J U N 



392 



J U N 



Junpl'nu, 



JlllJIUS, 



l.iten 1 1. 



iU summit, which is completely hemispherical, is 

 covered with perpetual snow. Almost in its cen- 

 tre terminate the crests of the three mountains of 

 the Valais, of Lauterbrunnen, and Grindelwald. As 

 the base of the Jungfrau exhibits calcareous strata, 

 it u conjectured that they are continued to the 

 summit. The debris washed down from the heights 

 .ire calcareous, among -which petrifactions are some- 

 times discovered. 7'he calcareous formation rests on 

 the primitive rock, and the disposition of the strata 

 may be seen in a cleft, where, although the highest 

 surface of the primitive rock, and the calcareous beds 

 resting upon it, are inclined to the north, the primi- 

 tive strata are perfectly vertical, or slightly inclined 

 to the south ; but this can be recognized only in the 

 most obvious sections. Several caverns penetrate the 

 base, of which that called Korbaline is the most remark- 

 able. The view of the Cime, or top) of the Jungfrau is 

 particularly grand, when the traveller approaches it, 

 in ascending the valley of Lauterbrunnen. There is 

 perhaps no mountain in the world that presents so mag- 

 nificent an outline. 



Some of the most lofty Alpine mountains have been 

 ascended by enterprizing travellers; but the difficulties 

 by which the Jungfrau was every where environed, 

 were long supposed to render it inaccessible. Two bro- 

 thers named Meyer, however, lately resolved on the 

 attempt ; and having made the necessary preparations, 

 in procuring guides, attendants, a ladder and ropes, left 

 Aarau on the iigth of July 1811, and passed the valley 

 of Laetschen. After a long ascent, they spent the first 

 night on the place where the glacier of Lcetschen joins 

 that of Aletsch. Here amidst the most barren rocks, 

 some insects of the genus podura were seen under the 

 stones upon the snow. The following day they made 

 various Alpine discoveries in the union and position of 

 different glaciers, but the reflection of the snow was such 

 as rendered it necessary to hang a black veil before their 

 eyes. Their attendants becoming alarmed at the diffi- 

 culties of the ascent, they were dismissed, and the ad- 

 venturers passed a second night on the ice. Next morn- 

 ing they resumed their exertions, and after a painful 

 journey, guided by the direction of a wreath of snow, 

 they at length gained the summit. The heavens now 

 appeared of a deep azure, pure and cloudless ; and none 

 of those painful sensations described by Saussure and 

 others were felt by the Messrs. Meyer. They elevated 

 a black flag on the summit, and descended the moun- 

 tain in safety, (c) 



JUNIUS, Letters of, a series of political letters 

 which appeared in Woodfall's Public Advertiser, from 

 the year 1?C9 to 1772. These Letters, written in a 

 style at once vigorous and classical, displaying an ex- 

 tensive and minute acquaintance with the measures of 

 government, and the character and conduct of the po- 

 liticians of that day, distinguished by force of argu- 

 ment, eloquent declamation, and powerful invective, 

 and by a zealous and steady assertion of popular rights 

 attracted a great degree of attention at the period of 

 their appearance; and, having been frequently reprint- 

 ed in a collective form, have been stamped with a cha- 

 racter of celebrity which no similar productions, per- 

 haps, have ever attained. The interest, too, which 

 tbpse popular philippics have excited in the public 

 mind, has been kept alive, and greatly strengthened, 

 by the impenetrable cloud of mystery w! ich still con- 

 tinues to envelope their anonymous author. When we 

 consider all the circumstances, indeed, this mystery 

 must appear to be a very singular fact in literary his- 

 tory. The unprecedented boldness with which this in. 



visible author assailed the most exalted characters in Juniu, 

 the state ; the freedom and^the poignancy of his per- l-euetb 

 sonal sarcasms, together with the early p'opularitv of V ~"""V~"' 

 those papers which appeared under bfrfiotitMtt signa- 

 ture, must necessarily have exposed him to the hatred 

 and resentment of rank and power ; and it is natural 

 to suppose, that the ingenuity of multitudes must have 

 been employed to discover his haunts, and to drag him 

 into light. But Junius contrived to baffle all the ef- 

 forts of his contemporaries to penetrate his obscurity. 

 The same motives for the prosecution of this inquiry 

 no longer exist; but an irresistible curiosity has prompt- 

 ed many ingenious men to attempt to unravel the mys- 

 tery, hitherto, we think, without success. v Nearly half 

 a century has elapsed since the publication of these ce- 

 lebrated Letters ; every witness whose evidence could 

 be supposed capable of throwing light on this subject, 

 has been examined ; printers' repositories have been 

 ransacked ; specimens of hand- writing have been pro- 

 duced and compared ; ingenuity has been exhausted in 

 the discovery of probabilities, and the deduction of 

 moral certainties ; yet, all is conjecture, more or less 

 plausible ; and no one can with justice boast, that he 

 has succeeded in detecting Junius. 



These Letters have been too long before the public, 

 and their style and character are too well known, to ren- ' 

 der it necessary for us to enter into any critical disqui- 

 sition on their merit. We shall, therefore, only at- 

 tempt to present our readers with a summary account 

 of the various hypotheses which have been entertained 

 with regard to the probable author of these celebrated 

 papers ; not by any means with the view of making 

 way for a new candidate of our own, nor with the hope 

 of bringing the controversy to a satisfactory conclusion; 

 but solely for the purpose of examining the validity of 

 those claims which have been advanced ; of pointing 

 out the defects in the evidence brought forward in sup- 

 port of each of the claimants ; and, lastly, of ascer- 

 taining those requisites which appear to us to be essen- 

 tially necessary to every future candidate. 



There is scarcely a contemporaneous character of 

 note, whose pretensions are not excluded by some ob- 

 vious contradiction, to whom these celebrated Letters 

 have not, at one time or another, been ascribed ; and 

 the confidence with which some of those claims have 

 been maintained, which have since been disproved and 

 abandoned, must induce us to subject every new hypo- 

 thesis to a rigorous examination. 



To those who have attentively perused the Letters 

 of Junius, it must, we think, have appeared, that Ju- 

 nius was a man of a cultivated mind ; skilful in the 

 use of his native language, and well versed in the his- 

 tory, laws, and constitution of his country, although 

 not a lawyer by profession. It is pretty evident, also, 

 both from his public letters, and particularly from his 

 private correspondence with his printer, that he was a 

 man of easy and independent, if net of affluent circum- 

 stances; that he was in habits of confidential inter- 

 course, if not with the members of the cabinet, at 

 least with persons who were intimately familiar with 

 the court ; and, consequently, that he had opportuni. 

 ties of becoming acquainted with its secret transac- 

 tions ; and that he had attained such an age, as al- 

 lowed him to boast, without vanity, of an ample know- 

 ledge and experience of the world. From the dates of 

 his various authenticated papers, it is likewise clear 

 that he must have resided almost constantly in Lon- 

 don, or its vicinity, during the years 1767, 1768, 1769, 

 1770, 1771, and part of 1772 ; 'for although the first of 

 his series of letters under the signature of Junius ap 



