ANONYMOUS

LETTER TO A BRIGADIER-GENERAL."

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Albemarle, the former of whom suspected that the latter had instigated or employed an anonymous assailant thus to traduce and vilify him. The belligerent parties were arrested at the place of meeting before the intended duel took place. This was on the 4th of November, 1760; but the pamphlet must have been printed some time before; for on the 5th of the preceding month, being the very day of Major Barré's arrival in London, "A Refutation of the Letter to an Honourable Brigadier General, &c., By an Officer," was published.

The latter pamphlet possesses no literary merit; but in the language, style, and sentiments of the anonymous Letter to General Townshend, there is a most remarkable and extraordinary coincidence with the "Letters of Junius." So striking indeed is the resemblance, not only in particular phrases and expressions and in isolated passages, but in the style, diction, energy, spirit and character of the entire composition that there can scarcely be a doubt the writer was the author not only of the letters which, from 1767 to 1769, appeared in the “Public Advertiser” under the signatures of Atticus, Lucius, Brutus, Poplicola, &c., but also of the unparalleled effusions which were published in the same journal from 1769 to 1772, with the memorable signature of Junius.*

This resemblance was pointed out in 1817 by a person who had only read some extracts from the "Letter to a Brigadier General," which had appeared in the "Gentleman's Magazine." Under the name of "Phil-Urbanus," he expressed his "strong opinion," in the same periodical, that "if the author of the Letter to a Brigadier General should be known, it would be no difficult task to set at rest the inquiry after the author of the Letters of Junius." The hint thus given does not appear to have been followed up; but, in 1840, the pamphlet now referred to happened to come under the notice of Mr. N. W. Simons, of the Library of the British Museum. Not knowing that "Phil-Urbanus" had taken the same

* See a discriminating Review of this pamphlet in the Gentleman's Magazine, March, 1841.

view three and twenty years before, Mr. Simons, on reading this obscure and forgotten work, was immediately and forcibly impressed with its analogy in style to the Letters of Junius, and its consequent importance, as affording a possible clue to the discovery of their author. That gentleman was himself well qualified by previous study of the writings of Junius to form an opinion on this subject; and that opinion being confirmed by several friends of literary eminence, he was induced, in the year 1841, to reprint the "Letter," as well as the "Refutation" of it, appending to them some valuable original remarks, tending firstly to prove that the "Letter" was really from the pen of Junius, and secondly to refute the opinion that Sir Philip Francis was the author of the letters with that signature.*

In addition to Mr. Simons and "Phil-Urbanus," it is stated by another writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine" (July, 1843) that an individual, then recently deceased, who had only seen the extracts from the pamphlet of 1760, had not only come to the same conclusion of its identity of authorship with the "Letters of Junius," but, previously to the illness which terminated his life, was preparing for the press a statement of his opinion. Thus, three several parties, entirely unconnected with each other, after reading either the whole " Letter," or extracts from it, had arrived at the conviction that it was an early production of the great and unknown English political satirist, and Mr. Simons's reprint has since induced many other persons to adopt the same opinion.

Before proceeding to show the probability that Isaac Barré was the author of the satirical "Letter" to Brigadier General Townshend it may be desirable by a few extracts to illustrate its identity in style, thought, and expression, with the Letters of Junius. This remarkable and ironical epistle impeaches, in the bitterest terms, the conduct of Townshend, in Canada; and episodically, that of Lord George Sackville, at Minden: and it must not be

* Mr. Simons's reprints and remarks appeared in the shape of a 16 mo. pamphlet, published by Pickering, London.

PASSAGES FROM THE ANONYMOUS LETTER.

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forgotten that, seven years afterwards, Junius, under various signatures, also satirised both those officers.

The anonymous pamphleteer thus addresses Brigadier General Townshend :

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Independent of fortune and her favours, you have made the most distinguished honour of the present war in a peculiar manner your own. The Goddess of blindness and caprice had certainly no share in the capitulation of Quebec. Ardent in the pursuit of glory, and the applause of your country, you generously violated the rules of war, and risked the resentment of your superior officer [General Monckton]; you signed the articles of capitulation without his knowledge, and, anxious for the preservation of your conquest, you appointed the staff of the garrison without even asking his consent. He might indeed suspect the friendship you had long professed for him, but with the spirit of an old Roman, the love of our country omnes omnium caritates complectitur. He might have ordered you into arrest for such an outrage to his authority. He was not insensible of the indignity; but you asked his pardon, and languishing under his wounds he accepted your submission. Thus you carried your point. You received into your protection the capital of an Empire larger than half the Roman conquests; and, though you had formally entered your protest against attacking the place, you alone enjoyed the honours of its being taken."- --"Your appetite for glory being now fully satisfied, you descended from the Heights of Abraham, and, as the better part of valour is discretion, according to Falstaff's wisdom, you discreetly left your regiment, whose paltry emoluments you had dearly purchased by your one campaign, and prudently quitted a scene where danger would probably be too busy. You sagaciously foresaw that the French would endeavour to recover their capital, and you were convinced that the place was not defensible."

"I know that our ingenious moderns have been reproached with plundering the shrines of antiquity, and ransacking the virtues of the dead, to erect a lying monument of fame to the living. I shall not be apprehensive of this reproach when I assert that the noblest praise ever given to Cæsar, that of writing with the same spirit with which he fought, is equally due to you for the letter you wrote from Quebec to the Secretary of State. Some malignant spirits, indeed, were offended at your not having paid one civil compliment to the memory of General Wolfe, or used one kind expression of esteem or affection with regard to his person. Surely, some people are never to be satisfied."--"They must have known very little of the expedition to Quebec who expected that you would bear testimony to the conduct of a General whose plan of operations you had the honour, both in public and private, to

oppose; and against whose last desperate attempt you protested in form. True, this attempt succeeded; but not the most fortunate success should alter an opinion founded, like yours, in calm, deliberate judgment. You were not prejudiced in favour of this attack by having any share in the execution. You were at a safe and honourable distance from the scene of action, when you were told that you commanded."- "We are told in a letter from Quebec that the Highlanders took to their broadswords (no doubt a very military phrase) and drove part into the town, part to the works at their bridge on the river St. Charles. Yet, Sir, you are conscious that the Highlanders were not so forward in the pursuit at Quebec as the 47th regiment, which would probably have entered the town with the flying enemy, if not restrained by your Sackvillian prudence. For what purpose, therefore, this tremendous taking to their broadswords, when a whole regiment was between them and the enemy?”

"As you appear, Sir, to have made the hero of Minden [Lord George Sackville] your model of all military virtue, I would encourage you to emulate his great example, by marking a sort of natural resemblance of character between you. A resemblance far stronger than any in your own collection of portraits, though his Royal Highness [the Duke of Cumberland] himself, your great chef d'œuvre, be there. If, for instance, his lordship prudently refused to advance with the cavalry at Minden, you certainly, with equal prudence, quelled the spirits of the troops at Quebec. If my Lord excels in that well-bred species of wit known by the name of sneering, are not you equally excellent In that good-natured species of painting called caricature, the amusement of your idle hours? Did Lord George imagine that the reputation of being well with the great minister would bear him, without ever endangering his person, to the highest pinnacle of military glory; and are not you, Sir, at this moment, abusing your interest with that minister, by leaving, and being so many months absent from your command at Quebec? If you think you have deserved or gained any honour there, do you imagine your walking at the head of your Militia will maintain it? Are you not paid for your command of a regiment in America; and is not some officer now doing, at the risk of his life, that duty for which you are paid? Is not yours the single instance of this kind of desertion in the service?"

Enough has been quoted to show the animus of this attack on General Townshend, as well as the spirit and energy of the writer and the analogy of his style to that of Junius. If, as compared with the later satires by the same author an occasional feebleness of expression be observed, it is only reasonable to suppose that time and practice in literary composition may have led to greater proficiency in the man

BARRÉ, WALPOLE, WOLFE, TOWNSHEND.

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agement of that powerful instrument-the pen. The preceding passages, and still more a perusal of the "Letter" as a whole, cannot fail to show its close resemblance both in style and sentiment, to the writings of the future Junius.

That the pamphlet now referred to is the production of Barré, there can scarcely be a doubt, from his attachment to the late lamented Commander who had suffered so much from the hostility of Townshend, and from his personal character and talents.

With reference to the Quebec expedition, Horace Walpole, the witty and animated historian of the period, (whose comments on the acts and motives of his contemporaries are always valuable and interesting,) makes the following observations.

"1759. Feb. 5. The expedition called to Quebec departs on Tuesday next under Wolfe and George Townshend, who has again thrust himself into the service, and, as far as wrong-headedness can go, very proper for a Hero. Wolfe, who was no friend of Mr. Conway last year [Conway was second in command in the Rochefort expedition] and for whom I consequently have no affection, has great merit, spirit, and alacrity, and shone extremely at Louisbourg."

"1759. October 30. I have not even seen the conqueror's mother (Lady Townshend), though I hear she has covered herself with more laurel-leaves than were heaped on the Children in the Wood."*

These passages are from Walpole's familiar letters. In his digested "Memoires of the Last Ten Years of the Reign of George the Second," he writes as follows:

"To Wolfe was associated George Townshend; whose proud, sullen, and contemptuous temper never suffered him to wait for thwarting his superiors till risen on a level with them. He saw every thing in an ill-natured and ridiculous light. The haughtiness of the Duke of Cumberland, the talents or blemishes of Fox, the ardour of Wolfe, the virtue of Conway, were all alike the objects of Townshend's spleen and contradiction: but Wolfe was noted never to waive his pre-eminence from fear of caricatures. He felt his supe

* Walpole's Private Correspondence (1820), vol. ii., p. 121.

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