44 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[2nd §, No 8, Jaw. 19. 56. 
thor of the Essay upon the English Constitution. We have 
had it already shown, incontestably, that those famous let- 
ters were by Mr. Burke, afterwards by the Duke of Rort- 
land, and, after that, by M. de Lolme. 
*“ This article exacts from me the publication of a de- 
claration, which only events had suppressed, and also the 
death of the young editor of the Works of Mr. Hugh 
Boyd; which [ shall not be prevented from making by 
those incontestable demonstrations, by means of which itis 
intended to be insinuated that the Letters of Junius were 
by Mr. Burke, afterwards by M, J. I. de Lolme. 
“« Being in London in 1802, I had occasion to procure 
the acquaintance of Mr. Campbell, brother-in-law of Mr, 
Richard Johnson, formerly Ambassador at Hyderabad, 
and with whom I had been intimate during my stay at 
Caleutta. I was ignorant that there was an extant 
edition of the Works of Hugh Boyd; I was ignorant 
also that Mr. Campbell was the editor of them, and I 
knew nothing more than that, in this edition, there was 
restored to the memory of this immortal author of the 
Letters of Junius, a possession, which, through his own 
fault, was disputed during his lifetime. I owe it to truth 
and to my conscience, and do now that which I had 
promised Mr. Campbell to do at that time — to publish 
the circumstances which placed it in my power, without 
any intention of doing so, to draw from Mr. Hugh Boyd a 
secret, which his death should have revealed. 
“Tn 1785, a four months’ residence at Madras, on the 
Coromandel coast, gave me the pleasure of seeing Mr. 
H. Boyd frequently, and also of forming a friendship with 
him, for the opportunity of which l-was indebted to M. 
Maracin, Intendant of the French lstablishment at 
Pondicherry. The obliging reception I met with from 
Mr. Davidson, at, that time Governor of Madras, from 
General Dowling, Commander-in-Chief, and from many 
other persons in eminent stations in the Civil and Mili- 
tary service of the Company, whom I could mention — 
the particular hospitality offered me by Lieutenant- 
General Ross, and by Benjamin Sullivan, Advocate-Gene- 
ral of the Company, for which I felt the liveliest gratitude 
and the most unalterable sense of obligation, all caused 
me to meet Mr. Boyd continually: for the qualities of 
his heart, and the charm of his wit, rendered him agree- 
able and necessary in all companies. : ° “ 
“Tarrived on the 18th at Calcutta, where I had not 
long to wait to contract fresh obligations to kindness, 
owing to the particular hospitality, the noble politeness, 
of the Hon. Sir John Macpherson, the Governor-General, 
and of a great number of others in the Civil and Military 
services, which resemble each other throughout all the 
establishments belonging to the English Company. The 
Hon. Sir John Macpherson allowed me—indeed, he com- 
manded me—to consider his house as my own; and, al- 
though a Frenchman, I soon found myself, both in the 
country and in the city, a regular member of the society 
of the Governor-General—-one of his friends—a designa- 
tion with which my heart and my self-love were equally 
flattered. 
“ Hugh Boyd had come from Madras to Bengal, only 
to pay a visit to his friend Sir John Macpherson. Our 
acquaintance and our intimacy acquired, by this cir- 
eumstance, the force and solidity which sympathy in dis- 
position and in opinion strove to give it duging my stay 
at Madras. When I could not be with my most respect- 
able friend, Sir John Macpherson, I felt how needful it 
was to me to seek out Hugh Boyd; he was moved by a 
corresponding desire, and the hour of our familiar inter- 
course generally preceded that of the Governor's dinner, 
“At the close of one of those conversations, in which 
we freely spoke our thoughts disembarrassed of all re- 
serve, haying heard me quote entire letters from Junius, 
with a sense of gratification for the pleasure I had en- 
joyed in perusing them, and for the taste for the English 
language with which they had inspired me, I perceived a 
change in Boyd’s countenance. His features were altered ; 
he hastened to his secrétaire, from which he drew several 
pieces of manuscript, in his own hand-writing — the very 
letters which I had been reciting. With eyes suffused 
with tears, and with a voice bespeaking emotion, he re- 
vealed to me, in showing them to me, his secret upon this 
production—this instructive melange of profound politics, 
fine censorship, pungent irony, which almost every day 
serves to feed, in the periodical publications, the national 
curiosity, the author of which has been vainly sought for, 
and who is this day disputed about in England. I do say, 
that not the famous, but the inimitable Letters of Junius, 
are, incontestably, the chef d’euvre of the Works of Hugh 
Boyd; by the side of which we may, with pride, place 
the genuine French and Persian Letters of our great 
Montesquieu. 
* Such is the declaration which T owe to truth, to my 
conscience, and to my old engagement with Mr. Camp-~- 
bell. I beg you, Mr. Editor, to give this insertion in one 
of your pages, justly considered the depositories of every 
thing bearing the stamp of truth and justice. 
“G, BONNECARRERE, 
“Formerly Minister Plenipotentiary, Director- 
General of the Political Department, Pro- 
cureur-General and Special of His Majesty 
Louis XVI., to treat of Indemnities, and to 
grant Princes their Possessions.” 
[Although this letter is known to all who have made 
the authorship of the Letters of Junius an object of in+ 
quiry, we are not aware that it exists in any accessible 
form, and therefore willingly preserve it in our columns. 
But in doing so, we must remind our correspondent and 
our readers—I. That it was not written until upwards of 
forty years after Hugh Boyd’s conversation with the 
writer. II. That whatever Hugh Boyd’s “secret” was, 
M. Bonnecarrere does not furnish us with it, and by no 
means declares that Hugh Boyd explicitly claimed the 
authorship of the Jefters. III. That, whatever the 
letters were which Boyd showed to M. Bonnecarrere, they 
were not the original Letters of Junius. ‘There is wot tlie 
slightest evidence that the original letters were ever re- 
turned to the writer; the inference from practice is, that 
they were not returned; and, moreover, whatever de- 
ductions can be drawn from the known facts of the case, 
go to show that they never were returned. — Kp. 
TON, Qi I 
' 
ANCIENT ORIGIN OF PHRASES NOW IN VULGAR 
USE. 
The origin of phrases in vulgar use has already 
attracted attention in “N. & Q.,” and I myself 
noted one some time ago in your serial as from 
the royal mouth of Charles IL, “ As good as a 
play” (1* S. viii. 363.). 
I have recently remarked several words and 
phrases now in very ordinary use, which are to be 
traced much farther back than the present day, 
and to be found in received works, as may be 
seen from the following list : 
1, Selling a bargain was a slang expression 
known to Shakspeare, who makes Costard use it 
in Love's Labour Lost, Act III. Se. 1., “The boy 
hath sold him a bargain.” 
2. And in the very same sentence another most 
