1825.]) 
lagty»:destined), to, prove an’ iron-mask 
secret? anddis:the real. person to.escape 
unknowmin-the erowd. of those who.are 
retiting fromthe world ? 
From-the- peculiar style. and spirit of 
the,letters,; the impression on my mind 
isjethat-Junius was an Irishman. At 
the sameé-time, the’mature knowledge of 
man andof the world displayed in every 
we, and their. didactic cast, are clear 
indications that their author must have 
passed. the-middle age. The evidence 
i8equally clear of his. proficiency in 
legal, knowledge, and familiarity with 
the conduct of both military and civil 
official affairs; and that a connexion 
withthe higher political classes, afforded 
him early ihtelligence of court intrigues 
and maneeuvres. ‘The style of Junius, 
his commanding eloquence, terseness of 
expression, the beautiful harmony and 
singular'cadence of his sentences, seemed 
likely to. work a revolution in the tone 
of English composition.. The announce- 
ment, of his, celebrated letter to the 
King, for a certain day in November 
1769, set all-our politicians and literary 
aspirants mad. ‘The coffee-rooms, were 
actually besieged on the important day, 
and the waiters bribed for the earliest 
perusal of the Public Advertiser! That 
pompous, sentence,—“ The name of 
Stuart, of itself, is only contemptible : 
of their affected derision. With respect to 
his knowledge of the author of Junius: 
though we have heard some persons say 
that he was used to declare, * he knew who 
Junius was,” we are much disposed to doubt 
of his ever having made such an assertion 5 
and we: believe’ we may venture to affirm 
that he never named any person as. the 
author, of the letters so signed: — we 
know, that, he would frequently declare, 
with an air of confident authority, not only 
that. none of the persons named by pre- 
tended discoverers was the real author, but 
that it most assuredly never would be known 
who was. He professed also to hold it as an 
article of political conscience, binding upon 
every man of honour, who might happen, from 
any confidential circumstance, to be in pos- 
session of any secret of such description, to 
take care that no document should be left 
behind him, by means of which it could 
transpire. Into the refinement or the vali- 
dity of the political casuistry of this maxim, 
we do not enter; nor do we think it requi- 
site to inquire how far he might or might 
not mean thereby to insinuate, that he was 
himself in possession of the secret, or “that 
he could an’ if he would,” &c. ; but we lave 
£00d reason to believe, that this is the sam 
of all that the author of the Diversions of 
bs iad declared upon the subject. 
i 
Clue to the future. Discovery of Junius. 
503 
armed. with the sovereign authority, 
their principles are formidable,”—has 
made a thousand literary coxcombs. 
All, however qualified, must now imitate 
the style of Junius: and the “ mistaken 
notion” superyened, that the proper 
Junian style must consist entirely of 
short sentences. Hence, from inferior 
pens, those hopping, inharmonious, dis- 
jointed sentences, by which the sense 
was broken into so many distinct frag- 
ments, that the mind of the reader could 
with difficulty collect and unite them 
into an intelligible whole. The truth, 
however, is, that Junius made the best 
possible use of his short sentences, in- 
termixing them most: judiciously with 
the long. Junius should have been the 
translator of Tacitus : not Gordon, who 
burlesqued his style; nor Murphy; who 
merely transfused his sense, but let:the 
spirit evaporate. 
‘In the newspaper contention between 
the two political rivals, Horne seems to. 
have had, substantially; the best of! the 
argument; but Junius, as might) be ex=: 
pected, bore away the palm of public 
applause. Not that Horne was a poles. 
mie of inferior literary attainment, but 
that he wished to make a nearer ap- 
proach to political truth and real utility 
than accorded with the conceptions .of 
the vulgar mass, high or low,—always 
superficial, or always hypocritical. ‘The 
politics of Junius graduated exactly with 
the reigning fashion. He was an excel- 
lent second to Lord Chatham, that. 
“prince (as he has been styled by a 
certain professor) of all political bug- 
bears, that pit into which all England 
fell’ Whatever may have been the 
original motives of Junius, his) tactics 
consisted merely of political badgering, 
and in ringing the changes on the Bri- 
tish constitution, and the technicalities 
and peculiarities of its legal code. The 
simple and invariable object,—a removal 
of one set of ministers, to make way 
for another. From his writings, much 
of the principles of morals may be 
learned, little of the principles of poli- 
tics. The latter were in those days 
seen through a dusky medium in Eng- 
land, with all her mighty boast of en- 
lightened liberty. They were then 
secretly brewing in France and in Ame- 
rica, awaiting the development of the. 
American and French Revolutions. In, 
this profound study, the illiterate Paine, 
on his shop-board, had made a greater 
progress’ than the academic Junius: 
Junius was not deemed a fluent writer. 
He professes to adopt an ornamented 
style, 
