are too honest a man to contribute in any way to my destruction; act honestly by me, and at a proper time you shall know me." In another:-"When you consider to what excessive enmities I may be exposed, you will not wonder at my caution. I really have not known how to procure your last." Again he writes:-"I have received your mysterious epistle; I dare say a letter may safely be left at the same place; but you may change the direction to Mr. John Fretley." The able editor of Mr. Woodfall's 'Junius' seems to have been quite puzzled and bewildered by the various contradictory accounts which Junius gives of himself and his proceedings, with the view of preventing detection, and mystifying that honest man Mr. W. S. Woodfall. On one occasion, having sent a letter which he wished to disclaim, he writes thus: "The last letter you printed was idle and improper; and I assure you printed against my own opinion-the truth is, there are people about me whom I would wish not to contradict, who had rather see Junius in the papers, ever so improperly, than not at all."-But when the work is finished, and all risque is pretty well at an end, he assumes a bolder tone, and declares in his dedication"I am the sole depository of my own secret, and it shall perish with me." In one letter he tells Woodfall-" Act honestly by me, and at a proper time you shall know me." We then find him declaring, "I doubt much whether I shall ever have the pleasure of knowing you; but if things take the turn I expect, you shall know me by my works." In one letter he makes this inquiry-"I beg you will tell me candidly, whether you know or suspect who I am." And then again he says—“As to me, be assured that it is not in the nature of things that they [the house

of Cavendish] or you, or anybody else, should ever know me, unless I make myself known. All arts, or inquiries, c rewards, would be equally ineffectual." At one time he saks of "the gentleman who transacts the conveyancing part of our correspondence," and from other parts of ti correspondence we learn that the letters were usually sent by a common porter. Dr. Good, not being able to reconcile these contradictions, supposes there was a narrow circle to whom Junius unbosomed himself-may not all these apparent contradictions and discrepancies be accounted for by concluding, that this narrow circle was confined to a single confidant, who occasionally acted as Junius's amanuensis and perhaps messenger? In short, he seems to have felt himself constrained, for the preservation of his secret, and perhaps of his existence, to tamper with that which a man of his haughty spirit and commanding intellect would never sacrifice but with the greatest reluctance, and in a case only of the most absolute necessity-HIS VERACITY AND HONOur.

"The general, particular, circumstantial, minute caution always employed by Junius on all occasions (observes Mr. Barker-preface, p. 19), is employed in respect to Garrick; this viligant circumspection would be exerted by Junius, whether it related to his personal appearance, his epistolary habits, his choice of coffee-houses, chairmen, porters, or messengers, and his handwriting, whether the writing were feigned or real,—it was one uniform, continual, perpetual, eternal, sempiternal system of caution, on which he acted-he was the hundred-eyed Argus, the watchful Cerberus, the fiend-like Monster who guarded his own treasure, his existence depended on his vigilance, and therefore his vigilance never relaxed for a moment."

What success attended these various devices adopted for the purpose of concealment, is best attested by the fact, that the identity of the author of these celebrated Letters remains, even now, after a lapse of nearly seventy years, a problem to be solved.

Mr. R. Fellowes, in a letter dated February 1st, 1827, and addressed to Mr. Barker, says, "I have several times talked with the late Duke of Grafton about the Letters of Junius, but if those Letters ever inflamed any resentment in his breast, he had outlived that feeling. He even seemed to have been indifferent to the question of the authorship. I am convinced that he did not. attach it to any particular individual. As far as he considered it at all, he considered it problematical.”

Mr. Butler remarks, "who is the fortunate possessor of the two Vellum volumes, the Reminiscent knows as little as the rest of the world-but he thinks it was not unknown to the founder of a noble house, to whom the public owes an edition of Homer which does the nation honour."

Of him Junius thus expresses himself: "It is impossible to conceal from ourselves that we are at this moment on the brink of a dreadful precipice; the question is, whether we shall submit to be guided by the hand that hath driven us to it (General Conway), or whether we shall follow the patriot voice (George Grenville's) which would still declare the way to safety and to honour." Thus far Mr. Butler.-Now, who was the editor of this highly extolled edition of Homer? He was Robert Wood, Lord Chatham's private secretary. Who was the founder of a noble house to whom the public is indebted for that learned work? It was the grand-nephew of Lady

Chatham; and places the vellum volumes about where we had long since conjectured they might be found-in the Grenville family."-Dr. Waterhouse's Essay, p. 379.

On this subject, Mr. Barker says,-"Mr. Taylor cannot in the absence of proof be permitted to define Junius's motive for ordering the two books to be bound in vellum. Suppose that we could ascertain the fact, that Sir P. Francis's library contained no such books at the time of his decease? Is Mr. Taylor in that case willing to take the fair inference from his own reasoning, viz. that Sir Philip was not the author of Junius ?—But can we not more reasonably imagine that the real motive of Junius. for ordering the books was to present them to his patron, to the person by whose desire and under whose countenance he was induced to publish the Letters? And who can say that the books are not now in the possession of Lord Grenville?"

The latest information given to the public on this interesting subject, is contained in the following paragraph, which appeared in the Morning Chronicle of the 7th March 1836.-"In the library of the Duke of Buckingham, at Stowe, is deposited a box, containing papers, which are secured with three seals, said to be those of the late Marquis of Buckingham, the late Lord Grenville, and the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville. The contents of the box are understood to be manuscript letters of, and documents relating to, Junius."

ON THE SPIRIT AND STYLE OF JUNIUS.

I could enlarge with a particular satisfaction upon the many fine things which SATAN, rummaging his inexhaustible storehouse of Slander, could set down to blacken the character of good men, and load the best princes of the world with infamy and reproach. De Foe's History of the Devil.

The writings of Junius afford a singular illustration of the excellence and force of the original English language. He employs no latinized words, and has exhibited a full and most forcible style, composed almost entirely of words of Saxon derivation. Rev. Robert Hall.

H