INCLUDING LETTERS BY THE SAME WRITER · UNDER OTHER SIGNATURES; TO WHICH ARE ADDED HIS CONFIDENTIAL CORRESPONDENCE WITH MR. WILKES, BY JOHN WADE, AUTHOR OF "A CHRONOLOGY OF BRITISH HISTORY," VOL. II. LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. PREFACE. The present Volume comprises all the Letters known to be written by the Author of Junius under other signatures, or which have hitherto been ascribed to him. Several of these are now considered spurious; but it has been deemed ad visable to republish every letter given in Woodfall's edition, rather than exercise any discretion in expunging what may have acquired interest with many, and, with some, is still matter of controversy. THE PRIVATE LETTERS OF JUNIUS, addressed to Woodfall, as printer of the Public Advertiser, are valuable not only for the light they throw on the progress of this remarkable correspondence, but also for the glimpses they afford of the movements and character of their long inscrutable author. The terseness and force with which these brief notes are penned, are strikingly significant of the energy and resolute purpose of the writer. THE LETTERS OF JUNIUS TO WILKES merit careful perusal. They are recommended by clearness and vigour of style, as well as excellent sense and a sound appreciation of constitutional principles. The replies of Wilkes place him in a favourable light, and evince a power of reasoning and a regard for enlightened principles of government, greater than might have been inferred from his giddy and dissolute career. THE MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS possess several claims to notice. In them may be discerned the first agitation of public questions which Junius subsequently discussed more effectively, and in more elaborate and polished diction. They are not all, however, believed to be from the pen of Junius; and in the notes it has been attempted to distinguish such as are indisputably his from those which cannot be affiliated with certainty. Newspaper correspondence had an authority and interest in the time of Junius which it no longer possesses, and the Miscellaneous Letters derive a value from the illustration they afford of this antecedent phase of journalism At this period existed none of those leading articles or elaborate commentaries on public questions, which now occupy so prominent a place in our daily papers. The correspondents of the press were then the only writers of political communications which bore the character of leaders; and, as reports of the debates were not permitted, members of either house suffered equally with the people in possessing no common channel by which the one could learn, and the other convey |