OR, THE WORLD HAS CHANGliD. 227 



read anybody's writing, also learned there, and says he used 

 to take orders to the store from John C. Calhoun over to Tom, 

 to have them deciphered, so he could fill out the orders. Mr. 

 Calhoun wrote an awful hand. 



The following short sketch of the Junius letters are so inter- 

 esting that I give it to my readers : 



"Junius" was the signature of an English political writer, 

 the author of the letters which appeared in the "London Pub- 

 lic Advertiser," between January 21, 1769, and January 21, 

 1772. Henry Woodfall was the publisher of the Public Ad- 

 vertiser, and every means were used to induce him to divulge 

 who Junius was, but without success. 



These letters, directed against the ministry and the leading 

 public characters connected with it, contain some of the most 

 effective specimens of invective to be fonnd in literature. 

 Their condensed and lucid diction, studied and epigrammatic 

 scarcasm, dazzling metaphors, and fierce and haughty personal 

 attacks, arrested the attention of the government and the 

 public. Not less startling was the immediate and minute 

 knowledge which they evinced of court secrets, making it 

 believed that the writer moved in the circle of the court, and 

 was intimately acquainted, not only with ministerial measures 

 and intrigues, but with every domestic incident. They exhib- 

 ited indications of rank and fortune ^s well as scholarship, the 

 writer afiirming that he was " above a common bribe " and " far 

 above all pecuniary views." When Woodfall was prosecuted, 

 in consequence of Junius' letter to the king, the author prom- 

 ised to make restitution to him of any pecuniary loss. The 

 authorship of Junius was the greatest secret of the age. Every 

 effort that the government could devise or })rivate indignation 

 prompt was in vain made to discover it. The Earl of Mansfield 



