On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    ' Bible to solve the mysteries of the ill-fated Alexis of Russia , of Count Konigs . nark , or of Don Carlos of Spain ? Here are a few Meravy knots to disentangle A man cannot have read very for into . the mstovies of nations , literature , or of art , without meeting withthera They are unravelled periodically only to be ravelled afresh ; they . ire solved and resolved , opened and shut , tied and untied . ^ ver and , over again . Some of them , indeed , have been rudely snapped in two but they were weak in the warp ; such were the *™ rf tifK forgeries-such , perhaps , George Psalmanazar , although ^ about him anLleus of mysteVy is sfeill adherent But , for the most part they defy solution , or resolution ; and probably wrfl do so long after we have been resolved into our native elements . _ Toughest , most interesting and most absorbing :, and , we had nearly said , most important of all these , is that vexed question of Juriius , which 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 their

    many editions . - . ¦ . -..-,, „ -r-, ¦ , . » * 1 Commencing , possibly , with Lily ' s : " ¦ Euphues , ^ certainly strengthened by the weighty writings of Milton , the thoughtful studiousness of Burton ' s " Democritus Junior , " d the splendid passages of Sir Thomas Browne , a Latin style had sprung up in the literature of the country as far differing from the pure natural Saxon tono-ue as the Gamelia Jhponica does from our own s \ veet-seented wild thyme . The faults-only of great writers are reproduced by their copyists : their beauties escape them or dwindle down to manner-, ism ' s . Thus , all that reriiained to the newspaper writer of the daywag 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 eveii " Cicero , " were -brought into piny ; and sold their venal effusions at so much per column , to slaver , bepraise .

    or vilipend and bespatter the ministry . . ^ ^ About this time also occasion ai-ose for a great writer—and " whenever did our England want for men ? " One arose who , on the 21 st of January , 1769 , printed his first letter in the Public Advertiser ( Lord Campbell constantly calls it the Dally Adyertiser ) , under , the signature of Ju ^ itts . 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 tinder 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 two

    fifty people haye been suspected ; amongst whom are one duke , 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 Bane , Single-speech Hamilton , and Horace Wai pole . The claims of many of these are manifestly absurd , but it is worth wliilo just calling- to mind the state of the question . Let us alao recullec ' t that the occasion was worthy of the letters . Great excitement prevailed in the nation ; the American colonies wyre being , by the obluseness of the ministers , steadily poked into a flame of revolt : new taxes were imposed ; the Icing whs retrograding towards despotism ; the judges were overawing juries , dictating ' to them , and , as now , ready to talk-very , loudly " about their uselessness : the press was alternately bullied and cajoled , and ,

    in consequence , to quote Lord North , " overflowed the land with its black gall , and poisoned the minds of the people . " Into this metJe Junius leaped . He discarded the ponderous manner of i / he day ; was not careful to place his verb last , or , like Robertson the historian , to let the senso meander through a page of prose ; to use involution sifter involution ; to confine his relatives and antecedents ; and to appear only careful to use as many figures of rhetorical composition , apo s trophe , periphrasis , metabn . sis , climax , prosopopoeia , and ecphoiu'sis as he could . Junius , on the contrary , cut up his sentences shortly .- He stated facts or arguments tersely ; did not waste words . His axioms Wore not expanded , but so briufly put -that many of them yet serve , for copv-book slips . " By persuading others , ivo 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 king ' s honour is that of his people ; " "Private credit is wealth ; public honour is security . " These , with many others , first from the pon of Junius , now form part of the language of the country . But , in the meantime , his philosophical''maxima woro inoro acceptable than his political idoas . Tho nation was charmed with his letters . Bookseller *) pirated thorn , and broad slioets with them oh wore sold by hawkers in remote oountry places . "' A now letter by Junius , " shouted tho " flying posts" of the duy , and quiet people rushed from their firesides to buy the dainty movsol , to bo stirred by its eloquence , and to be moved- by its satire-epigram , and merciless force and sarcasm .

    Junius seemed to know every court and political secret : ho exposed every job ; he attacked tlio minister in his council , the judge on tho bench , the king upon tho throne . Truly they all deserved it , and the lash pf tho conRor dosoeitdod on their backs . Prosecution of tho printer , Mr . Wooclfall , did no good—the fhio wns paid , or the jury would not convict . Tho printer of tho North Jirlton wont to tho pilloi'y in a hacknoy couch , numbered . 4 iB—selected on account of the celebrated number for which' ho suffered— -and affixed a boot to tho side of the frame of punishment ,, in which tho sum of £ 200 was collected fur'his benefit . Sir William Draper , and other gentlemen who wrote with a fatal onso , rushed to the rescue of the Court , and . tried to taunt Junius to lay aside his mask , but they only got

    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 him in vain . They will hot spend their time upon me , or tipon 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 he strikes down another dead at his feet ! When I saw his 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 But while I expected from this daring flight final ruin and fall , behold turn rising still higher , and coming down souse upon both Houses of Parliament ! . ; . Not : content with carrying away our royal eagle in his pounces , and dashing him against a rock , he n ^ s ^ d 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 elevation of thought and the freedom of English . nen , On Jamiary 21 sfc 177 J , the last letter of Junius- ^ that to Chief Justice Mansfield—was published ; Woodfall , the printer , receiving his last note from him iust on ? year , all but two days , after this , viz ., on January 19 th , 1773 and these , with all original manuscript ; letters , were recently offered to the nation by Mr . II , D . Woodfall , for £ 500 . It was during the time in which the Letters were still attracting notice in the Public Advertiser , that the question ,: " Who was Junius ? " arose . Burke , Saclvville , Gibbon , and other living men , were accused of the authorship , and one by one denied the imputation ; "I should be proud of the letters , but they are not nune said Burke . " There-are many splendid passages winch I shoiild be glad to own . many of which I should be ashamed wrote 1 / ord George Saekville , ' V My secret is my own , and it shall diewith 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 . ; lam the sole depository of my secret , and it snail die with _ me . This remarkable passage occurs in that preface which Jamus 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 ot the chief portion of them ; and in addition Mr . Bolin 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 the way of proving who really wrote the Letters of Junius . lie tells lis ^ that in July , 185 . 0 , he was called upon to value or rather to inspect the politicarpnpers ,. mami 5 cri . pts ,, and . a library ot books , at No . 3 , St . James ' s Square , under a pressure of circumstances which required that the inspection should be done within iinjiour . That oji seeing the library he perceived a strong indication of politics of the time of George III ., and that ho remembered that he was in the precincts of Junius 4 and searched for the volhtin bound copy , but without success . That the older part of tho books had been taken away , but in tho MSS . room were ^ two largo brown paper parcels , and a great number of letters from the Earl of HoW . ornesse and from Sir William Draper , tho Duke , o ( Urafton Lord Chatham , the Grenvilles , Lord North , and Lord Goorge Saqkyille . There was al ^ o a draft of a letter signed " Lucjuk , ano at the pseudonyms of Junius , to tho Dnice of Grafton , in tho well-known upright ' hanclwriting attributed to JFunius .. . That , fcuhng that ho was in tho path of discovovy , " he ( Mr . Bohn ) offered five hundred pounds for tho MSS . and as much more for two largo parcels , weighing at least a quarter of a hundredweight each , settled at every apurture , nnd prominently marked " Most Secret" on all sides . That ho was promised these in case they should bo for aale , but that in the following October he learnt that tho papers had been cluirncct by tho Duke of Leeds , and-that they hud been deposited In tho Strong room of n banker , with the possibility of coining out nt tho end of six yours . He now presumca tl » at they arc immured m tho fainily archivof 3 . . Tin s is positively all , and wo must say that wo are sorry to hoar that the Duke of Leeds hath deposited those papors with Ins bunjeerfl , being well informed that , very recently , on tho transfer of the business of a very old-established firm , two buxoa oforiyihal lottera and writings of a known divine of tho latter end of tho soveiitoonth century wore oonunittod to tho flames- fcSncli may ho tho ftito ot thesp papors , in which it is supposed tho secret ot tho authorship ot Junius is now buried . ,. _ ,. . . To particular bpoksellers , porluipa , tho discovery of this longsought secret might bo of value , but to tho public > t can be of little . The spirit of tho 'Letters has ontorod into tho nation . They Iuivq formed and produogd other and greater writers , , lhoy huvo given tho manner to our loading- articles . They have hud dawiii principlos which it Is well to recur to when courteous scraps . fortfot tUoii honesty , und-juries and lawyers generally cxalfc tho PJiviloa o « of one class to the i » jury of tho other in our constitution . Wo nro » ° ^ afc losera by t ' io author rotnining his now do jplwne—wo should pro-

    Untitled Article

    Peb . 25 , I 860 ] TheLeader' ctnd Saturday Analyst . tSo

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1860, page 185, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2335/page/13/