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    Feb, 25, 1860J The Leader afid Saturday ...

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    "~ # Profaoo To "Zoioiutea'a Bibliograph...

    sible to solve the mysteries of the ill-fated Alexis of Russia , of Count Ronigs . nark ; oV of *> an Carlos of Spain ? Here ar | a few hteraiy knotsTto disentangle A man cannot haveread very ^ r into the h « - tones of nations : literature , or of art , without nieet . ng- with them . They are unravelled periodically only to be ravelled ^ afresh they are solved and resolved , opened and slnit tied and untied , aver and over again . Sortie of them , indeed / have been rudely . snapped m twp , but they were weak in the warp ; such were the Rowley and Ireland forgeries—such , perhaps , George Psalmanazar , although about him a nlcleus of mystery is still adherent ^ But , for ^ the most part , they defy solution ; ot resolution ; and probably will do so long after we havbeen resolved into ouv native elements . couit — ¦•

    e Have uccu i * - « *" ~ w- .-- ; -. . . ,. _ -. i "I J Toughest , most interesting and most absorbing , and , we had nearly " said , most important of all these , is that vexed question of Junius , wliich our foremost bibliopole has just now again resuscitated . It will be perhaps best , in our consideration of it , to go hurriedly over the occasion of the Letters , their celebrity , and thenmany editions . . Commencing , possibly , with Lily ' s << . Euphues , . certainly strengthened by the weighty writings of Milton , the thoughtful studiousriess of Burton ' s " Democritus Junior , " the splendid passages of Sir Thomas Browne , a Latin style had sprung up in the far from the natural

    literature of the country as differing pure Saxon tono-ue as the Camelia Japonica does from , our own sweet-scented wild thyme . The faults only of great writers are reproduced by their Copyists ; their beauties escape theni or dwindle down to mannerisms . Thus , all that remained to the newspaper writer of the day was a heavy stilted style , an attempt at a Latin arrangement , and , finally , the Roman name with which he signed his letter to the " printer ''—the word " editor" was then unknown—of the paper in which he wrote . Thus " Cato , " " Seneca , " " Augustus , " "Sempronius , " " Brutus , " and even " Cicero , " were brought into play , and sold their venal effusions at so much per column , to slaver , bepraise ,

    or vilipend and bespatter the . ministry . . About this time also occasion arose for a great writer—and " whenever did our England want for men ? " One arose who , on the 2 lst of January , 1769 , printed his first letter in the Public Advertiser ( Lord Campbell constantly calls it the Daily Advertiser ) , under the signature of Jjxni-us : These letters continued for more than .-three years ; and , since collected , have become a part of our standard literature . The name of their . ' author has been ever since concealed under his pseudonym •'¦ not even his rank or position is known they are merely guessed at . In the meantime , thirty-nine claimants have been put forward for the honour of having written or partly written the letters , and each of these have had their partisans ; whilst over and above them , eleven more names have been mentioned , so that just

    fifty people liave been suspected ;; amongst whom are one duke , two earls , one bishop , six lords , our greatest historian Gibbon , our first orator -Burke , and several foremost men ; . such as Graf tan , John Wilkes , John Home Tooke , Colonel Barre , Single-speech Hamilton , and Horace Walpole . The claims of many of these are manifestly absurd , but it is worth while just calling to mind the state of the question . Let us also recollect that the occasion was -worthy of the letters . Great excitement prevailed in the nation ; the American colonies were being , by the obtuseness of the ministers , steadily poked into a flame of revolt ; new tuxes were imposed ; the king- was retrograding ' towards despotism ; the judges were oy em wing juries , dictating to them , and , us now , ready to talk very loudly about their uselessness ; the press was alternately bullied and cnjoled , and ,

    in consequence , to quote Lord North , " overflowed the liirid with its black gall , and poisoned the minds of the people . " Into this melde Junius leaped . Ho discarded the ponderous manner of the day ; was not careful to place his verb last , or , like Robertson tire historian , to , let the sense meander through'a page of prose '; to ¦ ua © involution after involution ; to ' confuso liis relatives and antecedents ; and to appear only careful to use as many figures of rhetorical composition , apostrophe , periphrasis , metabiisis , climax , prosopopteifl , and ocphonesis as he oould . Junius , on tlie contrary , cut up his sentences . shortly . He stated facts or arguments tersely ; did not waste words . . His axioms wore not expanded , but so briefly put that many of them yet serve for copy-book slips . " By persuading others , wo convince ourselves ; " " There is a

    mistaken zeal in politics as well as religion ; " " The coldest bodies warm with opposition , the hardest sparkle in collision ; " " The Icing ' s honour is that of his people ; " " Private credit is wealth ; public honour is security . " These , with many others , first from tho pen of Junius , now form pnvfc of the language of tho country . But , in the . meantime , his philosophical maxims were more acceptable than his political ideas . The nation was charmed with his letters . Booksellers pirated them , and broad sheets with them on . wove sold by hawkers in remote country places . " A new letter by Junius , " shouted the " flying posts" of the day , and quiet people rushed from their firesides to buy the dainty morsel , to bo stirred by its eloquence , and to be moved by its satire , epigram , and merciless force and sarcasm .

    Juniua seemed to know every court and political secret : ho exposed every job ; lie attackod the minister in his council , the judge on tho bench ' , tho Icing upon the throne . Truly they all deserved it , and the lash of tho censor descended on their backs . Prosecution of tho pvinter , JVIr . Woodfall , did no good- —tho fine wan . paid , or tho jury would not convict . The printer of tlio North Briton went to tho pillory in a hacknoy coach , numbered 45—selected on , account of the celebrated number for which he suffered- * -and affixed a / boot to the side of tho frame of punishment , in which tine sum of £ 200 was collected for his benefit . Sir William Draper , and other gentlemen . who wrote with a fatal case , rushed to the rescue of tho Court , and tried to taunt Jimiiis to lay aside his mask , but they only S ^ t

    cruelly mangled for their pains . Lord Mansfield had a passage of arms , and was terribly worsted . ' ' How comes this Junius / ' said Burke , in one of his most splendid orations , " to have broke through the cobwebs of the law , and to have ranged uncontrolled , unpunished through the land ? The myrmidons of the Court have long been pursuing 1 him ¦; in vain . They will not spend , their time upon me , or upon you , when' the mighty boar of the forest that has broke through all their toils is before them . But what will all their efforts avail ? No sooner has he wounded one , than hestrikes down

    another dead at his feet ! When Isaw Iris attack upon the king " , my blood ran cold . . . . Yes , sir , there are in that composition many bold truths by which a wise prince might profit . Bat while I expected from this daring flight final . ruin and fall , behold him rising still higher , and coming down souse upon both Houses of Parliament ! . . . Not content with carrying away our royal eao-lein his pounces , and dashing him against a rock , he has laid you prostrate , and King , Lords , and Commons thus become but the sport of his fury / ' . , .. ' .,, ' ,.: , There is much confusion in terms here ; a royal boar of the forest could hardly " rise and bear away " in his " pounces " ( talons ?) a

    royal eagle , and dash it against a rock ; but the passage pictures what the nation felt . The glory and utility of Junius culminated with the letter to the King . He had vindicated the freedom of the press -he had exposed the jobbery of courts ; he had censured the maladministration of justice ; he had added to the elevafciorrof thought and the freedom of Englishmen . On January 21 st , 1772 , the last letter of Junius—that to Chief Justice Mansfield—was published ; Wbodfall , the printer , receiving his last note from , him just on ? year , all but two days , after this , viz ., on January 19 tli , 1773 •¦ and these , with all original manuscript letters , were recently offered to the nation by Mr . 1 L D . Woodfall , for £ 500 . still

    It was during tlie time in : which tlie Letters were attracting notice in the Public Advertiser , that the question , "Who was Junius ? " arose . Burke , Sackvtlle , Gibbon , and other living men , were accused olt \\ e authorship , and one by one denied the imputa ^ tioii . "I should be prpiid of the letters , but they are not mine ,, said Burke . " Tliere are many splendid passages which I should be glad to own , many of which I should be ashamed , " wrote Lord George Sack ville . "My secret is my own , and it shall die ^ with me ; these were the words * of Junius in his < -preface . Again he says "If I am a vain man , my vanity is contained in a narrow boundary ^ ; I am the sole depository of my secret , and it shall die with me . This remarkable passage : occurs in that preface which Junxus furnished for Woodfall . Hungry printers had been before him ; spurious edition after , edition had appeared , and Woodfall himself was obliged to come into the field in self-defence . ' - ¦ ' '

    ,. In the last part of the new edition of " Lowndes ' s Bibliographer s Manual " will be found a valuable list of the editions , or rather of the chief portion of then ); and in addition Mr . Bohn publishes some four columns of papers , pamphlets , and books , written with the object of discovering Junius . Mr : Bohn also makes the following statement of a probable discovery ; , which , however , we do not see leads to anything ' . substantial in tlie way of proving who really wrote the Letters of Junius . He tells us that in July , 1850 , he was called upon to value or rather to inspect the politicalpsipers , manuscripts , and a library of books , at No . . 3 , St . James ' s Square , under a pressure of circumstances which ' required that , tho inspection should be done within ju . i hour . That on seeing tho library he perceived a strong indication of that he

    politics of the time of George III ., and that he remembered was in the preohicts of Junius j and searched for the vellum bound copy , but without success . That the older part of thu books had been taken away , but in . the MSS ,. room were two Inrg-o _ brown paper parcels , and a great number of letters from the Earl of Holdernesso and from Sir William Draper , the Duke of Grafton , Lord Chatham , the Grenvilles , Lord . North , and Lord George Saekvillc . There was a > o a draft of a letter signed " Lucius , " one of the pseudonyms of Junius , to the Duke of Grafton , in , the well-known upright handwriting attributed to Junius . That , " fouling" that he was in the path of discovery , " he ( Mr , Bohn ) offbred fiyo hundred pounds for the MSS . and as much more for two largo parcels , weighing at least a quarter of a hundredweight each , senlocl at every aporttire , and prominently marked " Most Secret" on all Hides . Thai ho was nromised these in case they shpuld be for sale , but that

    in the fallowing 1 October he leavnt that tho papers had been claimed by the Duke of Leeds , and that they had been deposited in tho strong room of a banker , with tho possibility of coming out at tho end of six years , lie now . presumes that they are immured in' tho family archives . This is positively all , and wo must say that wo aro sorry to hear that the Duke of Leeds hath deposited thesq papers with his bunkers , being well informed' that , very recently , on tho transfer of the business of a very old-established firm , two boxes of original I otters and writings of u Imown divine of the latter end of the sovonteonth century were conmiiUod to tho flames . Such may bo the fute ol those papers , in which it is supposed tho secret of tho authorship , ot Junius is now buried . «

    . ,.,., To particular booksellers , perhaps , tho diaooyory of tins longsought eeorefc iniglit bo of value , but to tho public it can bo of , ltttlo . The spirit of tho Letters has entered into tho nation ., They have formed and produoed other and greater . writovs . They havo gjvon tho manner to our . loading articles . They have laid down pnnoiples which it is well to recur to whqn courteous scribes format thoxr hpnosty , and iudgos and lawyers gonoraUy oxaU tho pjivilogps of one class to tho iimir ? or tho other in our constitution . Wo arc no great losers , by fc ' io autlior rotnining 1 his noin do . jplnme ^ -vre sliouiu pro-

    Feb, 25, 1860j The Leader Afid Saturday ...

    Feb , 25 , 1860 J The Leader afid Saturday Analyst . 185

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1860, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25021860/page/13/