able critic. They are from "The History of Party," by George Wingrove Cooke, Esq., Barrister, 8vo., vol. iii., p. 189, &c.

"The powers of this writer, as they are displayed in these Letters, stand unrivalled in any age or language. Bolingbroke could declaim in majestic and harmonious language; allure his readers by a display of disinterested and patriotic sentiment, and animate them against his enemies by the eloquence of his accusation; the elegant Addison could please, could ridicule, could convince; Swift was an inimitable lampooner, unhesitating in his assertions, and strong in abuse; but JUNIUS surpassed all these. He addressed himself to the powerful passions of our nature, captivated attention by rancorous abuse, sarcastic invective, and ferocious personalities; yet disguised these so well by the purity of his language and the grace of his style, that while we relish the pungency we do not taste the grossness. He offers us an excitement to our passions, but the goblet appears so pure that we pour from it a libation to virtue; he fences with a rapier of the highest temper and polish; while we admire his amazing dexterity we do not perceive that the blade is poisoned-that the same weapon, urged by an infant's hand, would inflict a deadly wound.

"The aim of Junius was not calm conviction, it was tumultuous excitement; conviction might pen pamphlets, but would scarcely withdraw one vote from the well-pensioned majority of the minister; excitement would carry terror into the cabinet and the closet, and constrain by fear men who were deaf to virtue. Thus, the weakest invention which his readers believed-and all things are credible to an enraged people -v -was readily caught up by Junius, and embalmed in the amber of his diction. He caught the topics and scandal of the day, and wrought upon them until those who had seen and received them in their native coarseness, were surprised and delighted to find truths, in which they thought they had an interest, presented in such an elegant and engaging garb.

"It was thus that Junius excited attention. At this distance of time the keenness of his satire attracts thousands of readers who know nothing of the secret history of the period, and little of the characters he assails. If his style can charm such persons, how must it have excited his contemporaries, who saw in every sentence a wound inflicted upon an enemy, and knew that the man they hated was writhing under the infliction. The mystery of the authorship lent an additional shade of interest to the Letters. Junius was exempt from the failings of humanity, he had no conduct on which his satire could be re

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torted, no personal friendship which he dared not violate, no consistency to preserve beyond his Letters; cased in impenetrable armour, he mingled with the crowd, and pointed his unerring shafts in security: the throne was not too high, the cottage not too low, for his visitations.

"Such were the causes of Junius's popularity; but he was not destitute of other excellences. He could reason clearly and strongly, and his Letters contain many beautiful specimens of logical argument. He was possessed of profound political knowledge, and he was immediately and accurately informed of the secret transactions of the day. Junius enjoyed every opportunity of becoming a perfect political writer, and he used them."

From the latest publication which has been devoted to the writings of Junius, and which contains much discriminating criticism, and an able "Review of the Controversy," by John Jaques, Esq., I subjoin the following extracts.

66

Although the moralist cannot but condemn, and the Christian must view with abhorrence, the vindictive spirit which pervades the Letters of Junius, no person can withhold from their author the applause due to a great writer, of whose genius any country might be justly proud. In the powers of combination and generalisation requisite to strike out broad and philosophical views of politics, Junius may have been excelled by Burke: but in the ability to concentrate all the energies of a commanding intellect on any subject he chose to discuss, and to depict in a vivid and graphic manner every varying shade of human character-in the talent for presenting the results of a matured experience derived from an extensive intercourse with every grade of society; in just, striking, and profound axioms on human nature, and the affairs of the world few authors, besides Shakspeare, can be placed in competition with him. Whilst in the extraordinary union of keen and withering sarcasm, with a style condensed and clear to an eminent degree, and polished to intense brilliancy by the most delicate and refined taste, we believe him to stand unrivalled."-(p. 385.)

"It would be difficult to select from any of Junius's writings more favourable specimens of his style than the letters he wrote to Sir William Draper. They display, in an eminent degree, all the acuteness and tact for which their author was so celebrated, and contain passages of the most refined and polished irony, with less of that savage and ferocious sarcasm in which he afterwards indulged,

when the voice of an admiring nation had awarded to him the palm due to the first political writer of the age."—(p. 73.)

Remarks and opinions by Lord Brougham, and by Edmund Burke will be found in page 4 of the present volume.

The Letters of Junius ought not to be referred to or read merely as political tirades, as personal satires and strictures on public men, or as the splenetic effusions of a vivid and vigorous mind against individuals whom the writer regarded as his personal enemies; but as containing much historical and constitutional information-as abounding in moral and philosophical maxims and doctrines, as exhibiting acute views of worldly policy—and particularly as worthy the study of the barrister, the politician, the author, and indeed every lover of, and student in literature.

Their qualities and characteristics are well and fully discriminated in the writings of the authors already quoted. Consistency of character, and undeviating honesty of principle, did not belong to Junius; nor are these often to be met with in persons of sanguine and ardent temperament. Such virtues were unfashionable at the time Junius wrote: indeed, we should seek in vain for them in any of the politicians and placemen of that age. We can scarcely name one who was not a slave to party, to the tyranny of custom, or to the sottish, debauched, and swearing habits of the times. Walpole has exhibited and described these moral misdemeanours in vivid terms; whilst Junius paints them in glaring colours. Inconsistency of character, especially in politics, was regarded as a common-place vice, and many statesmen were like the common weather-cock, shifting and veering about with almost every party current. An anonymous author, who alternately censured and praised, calumniated and panegyrised the same person at different times and under different aspects, may be said to have " gone with the stream"

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-to have "followed the fashion"-to have acted in harmony with his compatriots and fellows. Making, however, every allowance for the yile practices of the times, we cannot either reconcile or pardon the capricious inconsistency of Junius in alternately holding up the same persons to public scorn and admiration from any, or from every rise and fall of the political thermometer. Even the amiable and estimable Patriot, the Earl of Chatham, was fulsomely praised and as severely censured both by Junius anonymously, and by Colonel Barré personally. The unprincipled John Wilkes was both assailed by the abuse, and flattered by the praises of Junius, who after having treated him with the most avenging sarcasm and contumely, made him a sort of confidential agent in city business, and personal negotiations. The declaration of the anonymous writer in the Preface to his "Letters" that he was "the sole depositary of his secret" is equally inconsistent and untrue, as are also many other statements and assertions in the same epistles. All clearly exemplifying the poetical maxim of Sir Walter Scott, when he exclaims,

The ensuing pages will be found to contain much new and original information respecting the biography and personal character of Colonel Barré, who has been referred to by some writers who have indulged in speculations on the authorship of the Letters of Junius; but whose literary talents and position in the political world have never before been investigated and expounded.

In conclusion, it is a duty I owe to several noblemen and gentlemen, some of whom are personally strangers to me, to acknowledge and thank them for obliging and interesting letters which they have favoured me with in answer to my inquiries. Amongst these I may enumerate Field Marshal Lord Viscount Beresford; the Primate of

all Ireland; the Duke of Buckingham; the Marquess of Lansdowne; the late Sir Thomas Baring, Bart.; Adjutant General Sir John Macdonald; Sir David Brewster; Sir Henry Ellis; Sir Thomas Dean; Sir William Betham; Sir Frederick Madden; Sir Francis Palgrave; His Excellency George Bancroft; J. B. Bevington, Esq.; John Baring, Esq.; Captain Beresford, Royal Artillery; John Bowring, Esq., LL.D., M.P.; G. W. Cooke, Esq.; Bolton Corney, Esq.; Thomas Crofton Croker, Esq.; R. A. Davenport, Esq.; Atkins Davis, Esq.; John D'Alton, Esq.; Charles R. Dod, Esq.; Edward Dubois, Esq.; the Rev. G. R. Gleig; R. L. Hastings, Esq.; the Rev. S. Hayman; J. M. Henderson, Esq.; John Jaques, Esq.; R. S. Mackenzie, Esq., LL.D.; W. Owen Madden, Esq.; Thomas P. Matthew, Esq.; the Rev. J. Mitford; John Morgan, Esq.; D. J. Murphy, Esq.; George Petrie, Esq.; Thomas Prior, Esq.; the Rev. Dr. Rees; N. W. Simons, Esq.; William Tooke, Esq.; Dr. Walsh; Rev. John Ward; John Windele, Esq.; and H. D. Woodfall, Esq.

All the above-named persons have promptly and obligingly answered letters of inquiry, and some of them have also made researches and incurred expense in official places, to authenticate facts or satisfy doubts. I have written considerably more than one hundred letters, and examined above one hundred various literary works, in the hopes of attaining that species of evidence which could neither be controverted, nor doubted; but failing to find unequivocal proofs, am induced to submit the following results to the public, presuming they may lead to new and conclusive discoveries by reference to sources now, for the first time pointed out, and to persons and places hitherto not suspected. In the language of sportsmen, a new scent is found, and traced through various labyrinths—the wily fox is unkennelled, and his haunts and habits made known to the enterprising hunter.

J. B.