manner of your retreat, affures me that as your conduct was not juftified by precedent, it will never be thought an example for imitation. The last and most important queftion remains. When you receive your half-pay, do you or do you not, take a folemn oath, or fign a declaration upon honour to the following effect? That you do not actually hold any place of profit, civil or military, under his Majesty. The charge which this question plainly conveys against you, is of fo fhocking a complexion, that I fincerely wish you may be able to answer it well, not merely for the colour of your reputation, but for your own inward peace of mind.. JUNIUS. P. S. I had determined to leave the Commander in Chief in the quiet enjoyment of his friend and his bottle; but Titus deferves an answer, and. fhall have a compleat one. I HAVE a very fhort answer for Junius's important question: I do not either take an oath, or declare upon honour, that I have no place of profit, civil or milita D 4 military, when I receive the half pay as an Irish colonel. My moft gracious Sovereign gives it me as a penfion; he was pleafed to think I deferved it. The annuity of 20cl. Irish, and the equivalent for the half-pay together, produces no more than 3801. per annum, clear of fees and perquifites of office. I receive 1671. from my government of Yarmouth. Total 5471. per annum. My confcience is much at ease in these particulars; my friends need not blush for me. Junius makes much and frequent use of interrogations: they are arms that may be eafily turned against himself. I could, by malicious interrogation, disturb the peace of the most virtuous man in the kingdom? I could take the decalouge, and fay to one man, Did you never fteal? To the next, Did you never commit murder? and to Junius himself, who is putting my life and conduct to the rack, Did you never bear falje witness against thy neighbour? Junius muft eafily fee, that unless he affirms to the contrary in his real name, fome people who may be as ignorant of him as I am, will be apt to fufpect him of having deviated a little from the truth: therefore let Junius afk no more queftions. You bite against a file: ceafe viper. WILLIAM DRAPER LET AN academical education has given you an unlimited command over the most beautiful figures of speech. Masks, hatchets, racks, and vipers, dance through your letters in all the mazes of metaphorical confufion. These are the gloomy companions of a disturbed imagination; the melancholy madness of poetry, without the inspiration. I will not contend with you in point of compofition. You are a scholar, Sir William, and, if I am truly informed, you write Latin with almost as much purity as English. Suffer me then, for I am a plain unlettered man, to continue that ftile of interrogation, which fuits my capacity, and to which, confidering the readiness of your anfwers, you ought to have no object on. Even Mr. Bingley promises to anfwer, if put to the torture. Do you then really think that, if I were to afk a most virtuous man whether he ever committed theft, or murder, it would difturb his peace of mind? Such a question might perhaps discompose the the gravity of his muscles, but I believe it would little affect the tranquillity of his confcience. Examine your own breaft, Sir William, and you will discover, that reproaches and enquiries have no power to afflict either the man of unblemished integrity or the abandoned profligate. It is the middle compound character which alone is vulnerable: the man, who, without firmness enough to avoid a dishonourable action, has feeling enough to be ashamed of it. I thank you for your hint of the decalogue, and fhall take an opportunity of applying it to fome of your most virtuous friends in both houfes of parliament. You seem to have dropped the affair of your regiment; fo let it reft. When you are appointed to another, I dare fay you will not fell it either for a grofs fum, or for any annuity upon lives. I am truly glad (for realy, Sir William, I am not your enemy, nor did I begin this contest with you) that you have been able to clear yourself of a crime, though at the expence of the highest indifcretion. You fay that your half-pay was given you by way of penfion. I will not dwell upon the fingularity of uniting in your own person two forts of provifion, which in their own nature, and in all military and parliamentary views, are incompatible; but I call upon you to justify that declaration, declaration, wherein you charge your Sovereign with having done an act in your favour notorioufly against law. The half-pay, both in Ireland and England, is appropriated by parliament; and if it be given to perfons, who, like you, are legally incapable of holding it, it is a breach of law. It would have been more decent in you, to have called this dishonourable transaction by its true name; a job to accommodate two perfons, by particular intereft and management at the castle. What sense must government have had of your fervices, when the rewards they have given you are only a difgrace to you! you And now Sir William, I shall take my leave of you for ever. Motives very different from any apprehenfion of your refentment, make it impoffible fhould ever know me. In truth, you have some reason to hold yourself indebted to me. From the leffons I have given, yoù may collect a profitable inftruction for your future life. They will either teach you so to regulate your conduct, as to be able to set the most malicious inquiries at defiance; or, if that be a loft hope, they will teach you prudence enough not to attact the public attention upon a character, which will only pafs without cenfure, when it paffes without obfervation. JUNIUS. |