Treasury has lately gained a thousand pounds in a very common and usual manner, which is yet likely to be attended with a very uncommon and unusual consequence. Mr. applied to the right honourable Mr. for his interest for a certain lucrative post in America. The gentleman was informed that a thousand pounds, placed in the hands of Mrs. would insure him the place. Mr. not having the money, prevailed on Colonel to join with him in a bond for that sum to the lady to whom he was directed. So far, Sir, all is in the common track: what follows is the wonderful part of the transaction. This Lord of the Treasury kept his word, and the gentleman was appointed to the office he had paid for! And stranger still, Lord who discovered this bargain and sale, is offended at it, and insists on the dismission of this Lord of the Treasury. Now, Sir, I must intreat you to favour one of your constituents with the name of this Lord of the Treasury, for you, no doubt, who sit at that Board yourself, must be acquainted with him.

"Ash Court, July 11.

ANOTHER FREEHOLDER OF SURREY."

To this letter Mr. Onslow made the following reply, which was published in the same newspaper, July 18 ensuing.

66 TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER.

"SIR, "July 16. "HAVING just now read a letter containing, by evident insinuation, a most audacious attack upon my character, printed by you, in your paper of Friday last, asserting a gross and infamous lie from beginning to end; I do hereby publicly call upon you to name the person from whom you received the account you have presumed to publish. If you are either unable or unwilling to do this, I shall most certainly treat you as the author, and, in justice both to myself and others who are every day thus malignantly and wickedly vilified, shall take the best advice in the law if an action will not lie for such atrocious defamation, and if I may not hope to make an example of the author of it.

"The scurrility in general which has been of late so heaped upon me in the public papers I have hitherto treated with the contempt my friends and myself thought it deserved, and suffered it to pass with impunity; but this last is so outrageous, and tends so much to wound my character and honour in the tenderest part, that I am determined, if practicable, to see if a jury will not do me and the public justice against such a libeller, and whether they will not think the robbing an innocent man of his character is a robbery of the most dangerous kind, and that the perpetrators of it will stick at nothing. "For the present I must content myself with only laying before the public the two following letters, which will explain to them all the knowledge I had of the detestable fraud, which has been taken advantage of to charge me with corruption; a crime which, of all others, I hold the most in abhorrence. I defy the whole world to prove a single word in your libellous letter to be true, or that the whole is not a barefaced, positive, and entire lie. That it is so I do assert, and I call upon any body, if they can, to disprove what "GEORGE ONSLOW."

I say.

Copy of a Letter to Mr. Onslow, received the 27th of June. "SIR, "New Bond Street, June 25, 1769. "I BEG you will pardon my thus addressing you, a liberty I could not think of, was anything less than my family's bread at stake. Some weeks past my husband paid a large sum of money (which gave us inexpressible sorrow to raise) to a party who protest they are empowered by you to insure him, in return, the collectorship of Piscataway in New Hampshire. I have been told this day one Hughes is in possession of the same, and the Treasury books confirm the news. I beg leave most earnestly to intreat you will inform me whether Mr. Hughes is under any engagement to resign, or whether we are duped by those who have taken our money.

"Mr. Burns has had the strongest recommendations from persons of undoubted veracity, and I believe, on all accounts, will be found to be perfectly capable and worthy of the employment.

"Once more I intreat, good Sir, you will excuse this trouble, which is caused by a heart almost broken with the fear and terror of a disappointment. With the profoundest respect,

"I am, Sir,

"Your most obedient humble Servant,
"MARY BURNS."

Mr. Onslow's Answer.

66 'MADAM, "Ember Court, June 27, 1769. "YOUR letter was brought down to me hither only to-day, or I should have answered it sooner. Without having the honour of being known to you or Mr. Burns, it gives me much concern that any body should be so imposed upon as you have been, and as much indignation that my name should be made so infamous a use of. I should have been under an equal degree of surprise, had I not this morning had some intimation of the matter from Mr. Pownal and Mr. Bradshaw, and made some inquiry into it of Mr. Watkins at Charing Cross, with a determination to sift this shocking scene of villany to the bottom, and which I shall now be encouraged in by the hopes of getting you your money restored to you, as well as the earnest desire I have to bring the perpetrators of this roguery to the punishment and shame they deserve.

"For this purpose, might I beg the favour of Mr. Burns to meet me at my house in Curzon Street, about ten o'clock on Friday morning. I will go with him to Mr. Pownal's, of which I have given him notice; and I wish Mr. Burns would bring with him Mr. Watkins, or any body else that can give light into this unhappy and wicked affair.

"Till this morning I never in my life heard a single word of either the office itself, nor of any of the parties concerned. You will judge then of my astonishment, and indeed horror, at hearing of it to-day from Mr. Bradshaw.

"I am, Madam, &c.,

"GEORGE ONSLOW."

"Since writing of the above letters, more of this fraud has been detected, and further inquiry is making, in order to bring the actors in it to justice. A woman of the name of Smith, who lives near Broad Street, is the person

who appears to be principally concerned in the fraud, the money being, it seems, for her use."

The writer of the first address, now authorizing the printer to give Mr. Onslow his name, (which he did, and which was that of the Rev. John Horne,) once more attacked the Right Honourable Gentleman as follows, in the same paper, July 28.

"TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE ONSLOW.

"GOOD SIR,

"IF with another INNOCENT man, Lord Holland, you were ambitious to add to the list of Mr. Walpole's right honourable authors, you might, like him, have exposed yourself with more temper, and have called names in better English.

"I should be sorry to libel you by mistaking your meaning, but the strange manner of wording your first sentence leaves me at a loss to know whether you intend that my letter, or your own character is a gross and in

famous lie from beginning to end.'

"You may save yourself the expense of taking the best advice in the law.' Depend upon it you can never hope to make an example of the author, when the publisher is unable or unwilling to give up his name.' And you need not wait for a jury to determine, that robbing a man is certainly a robbery. But you should have considered some months since that it is the same thing whether the man be guilty or innocent; and whether he be robbed of his reputation or of his seat in parliament.

"In the Public Advertiser of Friday, July 14, there is a letter FROM YOU as well as to you. If that is the scurrility you speak of, I agree with you that it has been treated with the contempt it deserves by all the world; but how you can say that it has passed with impunity, I own I cannot conceive, unless indeed you are of opinion with those hardened criminals who think that, because there is no corporal sufferance in it, the being gibbeted in chains and exposed as a spectacle makes no part of their punishment.

6

"The letter written by you to Mr. Wilkes tends more to wound your character and honour' than any other, and yet you pass it over in silence. But you shall, if you please, prove to the world that those who have neither character nor honour may still be wounded in a very tender part-their interest. And I believe Lord Hillsborough is too noble to suffer any Lord of the Treasury to prostitute his name and commission to bargains like that I have exposed; but will, if he continues to preside at the Board of Trade, resolutely insist either on such Lord's full justification or dismission. Hinc illa lachrymæ.

"You defy the whole world to prove a single word in my letter to be true; or that the whole is not a barefaced, positive, and entire lie.' The language of the last part of the sentence is such as I can make no use of, and therefore I return it back on you to whom it belongs: the defiance in the first part I accept, and will disprove what you say.

"My letter can only be false in one particular, for it contains only one affirmation, namely, that I heard the story I relate from very good authority. It then concludes with a question to you of who is this Lord of the Treasury that so abhors corruption? Which question since you have

VOL. II.

C

answered, I too will gratify you, and in return for yours do hereby direct the printer to give you my name; which, humble as it is, I should not consent to exchange with you in any other manner.

"Now, Sir, I do again affirm that I heard the story from the best authority. and that it is not my invention your own letter is a proof, for I might have heard it either from Mrs. Burns, or from Mr. Pownal, or Mr. Bradshaw; but I heard it from better authority. I go further. I do still believe the story as I related it to be true; nor has anything you have said convinced me to the contrary. I do not mean to charge you or any one; but since you have condescended to answer my former question, be kind enough to explain what follows.

"Mr. Pownal is secretary to the Board of Trade. Mr. Bradshaw is secretary to the Treasury. Why did these two secretaries come together to you? Were they sent by their principals or not? Who first detected this very scandalous though very common traffic? Has not Lord Hillsborough that honour? And is not your exaggerated 'abhorrence of corruption, your astonishment, and indeed HORROR, at this shocking scene of villany' vastly heightened by the calm, and therefore unsuspected disapprobation of his Lordship, who does not seem to think with you that every whore should be hanged alive, but only that they should be TURNED OUT of honest company? "How came you so instantly to entertain hopes of getting the money restored to Mrs. Burns? when you declared that, 'till that morning, you never in your life heard a single word of either the office itself, nor of any of the parties concerned.' Jonathan Wild.used to return such answers, because he knew the theft was committed by some of his own gang.

"You pretend to have given to the public all the knowledge you have of this detestable fraud.' I cannot believe it, because I find nothing in your letter on which to found your hopes of restoring the money to Mrs. Burns; and especially because in three weeks after this letter, i. e. from June 27 to July 18, you have only discovered that Mrs. Smith appears to be principally concerned in this detestable fraud, the money being, it seems, for her use.' Sir, do you not know WHOSE wife Mrs. Smith is? and are you not acquainted with that gentleman? Have you caused Mrs. Smith or any one else to be taken into custody? Have you taken the best advice in law, and are you determined to see if a jury will not do you and the public justice' for this detestable fraud? Or is there yet left one crime which you abhor more than corruption, and for which you reserve all your indignation? But why this anger? He that is innocent can easily prove himself to be so, and should be thankful to those who give him the opportunity by making a story public. Malicious and false slander never acts in this open manner, but seeks the covert, and cautiously conceals itself from the party maligned in order to prevent a justification. If any person have done your character an injury by a charge of corruption, they are most guilty who so thoroughly believed you capable of that crime as to pay a large sum of money on the supposition (an indignity which I protest I would not have offered to you, though you had negotiated the matter and given the promise yourself): and yet I do not find you at all angry with them when they tell you their opinion of you without scruple. On the contrary, you pity Mrs. Burns in the kindest manner, which shows plainly that your honour is not like Caesar's wife. Nay, you seem almost to doubt whether you might beg the

favour of Mr. Burns to meet you at your house in Curzon Street;' that is, you humbly solicit Mr. Burns to do you the favour of accepting your assistance in the recovery of his money. Archbishop Laud thought to clear himself to posterity from all aspersions relative to popery, by inserting in his diary his refusal of a cardinal's hat; not perceiving the disgrace indelibly fixed on him by the offer. 'Mr. Burns has had the strongest recommendations from persons of undoubted veracity, and I believe on all accounts will be found to be perfectly capable and worthy the employment.' The letter from Mrs. Burns to you does by no means declare her to be an idiot. Colonel (whom you forbear to mention) is a man of sense, and well acquainted with the world. It is strange they should all three believe you capable of this crime, which of all others you most hold in abhorrence.' Mr. Pownal, Mr. Bradshaw, and their principals, are supposed to know something of men and things, and therefore I conclude they did not believe you concerned in this business: though I wonder much that, not believing it, both the secretaries should wait on you so seriously about it but perhaps they may think, that when honour and justice are not the rule. of men's actions, there is nothing incredible that may be for their advantage. But, Sir, whatever may be their sentiments of you, I must intreat you to entertain no resentment to me; my opinion of your character would never suffer me to doubt your innocence. If indeed the charge of corruption had been brought against a low and ignorant debauchee, who, without the gratifications and enjoyments of a gentleman, had wasted a noble patrimony amongst the lowest prostitutes; whose necessities had driven him to hawk about a reversion on the moderate terms of one thousand for two hundred; whose desperate situation had made him renounce his principles and desert his friends, those principles and those friends to which he stood indebted for his chief support; who for a paltry consideration had stabbed a DEAR OLD FRIEND, and violated the sacred rights of that grateful country that continued to the son the reward of his father's services: if the charge had been brought against such an one, more fit to receive the public charity than to be trusted with the DISPOSAL and MANAGEMENT of the public money, small proof would have been sufficient; and instead of considering it as a crime the most to be abhorred, we might have suffered corruption to pass amongst the virtues of such a man. But yours, Sir, is a very different character and situation. In the clear and unincumbered possession of the paternal estate with which your ancestors have long been respectable; with a pension of three thousand, and a place of one thousand a year; with the certain prospect of Lord Onslow's large fortune, which your prudence will not anticipate; grateful to your country, faithful to your connections, and firm to your principles, it ought to be as difficult to convict you of corruption, as a cardinal of fornication; for which last purpose, by the canon law, no less than seventy-two eye-witnesses are necessary. Thus, Sir, you see how far I am from casting any reflection on your integrity; however if, notwithstanding all I have said, you are still resolved to try the determination of a jury, take one piece of advice from me: do not think of prosecuting me for an INSINUATION; alter your charge before it comes upon record, to prevent its being done afterwards; for though Lord Mansfield did not know the difference between the words when he substituted the one for the other, we all know very well now