2nd s. VIII. Aug. 6. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



101 



LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 6. 1889. 



No, 188. — CONTENTS. 



NOTES : — Junius and Henry Flood, 101 — A General Literary Index, 

 103 _ How the Lord Hi«h Chancellor goes to Westminster, 104 — So- 

 Intion of a Biblioeraphical Puzzle, 105 — M. Sullacombe, and the 

 Streets of London, lb. 



Minor Notes : — Alexander Pope's Cliair — Illustration of " Boswell's 

 Johnson "—Sir Walter Raleigh— Preservation of Monumental Brasses 

 — Smoking Anecdote — Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, 106. 



QUERIES : — Medireval Architecture of Venice, 108. 



MmoR QoERiEs : — Bacon on Conversation — A Charity-box for Dis- 

 tressed Gentlemen — Prayer on setting forth an Expedition, probably 

 in the Reign of Elizabeth — " Liberavi animam meam "— Chambers 

 for the Duke of Mantua's Dwarfs — Scotch Genealogies — Bishop Po- 

 cocke's " Tour through Ireland " — Major Duncauson and the Massa- 

 cre of Glencoe — Mr. Wells —Life is before ye, &c., 108. 



Minor Qderies with Answers: — Dr. Latham's Theory of Indo-Euro- 

 pean Lansuagcs — John Gilpin— -S. John the Evangelist —Mount St. 

 Michael, 110. 



REPLIES: —On Style in General, Bibliography. Typography, Trans- 

 lation, and several other Things, by Philarfete Chasles, U 1 — Arch- 

 bishop Leighton's Works, by Sir J. Emerson Tennent, &c., 113 — Ti- 

 tles conferred by Oliver Cromwell, 1 1 4 — Adenborough, by Rev. T. 

 Boys, &c., 114 — Lord Erskine and Rev. Wm. Cockin, 115 — "Harpoys 

 et Fissheponde," by Rev. T. Boys,/6. 



Replies to Minor Queries: —Osmunda Regalis — Slielley and Bar- 

 hamwick — Herbert Knowles — Designation of Works under Review 

 —Passports — Mence or Mense Family —Torture : S. Dominic — Dates 

 of Birth and Death of British and American Authors — Ulphilas — 

 Gravediggers — Faber v. Smith, 116. 



Notes on Books, Sec. 



fiatti. 



JUNIUS AND HENRY FLOOD. 



In 1814 a Tory friend, on whose veracity I had 

 and have full reliance, informed me that himself 

 and another partisan had, by the death of a third 

 person, become the sole depositaries of a tradi- 

 tional secret — the authorship of Jtmius's Letters ; 

 and he proposed that I should replace the de- 

 ceased trustee. Under this successional obliga- 

 tion he communicated to me a name, which, 

 during nearly forty-five years, has never passed 

 my lips or my pen. • 



The name did not surprise me. It was of one 

 who, though he had died in my childhood, had 

 lived in men's thought and sp#ech beyond my 

 maturity. My only wonder was — and among the 

 multitude of Junian conjectures still is — that the 

 social and political position of its bearer, his re- 

 solved spirit, his fervid eloquence, had not, long 

 since, placed him among the foremost designates 

 of the Junian laurel — him, in whom were so nota- 

 bly combined the Achillean attributes — "Impiger, 

 iracundus, inexorabilis, acer." 



Time passed. Toryism declined into Conser- 

 vatism : family cares and duties withdrew me 

 from hopeless politics : my informant quitted Lon- 

 don, and our associate in the secret died. He 

 himself has since departed to that world whither 

 the " Magni Nominis Umbra " had long preceded 

 them, and whither I — now more than octoge- 

 narian — must soon follow. 



Thus, in the lifetime yet remaining to me, I am 

 left to deal with the trust which, so oppositely to 

 its own provision and purpose, has devolved on 

 myself alone. Selected to carry on its trans- 

 mission with another survivor, how can I act 



singly upon it ? And, should its secret die with 

 me, will not the disclosure be frustrated, which 

 had evidently bee» intended at some date or 

 under some contingency, one or other whereof 

 must, in the forty-five years of my trusteeship, 

 have surely eventuated ? 



Taking counsel with mine own conscience, I 

 have arrived at the conclusion, that my duty will 

 be most reasonably fulfilled by an immediate dis- 

 closure. It is no fault of mine that I am put to 

 elect between the literal infraction of a trust and 

 its practical defeasance : but I am thus far re- 

 lieved in the dilemma : my personal interests are 

 unconcerned in the matter ; and he, over whose 

 tomb more than seventy years have passed, can- 

 not suffer in his reputation, nor can his family in 

 their fortunes. I speak herein with an hereditary 

 warranty : " The Drapier " wrote with the acri- 

 mony, and published with the mystery, of " The 

 Junius ; " but the authorship of his Letters has 

 neither discredited his name nor prejudiced his 

 kindred. 



Proffering this communication to the pages of 

 " N. & Q., — the centre-point from whose peri- 

 phery converge the lines of inquiry and of solu- 

 tion, — I ask its readers' fair construction of my 

 motive, and — whatever credence they may give 

 to my informant — their full belief that I was thtis 

 informed. 



The author of Junius's Letters was Henet 

 Flood. Valeat Quantum. 



[We are greatly indebted to our correspondent 

 for his communication. All who read it — cer- 

 tainly all who could read the correspondence 

 which preceded its publication — must feel as- 

 sured, not only of the truth of our correspond- 

 ent's statement, as to the information contained in 

 it having been communicated to him in the way 

 which he relates, but of the propriety of feeling 

 which has induced him now to make it public. 



Our correspondent will, we feel assured, in the 

 same way do justice to the motives by which we 

 are actuated in pointing out the objections which 

 exist to the theory of Henry Flood having written 

 the Letters of Junius. We are acting in the spirit 

 of his own communication, viz. that of doing our 

 best to establish the truth with regard to a point 

 of considerable literary and historical interest. 



Our correspondent does not seem to be aware 

 that Henry Flood has already been named more 

 than once as the author of these celebrated Let- 

 ters. We do not exactly know^where or when 

 his claim was first advanced, but it was previous 

 to the publication of Woodfall's edition in 1812, 



i where it is mentioned and disposed of in the fol- 



I lowing terms : — 



i " Another person who has had a claim advanced in his 



I favour upon the same subject, is the late celebrated 



I Henry Flood, M.P., of Ireland. Now, without wander- 



! ing at large for proofs that Mr. Flood could not have 



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