Vaughan, in the court of King's Bench, on account of this attempt upon the integrity of a minister. It was argued, unsuccessfully, in defence of Vaughan, by his counsel, that offices in the Colonies were legally salcable, especially Patent-Offices, such as that which Mr. Vaughan had proposed to purchase. But, the prosecution was suddenly discontinued; and Mr. Vaughan escaped. He was connected with the city-patriots; and had even taken an active part in their most bustling transactions. On this account, he was, of course, the less likely to obtain a good bargain at court. But, for the same reason, he had so much the more of the favour of his patriot friends. They refused, at first, to believe him guilty; and had at last, the bold effrontery to assert, that his guilt, with all its undeniable circumstances, was unimpeachable innocence. This was the case in which the Duke of Grafton was said to have affected the praise of an official purity that did not truly belong to him.

Another patent-place, in the collection of the customs at Exeter, was sold about the same time to a Mr. Hine, for the sum of three thousand and five hundred pounds; which was paid to General Burgoyne, as a secret re-imbursement of his expences in a very disgraceful election-contest at Preston. The circumstances of this transaction became known to the adversaries of the ministry. They were loudly proclaimed and reprobated by JUNIUS, particularly in the two following Letters. The Duke of Grafton was held to be as criminal in the sale, as if the money had been converted to his own personal use. The prosecution of Vaughan was supposed to have been discontinued, in order to quiet the clamour relative to Hine. Vaughan was under prosecution, at the time when the following Letter was published.

29. November, 1769.

MY LORD,

THOUGH my opinion of your Grace's in

tegrity was but little affected by the coyness with

which you received Mr. Vaughan's proposals, I confess I give you some credit for your discretion. You had a fair opportunity of displaying a certain delicacy, of which you had been suspected; and you were in the right to make use of it. By laying in a moderate stock of reputation, you undoubtedly meant to provide for the future necessities of your character, that with an honourable resistance upon record, you might safely indulge your genius, and yield to a favourite inclination with security. But you have discovered your purposes too soon; and, instead of the modest reserve of virtue, have shewn us the termagant chastity of a prude, who gratifies her passions with distinction, and prosecutes one lover for a rape, while she solicits the lewd embraces of another.

Your cheek turns pale; for a guilty conscience tells you, you are undone......Come forward, thou virtuous minister, and tell the world by what interest Mr. Hine has been recommended to so extraordinary a mark of his Majesty's favour; what was the price of the patent he has bought, and to

Have shewn us the termagant chastity of a prude, &c.] A comparison more entertainingly illustrative of the imputation which JUNIUS meant to alledge, could not easily have been found. But, there is good reason for thinking, that the Duke of Grafton was a minister above corruption. The fact in regard to Hine and Burgoyne, ought probably to be regarded as an instance of his acquiescence in favour of another, in what he would have for himself indignantly despised.

what honourable purpose the purchase money has been applied? Nothing less than many thousands could pay Colonel Burgoyne's expences at Preston. Do you dare to prosecute such a creature as Vaughan, while you are basely setting up the Royal Patronage to auction? Do you dare to complain of an attack upon your own honour, while you are selling the favours of the crown, to raise a fund for corrupting the morals of the people? And, do you think it possible such enormities should escape without impeachment? It is, indeed, highly your interest to maintain the present House of Commons. Having sold the nation to you in gross, they will undoubtedly protect you in the detail; for, while they patronize your crimes, they feel for their

own.

JUNIUS.

Do you dare to prosecute such a creature as Vaughan, &c.] The eloquence of this closing paragraph is awfully energetic. Perhaps the whole is not exceeded by any one of those before it. Even its brevity is well adapted to render its impression more forcible. A rhetorician, who should strive to imitate this eloquence, would probably labour in vain. It is the correspondence between the matter and the manner; it is the suitableness of the address to the purpose intended; it is because the exterior forms are filled with the whole soul of eloquence; that we so irresistibly feel, in perusing this Letter, the Orator's power. JUNIUS's invective wears, sometimes, an air of rude ferocity; but not in this instance.

LETTER XXXIV.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.

IN this Letter, JUNIUS repeats the charge he had brought against the Duke of Grafton in that which is immediately preceding; relates the particulars of the fact more in detail; urges a multitude of aggravating circumstances; and boldly calls upon the Duke for explanation or denial. The character of General Burgoyne, falls incidentally in his way; and he neglects not such a fair occasion to treat it with malignant asperity.

MY LORD,

12. December, 1769.

I FIND, with some surprize, that you are not supported as you deserve. Your most determined advocates have scruples about them, which you are unacquainted with; and, though there be nothing too hazardous for your grace to engage in, there are some things too infamous for the vilest prostitute of a news-paper to defend *. In what other manner shall we account for the profound, submissive silence, which you and your friends have ob

*From the publication of the preceding to this date, not one word was said in defence of the infamous Duke of Grafton. But vice and impudence soon recovered themselves, and the sale of the royal favour was openly avowed and defended. We acknow. ledge the piety of St. James's; but what is become of his morality?

The profound, submissive silence, &c.] An answer which should match the eloquence, or confound the boldness of JUNIUS, was not to be made. A silence was, therefore, not unwisely preferred, which might be interpreted to be that of virtuous contempt, just as well as that of conscious guilt.

served upon a charge, which called immediately for the clearest refutation, and would have justified the severest measures of resentment? I did not attempt to blast your character by an indirect ambiguous insinuation; but candidly stated to you a plain fact, which struck directly at the integrity of a privy counsellor, of a first commissioner of the treasury, and of a leading minister, who is supposed to enjoy the first share in his Majesty's confidence *. In every one of these capacities, I employed the most moderate terms to charge you with treachery to your Sovereign, and breach of trust in your office. I accused you of having sold a patent place in the collection of the customs at Exeter, to one Mr. Hine; who, unable or unwilling to deposit the whole purchase-money himself, raised part of it by contribution, and has now a certain Doctor Brooke quartered upon the salary for one hundred pounds a year......No sale by the candle was ever conducted with greater formality......I affirm, that the price at which the place was knocked down(and which, I have good reason to think, was not less than three thousand five hundred pounds) was, with your connivance and consent, paid to Colonel Burgoyne, to reward him, I presume, for the decency of his deportment at Preston; or to reimburse him, perhaps, for the fine of one thousand pounds, which for that very deportment the court of King's Bench thought proper to set upon him......It is not often that the

And by the same means preserves it to this hour.