LETTER XXVI.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVER

TISER.

SIR,

Sept. 21, 1769.

I FIND myfelf unexpectedly married in the news

papers, without my knowledge or confent. Since I am fated to be a husband, I hope at least the lady will perform the principal duty of a wife. Marriages, they fay, are made in heaven, but they are confummated upon earth; and fince Junia has adopted my name, fhe cannot, in common matrimonial decency, refuse to make me a tender of her perfon. Politics are too barren a fubject for a new-married couple. I fhould be glad to furnish her with one more fit for a lady to handle, and better fuited to the dexterity of her sex. fhort, if Junia be young and handfome, she will have no reason to complain of my method of conducting an argument. I abominate all tergiverfation in discourse, and fhe may be affured that whatever I advance, whether it be weak or forcible, fhall, at any rate, be directly in point. It is

Y 2

In

true,

true, I am a strenuous advocate for liberty and property, but when these rights are invaded by a pretty woman, I am neither able to defend my money nor my freedom, the divine right of beauty is the only one an Englishman ought to acknowledge, and a pretty woman the only tyrant he is not authorised to refift.

JUNIUS.

LET

LETTER

XXVII.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF BEDFORD.

MY LORD,

YOU

Sept. 19, 1769.

OU are fo little accustomed to receive any marks of respect or esteem from the public, that if, in the following lines, a compliment or expreffion of applause should escape me, I fear you would confider it as a mockery of your established character, and perhaps an infult to your understanding. You have nice feelings, my Lord, if we may judge from your refentments. Cautious therefore of giving offence, where you have fo little deferved it, I fhall leave the illuftration of your virtues to other hands. Your friends have a privilege to play upon the eafinefs of your temper, or poffibly they are better acquainted with your good qualities than I am. You have done good 'by stealth. The reft is upon record. You have ftill left ample room for fpeculation, when panegyric is exhaufted.

The

You are indeed a very confiderable man. higheft rank-a fplendid fortune; and a name,

glorious

glorious till it was yours, were sufficient to have fupported you with meaner abilities than I think you possess. From the first, you derived a conftitutional claim to refpect; from the second, a natural extenfive authority;-the last created a partial expectation of hereditary virtues. The ufe you have made of these uncommon advantages, might have been more honourable to yourself, but could not be more inftructive to mankind. We may trace it in the veneration of your country, the choice of your friends, and in the accomplishment of every fanguine hope, which the public might have conceived from the illustrious name of Ruffel.

The eminence of your station gave you a commanding prospect of your duty. The road, which led to honour was open to your view. You could not lose it by mistake, and you had no temptation to depart from it by defign. Compare the natural dignity and importance of the richest peer in Englands the noble independence, which he might have maintained in parliament; and the real intereft and respect, which he might have acquired, not only in parliament, but through the whole. kingdom; compare these glorious distinctions with the ambition of holding a fhare in government, the emoluments of a place, the fale of a borough,

or

or the purchase of a corporation; and though you may not regret the virtues, which create respect, you may fee with anguish, how much real im. portance and authority you have loft. Confider the character of an independent virtuous Duke of Bedford; imagine what he might be in this country, then reflect one moment upon what you are. If it be poffible for me to withdraw my attention from the fact, I will tell you in theory what such a man might be.

Conscious of his own weight and importance, his conduct in parliament would be directed by nothing but the conftitutional duty of a peer. He would confider himself as a guardian of the laws. Willing to fupport the just measures of government, but determined to obferve the conduct of the minifter with fufpicion, he would oppose the violence of faction with as much firmnefs, as the encroachments of prerogative. He would be as little capable of bargaining with the minifter for places for himself, or his dependants, as of defcending to mix himself in the intrigues of oppofition. Whenever an important queftion called for his opinion in parliament, he would be heard, by the most profligate minifter, with deference and refpect. His authority would either fanctify or difgrace the measures of government.-The peo

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