lic question.* Without abilities, resolution, or interest, you have done more than lord Bute could accomplish, with all Scotland at his heels. Your grace, little anxious, perhaps, either for present or future reputation, will not desire to be handed down in these colors to posterity. You have reason to flatter yourself, that the memory of your administration will survive, even the forms of a constitution which our ancestors vainly hoped would be immortal; and, as for your personal character, I will not, for the honor of human nature, suppose that you can wish to have it remembered. The condition of the present times is desperate indeed; but there is a debt due to those who come after us; and it is the historian's office to punish, though he cannot correct. I do not give you to posterity as a pattern to imitate, but as an example to deter; and as your conduct comprehends everything that a wise or honest minister should avoid, I mean to make you a negative instruction to your successors forever. LETTER XIII. TISER. JUNIUS. June 12, 1769. for a minister to offer a grosser outrage to a nation which has so very lately cleared away the beggary of the civil list, at the expense of more than half a million? 10. Is there any one mode of thinking or acting with respect to America, which the duke of Grafton has not successively adopted and abandoned? 11. Is there not a singular mark of shame set upon this man, who has so little delicacy and feeling. as to submit to the opprobrium of marrying a near relation of one who had debauched his wife? In the name of decency, how are these amiable cousins to meet at their uncle's table? It will be a scene in Edipus, without the distress. Is it wealth, or wit, or beauty? Or is the amorous youth in love? The rest is notorious. That Corsica has been sacrificed to the French; that, in some instances, the laws have been scandalously relaxed, and, in others, daringly violated; and that the king's subjects have been called upon to assure him of their fidelity, in spite of the measures of his servants. A writer, who builds his arguments upon facts such as these, is not easily to be confuted. He is not to be answered by general assertions or general re ADDRESSED TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVER- proaches. He may want eloquence to amuse an persuade; but, speaking truth, he must always conSIR, vince. PHILO JUNIUS. The duke of Grafton's friends, not finding it convenient to enter into a contest with Junius, are now reduced to the last melancholy resource of defeated argument, the flat general charge of scurrility and falsehood. As for his style, I shall leave it to the critics. The truth of his facts is of more im portance to the public. They are of such a nature, that I think a bare contradiction will have no weight with any man who judges for himself. Let us take them in the order in which they appear in his last letter. LETTER XIV. ADDRESSED TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVER- SIR, TISER. Oliver Cromwell had the The name of Old Noll is destined to be the ruin of the house of Stuart. There is an ominous fatality in it, which even the spurious descendants of the merit of conducting Charles the First to the block. family cannot escape. 1. Have not the first rights of the people, and the Your correspondent, Old Noll, appears to have the first principles of the constitution, been openly in- same design upon the duke of Grafton. His arguvaded, and the very name of an election made ridicu-ments consist better with the title he has assumed. lous, by the arbitrary appointment of Mr. Luttrell? than with the principles he professes: for though he 2. Did not the duke of Grafton frequently lead pretends to be an advocate for the duke, he takes his mistress into public, and even place her at the care to give us the best reason why this patron should regularly follow the fate of his presumptive ancestor head of his table, as if he had pulled down an ancient temple of Venus, and could bury all decency Through the whole course of the duke of Grafton's and shame under the ruins? Is this the man who life, I see a strange endeavor to unite contradictions which cannot be reconciled. He marries, to be di3. Is not the character of his presumptive ancesvorced; he keeps a mistress, to remind him of contors as strongly marked in him, as if he had de-jugal endearments; and he chooses such friends as it scended from them in a direct legitimate line? The idea of his death is only prophetic; and what is prophecy but a narrative preceding the fact? dares to talk of Mr. Wilkes's morals? 4. Was not lord Chatham the first who raised him to the rank and post of a minister, and the first whom he abandoned? 5. Did he not join with lord Rockingham, and betray him? 6. Was he not the bosom friend of Mr. Wilkes, whom he now pursues to destruction? 7. Did he not take his degrees with credit Newmarket, White's, and the opposition? is a virtue in him to desert. If it were possible for the genius of that accomplished president, who pronounced sentence upon Charles the First, to be revived in some modern sycophant,* his grace, I doubt dregs of mankind, and take him for a guide in these not, would by sympathy discover him among the paths which naturally conduct a minister to the scar fold. of the acceptance of Mr. Luttrell (for even Old Noll ** The assertion that two-thirds of the nation approve attained nor confuted by argument. It is a point of fact, on which every English gentleman will determine for himself. As to lawyers, their profession is supported by the indiscriminate defense of right and wrong; and I confess I have not that opinion of their knowledge or integrity, to think it necessary that they should decide for me upon a plain constitetional question. With respect to the appointment of authentic opinion. Sir Fletcher Norton is, indeed Mr. Luttrell, the chancellor has never yet given any too modest to call it an election) can neither be main 8. After deserting lord Chatham's principles, and sacrificing his friendship, is he not now closely united with a set of men, who, though they have occasionally joined with all parties, have, in every different situation, and at all times, been equally and constantly detested by this country? 9. Has not sir John Moore a pension of five hundred pounds a year? This may probably be an acquittance of favors upon the turf: but is it possible *The wise duke, about this time, exerted all the influence of the government to procure addresses to satisfy the king of the fidelity of his subjects. They came in very thick from Scotland; but, after the appearance of this letter, we heard no more of them. an honest, a very honest man; and the attorneygeneral is ex officio the guardian of liberty; to take care, I presume, that it shall never break out into a It is hardly necessary to remind the reader of the name of Bradshaw. eriminal excess. Doctor Blackstone is solicitor to the queen. The doctor recollected that he had a place to preserve, though he forgot that he had a reputation to lose. We have now the good fortune to understand the doctor's principles as well as writings. For the defense of truth, of law, and reason, the doctor's book may be safely consulted; but whoever wishes to cheat a neighbor of his estate, or to rob a country of its rights, need make no scruple of consulting the doctor himself. Chatham. Charles Townshend took care of his education at that ambiguous age, which lies between the follies of political childhood and the vices of puberty. The empire of the passions soon succeeded. His earliest principles and connections were of course forgotten or despised. The company he has lately kept has been of no service to his morals; and, in the conduct of public affairs, we see the character of his time of life strongly distinguished. An obstinate, ungovernable self-sufficiency plainly points out to The example of the English nobility may, for us that state of imperfect maturity at which the aught I know, sufficiently justify the duke of Graf-graceful levity of youth is lost, and the solidity of ton, when he indulges his genius in all the fashion-experience not yet acquired. It is possible the able excesses of the age: yet, considering his rank young man may, in time, grow wiser, and reform; and station, I think it would do him more honor to but if I understand his disposition, it is not of such be able to deny the fact, than to defend it by such corrigible stuff that we should hope for any amendauthority. But if vice itself could be excused, there is ment in him, before he has accomplished the deyet a certain display of it, a certain outrage to de- struction of his country. Like other rakes, he may, cency, and violation of public decorum, which, for the perhaps, live to see his error, but not until he has benefit of society, should never be forgiven. It is not ruined his estate. that he kepta mistress at home, but that he constantly PHILO JUNIUS. attended her abroad. It is not the private indulgence, but the public insult, of which I complain. The name of Miss Parsons would hardly have been known, if the first lord of the treasury had not led her in triumph through the opera-house, even in the presence of the queen. When we see a man act in this manner, we may admit the shameless depravity of his heart; but what are we to think of his understanding? His grace, it seems, is now to be a regular, domestic man; and, as an omen of the future delicacy and correctness of his conduct, he marries a first cousin of the man who had fixed that mark and title of infamy upon him, which, at the same moment, makes a husband unhappy and ridiculous. The ties of consanguinity may possibly preserve him from the same fate a second time; and as to the distress of meeting, I take for granted, the venerable uncle of these common cousins has settled the etiquette in such a manner, that, if a mistake should happen, it may reach no further than from madame ma femme to madame ma cousine. The duke of Grafton has always some excellent reasons for deserting his friends: the age and incapacity of lord Chatham, the debility of lord Rockingham, or the infamy of Mr. Wilkes. There was a time, indeed, when he did not appear to be quite as well acquainted, or so violently offended, with the infirmities of his friends: but now I confess they are not ill exchanged for the youthful, vigorous virtue of the duke of Bedford; the firmness of general Conway; the blunt, or, if I may call it, the awkward integrity of Mr. Rigby; and the spotless morality of lord Sandwich. If a late pension to a broken gambler* be an act worthy of commendation, the duke of Grafton's connections will furnish him with many opportunities of doing praiseworthy actions; and as he himself bears no part of the expense, the generosity of distributing the public money for the support of virtuous families in distress, will be an unquestionable proof of his grace's humanity. LETTER XV. TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON July 8, 1769. If nature had given you an understanding qualified to keep pace with the wishes and principles of your heart, she would have made you, perhaps, the most formidable minister that ever was employed, under a limited monarch, to accomplish the ruin of a free people. When neither the feelings of shame, the reproaches of conscience, nor the dread of punishment, form any bar to the designs of a minister, the people would have too much reason to lament their condition, if they did not find some resource in the weakness of his understanding. We owe it to the bounty of Providence, that the completest depravity of the heart is sometimes strangely united with a confusion of the mind, which counteracts the most favorite principles, and makes the same man treacherous without art, and a hypocrite without deceiving. The measures, for instance, in which your grace's activity has been chiefly exerted, as they were adopted without skill, should have been conducted with more than common dexterity. But truly, my lord, the execution has been as gross as the design. By one decisive step you have defeated all the arts of writing. You have fairly confounded the intrigues of opposition, and silenced the clamors of faction. A dark, ambiguous system might require and furnish the materials of ingenious illustration; and, in doubtful measures, the virulent exaggeration of party must be employed to rouse and engage the passions of the people. You have now brought the merits of your administration to an issue, on which every Englishman, of the narrowest capacity, may determine for himself: it is not an alarm to the passion, but a calm appeal to the judgment of the people, upon their own most essential interests. A more experienced minister would not have hazarded a direct invasion of the first principles of the constitution, before he had made some progress in subduing the spirit of the people. With such a cause as yours, my lord, it is not sufficient that you have the court at your devotion, unless you can find means to corrupt or intimidate the jury. The collective body of the people form that jury, and from their decision there is but one appeal. As to public affairs, Old Noll is a little tender of descending to particulars. He does not deny that Corsica has been sacrificed to France; and he confesses that, with regard to America, his patron's measures have been subject to some variation: but then he promises wonders of stability and firmness for the future. These are mysteries, of which we must not pretend to judge by experience; and, truly, I fear we shall perish in the desert, before we arrive Whether you have talents to support you at a crisis at the land of promise. In the regular course of of such difficulty and danger, should long since have things, the period of the duke of Grafton's minis-been considered. Judging truly of your disposition, terial manhood should now be approaching. The imbecility of his infant state was committed to lord you have, perhaps, mistaken the extent of your capacity. Good faith and folly have so long been re *Sir John Moore. ceived as synonymous terms, that the reverse of the no part of sır Robert Walpole's system, except his proposition has grown into credit, and every villian abilities. In this humble, imitative line, you might fancies himself a man of abilities. It is the appre- long have proceeded safe and contemptible. You hension of your friends, my lord, that you have drawn might probably never have risen to the dignity of some hasty conclusion of this sort, and that a partial | being hated, and even have been despised with mod reliance upon your moral character has betrayed you eration. But it seems you meant to be distinguished: beyond the depth of your understanding. You have and, to a mind like yours, there was no other road to now carried things too far to retreat. You have fame but by the destruction of a noble fabric, which plainly declared to the people what they are to expect you thought had been too long the admiration of from the continuance of your administration. It is mankind. The use you have made of the military time for your grace to consider what you also may force, introduced an alarming change in the mode of expect in return from their spirit and their resent- executing the laws. The arbitary appointment of Mr. Luttrell invades the fountain of the laws themselves, as it manifestly transfers the right of legisla tion from those whom the people have chosen, to those whom they have rejected. With a succession of such appointments, we may soon see a house of commons collected, in the choice of which the other towns and counties of England will have as little share as the devoted county of Middlesex. ment. Yet I trust your grace will find that the people of this country are neither to be intimidated by violent measures, nor deceived by refinements. When they see Mr. Luttrell seated in the house of commons, by mere dint of power, and in direct opposition to the choice of a whole county, they will not listen to those subtleties by which every alitrary exertion of authority is explained into the law and privilege of parliament. It requires no persuasion of argument, but simply the evidence of the senses, to convince them, that, to transfer the right of election from the collective to the representative body of the people, contradicts all those ideas of a house of commons which they have received from their forefathers, and which they had already, though vainly, perhaps, de livered to their children. The principles on which this violent measure has been defended have added scorn to injury, and forced us to feel that we are not only oppressed, but insulted. Since the accession of our most gracious sovereign to the throne, we have seen a system of government which may well be called a reign of experiments. Parties of all denominations have been employed and dismissed. The advice of the ablest men in this country has been repeatedly called for, and rejected; and when the royal displeasure has been signified to a minister, the marks of it have usually been proportioned to his abilities and integrity. The spirit of the favorite had some apparent influence upon every administration: and every set of ministers preserved an appearance of duration as long as they submitted to that influence. But there were certain services to be performed for the favorite's security, or to gratify his resentments, which your predecessors in office had the wisdom or the virtue not to undertake. The moment this refractory spirit was discovered, their disgrace was determined. Lord Chatham, Mr. Grenville, and lord Rockingham, have successively had the honor to be dismissed for preferring their duty as servants of the public to those compliances which were expected from their station. A submissive administration was at last gradually collected from the deserters of all parties, interests, and connections; and nothing remained but to find a leader for these gallant, well-disciplined troops. Stand forth, my lord; for thou art the man. Lord Bute found no re- With what force, my lord, with what protection, source of dependence or security in the proud, impos- are you prepared to meet the united detestation of ing superiority of lord Chatham's abilities; the the people of England? The city of London has shrewd, inflexible judgment of Mr. Grenville; nor given a generous example to the kingdom, in what in the mild but determined integrity of lord Rock- manner a king of this country ought to be addressed: ingham. His views and situation required a creature and I fancy, my lord, it is not yet in your courage void of all these properties; and he was forced to go to stand between your sovereign and the addresses of through every division, resolution, composition, and his subjects. The injuries you have done this cou refinement of political chemistry, before he happily try are such as demand not only redress, but venarrived at the caput mortuum of vitriol in your grace. geance. In vain shall you look for protection to Flat and insipid in your retired state; but, brought that venal vote which you have already paid er: into action, you become vitriol again. Such are the another must be purchased; and, to save a minister, extremes of alternate indolence or fury, which have the house of commons must declare themselves no governed your whole administration. Your circum- only independent of their constituents, but the de stances, with regard to the people, soon becoming termined enemies of the constitution. Consider, my desperate, like other honest servants, you determined lord, whether this be an extremity to which their to involve the best of masters in the same difficulties fears will permit them to advance: or, if their prowith yourself. We owe it to your grace's well-tection should fail you, how far you are authorized directed labors, that your sovereign has been per- to rely upon the sincerity of those smiles, which a suaded to doubt of the affections of his subjects, and the people to suspect the virtues of their sovereign, at a time when both were unquestionable. You have degraded the royal dignity into a base and dishonorable competition with Mr. Wilkes: nor had you abilities to carry even the last contemptible triumph over a private man, without the grossest violation of the fundamental laws of the constitution and rights of the people. But these are rights, my lord, which you can no more annihilate, than you can the soil to which they are annexed. The question no longer turns upon points of national honor and security abroad, or on the degrees of expedience and propriety of measures at home. It was not inconsistent that you should abandon the cause of liberty in another country, which you had persecuted in your own: and, in the common arts of domestic corruption, we miss pious court lavishes withont reluctance upon a libertine by profession. It is not, indeed, the least of the thousand contradictions which attend you, that a man, marked to the world by the grossest violation of all ceremony and decorum, should be the first servant of a court, in which prayers are morality, and kneeling is religion.. Trust not too far to appearances, by which your predecessors have been deceived, though they have not been injured. Even the best of princes may at last discover, that this is a contention in wh every thing may be lost, but nothing can be gained: and, as you became minister by accident, were, adopted without choice, trusted without confidenc and continued without favor, be assured, that when ever an occasion presses, you will be discarded without even the forms of regret. You will then have reason to be thankful, if you are permitted to retire | imagine there is no gentleman in this country who to that seat of learning, which, in contemplation of will not be capable of forming a judicious and true the system of your life, the comparative purity of opinion upon it. I take the question to be strictly your manners with those of their high steward, and this; "Whether or no it be the known, established a thousand other recommending circumstances, has law of parliament, that the expulsion of a member of chosen you to encourage the growing virtue of their the house of commons, of itself creates in him such an youth, and to preside over their education. When- incapacity to be re-elected, that, at a subsequent ever the spirit of distributing prebends and bishoprics election, any votes given to him are null and void; shall have departed from you, you will find that and that any other candidate, who, except the person learned seminary perfectly recovered from the expelled, has the greatest number of votes, ought to delirium of an installation, and, what in truth it be the sitting member." ought to be, once more a peaceful scene of slumber and thoughtless meditation. The venerable tutors of the university will no longer distress your modesty, by proposing you for a pattern to their pupils. The learned dullness of declamation will be silent; and even the venal muse, though happiest in fiction, will forget your virtues. Yet, for the benefit of the succeeding age, I could wish that your retreat might be deferred until your morals shall happily be ripened to that maturity of corruption, at which the worst examples cease to be contagious. LETTER XVI. JUNIUS. TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER. SIR, July 19, 1769. A great deal of useless argument might have been saved in the political contest which has arisen from the expulsion of Mr. Wilkes, and the subsequent appointment of Mr. Luttrell. if the question had been once stated with precision, to the satisfaction of each party, and clearly understood by them both. But in this, as in almost every other dispute, it usually happens that much time is lost in referring to a multitude of cases and precedents, which prove nothing to the purpose; or in maintaining propositions, which are either not disputed, or, whether they be admitted or denied, are entirelyindifferentas to the matter in debate; until at last, the mind, perplexed and confounded with the endless subtleties of controversy, loses sight of the main question, and never arrives at truth. Both parties in the dispute are apt enough to practise these dishonest artifices. The man who is conscious of the weakness of his cause is interested in concealing it: and, on the other side, it is not uncommon to see a good cause mangled by advocates, who do not know the real strength of it. To prove that the affirmative is the law of parlia-ment, I apprehend it is not sufficient for the present house of commons to declare it to be so. We may shut our eyes, indeed, to the dangerous consequences of suffering one branch of the legislature to declare new laws without argument or example; and it may, perhaps, be prudent enough to submit to authority; but a mere assertion will never convince, much less will it be thought reasonable to prove the right by the fact itself. The ministry have not yet pretended to such a tyranny over our minds. To support the affirmative fairly, it will either be necessary to produce some statute, in which that positive provision shall have been made, that specific disability clearly created, and the consequences of it declared; or, if there be no such statute, the custom of parliament must then be referred to; and some case or cases,* strictly in point, must be produced, with the decision of the court upon them; for I readily admit, that the custom of parliament, once clearly proved, is equally binding with the common and statute law. The consideration of what may be reasonable or unreasonable, makes no part of this question. We are inquiring what the law is, not what it ought to be. Reason may be applied to show the impropriety or expediency of a law; but we must have either statute or precedent to prove the existence of it. At the same time, I do not mean to admit that the late resolution of the house of commons is defensible on general principles of reason, any more than in law. This is not the hinge on which the debate turns. Supposing, therefore, that I have laid down an accurate state of the question, I will venture to affirm, 1st, That there is no statute existing, by which that specific disability which we speak of is created. If there be, let it be produced. The argument will then be at an end. 2dly, That there is no precedent, in all the proceedings of the house of commons, which comes entirely home to the present case, viz.: "Where an expelled member has been returned again, and another candidate, with an inferior number of votes, has been declared the sitting member." If there be such a precedent, let it be given to us plainly; and I am sure it will have more weight than all the cunning arguments which have been drawn from inferences and probabilities. I should be glad to know, for instance, to what purpose, in the present case, so many precedents have been produced, to prove that the house of commons have a right to expel one of their own members; that it belongs to them to judge of the validity of elections; or that the law of parliament is part of the law of the land ?* After all these propositions are admitted, Mr. Luttrell's right to his seat will The ministry, in that laborious pamphlet, which, I continue to be just as disputable as it was before. presume, contains the whole strength of the party, Not one of them is at present in agitation. Let it be have declared, "That Mr. Walpole's was the first and admitted that the house of commons were authorized only instance in which the electors of any county or to expel Mr. Wilkes, that they are the proper court borough had returned a person expelled to serve in to judge of elections, and that the law of parliament the same parliament." It is not possible to conceive is binding upon the people; still it remains to be in- a case more exactly in point. Mr. Walpole was exquired, whether the house, by their resolution in pelled; and, having a majority of votes at the next favor of Mr. Luttrell, have, or have not, truly de-election, was returned again. The friends of Mr. clared that law. To facilitate this inquiry, I would Taylor, a candidate set up by the ministry, petitioned have the question cleared of all foreign or indifferent matter. The following state of it will probably be thought a fair one by both parties; and then I *The reader will observe, that these admissions are made, not as of truths unquestionable, but for the sake of argument, and in order to bring the real question to isste. the house that he might be the sitting member. Thus far the circumstances tally exactly, except that our house of commons saved Mr. Luttrell the trouble of petitioning. The point of law, however, was the *Precedents, in opposition to principles, have little weight with Junius; but he thought it necessary to meet the ministry upon their own ground. same. It came regularly before the house, and it was their business to determine upon it. They did determine upon it; for they declared Mr. Taylor not duly elected. If it be said, that they meant this resolution as matter of favor and indulgence to the borough, which had retorted Mr. Walpole upon them, in order that the burgesses, knowing what the law was, might correct their error, I answer, I. That it is a strange way of arguing, to oppose a supposition, which no man can prove, to a fact which proves itself. II. That if this were the intention of the house of commons, it must have defeated itself. The burgesses of Lynn could never have known their error, much less could they have corrected it by any instruction they received from the proceedings of the house of commons. They might, perhaps, have foreseen, that if they returned Mr. Walpole again, he would again be rejected; but they never could infer, from a resolution by which the candidate with the fewest votes was declared not duly elected, that, at a future election, and in similar circumstances, the house of commons would reverse their resolution, and receive the same candidate as duly elected, whom they had before rejected. Junius's state of the question, he should have shown the fallacy of it, or given us a more exact one; secondly, that, considering the many hours and days which the ministry and their advocates have wasted in public debate, in compiling large quartos, and collecting innumerable precedents, expressly to prove that the late proceedings of the house of commons are warranted by the law, custom, and practice of parliament, it is rather an extraordinary supposi tion to be made by one of their own party, even for the sake of argument, that no such statute, no such custom of parliament, no such case in point, can be produced. G. A. may, however, make the supposition with safety. It contains nothing but literally the fact; except that there is a case exactly in point with a decision of the house diametrically opposite to that which the present house of commons came to in favor of Mr. Luttrell. The ministry now begin to be ashamed of the weakness of their cause; and, as it usually happens with falsehood, are driven to the necessity of shining their ground, and changing their whole defense. At first we were told, that nothing could be clearer than that the proceedings of the house of commons were justified by the known law and uniform custom of parliament. But now, it seems, if there be no law, the house of commons have a right to make one; and if there be no precedcnt, they have a right to create the first: for this, I presume, is the amount of the question proposed to Junius. If your correspondent had been at all versed in the law of parliament, or generally in the laws of this country, he would have seen that this defense is as weak and false as the former. This, indeed, would have been a most extraordinary way of declaring the law of parliament, and what, I presume, no man, whose understanding is not at cross purposes with itself, could possibly understand. If, in a case of this importance, I thought myself at liberty to argue from suppositions rather than from facts, I think the probability, in this instance, is directly the reverse of what the ministry affirm; and that it is much more likely that the house of commons, at that time, would rather have strained a point The privileges of either house of parliament, it is in favor of Mr. Taylor, than that they would have true, are indefinite: that is, they have not been deviolated the law of parliament, and robbed Mr. Tay-scribed or laid down in any one code or declaration lor of a right legally vested in him, to gratify a re-whatsoever; but, whenever a question of privilege fractory borough, which, in defiance of them, had returned a person branded with the strongest mark of the displeasure of the house. has arisen, it has invariably been disputed or maintained upon the footing of precedents alone.* In the course of the proceedings upon the Aylesbury But really, sir, this way of talking (for I cannot election, the house of lords resolved, "That neither call it argument) is a mockery of the common un-house of parliament had any power, by any vote or derstanding of the nation, too gross to be endured. declaration, to create to themselves any new priviOur dearest interests are at stake. An attempt has lege, that was not warranted by the known laws and been made, not merely to rob a single country of its customs of parliament." And to this rule, the house rights, but, by inevitable consequence, to alter the of commons, though otherwise they had acted in a constitution of the house of commons. This fatal very arbitrary manner, gave their assent; for they attempt has succeeded, and stands as a precedent re-affirmed that they had guided themselves by it in corded for ever. If the ministry are unable to de-asserting their privileges. Now, sir, if this be true, fend their cause by fair argument, founded on facts, let them spare us, at least, the mortification of being amused and deluded, like children. I believe there is yet a spirit of resistance in this country, which will not submit to be oppressed; but I am sure there is a fund of good sense in this country, which cannot be deceived. LETTER XVII. JUNIUS. TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER. SIR, August 1, 1769. It will not be necessary for Junius to take the trouble of answering your correspondent G. A. or the quotation from a speech without doors, published in your paper of the 28th of last month. The speech appeared before Junius's letter; and, as the author seems to consider the great proposition on which all his argument depends, viz., that Mr. Wilkes was under that known legal incapacity of which Junius speaks, as a point granted, his speech is in no shape an answer to Junius, for this is the very question in debate. As to G. A. I observe, first that if he did not admit with respect to matters of privilege, in which the house of commons, individually, and as a body, are principally concerned, how much more strongly will it hold against any pretended power in that house to create or declare a new law, by which not only the rights of the house over their own member and those of the member himself, are included, but also those of a third and separate party; I mean the freeholders of the kingdom! To do justice to the ministry, they have not yet pretended that any one, or any two, of the three estates, have power to make a new law, without the concurrence of the third. They know, that a man who maintains such a doctrine, is liable, by statute, to the heaviest penalties. They do not acknowledge that the house of commons have assumed a new privilege, or declared a new law. On the contrary, they affirm that their proceedings have been strictly conformable to, and founded upon, the ancient law and custom of parliament. Thus, there fore, the question returns to the point at which Junius had fixed it, viz. Whether or no this be the law of parliament? If it be not, the house of com *This is still meeting the ministry upon their own natural injustice, or violation of positive rights. ground; for, in truth, no precedents will support either |