for I write to you with reluctance, and I hope we shall now conclude our correfpondence for ever. Had you been originally and without provocation attacked by an anonymous writer, you would have fome right to demand his name. But in this cause you are a volunteer. You engaged in it with the unpremiditated gallantry of a foldier. You were content to fet your name in opofition to a man, who would probably continue in concealment. You understood the terms upon which we were to correfpond, and gave at least a tacit affent to them. After voluntarily attacking me under the character of Junius, what poffible right have you to know me under any other? Will you forgive me if I infinuate to you, that you forefaw fome honour in the apparent spirit of coming forward in perfon, and that you were not quite indifferent to the difplay of your literary qualifications? You cannot but know that the republication of my letters was no more than a catchpenny contrivance of a printer, in which it was impoffible I fhould be concerned, and for which I am no way answerable. At the fame time I wish you to understand, that if I do not take the trouble of reprinting these papers, it is not from any fear of giving offence to Sir Wiliam Draper. Your Your remarks upon a fignature, adopted merely for distinction, are unworthy of notice: but when you tell me I have fubmitted to be called a liar and a coward, I must ask you in my turn, whether you seriously think it any way incumbent upon me to take notice of the filly invectives of every fimpleton, who writes in a news-paper; and what opinion you would have conceived of my discre tion, if I had fuffered myfelf to be the dupe of fo fhallow, an artifice? Your appeal to the fword, though confiftent enough with your late profeffion, will neither prove your innocence nor clear you from fufpicion.-Your complaints with regard to the Manilla ranfom were, for a confiderable time, a destress to government. You were appointed (greatly out of your turn) to the command of a regiment, and during that adminiftration we heard no more of Sir William Draper. The facts, of which I speak, may indeed be variously accounted for, but they are too notorious to be denied; and I think you might have learnt at the university, that a falfe conclufion is an errorin argument, not a breach of veracity. Your folicitations, I doubt not, were renewed under another administration: Admitting the fact, 1 fear an indifferent perfon would only infer from it, that experience had made you acK 2 quainted quainted with the benefits of complaining. Remember, Sir, that you have yourself confeffed, that, confidering the critical fituation of this country, the miniftry are in the right temporife with Spain. This confeffion reduces you to an unfortunate dilemma. By renewing your folicitations, you must either mean to force your country into a war at a most unfeasonable juncture; or, having no view or expectation of that kind, that you look for nothing but a private compenfation to yourfelf. As to me, it is by no means neceffary that I fhould be expofed to the refentment of the worst and the most powerful men in this country, though I may be indifferent about yours. Though you would fight, there are others who would assasi nate. But after all, Sir, where is the injury? You af fure me, that my logic is puerile and tinfel, that it carries not the leaft weight or conviction, that my premises are false and my conclusions abfurd. If this be a just description of me, how is it pofof fible for fuch a writer to disturb your peace mind, or injure a character fo well established as yours? Take care, Sir William, how you indulge this unruly temper, left the world fhould fufpect that confcience has some share in your refentments. You You have more to fear from the treachery of your own paffions, than from any malevolence of mine: I believe, Sir, you will never know me. A confiderable time muft certainly elapfe before we are perfonally acquainted. You need not however, regret the delay, or fuffer an apprehension that any length of time can restore you to the Christian meekness of your temper, and disappoint your present indignation. If I uuderstand your character, there is in your own breast a repofitory, in which your refentments may be safely laid up for future occafions, and preserved without the hazard of diminution. The Odia in longnm jaciene, quæ reconderet, aučtaque promeret, I thought had only beloning to the worst character of antiquity. The text is in Tacitus ?you know best where to look for the commentary. A.. LETTER XXII. A WORD AT PARTING TO JUNIUS. SIR, s you have not favoured me with either of the explanations demanded of you, I can have nothing more to say 'o you upon my own account. Your mercy to me, or tenderness for yourfelf, has been very great. The public will judge of your mo tives. If your excess of modefty forbids you to produce either the proofs, or yourself, I will excufe it. Take courage; I have not the temper of Tiberius, any more than the rank or power. You, indeed, are a tyrant of another fort, and upon your political bed of torture can excruciate any fubject, from a firft minifter down to fuch a grub or butterfly as myfelf; like another detefted tyrant of antiquity, can make the wretched fufferer, fit the bed, if the bed will not fit the fufferer, by disjointing or tearing the trembling limbs until they are ftretched to its extremity. But courage, conftancy, and patience, under torments have fometimes caused the moft hardened monsters to relent, and forgive the object of their cruelty. You, Sir, are determined to try all that human nature can endure, until she expires: else, was |