The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-03 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SI:Ar.

Sra,—The question, Who wrote Junius ? reminds
one of the old solecism, Qui fit Ilitecenas .4' who made
Mweenas? Ut nezno ? what, no one quint sibi
sorten z! what a lucky fellow ! So much has been
said, and well said, about Sir P. Francis, that it has
the air of a plagiarism to continue the subject ; but
some of those statements read more like pleadings
than arguments. Happily, none of Sir
re-
presentatives have a particle of vanity, or this contin-
gent, metonymic amaranth, would slrcly tantalise
them.

Aitiero e sAoi proprj i'regj
Piu die e!-:e 1 pai.su!i
Much has also been sail and foi g:,tten of Burke
es the 1-cal author. The in:tio queszion was, Woo
could have written the letters r A cousensuv ~f emi-
nent persons in those tinia deoi led—None but
Burke. That Francis edited the letters is as clear
as that Bu, ke wrote them ; and is is barely p9ssib'e
the editor may not have known who the toy stPi ions
contributor was ! sive by that rognarok, Or " toi-
light of the gods," which sufliewd to show think
ing men it could only he Burk:. Probably,
if in the hurry of printing any interp,lition or
change had been necessary, Francis was the last to
do it without discov,ry, from the idiosyncrasies of his
mind. The arguments from similarity of style are
fallacious: whoever wrote the Letters nullum fere
scribendi genus non attigit, nullum quod tell git non or-
navit. Burke had already imitated Bolingbroke (awful
name), so as to deceive every one : the Sublime and
Beautiful appeared anonymously, and we have still
among us an illustrious Irishman who affects the
style coupe. Burke's versatility enabled him to write
Phi!o-Junius, Veteran, Alihss, and what not ? Lord
G. Germaine, Francis, Hamilton, Calcraft, Rosen-
hagen—hoc genus homne, could not wri:e more un-
like Burke than himself when he pleased.
Burke was facile princeps —Francis, ultiinus
Romanorum : one was the author, the other, to use
his own phrase, " managed the conveyancing depart-
ment :" for Francis to have written one of the letters
was morally as impossible as it was physically so for
Burke to undertake the conveyancing. The Junius
firm extended to several persons who collected mate-
rials, threw them into the " Lion's mouth" of a tre-
mendous inquisition, ;and frequently wrote on their
own account. Were they formally initiated ? No,
they guessed the author, as Wilkes, Horne Tooke,
and even Lord Grenville, who once said in a
large company, " I know who Junius was, and
will never reveal it." Horne Tooke crossed his
knife and fork, and said solemnly, " I do." All
this would be adsurd if Francis had been the
author, and his own solemn silence still more absurd,
for what, in the name of nonsense, would be the
consequence if, in after times, Junius were ascer•
tamped to be Francis ? But, if Burke wrote the
letters he was a conspicuous mark, and " could not
survive the discovery three days." To save his life,
" to spare the meek usurper's holy head," was the
object of his many friends.

" Methinks there be six Ilichmonds in the field."
In Burke's company they mentioned gravely " the
impenetrable mystery of' Junius," and it was under-
stood that no one must deny being the author. In
fact, Burke was the only person who ever denied
it. Johnson said, that if Burke had been asked he
would have been completely justified in denying,
but that he had heard him deny it without being
asked. He might have had the very same ques-
tion put to him ten minutes before ! and this
delicate casuistry shows Johnson to have been vary
sensible of his danger. No one can now read the
Letters and wish, all things considered, to have
written them : it was humiliation as well as danger.
Burke had no choice but disgrace or perpetual
exile like that of Byron, and Mathias, author of
the Pursuits of Literature. The case for Burke is so
strong as to throw the " weight of proof " on the advo-
cates of Francis. Will Mr. Wade discover a fatal
variance or discrepancy, when the Literary Club of
1770 could not?
In Francis the duty of shielding Burke coincided
with self-congratulation at having shared the peril
and been almost as essential to the plot as himself :
therefore he actively mystified every one. The an-
cient hieroglyph for the world is scarabceus, or blind
beetle, and some men, it has been observed, find more
pleasure in deceiving that world than even in making
money. Francis did both. Burke extolled Francis
beyond measure, which is natural iu persona who
have risked their lives together. Burke's society
elevated the genius and character of Francis in com-
mon with all other politicians : for a tong time they
were " inseparables ; at the very least,- 'Francis was
a tried, able, and faithful friend : to divide them
would be as cruel as to cut the "prying, inquisitive "
Secretary out of Vandyke's picture of Lied Straffird.
A conviction that Francis could not be the sole
author must have led Mr. Taylor to ss hat Mr. Wade
calls his first fix on Dr. Francis, translator of Horace.
I had the same conviction, and drew the same infer-
ence, till after reading a collection of Dr. Francis's
anonymous pamphlets, and finding them much infe-
rior to those of his son. It is a quesion of calibre :
try the calipers : the real Junius, a " long 32," or gun
a la Paixhans, had cut sheer through both sides of a
ship, oak and iron, deep into the grat,ite, and the
shot is attributed to a four-pounder, then and there in
battery, or else the four-pounder went off at the same
time, and was not heard. Sir P. Francis was the best
pamphleteer of his time—a master of writing, who
would also have made an excellent writing-master ;
which exemplifies Goethe's remark that a good hand-
writing is as important as a good style, or may lead to
one. All this makes it more probable, to use a phrase of
the Examiner, that " he often held the pen for others."
In 1816, when he had just published a Letter Mis-
sive to Lord Holland, Sir Philip was precisely "The
fine old English_Gentleman," frontispiece to the
melody so called. You felt he was a clear-headed,
stout-hearted, open-handed Englishman, sensitive,
irritable, very feeling and humane, passionately just,
that is, generous; nay he had, what is rare, the
talent of justice, the penser juste, the droiture of mind.
He considered music a species of athletic, calisthenic
pastime, and when singing, modulated unconsciously
into three or four extraneous keys. A boy of four-
teen years old being present he shouted to him re-
peatedly, "Young man, don't betray your country !"
The young man dared not laugh, and never forgot
his advice. So voracious was his love of fame, that
when difficulties were made about the Order of the
Bath his violence was extreme ; he threatened to
Junius the Ministry, or, strictly speaking, to burke
them if they refused him a ribband.
The short human span, the rapid succession of
births, deaths, and marriages, divide history into
small personal squares, as an engraver reduces a pic-
ture, and if any object is not in its proper com-
partment the design is incorrect. Here the dates are
as conclusive as the reasons. The correspondence
began some time before the signature of Junius was
adopted, in 1767. In 1766 Lord Rockingham went
out ; Burke was his private secretary, more or less
unemployed, well- informed, disappointed, and 37
years old, the precise age of Napoleon at Austerlitz.
Francis was ten years younger. Now, could a fiery
young man of twenty-seven, much given to pleasure,
have organized a conspiracy which throws Catiline's
into the shade ? Remembering always that the whole
case turns on one point, Who was capable who was
the canorus ales, the hyperborean literary swan
with pride and ample pinion ? and not at
all, What could Sir Philip have meant when
he presented' the lady with a copy of the Identi-
fied? At the same time he had no qualities—not
even that of patience, to justify the phrase " little
provender," applied to him by Mr. Wade and assist-
ants, in speaking of his remunerative price. Francis
might shelter Burke, but could not travestie his own
manner ; and though he might, for a life-long juke,
suffer himself to be dressed up in a lion's skin, yet
never could he assume the " horns and cloven hoot"
of an ox, nor act wolf in sheep's clothing. In the
margin of a printed volume ha made an entry :
" These speeches I wrote for Lord Mansfield and Lord
Chatham." Compare this with ; "Burke was convinced
I wrote the letters of Junius." Compare also the
vellum copy so long wished for by the lady with the
actual gift to her of the Identified! just as much as
to say, I wrote out the Letters of Junius, but Dubois
and I between us wrote The Identified.
About the year 1819 Francis published a letter to
say that if Canning had spoken of him as he had
spoken about " the ruptured Ogden" he, Francis,
would have spifflicated him, or words to that effect;
but the sting,was in the signature, Ides Trecenti Jura-
nimus—an appeal to tbe lowest assa•sitis in Latin and
fabulous Latin! Canning, more fi ightened than
hurt, immediately detected his brother craftsman,
skilled in " preparing for publication"—and taxed
him with it. Francis printed what seemed a denial,
but with a mental rebervation staring you in the face.
Could anything be less like " Junius" or more like
"The Identified"?
O'Connell felt perfectly certain, without a shadow
of doubt, that Junius was an Irishman, which nar-
rows the question considerably, and excludes Francis,
who was born in England, and whose father, though
an Irishman, was a denizen of England. Still more
was he certain that Burke wrote the letters. No one
could sift evidence nor appreciate weight a testi-
nor judge more wisely
mony better than O'Connell,
of eloquence, whether spoken or written, nor trace
the career of an Irishman obtaining the highest dis-
tinction in England and Europe. One of his reasons
was, that Junius somewhere speaks of Dublin Castle
as " the Castle," and that whoever did so must be an
Irishman land a Prattestant].
I have the honour to be, Sir, &c.,
C,