the hiftory of the prefent times. They will either conclude that our diftreffes were imaginary, or that we had the good fortune to be governed by men of acknowledged integrity and wifdom: they will not believe it poffible that their ancestors could have furvived, or recovered from fo defperate a condition, while a duke of Grafton was Prime Minifter, a lord North Chancellor of the Exchequer, a Weymouth and a Hillsborough Secretaries of State, a Granby Commander in Chief, and a Mansfield Chief criminal Judge of the kingdom.

JUNIUS.

LETTER II.

A LETTER OF SIR WILLIAM DRAPER TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER.

SIR,

January 26, 1769.

T HE kingdom fwarms with fuch numbers of felonious robbers of private character and virtue, that no honeft or good man is fafe; especially as thefe cowardly base affaffins ftab in the dark, whithout having the courage to fign their real names to their malevolent and wicked productions. A writer, who figns himself Junius, in the Public Advertiser of the 21ft inftant, opens

the

the deplorable fituation of his country in a very affecting manner; with a pompous parade of his candour and decency, he tells us, that we fee diffentions in all parts of the empire, an univerfal spirit of diftruft and diffatisfaction, and a total loss of respect towards us in the eyes of foreign powers. But this writer, with all his boafted candour, has not told us the real caufe of the evils he fo pathetically enumerates. I fhall take the

liberty to explain the caufe for him. Junius, and fuch writers as himself, occafion all the mischief complained of, by falfely and maliciously traducing the best characters in the kingdom. For when our deluded people at home, and foreigners abroad, read the poisonous and inflammatory libels that are daily published with impunity, to vilify thofe who are any way distinguished by their good qualities and eminent virtues: when they find no notice taken of, or reply given to thefe flanderous tongues and pens, their conclufion is, that both the minifter and the nation have been fairly described; and they act accordingly. I think it therefore the duty of every good citizen to ftand forth, and endeavour to undeceive the public, when the vileft arts are made use of to defame and blacken the brighteft characters amongst us. An eminent author affirms it to be almost as criminal to hear a worthy man traduced,

without

whithout attempting his juftification, as to be the author of the calumny against him. For my own part, I think it is a fort of mifprifion of treason against fociety. No man therefore who knows lord Granby, can poffibly hear fo good and great a character moft vilely abufed, without a warm and just indignation against this Junius, this high-prieft of Envy, Malice, and all uncharitablenefs, who has endeavoured to facrifice our beloved Commander in Chief at the altars of his horrid deities. Nor is the injury done to his lordship alone, but to the whole nation, which may too foon feel the contempt, and confequently the attacks of our late enemies, if they can be induced to believe that the person, on whom the safety of these kingdoms fo much depends, is unequal to his high station, and deftitute of thofe qualities which form a good general. One would have thought that his lordship's fervices in the cause of his country, from the battle of Culloden to his moft glorious conclufion of the late war, might have entitled him to common respect and decency at least; but this uncandid indecent writer, has gone fo far as to turn one of the most amiable men of the age into a ftupid, unfeeling, and fenfelefs being; poffeffed indeed of a perfonal courage, but void of thofe effential qualities which diftinguish the commander from the common foldier.

A very long uninterrupted, impartial, I will add, a moft difinterested friendship with lord Granby gives me the right to affirm, that all Junius's affertions are false and scandalous. Lord Granby's courage, though of the brightest and most ardent kind, is among the lowest of his numerous good qualities; he was formed to excel in war by Nature's liberality to his mind as well as perfon. Educated and inftructed by his most noble father, and a moft spirited as well as excellent fcholar, the prefent bishop of Bangor, he was trained to the niceft fense of honour, and to the trueft and nobleft fort of pride, that of never doing or fuffering a mean action. A fincere love and attachment to his king and country, and to their glory, firft impelled him to the field, where he never gained aught but honour. He impaired, through his bounty, his own fortune; for his bounty, which this writer would in vain depreciate, is founded upon the nobleft of the human affections, it flows from a heart melting to goodness from the most refined humanity. Can a man, who is described as unfeeling, and void of reflection, be conftanlty employed in feeking proper objects on whom to exercise those glorious virtues of compaffion and generofity? The dif treffed officer, the foldier, the widow, the orphan, and a long lift befides, know that vanity has no

VOL. I.

C

fhare

fhare in his frequent donations; he gives, becaufe he feels their diftreffes. Nor has he ever been rapacious with one hand to be bountiful with the other; yet this uncandid Junius, would infinuate that the dignity of the Commander in Chief is depraved into the bafe office of a commiffion broker; that is, lord Granby bargains for the fale of commiffions; for it must have this meaning, if it has any at all. But where is the man living who can justly charge his lordship with fuch mean practices Why does not Junius produce him? Junius knows that he has no other means of wounding this hero, than from fome miffile weapon, fhot from an obfcure corner: He feeks, as all fuch defamraory writers do,

?

-Spargere voces

In Vulgum ambiguas

to raise fufpicion in the minds of the people. But I hope that my countrymen will be no longer impofed upon by artful and defigning men, or by wretches, who, bankrupts in bufinefs, in fame, and in fortune, mean nothing more than to involve this country in the fame common ruin with themselves. Hence it is, that they are constantly aiming their dark and too often fatal weapons against those who ftand forth as the bulwarks of our national fafety. Lord Granby was too con

fpicuous