ever way he flies, the Hue-and-Cry of the

country pursues him. You can no more fly Persecuted abroad, you

It is in vain, therefore, to shift the scene. from your enemies than from yourself. look into your own heart for consolation, and find nothing but reproaches and despair. But, my Lord, you may quit the field of business, though not the field of danger: and though you cannot be safe, you may cease to be ridiculous. I fear you have listened too long to the advice of those pernicious friends, with whose interests you have sordidly united your own, and for whom you have sacrificed every thing that ought to be dear to a man of honour. They are still base 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 suffer you to profit by experience, nor even to consult the propriety of a bad character. Even now they tell you, that life is no more than a dramatic scene, in which the hero should preserve his consistency to the last, and that as you lived without virtue, you should die without repentance (i. 246). Sir William Draper may rest assured this worthy nobleman laughs, with equal indifference, at my reproaches, and Sir William's distress about him. But here let it stop. Even the Duke of Bedford, insensible as he is, will consult the tranquillity of his life, in not provoking the moderation of my temper. If, from the profoundest contempt, I should ever rise into anger, he should soon find that all I have already said of him was lenity and compassion (ii. 18).

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE MANSFIELD.

OUR language has no term of reproach, the mind has no idea of detestation, which has not already been happily applied to you, and exhausted. Ample justice has been done by abler pens than mine to the separate merits of your life and character. Let it be my humble office to collect the scattered sweets, till their united virtues torture the sense (ii. 161). When I acknowledge your abilities, you may believe I am sincere. I feel for human

soon.

nature, when I see a man so gifted as you are, descend to such vile practices. Yet do not suffer your vanity to console you too Believe me, my good Lord, you are not admired in the same degree in which you are detested. It is only the partiality of your friends, that balances the defects of your heart with the superiority of your understanding. No learned man, even among your own tribe, thinks you qualified to preside in a court of common law. Yet it is confessed, that under Justinian, you might have made an incomparable Prætor. It is remarkable enough, but I hope not ominous, that the laws you understand best, and the Judges you affect to admire most, flourished in the decline of a great empire, and are supposed to have contributed to its fall (ii. 181). The cunning Scotchman never speaks truth without a fraudulent design. In council, he generally affects to take a moderate part. Besides his natural timidity, it makes part of his political plan, never to be known to recommend violent measures. When the Guards are called forth to murder their fellow-subjects, it is not by the ostensible advice of Lord Mansfield. The designs of Mansfield are more subtle, more effectual, and secure. Who attacks the liberty of the press?Lord Mansfield. Who invades the constitutional power of juries? -Lord Mansfield. What Judge ever challenged a juryman?Lord Mansfield. Who was that judge, who, to save the king's brother, affirmed that a man of the first rank and quality, who obtains a verdict in a suit for criminal conversation, is entitled to no greater damages than the meanest mechanic?-Lord Mansfield. Who is it makes Commissioners of the Great Seal?-Lord Mansfield. Who is it forms a decree for those commissioners, deciding against Lord Chatham; and afterwards (finding himself opposed by the Judges) declares in parliament, that he never had a doubt that the law was in direct opposition to that decree?-Lord Mansfield. Who is he that has made it the study and practice of his life to undermine and alter the whole system of jurisprudence in the court of King's Bench?-Lord Mansfield. There never existed a man but himself, who answered exactly to so complicated a description. Compared to these enormities, his

original attachment to the Pretender (to whom his dearest brother was confidential secretary) is a virtue of the first magnitude. But the hour of impeachment will come, and neither he nor Grafton shall escape me (ii. 355). The distinction between doing wrong and avoiding to do right belongs to Lord Mansfield. Junius disclaims it (ii. 317). A judge under the influence of government may be honest enough in the decision of private causes, yet a traitor to the public. When a victim is marked out by the ministry, this judge will offer himself to perform the sacrifice. He will not scruple to prostitute his dignity, and betray the sanctity of his office, whenever an arbitrary point is to be carried for government, or the resentment of a court to be gratified (i. 60). Considering the situation and abilities of Lord Mansfield, I do not scruple to affirm, with the most solemn appeal to God for my sincerity, that, in my judgment, he is the very worst and most dangerous man in the kingdom. Thus far I have done my duty in endeavouring to bring him to punishment. But mine is an inferior ministerial office in the temple of justice. I have bound the victim, and dragged him to the altar (ii. 443).

LORD NORTH.

WHO is Lord North? The son of a poor unknown Earl, who four years ago was a needy commissioner of the Treasury for the benefit of a subsistence, and who would have accepted a commission of hackney-coaches upon the same terms. The politics of Carlton House, finances picked up in Mr. Grenville's ante-chamber, and the elocution of a Demosthenes, endeavouring to speak plain with pebbles in his mouth, form the stuffing of that figure that calls itself minister, that does homage to the Princess Dowager, and says, "Madam, I am your man!" (iii. 317). This graceful minister is oddly constructed. His tongue is a little too big for his mouth, and his eyes a great deal too big for their sockets. Every part of his person sets natural proportion at defiance. At this present writing, his head is supposed to be much too heavy for his shoulders (ii. 128, note).

LORD BARRINGTON.

HAVING nothing better to do, I propose to entertain myself and the public with torturing that **** Barrington, but be careful not to have it known to have come from me. Such an insignificant creature is not worth the generous rage of Junius (i. 247). Besides the singular good fortune of never being himself a moment out of place, he has had extraordinary success in providing for every branch of his family. One brother was a general officer, with a regiment and chief command at Guadaloupe. A second is high in the navy, with a regiment of marines. A third is a judge, and the fourth is a bishop. Yet this is the man who complains that he gets nothing! (iii. 454). The people of this country will never forget nor forgive the inhuman part he took in the affair of St. George's Fields. Other secretaries at war have ordered out troops to assist the civil magistrate. For this man it was reserved, to give it under his hand, that he rejoiced and exulted in the blood of his fellow subjects (iii. 456). While that bloody scene was acting, where was the gentle Barrington? Was he sighing at the feet of antiquated beauty? Was he dreaming over the loo-table? or, was he more innocently employed in combing her ladyship's lap-dog? (iii. 436). You are not insensible of the scorn and hatred of the world, though you take no care to avoid it. When the bloody Barrington—that silken, fawning courtier at St. James's -that stern and insolent minister at the war-office, is pointed out to universal contempt and detestation; you smile, indeed, but the last agonies of the hysteric passion are painted in your countenance. Your cheek betrays what passes within you, and your whole frame is in convulsions (iii. 431). The proceedings of this wretch are unaccountable. There must be some mystery in it, which I hope will soon be discovered to his confusion. Next to the Duke of Grafton, I verily believe that the blackest heart in the kingdom belongs to Lord Barrington (i. 254).

D D

LORD TOWNSHEND.

WHY is that wretched creature, Lord Townshend, maintained in Ireland? Is it not universally known that the ignorance, presumption, and incapacity of that man, have ruined the King's affairs in Ireland?-that he has in a great measure, destroyed the political dependence of that country upon Great Britain? But he too, is an unconnected being, without any hope of support but in the protection of Lord Bute and the Princess Dowager (iii. 319).

THE EARL OF SANDWICH.

His Majesty, who judges of men by their moral characters, has discovered at last that this nobleman is as well qualified for one post as another. His religion would do honour to a mitre. If he were Archbishop of Canterbury, the Princess Dowager of Wales could not do better than make him her father confessor. In the primitive spirit of Christianity they might confess to one another (iii. 309). The choice and preference of the most profligate character in the kingdom may suit well enough with the substantial purposes of Carlton House, but how does it consist What opinion

with the hypocritical decorum of St. James's? are we to entertain of the piety, chastity, and integrity of the best of Princes, when in the face of England and of all Europe, he takes such a man as Sandwich to his bosom! (iii. 320). Let us hear no more of the piety of St. James's. To talk of morals or devotion in such company is a scandalous insult to common sense, and a still more scandalous mockery of religion (iii. 321).

THE EARLS OF BUTE AND CHATHAM.

To create or foment confusion, to sacrifice the honour of a king, or to destroy happiness of a nation, requires no talent, but a natural itch for doing mischief. We have seen it performed for years successively, with a wantonness of triumph, by a man who had neither abilities nor personal interest, nor even common personal courage (Lord Bute). It has been possible for a noto