Feb. 17. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



117 



LONDON. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY M, 1855. 



JUNIUS, AS EDITED BY SIB P. FRANCIS. 



Having occasion to turn to a volume of Junius 

 to refresh my memory with a quotation, I dis- 

 covered, to my great surprise, that the copy to 

 which I referred differed greatly from the usual 

 editions, especially in the notes. This led me to 

 give the work a more particular examination. 

 Though I had been possessed of it for fifteen 

 years, I could not remember that I had ever 

 before looi<ed into it. The following are the 

 princi[)al differences between this edition and that 

 of Woodfall in 1772, besides those which result 

 from the various readings. 



1. The Title is different : 



" The Letters of the celebrated Junius. A more com- 

 plete Edition than any j-et published. In Two Volumes. 

 London : printed in the year mdcclxxxiii." 



The motto is omitted, and there is no printer's nor 

 bookseller's name. 



2. An " Advertisement " follows : 



"This Edition of the celebrated Letters of Junius is 

 given as a more complete one than any yet published. 

 In'what is called the author's own edition, three fourths 

 of the Letter respecting the Bill of Rights, the most im- 

 portant one in the collection, were omitted. All these 

 omissions are restored to their proper places in this 

 edition. 



"Fourteen Letters are also added to this edition. They 

 are either Letters written by Junius, or Letters to which 

 he has replied; and, on that account, justice seemed to 

 require that they should be ranged along with his answers 

 to them. These letters are marked with a star. A 

 variety of Explanatory Notes have also been added, 

 some of which have been noticed in the Contents ; but the 

 whole of them were too numerous to be so distinguished. 



" It is proper to observe, that the Letters signed Philo 

 Junius were written by Junius. In this edition, a mis- 

 take committed in the author's edition has been avoided. 

 In that edition, the Letter of Philo Junius, dated May 

 22nd, 1771, is inserted twice; the first time in Volume 

 First, as a Note to the twentieth Letter ; and the second 

 time in Volume Second, as the forty-sixth Letter." 



3. The Dedication is omitted. 



4. The Preface is omitted, with the exception of 

 the concluiling paragraph from De Lolme, which 

 is headed " M. De Lolme on the Liberty of the 

 Press," and begins as follows : 



" Whoever considers what it is that constitutes," &c. 



This single page stands in the place of a Preface. 



5. Then we have "Contents of Volume First." 



" Letter I. Political Character of Englishmen ; Alarm- 

 ing State of the Nation ; Plan of Government since his 

 present Majesty's Accession ; Characters of the present 

 and former Ministers ; America ; Summary View of our 

 Condition. 



" Notes : Character of the Dulie of Grafton ; his conduct 

 to the Marquis of BocMngham, Junius and Lord Mans- 



Jield's Opinion of Mr. Pitt's and Lord Camden's declama- 

 tions in favour of America." 



The word " declamations " is a mistake of the 

 printer's ' for " declarations." There are many 

 literal errors in the book, which lead us to sup- 

 pose that it had not the benefit of the editor's final 

 revision. 



" Letter II. Sir William Draper's defence of the Mar- 

 quis of Granby. 



" Notes : Sir William Draper's embroidered Night-gown ; 

 his healing Letter from Clifton." 



The Note about the embroidered night-gown is 

 one of the new notes introduced into this edition. 



The Contents are carried on in this manner to 

 the eighty-sixth Letter, which contains the en- 

 larged account of the author's Letter concerning 

 the Bill of Rights. A note at tlie end of the Con- 

 tents of this Letter again calls attention to what 

 is said of it in the Advertisement : 



" In the Author's own edition, three fourths of this last 

 Letter are omitted, but in this present edition all the 

 omissions are restored to their proper places." 



The same information is conveyed, for the third 

 time, in a note appended to the Title of the Letter 

 itself. 



" In the Author's own edition, nearly twelve pages of 

 the above Letter are omitted. In this edition the whole 

 extract is given, as it was originally presented to the 

 Supporters of the Bill of Rights. The passages marked 

 with inverted commas are those in the Author's edition. 

 The passages not marked are the parts of the Letter now 

 again restored to their proper places." 



After the " Contents to Volume First," the work 

 commences with the Half Title : 



" Letters of Junius, 8fc. ; Letter I. To the Printer of 

 the Public Advertiser, 21 January, 1669 : Sir, The sub- 

 mission," &c. 



Thus there are three different Titles given to 

 the work : The Letters of the celebrated Junius ; 

 The celebrated Letters of Junius ; and The Letters 

 of Junius. These irregularities are perhaps owing 

 to the want of the editor's last revision. 



The question to be solved is, Who was the 

 editor of this extraordinary work? As the author 

 of Junius Identified, I was naturally inclined to 

 fix on Sir Philip Francis, if there were no im- 

 pediments in the way. I cannot find any. He 

 went out to India in the spring of 1774, and he 

 arrived in England in October, 1781. There was 

 ample time for him to prepare this edition for the 

 press, and to have it printed in the year 1783. 

 Whoever the editor might be, it is very evident 

 that he considered himself as much entitled to 

 make free with the work as if he were the author ; 

 and who was more likely to have taken these 

 liberties than Sir Philip Francis? I am now 

 alluding only to those sweeping alterations which 

 I have been describing. But if it can be shown 

 that Sir Philip did actually make corrections and 

 emendations in a copy of Junius, and that this 



