The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-24 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

" duced in favour of Junius." Unluckily for
this critic's reputation, there was printed
among the Grenville papers that remarkable
letter by Junius in which he acknowledged
with some pride this very composition of the
Grand Council to be his own :

The Grand Council was mine, and I may say with
truth almost everything that has for two years past at•
tracted the attention of the public.
And so is extinguished in an instant the carp-
ing criticism which was to set aside the edi-
tion of Woodfall as a work of authority. The
blunder, from its amusing combination of
ignorance and conceit, is worth preservation
among the curiosities of criticism.
The Lyttelton surmise has found an angry
opponent in Sir David Brewster, who, riding
a hobby of his own, is characteristically in-
tolerant of any one else amusing himself after
the same fashion. He surlily styles his
brother-reviewer in the Quarterly an " anony
inous " writer; as if it were customary in
periodical literature for contributors to append
their names to their papers. His article in
the North British is full of errors of all kinds—
from such mistakes in judgment as that the
ruffianism of Junius would be more excusable

if it proceeded froth private than from public
Motives, down to such literal blunders as
frinting, " head" for heart, and " duration"
or deviation. tie announces as a dis-
tiovery that themis in existence a collec-
on of poems by Thomas Lyttelton, some
dated From Italy in 1779, termed by Sir David
" Junius's busiest year." At first sight this
seems to tell against Lyttelton's claim; but
these Lyttelton poems stand on no better toot-
ing as to authenticity than the Lyttelton
letters which Sir David unhesitatingly pro-
nounces to be "shameless forgeries.' The
poems were issued at about the same date as
the letters, and were equally a catchpenny
publication. The letters, indeed, were treated
with most respect in the reviews of the day.
" They contain," says Nicholls, in his " Lite-
rary, Anecdotes," "several lively strokes or
" wit and fancy, and even of good sense and
" good thinking, and do his lordship much
" more honour than his pretended poems."
it is unreasonable, then, to regard one publi-
cation as genuine and the other as spurious.
But, assuming that Thomas Lyttelton did
circulate those profligate verses among his
friends, why thould he 90 particularly have
affixed precise dates to theta ? Why date one
piece " Ghent, 23rd March, 1709," and others
" Venice, 20th July, 1770," and " Vicenza, 20th
August, 1770 "? Such particularity is unusual.
And so flit. suspicious. There is nothing irra-
tional ill the supposition that Juniiis, Who
made so sure of the absolute security of his
disguise, should have represented himself at
inarticular times as distant from the real scene
of his labours. Such an artifice—the Old
Bailey alibi—would be consistent with the
fains we know he took to divert suspicion
rom his person, and with the great fear of dis-
covery he felt or feigned, though Sir David's
assertion that, " if found, he would have
" been hung at Tyburn and embowelled as a
" traitor" partakes of the wildness which often
possesses his mind in treating this subject.
The dates to the poems, however, may, at
any rate, be taken as some sort of evidence
that " bad Tom " was really in Italy in some
part of the summer of 1770. But this year
was very far from being, as Brewster terms it,
" the busiest year of Junius." He does not
appear to have addressed any note to Wood-
fall in that year between the 18th of March
and 19th of October. Under the signature of
Junius he wrote nothing between the 28th of
May and the 22nd of August following. For up-
wards of six weeks (from 7th of July to 22nd
of August) he was entirely silent; and, sup-
posing that he had resolved to divert sus-
picion, what more likely than that he would
make a rapid journey to a distant place, and
represent himself as abiding there, when his
purpose was but to remain long enough to
despatch a few letters to mislead people as to
his whereabouts. It is worth noting that, in the
Lyttelton letters (which, supposing them to
be manufactured, may be tolerably correct on
points of fact), Lyttelton is actually repre-
sented as being in London at the time when
he represented himself to be on the Con-
tinent. We have looked through the poems.

593

Some of them are mero fragments : in one in-
stance a perfect copy, giving a far higher idea
of the talents of the writer, is to be found in
other publications. But, such as they are, they
strongly resemble Junius's verses, Harry and
Nan," and in sentiment his celebrated letter

signed " Junia."
Quitting this doubtful ground, it is satisfac-
tory to learn that diligent search has been
made among the archives of the Lyttelton
family for any documents which might eluci-
date the question. The present Lord Lyttel-
ton has interested himself in the inquiry, but
the papers preserved concerning Thomas
Lyttelton are scanty, and as regards this par-
ticular point, of very little importance. That
collection of his " speeches, letters, verses,
" and writings" which he left to his executor,
Mr. Roberts, apparently with a view to publi-
cation, appears to be irrecoverably lost. Not
a trace of the collection is to be found. It must
have been destroyed by Loid Lyttelton be-
tween the date of his will and his sudden
death, or by his executors at some subsequent
period. The entire disappearance of every
fragment of the collection is in keeping with
the mysterious manner of his death.
Some curious papers have, however, been
found relative to his decease. and particularly
a statement drawn up by Lord Westcote (who
became Lotd Lyttelton on the subsequent
recreation of the peerage), detailing the
ghost story. A. copy of this curious paper
has reached us, and we think we shall
betray no confidence in making it public. The
substance of it must have been known to Dr.
Johnson, as he was accustomed to silence
doubt on the story by saying, " I had it from
" Lord Westcote himself." This paper is
endorsed, " Remarkable circumstancesattend-
" ing the death of Thomas Lord Lyttelton."
It is in Lord Westcote's own hand :

REMARKABLE DREAM OF THOMAS LORD IFFI'LITON.
On Thursday, the 211th of November, 1779, Thomas
Lord Lyttelton, when he came to breakfast, declared to Mrs.
Flood, wife of Frederick Flood, Esq., of the kingdom of
Ireland, and to the three Miss Ampliletts, who were lodged
in his house in Hill-street, London I where he then also
was ), that he had had an extraordinary dream the night
before: he said he thought be was in a room which a bird
flew into, which appearance was suddenly changed into that
of a woman dressed in white, who bade him prepare to
die ;to which he replied—l hope not soon, not in two
months ; she rlied—Yes, in three days. He said he did
not much regard it, because he could in some measure ac-
count for it, for that a few days before he had been with
Mrs. Dawson, when a robin redbreast flew into her room.
When he had dressed himself that day to go to the House
of Lords, he said he thought he did not look as if lie was
likely to die. In the evening of the following day he told
the eldest Miss Amphlett that she looked melancholy, but,
said he, you are foolish and fearful. 1 have lived two days,
and, God willing, Twill live out the third. On the morning
of Saturday he told the same ladies that he was very well,
and believed he should bilk the ghost Some hours after-
wards he went with them, Mr. Fortescue, and Captain
Wolseley to Pitt-place, at Epsom, withdrew to his bed•
chamber soon after eleven o'clock at night, talked cheer-
fully to his servant, and particularly inquired of him what
care had been taken to provide good rolls for his breakfast
the next morning ; stepped into bed with his waistcoat on,
and, as his servant was pulling it off, put his hand to Ins
side, sunk back, and immediately expired without a groan.
He ate a good dinner after his arrival at Pitt-place that day,
took an egg for his supper, and did not seem to be at all
out of order, except that while he was eating his soup at
dinner he had a rising in his throat, a thing which had
often happened to him before, and which obliged him to
spit some of it out. His physician, Dr. Fothergill, told
roe Lord Lyttleton had in the summer preceding a bad
pain in his side; and he judged that some great vessel in
the part where he had felt the pain gave way, and to that
he conjectured his death was owing. His declaration of
his dream, and his expressions above mentioned, conse-
quential thereunto, were upon a close inquiry asserted to
me to have been so by Mrs. Flood, the eldest Miss Amph-
lett, Captain Wolseley, and his valet de chambre, Faulkner,
who dressed him on the Thursday, and the manner of his
death was related to me by William Stuckey, in the pre-
sence of Mr. Fortescue and Captain Wolseley ; Stuckey
tieing the servant who attended him in his bedchamber, and
in whose arms he died.
February the 13th, 1780.
In one particular this statement is at va-
riance with all the accounts (so far as we
recollect) published at the time, or with the
narrative of Mr. (afterwards Lord) Fortescue.
Those accounts all represent Lord Lyttelton's
servant as having left his room for a few
minutes previous to his death. The late Lord
Fortescue related—among others to the pre-
sent Mr. George Fortescue—the manner of
Lyttelton's death, in substance, as follows
He called on Lord Lytttleton in Hill-street, on the very
' day that he died. He walked out with him, and, passing
• through St. James's churchyard, Lord L. said, " See how

*O,, •

I

ow

• ..-

594

young these people died (pointing to some epitaphs on
young persons); we do not do that now-a•days, we live to a
good old age." He then went down with him in a carriage
to Pitt-place, where they dined with others. Lord L. went
up to bed early. His serra►►t chine down stairs to fetch a
spoon to 'nix some physic with. On his return he found
his master dying, and coming down stairs again waked up
Lord F. from a nap into which he had fallen, and sump
mimed him up. He found Lord L. dead.

Lord Fortescue never himself heard any
thing of the ghost story until some days after
Lord Lyttelton's death. Whatever the motive
might be, the Lyttelton family, represented by
Lord Westeote, took care to give currency to
the ghost story, and to represent that Lord
Lyttelton's death was in exact fulfilment of
the prediction. No inquest was held on the
body, nor does it appear that any examination
of it took place.

We have seen four MS. letters of Lord
Lyttelton (undoubtedly genuine) which were
until lately in the hands of Mr. Thorpe, the book-
seller. One of these, describing the eloquence
of Chatham, is sufficiently interesting and
characteristic to deserve publication :

My worthy old Friend,—l return you my most sincere
thanks for that cordial effusion of sentiment which afforded
me the greatest pleasure. The applanse of an honest anti .
independent country gentleman I prefer to volumes of
flattery proceeding from smooth-tongued courtiers or hollow-
hearted statesmen. I have but one object, but one ambi-
tion. It is to use all my endeavours to serve the politick.
To do this I can truly say I am biassed by no sordid in-
terest, neither hallood on by the yelpers of opposition, nor
drawn off by the terrors of ministerial resentment. But
am too well apprized, Quid Jerre recusant, Quid raleant
Humeri, to look upon myself as the Marceline of the age.
I have neither the gravity nor the importance of character
necessary to govern in these wild and unruly times, and
am seers that with the Earl of Chatham dyed the genius
of England. The majesty of his mind overawed every-
thing. The world was silent before him. He alone inti-
midated the-house of Bourbon, and so great was the terror
of his name that the very year he dyed, on a report prevail.
ing in France that he was to be again Minister of England,
the French immediately marched twenty battalions down
to the coast, transported heavy cannon post to Brest, and
seized all the nes.sants from the plough to assist in repairing
the fortifications of the towns they imagined Lord
Chatham Wou'd begin his administration by invading.
When they found the rumor was false they desisted from
their works, marched their troops back to their garrisons,
and thought Brest strong enough to repel the fleet of England,
the' too weak to resist the genius of William Pitt. This
wonderful man was not less dreaded at. home. I remember
when, after an absence of two years, he came down to the
House of Commons without any man's knowing his inten-
tions, and knocked up by a single speech a whole adminis-
tration. His invectives were terrible denunciations of ven-
geance, and acoompauyed as they were with an eye that
shot pernicious fire into tho heart of his opponents. They
had a preternatural effect upon men. Hume Campbell,
brother to Lord Mainlimont, a cold, steady, interested
Sootchman (who disregarded words as much as any
man), was so scared by him in the House of Commons
that he was suddenly seized whilst Mr. Pitt was speaking
with a violent shivering fit, went home in a high fever, and
dyed in a week aftenrat ds. I will stop here, for lam in-
sensibly going on to something like memoirs of Lord
Chatham. He sleeps now, bet the poet's lyre is awake.
It is in your hand, my good friend. Sound then the strings,
celebrate his praise, and contrast the magnitude of his
mind to the poor pimillanintity of modern statesmen, to the
corruption of modern Parliaments, and to the base Italian
code of modern policy. Adieu, my dear friend; remember
me kindly to Madame la Baronne, and believe me your
sincere friend, LYTTELTON.
Hill-street, ye 20th May, /770.
From what we can collect, we think it un-
likely that any further evidence of import will
ever be adduced on this Lyttelton theory.
The Francis family, notwithstanding their
anxiety to establish the claims of Sir Philip,
are silent, though his papers have been long
open to them. The identity of Junius is still
matter of conjecture, and it seems now
tolerably certain that the mystery will remain
as long as the letters themselves. He
wrote to Wilkes, " I speak from a recess
" which no human curiosity can penetrate,
" and," he continued, plainly referring
to Burke's essay, " darkness we are toll'
"is one source of the sublime." These
words cannot now be read without a feeling
approaching to awe ; and, vast as his genius
unquestionably was, the inflexibility of his
character, as firm and fixed as fate, and the
lofty contempt with which ho looked down
upon the vain or ambitious motives which
influence ordinary men, invest the groat
' with a kind of fascination
hardly care to have broken
oth% secret. ' " '

influence °Mina:
" nominis umbra'
which one would
by the discovers