danger; and though you cannot be fafe, you may ceafe to be ridiculous. I fear you have listened too long to the advice of thofe pernicious friends, with whofe interefts you have fordidly united your own, and for whom you have sacrificed every thing that ought to be dear to a man of honour. They are ftill bafe enough to encourage the follies of your age, as they once did the vices of your youth. As little acquainted with the rules of decorum, as with the laws of morality, they will not fuffer you to profit by experience, nor even to confult the propriety of a bad character. Even now they tell you, that life is no more than a dramatic fcene, in which the hero fhould preferve his confiftency to the faft, and that as you lived without virtue, you should die without repentance.

JUNIUS

LET

SIR,

LETTER XXVIII.

TO JUNIUS.

Sept. 14, 1769,

HAVING accidentally feen a republication of

your letters, wherein you have been pleased to affert, that I had fold the companions of my fuccefs; I am again obliged to declare the faid affertion to be a most infamous and malicious falsehood; and I again call on you to ftand forth, avow yourfelf, and prove the charge. If you can make it out to the fatisfaction of any one man in the kingdom, I will be content to be thought the worst man in it; if you do not, what must the nation think of you? Party has nothing to do in this af fair: you have made a personal attack upon my honour, defamed me by a moft vile calumny, which might poffibly have funk into oblivion, had not fuch uncommon pains been taken to renew and perpetuate this fcandal, chiefly because it has been told in good language: for I give you full credit for your elegant diction, well turned periods, and attic wit; but wit is fometimes falfe, though it may appear brilliant; which is exactly A a 2

the

the cafe of your whole performance. But, Sir, I ain obliged in the most serious manner to accufe you of being guilty of falfities. You have faid the thing that is not. To fupport your ftory, you have recourse to the following irrefiftible argument:

"You fold the companions of your victory, "because when the 16th regiment was given to you, you was filent." The conclufion is ineviI believe that fuch deep and acute reasoning could only come from fuch an extraordinary writer as JUNIUS. But unfortunately for you, the premifes as well as the conclufion are abfolutely falfe. Many applications have been made to the miniftry on the fubject of the Manilla Ranfom fince the time of my being colonel of that regiment. As I have for fome years quitted London, I was obliged to have recourse to the honourable Colonel Monfon and Sir Samuel Cornish to negotiate for me; in the laft autumn, I personally delivered a memorial to the Earl of Shelburne at his feat in Wiltfhire. As you have told us of your importance, that you are a person of rank and fortune, and above a common bribe, you may in all probability be not unknown to his lordship, who can satisfy you of the truth of what I fay. But I fhall now take the liberty, Sir, to feize your battery, and turn it against yourself. If your puerile and tinfel logic

could

could carry the leaft weight or conviction with it, how muft you stand affected by the inevitable conclufion, as you are pleased to term it? According to Junius, Silence is Guilt. In many of the public papers, you have been called in the most direct and offenfive terms a liar and a coward. When did you reply to these foul accufations? You have been quite filent; quite chopfallen; therefore, because you was filent, the nation has a right to pronounce you to be both a liar and a coward, from your own argument; but, Sir, I will give you fair-play; will afford you an opportunity to wipe off the first appellation; by defiring the proofs of your charge against me. Produce them! To wipe off the last, produce Yourself. People cannot bear any longer your Lion's fkin, and the despicable impofture of the old Roman Name which you have affected. For the future affume the name of fome modern bravo and dark affaffin: Let your appellation have some affinity to your practice. But if I must perifb, Junius, let me perish in the face of day; be for once a generous and open enemy. I allow that gothic appeals to cold Iron are no better proofs of a man's honefty and veracity than hot

iron

* Was BRUTUS and ancient bravo and dark afsafɛin ; or does Sir W. D. think it criminal to stab a tyrant to the heart?

1

iron and burning ploughfhares are of female chaflity but a foldier's honour is as delicate as a woman's; it must not be suspected; you have dared to throw more than a fufpicion upon mine; you cannot but know the confequences, which even the meeknefs of Chriftianity would pardon me for, after the injury you have done me.

WILLIAM DRAPER.

LET