96 CHARLES LEE 



was the year when Lee came to America and travelled 

 up and down the country in order to impress upon 

 the minds of our people his great importance in the 

 European world. In the course of this conversation 

 Lee observed that not a man in the world but himself, 

 not even the publisher, knew the secret of the author- 

 ship of " Junius." Rodney naturally replied that no 

 one but the author himself could make such a remark 

 as that. Lee started. " I have unguardedly committed 

 myself," said he, "and it would be folly to deny you 

 that I am the author ; but I must request you will not 

 reveal it during my life, for it never was and never will 

 be revealed by me to any other." Lee then went on 

 to point out several circumstances corroborative of his 

 claim. Such a statement, from a gentleman of such 

 high character as Mr. Rodney, at once attracted atten- 

 tion in Europe and America. Two intimate friends 

 of Lee maintained opposite sides of the question. 

 Ralph Wormeley of Virginia published a letter in 

 which he argued that Lee was very far from possessing 

 the knowledge of parliamentary history exhibited in 

 the pages of "Junius." Daniel McCarthy of North 

 Carolina published a series of articles in the Virginia 

 Gazette in refutation of Wormeley. Dr. Thomas 

 Girdlestone of Yarmouth, England, followed on the 

 same side in a small volume entitled, " Facts tending 

 to prove that General Lee was never absent from this 

 country for any length of time during the years 1767- 

 1772, and that he was the author of ' Junius.'" This 

 curious little book was published in London in 1813. 

 The first part of Dr. Girdlestone's title points to the 

 fatal obstacle to his hypothesis. The simple fact is 

 that Lee was absent in such remote countries as 



