is such precision in the secret intelligence from that quarter conveyed to Woodfall or to the public, as occurs in no other department of the state, and could not be acquired from this, except by one who had access to the fountain-head for information." Dr. Johnson, in commenting on the controversy between Salmasius and Milton, says: "Milton's supreme pleasure is to tax his adversary, so renowned for criticism, with vicious Latin ;" and then sagaciously remarks: "no man forgets his original trade; the rights of nations and of kings sink into questions of grammar, if grammarians discuss them." And it appears that the remark is equally applicable to a soldier, when he exchanges the sword for the pen. The circumstance of Junius being a military man seems placed beyond all doubt by this remarkable passage in one of his letters to Lord Barrington: "My Lord, the rest of the world laugh at your choice, but we soldiers feel it as an indignity to the whole army, and be assured WE shall resent it." It must, however, in candour be acknowledged, that in another letter, dated 20th September 1768, Junius says: "I am not a soldier, my Lord, nor will I pretend to determine what share of honour a General is entitled to for success, who must have borne the whole blame and disgrace if he had failed." And thus we find that Junius, like the Weird Sisters, "palters with us in a double sense.' But whether Junius was, at the time of writing his Letters, or had previously been, a soldier, it seems clear, from the many excellent reasons which he gave for declining Sir William Draper's gothic appeal to cold iron, that his valour was tempered by discretion; and perhaps we may find reason to conclude, before the termination of this inquiry, that if Junius did not resemble Falstaff (inasmuch as he could fight on compulsion), yet that like "the wary Wedderburne and pompous Suffolk, he never threw away the scabbard, nor ever went upon a forlorn hope." Junius's next contest was with the Rev. John Horne (who afterwards quitted the church, and took the name of John Horne Tooke), which did not terminate quite so brilliantly as his former combat with Sir William Draper. The admirers of Junius are very unwilling to admit that he ever sustained a defeat, or retired from any contest in which he engaged otherwise than "covered with glory;" but an impartial examination of his controversy with Mr. Horne will at least leave this a doubtful question. The contest originated in Junius having made an unprovoked attack on Mr. Horne in a letter addressed to the Duke of Grafton, by charging him with endeavouring to support the ministerial nomination of sheriffs. This charge Mr. Horne positively denied, and called for proofs; and the ability displayed in his first letter seems to have convinced Junius that he had imprudently drawn. on himself no ordinary antagonist. He therefore attempted to smother all further discussion by sending Mr. Horne a hasty, and inconsiderate private letter, at the same time telling him, that he might print it if he thought proper. Junius had, however, this time mistaken his Horne's acuteness detected at a glance the weak points of his adversary, and enabled him to take up a position from which he might safely defy his assailant. Junius's letter was immediately returned to Woodfall for insertion in his paper, and in a few days afterwards there man. appeared such an answer from Horne as completely stripped the question at issue of all the false glitter and sophistry, with which Junius had attempted to invest it, and placed the controversy in so clear a light, that Junius was quite unable to frame any satisfactory reply. This first tended to convince the public, that if Junius were terrible as Achilles in his rage-" Impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer"-he was also, like his prototype, not wholly invulnerable. ད་ The reply of Junius, which is addressed, not to Mr. Horne, but to the printer of the P.A., did not exhibit his accustomed confidence of manner, or coolness of temper. He seemed to feel that his adversary's position could not be carried by a coup de main, and he lost his collectedness and displayed much irritability. His assault was fierce, but irregular; he fought gallantly, but not firmly; and though he inflicted some severe wounds on his adversary, his main attack utterly failed. Junius appeared to be conscious that in this unfortunate contest all things conspired against him. He had unjustly and wantonly assailed a comparatively ignoble antagonist, who proved himself a consummate master of his weapons. He could reap little glory from victory, and had everything to apprehend from defeat; and the apostrophe of Marmion to his faithless falchion, might have been applied by Junius to his pen: Curse on yon base marauder's lance, In a critique on Reid's Memoirs of Horne Tooke, in the Quarterly Review (No. xiv. p. 319), it is observed of this celebrated controversy:-" Mr. Horne's style is strongly impressed with the character of his mind-neat, clear, precise, and forcible; free from affectation, void of ornament. We do not think he was ever vulgar, but he is full of that genuine Anglicism of which the course of his studies rendered him at once an admirer and a master—that native idiom, which the brilliant success of some of those who have written English as a foreign language, has within the last fifty years brought into disuse and almost into oblivion. The most finished specimen of his composition is probably to be found in the two or three letters written in answer to the attacks of Junius, and he had the honour, which in those days was deemed no inconsiderable one, of being the only knight that returned with his lance unbroken from a combat with that unknown, but terrible champion. If he wants the requisite and the brilliant invective of his adversary, that dexterous malignity which comes in with such effect to blacken a character by insinuation after invective has exhausted its powers, and above all, that well-sustained tone of austere dignity which gives to Junius the air and authority of a great personage in disguise; he is superior to him in vivacity, facility, and that assurance of plainness and sincerity, which is of such importance in controversial writings. The great fault of Junius is a sort of stiffness and appearance of labour-his compositions smell too much of the lamp-he wanted nothing to be a perfect master of his art but the power of concealing it. Mr. Tooke's letters have the flow of unity and simplicity which belong to writings struck off at a heat, and which depend for their effect rather upon the general powers of the writer, than upon the great nicety and labour in the particular instance. In justice to Junius G as a writer, we must add that he was labouring under the disadvantages of a weak case. It is evident that he was early and deeply sensible of his own mistake, and he was therefore glad to put an end to the contest as soon as possible, even at the price of leaving his adversary in possession of the field,-a humiliation to which he would not have submitted, but from the consciousness of his having originally selected an unfavourable ground." Junius afterwards admitted, in a private letter to Mr. Woodfall, of the 27th of November 1771, that he was mistaken in the conjecture that Horne had misrepresented the sentiments conveyed in his Letters to the Bill of Rights Society, and seems more than half to suspect Wilkes. This is one of the very few instances in which Junius acknowledges his fallibility. "Enveloped in the cloud of a fictitious name," says Dr. Good, "Junius, unseen himself, beheld with secret satisfaction the vast influence of his labours, and enjoyed the universal hunt that was made to detect him in his disguise, and ministers, and more than ministers, trembling beneath the lash of his invisible hand." But that he was not without his fears and apprehensions, may be inferred from the following advice, which he gives Woodfall in a letter of the 16th August 1769:-"Avoid prosecutions if you can, but above all things avoid the Houses of Parliament-there is no contending with them: at present you are safe, for this House of Commons has lost all dignity, and dare not do anything."-And when the printer was apprehensive that the Duke of Bedford would not pass over the attack upon him, Junius thus consoles him:"As to you, it is clearly my opinion that you have nothing to fear from the Duke of Bedford. I reserve |