THE INVESTIGATORS OF JUNIUS. “I would pursue him through life, and try the last exertion of my abilities, to preserve the perishable infamy of his name, and make it Immortal." SUCH are the terms of desperate revenge, in which the stern and vindictive Junius threatened to hunt down and devote to eternal infamy the chief object of his inveterate hatred the Duke of Grafton, while he fancied himself securely veiled in clouds and darkness. For in the dedication of his great work to the English nation, with affected humility, but real arrogance, Junius thus speaks of himself: "If I am a vain man, my gratification lies within a narrow circle-I am the sole depository of my own secret, and it shall perish with me." At his appointed hour, this proud boaster doubtless departed hence, and was no more seen; and the mortal frame which once contained that lofty spirit, before whose withering sarcasms and fierce invectives, nobles and princes had crouched and trembled, mouldered in the grave-but whether his "secret perished with him," as he had predicted, will form the subject of our present inquiry. In a private letter to Mr. Wilkes, Junius says, "I am willing to accept so much of your friendship as you can impart to a man whom you will assuredly never know— besides every personal consideration, if I were known, I could no longer be a useful servant to the public. At present, there is something oracular in the delivery of my opinions. I speak from a recess which no human curiosity can penetrate, and darkness we are told, is one source of the sublime. The mystery of Junius increases his importance." The above oracular response was evidently thrown out to overawe and deter the frail mortal with whom this demigod condescended to hold converse, from prying into the mystery of his identity; and the language used by the bold and able demagogue to whom this awful declaration was made, when addressing the unknown god of his political idolatry, is not a little remarkable. It will be observed, and probably not without surprise, that the man who had braved all the terrors of the House of Commons, and always presented a front of brass when assailed by the whole force of government, no sooner comes within the magic circle of this invisible and mysterious being, than by the most abject expressions of humility and inferiority, he acknowledges the uncontrollable influence of a superior power, and seems conscious that, if he failed to fulfil the behest of the Master Magician, he might expect to be menaced, like Caliban "If thou neglect'st or dost unwillingly What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps, for Wilkes replies in this abject strain: I do not mean to indulge the impertinent curiosity of finding out the most important secret of our times, the author of Junius. I will not attempt with profane hands to tear the sacred veil of the sanctuary; I am disposed, with the inhabitants. of Attica, to erect an altar to the unknown god of our political idolatry, and will be content to worship him in clouds and darkness. After the first Letter of Junius to me, I did not go to Woodfall, to pry into a secret I had no right to know. The letter itself bore the stamp of Jove. I was neither doubting nor impertinent. I wish to comply with every direction of Junius, to profit by his hints, and to have the permission of writing to him on any important occasion." Mr. Richard Cumberland, in his interesting Memoirs, says, "I consider Tristam Shandy as the most eccentric work of my time, and Junius the most acrimonious. We have heard much of his style; I have just been reading him over with attention, and I confess I can see but little to admire. The thing to wonder at is, that a secret to which several must have been privy has been so strictly kept. If Sir William Draper, who baffled him in some of his assertions, had kept his name out of sight, I am inclined to think he might have held up the cause of candour with success. The publisher of Junius, I am told, was deeply guaranteed; of course, although he might not know his author, he must have known whereabouts to look for him. The man who wrote it had a savage heart, for some of his attacks are execrable; he was a hyprocrite, for he disavows private motives, and makes pretensions to a patriotic spirit. I can perfectly call to mind the general effect of his letters, and am of opinion that his malice overshot its mark. Let the anonymous defamer be as successful as he may, it is but an unenviable triumph, a mean and cowardly gratification, which his dread of a discovery forbids him to avow." Since this judgment was passed upon Junius by his contemporary, at the commencement of the present century, Mr. Wood fall's publication has disclosed to us the nature of the guarantee alluded to by Cumberland, and furnished us with many additional clues to know whereabouts to look for him, who, under the shadow of a name, wielded such substantial power. Many years ago, a noble lord, now filling one of the most exalted judicial stations in the kingdom, was heard to remark, that "Junius must have been placed in a peculiar situation; and was, no doubt, deterred from claiming the honours justly due to his unrivalled compositions, from a conviction that the disclosure of his name would have overwhelmed him with infamy, on account of the baseness of his motives, and the treachery of his conduct." The observation struck the writer at the time, and subsequent investigation and reflection have convinced him that it was founded in truth. The laurels of Junius have, at different times, been claimed for so many persons, whose pretensions have been unable to withstand the slightest scrutiny, that a recent writer has not scrupled to class the inquiry after "Junius" among "worn out ideas;" and repeated disappointments have at last made the public incredulous or indifferent on the subject. A careful review of the controversy. has, however, satisfied the present writer, that sufficient evidence is already before the public to render the identity sought for a question of little doubt: but, as the various facts on which the argument is grounded lie disjointed and scattered throughout a multiplicity of publications, there is still much to be done towards arranging the evidence, so as to bring the whole to bear with full and cumulative force on the point in issue: for there are many scraps of information dispersed here and there in various books, which in their isolated states seem very immaterial to the question, and yet upon being introduced into their proper places in the chain of evidence, are found materially to advance and strengthen the argument. "In books designed for amusement," observes Montesquieu, "three or four pages may give an idea of the style and the perfection of the work; in books of argumentation we see nothing if we do not see the whole chain." Mr. Chambers, in his biographical sketch of M. Hauy, remarks, that "there is a class of philosophers who, by collecting together a mass of materials which they are unable to put together themselves, leave them to be wrought into forms of harmonious beauty by other more fortunate and gifted individuals. In casting our eye over the bright pages of modern discovery, we cannot fail to be struck by this result-facts and experiments are accumulated through long years of quiet study by the industry of numerous observers, and old theories, unable to embrace them, must be abandoned, and a more extensive chain employed to connect them so as to form a whole. For a time, no plan/appears practicable, when suddenly, and often from the bosom of the people, a great genius springs forth, and by raising himself to a higher vantage ground than that occupied by his fellowlabourers, sees at once how the whole may be arranged and combined so as to form a perfect whole. In proof of this statement, reference is made to the discoveries of Newton, Watt, Davy, Cuvier, and Hauy." Now, without placing the subject of our present inquiry in competition with the important discoveries in science made by those illustrious individuals, we think there is suffi |