118 Junius and Horne Tooke. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
Sir: 
N_“ Inquingn,” in, the Monthly 
' Magazine for June, gives an anec- 
dote of Mr. Tooke, respecting)the mys- 
tericus Author of Junius’s Letters. 
Whoever the author of those Letters 
may be, I think he may with more pro- 
priety be styled Zhe Great. Unknown, 
than the authors of some popular works 
of ‘the present day—(authors I say, 
because I think there.are two eminent 
and learned men concerned in the com- 
position of those imaginative works, one 
of whom has been kept completely1ncoe. 
for six-and-twenty years). Permit me 
also to have an opinion on that so 
much-disputed point about Junius, and 
to state a circumstance or two, in addi- 
tion to the numerous positive assertions, 
conjectures and suppositions, connected 
with the examination of that almost 
worn-out subject; as answers. to the 
question, Who is the Author of Junius’s 
Letters ? 
Nearly thirty years ago, Mr. Evans, 
then‘an eminent bookseller in Pater- 
noster-row, with whom I was acquainted, 
told me very confidently, “ That he had 
a work in the press which would be 
published in five or six months, when 
the real Author -of Junius’s Letters 
would then be known.” This piece of 
news I communicated to Mr. Tooke 
shortly after, when we were walking in 
his garden at Wimbledon. He quickly 
said, “ No, no, citizen (a very familiar 
name, at that time, among the friends of 
freedom, but now obsolete): he knows 
nothing at all about it—it is a book- 
seller’s puff!?? From this prompt reply, 
so decisively given, with some farther 
conversation on the subject, which has 
escaped my memory, I was led to 
believe that he was acquainted with the 
author. 
Another circumstance may strengthen 
the opinion, that Mr. Tooke either was, 
or did know, the author. 
When part of Mr. Tooke’s library 
was to be sold by King and Lochee, in 
King-street, Coyent-garden—I, being in 
the auction-room one day, looking at 
the books, Mr. Lochee said to me, 
“Step this way, and I will shew you a 
curiosity!”? A few months before, Mr. 
Woodfall had published a new volume 
of Junius’s Letters, and Notes, which 
he had carefully collected. Among the 
notes of Junius, there was one short 
note, desiring Mr, Woodfall, to, send 
him three copies, without delay, of the 
[Sept. 1, 
volunie of Letters which were then 
printing; and if the index was not ready, 
to,send them without the; indew: — one 
copy to, be neatly bound, and:two to be 
stitched, and covered with marble paper ! 
These two copies, so, covered, and with- 
out the index, Mr. Lochee, took. from 
among some of Mr. Tooke’s books in a 
book-case, and shewéd them tome. He 
made sonie observations about the note 
of Junius, which I have forgotten, and - 
gave his opinion, that John Horne Tooke 
was the Author of|Junius’s Letters. 
I believe it is generally admitted, that, 
in the controversy betweem the Rev. 
John Horne and Junius, John Horne 
triumphed. What Butler :says'in his 
Reminiscences, does not refute the opi- 
nion that Tooke was Junius, _ He con- 
siders the Author of Junius’s Letters 
not a profound lawyer, from the gross 
inaccuracy of some of his legal expres- 
sions. About that time, the Rev. John 
Horne had resolved to give up his con- 
nexion with the church, and ito study 
the law, with the intention’ of being 
called to the bar:—so that it is very 
probable, being but young in the pro- 
fession, there may have been some 
inaccuracy in his legal expression. But, 
even when he was a student of law in 
the Temple, he, by his legal knowledge, 
preserved a large estate, which was in 
great jeopardy, to a gentleman of the 
name of Tooke; and, for performing so 
essential a service to that gentleman, 
Mr. Tooke generously presented him 
with an estate, and caused him to add 
to the name of Horne that of Tooke. 
This clearly shews, I think, that if John 
Horne Tooke was Junius, he was no 
mean lawyer. 
Such is the circumstantial evidence I 
offer, to. prove that Tooke was Junius. 
It appears to me no. less: valid: than 
those which have'\ been so ‘roundly 
asserted, in favour of some others more 
unlikely. 16 Trot 
About three months ago, a friend of 
mine told me, rather. exultingly, that 
very lately, in searching: among ‘some 
musty records in a public office, there 
was discovered a bundle of, manuseripts, 
apparently of no. consequence; and 
thrown aside as waste paper) but after- 
wards, when taken up, wnbound and 
examined, out started Junius, the long- 
lost and Great Unknown. My friend 
was informed, that they are! the very 
identical manuscript letters of Junius, 
which have caused so. much discussion, 
and hitherto, with so undecisiyea result. 
The bundle was afterwards given \to Mr. 
Croker 
—————— 
