circumstanced; when the judges in general, and Lord Mansfield in particular, are there hung out to public scorn and detestation, now that libellers receive no countenance from men high in power, and in the public esteem; what will be the consequence when it is publicly known, that they have been arraigned, and that their friends quashed the inquiry which it was proposed to make upon their conduct? * * I cannot help thinking that it is the wish of Lord Mansfield himself to have his conduct examined, nay, I collect as much from the language of a gentleman who may be supposed to know his sentiments. What foundation, then, is there for obstructing the inquiry? None at all. It is a pleasure to me to see my noble friend discovering such symptoms of conscious innocence. His ideas perfectly coincide with my own. I would never oppose the minutest scrutiny into my behavior. However much condemned by the envy or malice of enemies, I would at least show that I stood acquitted in my own mind, and quis fugit judicium ipso teste, reus est." That these observations were not part of a vein of satire and invective, as Mr. Coventry calls it, running throughout the whole speech under the mask of friendship for Lord Mansfield, must be obvious to every reader; and in proof of this we have only to refer to Lord Sackville's dying declaration to Lord Mansfield, which he made at Tunbridge Wells, in the presence of Mr. Cumberland. Lord Sackville sent Cumberland for Lord Mansfield, who immediately obeyed the summons of his friend. Having just dismounted from his horse, and had time to recover his breath, Lord Sackville addressed his visitor in the following words :-" But, my good Lord, though I ought not to have imposed upon you the painful ceremony of paying a last visit to a dying man, yet so great was my anxiety to return you my unfeigned thanks for all your goodness to me, all the kind protection you have shown me during my unprosperous life, that I could not know you were so near me, and not write to assure you of the invariable respect I have entertained for your character, and now in the most serious manner to solicit your forgiveness if I have appeared in your eyes, at any moment of my life, unjust to your great merits, or forgetful of your many favors."* Lord Mansfield made a reply perfectly becoming, says Cumberland, and highly satisfactory. Having exhibited in his speech of the 28th March, 1776, much knowledge of American affairs, Lord George Sackville was publicly thanked for his observations, which Lord North went so far as to characterize "as worthy of so great a mind." He now voted with the Government against his friends in the opposition; and so high was the value which was put upon his support, that Lord North resolved to remove Lord Dartmouth, and his Majesty appointed Lord George Sackville Secretary of State for the AmeriJunius--a deserter of the opposition,—a can Colonies on the 7th September, 1775 !— Secretary of State,-the friend of the Sovereign whom he had maligned,―asking and receiving favors from the Crown, and inexorable to the calls of humanity and justice, by supporting the king in his determination to prosecute the American war to the uttermost! This is incredible. Lord George occupied this unfortunate position, till the year 1782. The surrender of the British troops at York Town, led to the termination of the American war, and when the peace was concluded, Lord George resigned his office, and in 1782 was created a British Peer, with the title of Viscount Sackville-" one of the few peerages," says Wraxall, "which, in the course of half a century, George III. has been allowed to confer wholly independent of ministerial intervention or recommendation, from the impulse of his own inclination."* Lord Sackville did not long survive this honor. His enemies in the House of Lords denounced this act of the Sovereign as derogatory to the House; and some of them even pronounced it to be "an insult to their Lordships to see a person created a peer whose disgrace was entered in the orderly books of every British regiment." Lord Shelburne (the friend of Junius) declared that he had suffered many professional injuries from the person (Lord Sackville) who was the subject of debate, and that smarting with a sense of those injuries at the time, a sort of enmity had taken place between ̧ him and the person in question! The attempt, twice made, to obtain a decision of the Peers against his promotion completely failed, and Lord Sackville spent the rest of his days in calm resignation to the persecution which he had suffered, kind to all around him, and regularly and respectfully attentive to his He died on the 26th religious duties. of his August, 1785, in the 69th year age. Such was the Junius of Mr. Coventry, Mr. Butler, and Mr. Jaques. Such was Lord The King and Lord Mansfield knew who Junius was. This fact we state on the very highest authority. ren Hastings. These letters related to the affairs of India; and though many of them were hurried notes, bearing only Macleane's initials, yet they were vigorously and elegantly written, and contained passages such as might have been expected from Junius. One of these began with the following sentence:-"I shall follow your advice, my dear sir, implicitly. The feelings of the man are not fine, but he must be chafed into sensation." This and other similar passages were shown to Mr. Macpherson of Belle leane was mentioned in Galt's Life of West in connection with that of Junius. A copy of the book was immediately sent for, when to the great surprise of the parties the following passage was discovered : After these details we need not say much more about the claims of Lord George Sack-ville, who recollected that the name of Macville. His Lordship himself stated to a friend that "he should be proud to be capable of writing as Junius had done, but that there were many passages in his letters which he should be very sorry to have written;" and not many days before his death he said to Mr. Cumberland," by way of jest," that he was among the suspected authors of Junius. Mr. Cumberland adds, "I did not want him to disavow it, for there could be no occasion to disprove an absolute impossibility;" and he might have added, that there was less occasion for its disavowal after his farewell address to Lord Mansfield. To these observations we shall only add, that those who give credit to the statement of the Marquis of Lansdowne to Sir Richard Phillips, or who believe that Junius wrote the Letter to a Brigadier-General, or the famous miscellaneous letter dated 22d October, 1767, in which the cowardice of Lord George Sackville is mentioned, will acquit this nobleman of any share in the productions of Junius. "An incident," says Mr. Galt, "of a curious nature has brought him (Mr. West) to be a party, in some degree, in the singular question respecting the mysterious author of the celebrated letthese famous invectives appeared, his friend, Govters of Junius. On the morning that the first of ernor Hamilton, happened to call; and inquiring the news, Mr. West informed him of that bold and daring epistle. Ringing for his servant at the same time, he desired the newspaper to be Hamilton read it over with great brought in. attention; and when he had done, laid it on his knees in a manner that particularly attracted the notice of the painter, who was standing at his easel. This letter,' said Hamilton, in a tone of vehement feeling, 'is by that d-d scoundrel Macleane.' What Macleane ?' inquired Mr. West. The surgeon of Otway's regiment; the fellow who attacked me so violently in the Philadelphia newspapers, on account of the part I felt it my duty to take against one of the officers. This letter is by him. I know these very words. I may well remember them;' and he read over several phrases and sentiments which Macleane employed against him. Mr. West then informed the Governor that Macleane was in the country, and that he was personally acquainted with him. He came over,' said Mr. West, with Colonel Barré, by whom he was introduced to Lord Shelburne, (afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne,) and is at present private secretary to his lordship.'"+ We come now to call the attention of our readers to the claims of a new candidate for the honors of Junius-Colonel Lauchlin, or Laughlin Macleane. This gentleman, like many of the other competitors, was supposed by several of his private friends to be Junius, but his pretensions were never brought before the public. His name was first mentioned by Almon in the introduction to his edition of Junius, but it has never appeared in any of the lists of the "false Juniuses" which are to be found in every work on the subject. Upwards of thirty years ago, when Sir David Brewster was looking over the Prior, in his Life of Goldsmith, makes the folof the late James Macpherson, Esq., papers M.P., he found several letters addressed to lowing reference to this event:-"In 1761, while Macleane was surgeon to Otway's regiment, quarhim with the signature of L. Macleane, and tered in Philadelphia, a quarrel took place with the bearing the dates of 1776-7, a few years Governor, against whom Macleane, who was a man after Junius ceased to write. Mr. Macpher- of superior talents, wrote a paper distinguished by son and Colonel Macleane were agents for ability and severity, which drew general attention. Colonel Barré, subsequently so well known in politthe Nabob of Arcot, and Colonel Macleane ical life, then serving there with his regiment, and was the friend and confidential agent of War-who was probably involved in the quarrel, is said * All the colleges and repositories of newspapers in America have been ransacked in vain for the paper containing this attack upon Governor Hamil ton. This remarkable anecdote, taken in connection with the casual discovery of Macleane's letters, induced Sir David Brewster to enter upon an inquiry foreign to his own studies, but not without an interest to those who like himself were admirers of the writings of Junius. In this inquiry he has been engaged for nearly thirty years; and though he does not pretend to have identified Macleane with Junius, he believes that in favor of no other candidate can such an amount of evidence be produced. Lauchlin Macleane was born in the county of Antrim in 1727 or 1728. His father, John Macleane, was a nonjuring clergyman, nearly connected with the Macleanes of Coll, and was driven from Scotland in consequence of his attachment to the exiled family, and of his refusal, along with many others, to pray for King George the First and the royal family. This must have taken place previous to 1726, for he married after he arrived in Ireland, and took up his residence in the north of Ireland, near Belfast. He was a man robust in stature and independent in his principles, and he had occasion to exhibit both these qualities during his residence in Scotland.* When he was one day coming out of church, a quarrel arose between him and some officers of the army, who had no doubt been chiding him for his disloyalty. After some altercation, they told him that nothing but his coat prevented them from giving him a good beating. Macleane immediately threw off his coat, exclaiming, "Lie you there, Divinity, and Macleane will do for himself," and gave the officers a sound drubbing. After the Rebellion in 1715, "the criminal records of Scotland were for some years engrossed with prosecutions against Episcopalian clergymen," who refused to pray for the King; and in a prosecution of one of these clergymen in Edinburgh, so late as the year 1755, it was stated by the Judge on the bench, "that nonjuring Episcopalian clergymen of the prisoner's activity were dangerous to the present happy establishment!" Thus driven from the house of his father, and forced to seek an asylum in a sisterland, an ardent mind like that of John Macleane must have cherished strong feelings of dislike and even hatred against the dominant party by whom he was persecuted; and in to have formed a regard for him in consequence of the part he took."-Vol. ii. p. 150. *This anecdote was communicated to us by the late Alexander Macleane, Esq., of Coll. the legacy of revenge which he doubtless bequeathed to his son, we see the origin, if he were Junius, of that unconquerable hatred of Scotland and the Scotch which rankled in his breast. In no other candidate for the mask of Junius can we find such powerful reasons for his bitter and never-ending anathemas against our country. Mr. Macleane does not seem to have remained in the Church, for we find him characterized as a gentleman of small fortune. Lauchlin, his second son, was sent, in 1745 or 1746, from a school near Belfast to Trinity College, Dublin,* where he became acquainted with Burke and Goldsmith. He afterwards went to Edinburgh to study medicine; and on the 4th January, 1756,† he was introduced by Goldsmith to the Medical Society, of which he became a member. Goldsmith having become surety for the debts of a fellow-student which he was unable to pay, was about to be thrown into prison, when the liberality of Macleane and of another fellow-student, Mr. Sleigh, relieved him from this distressing embarrassment. After completing his medical course, he obtained the degree of M.D. on the 6th of August, 1755; and some time after this he entered the army as surgeon to Otway's regiment (the 35th.) We have not been able to learn if Macleane was in any of the expeditions to North America, which were fitted out in 1757 or 1758, but we know that he accompanied the celebrated expedition in 1759, when Wolfe fell on the heights of Abraham, and the command of the British troops devolved upon Brigadier-General Townshend. Major Barré and his countryman Macleane shared in the dangers and honors of that eventful day, and had their illustrious commander survived the battle, Barré would have been the bearer of the despatches, and would have received promotion. Barré had, by his conduct at the siege of Louisburg, gained the approbation of General Sir Jeffery Amherst; and upon the surrender of Montreal, on the 8th September, 1760, he was made the bearer of the despatches to Government. * The following is the entry in the College Register:"1745, (1746,) Maii 29°. Lauchlin MacLeane Pens.:-Filius Johanni Generosi-Annum agens 18-Natus in Comitatu Antrim-Educatus sub Ferula, Mro. Dennison.--Tutor, Mr. Read.” It is a curious fact that Macleane and Barré and Goldsmith were all residing in Scotland at the same time. His Thesis, entitled Dissertatio Medica Inauguralis de Erysipelate, was dedicated to the Duke of Hamilton. Brigadier-General Townshend was unpop-pointed governor of New York, and in De ular in the army, and particularly obnoxious cember of the same year he left that city to Barré and Macleane, and the other friends with a strong force for the reduction of Marof Wolfe. According to Horace Walpole, tinique. Otway's regiment was part of the "he, and his friends for him, attempted to eleven battalions which went from New York ravish the honors of the conquest from Wolfe. for this purpose, and Macleane accompanied Townshend's first letter said nothing in praise the general as his private secretary. The of him. In one to the Speaker of the House, English fleet, rendezvoused at Barbadoes, he went so far as to assume the glory of the came before Martinique on the 7th January, last efforts, * * *; and in other more 1762, and obtained possession of it on the private despatches, he was still more ex- 4th February. After the reduction of the plicit.”* Irritated by this selfish and un- French West India Islands, and the peace of generous conduct, the friends of Wolfe, and 1762 which followed it, the regiments to who could they be but Barré or Macleane, which Barré and Macleane belonged were drew up and published, in 1760, the cele- disbanded. We have not been able to obbrated Letter to a Brigadier-General, already tain much information about Macleane after mentioned, which so clearly resembles in its the taking of Martinique. He seems to have temper, and style, and sentiments, the Let- settled in Philadelphia as a physician, and to ters of Junius. If Junius, therefore, wrote have remained there for some years. A this letter, all the arguments of Mr. Britton gentleman in Philadelphia mentions "Dr. in favor of Barré's being the author of it, and Laughlin Macleane and his lady as acquainttherefore Junius, are equally applicable to ances of his grandfather, and visitors at his Macleane; and if we have proved that Barré house some time between 1761 and 1766."* could not be Junius, it follows that, under Mr. Prior informs us, that when in Philadelthese assumptions, Macleane is entitled to phia Macleane acquired great medical reputhat distinction. This conclusion we may tation, followed by its common attendant, fairly corroborate by a reference to one of envy, from the less fortunate of his brethren, the miscellaneous letters, signed A Faithful and he gives us the following anecdote of Monitor, and ascribed to Junius, although him, which Almon quotes as an example of there is no sufficient evidence that he wrote it. what he terms "true magnanimity." But as it is possible, and to a certain degree rival practitioner, extremely jealous of his probable, that it may prove genuine, we are successor, who had adopted every means, not entitled to add this indeterminate quantity to excepting the most unfair, of injuring his our argument. "I am not a stranger to this credit, was at length afflicted by the dangerpar nobile fratrum, (Lord Townshend, and ous illness of an only son; a consultation behis brother Charles, then Chancellor of the came necessary; and as possessing the first Exchequer.) I have served under the one, character for professional skill, Mr. Macleane and have been forty times promised to be served was solicited to attend. His zeal proved unby the other." Now, who but Barré or remitting; he sat up with the patient many Macleane is likely to have written this sen-nights, and chiefly by his sagacity and indetence ? They both served under Lord Townshend; and though it is not probable that Barré could have been promised any situation under the Chancellor of the Exchequer, it is very likely that Macleane might have received such a promise. Early in 1761 General Monckton was ap Horace Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of George II., vol. iii. p. 222, 2d edition, 1846. Mr. Jaques, in the early part of his volume, interprets this passage as declaring, that Charles Townshend had forty times promised to serve under the Faithful Monitor, or Junius, without availing himself of this perversion of very plain words; but he afterwards makes use of it as an argument in favor of Lord George Sackville, under whom he thinks Charles Townshend might have promised to serve! The passage has no application in favor of Sir Philip Francis.-See Jaques Hist. of Junius, pp. 136 and 370. "A fatigable efforts, succeeded beyond expectation in restoring the young man to health; refusing all consideration for his labors, and saying to his friends, 'Now am I amply revenged.' It appears to have been in 1761, before he accompanied General Monckton to Mar "The latter (Mrs. Macleane) rarely missed a day, when the weather was favorable, of calling upon her country woman, my grandmother; and I well remember she was always attended by a small white dog, enormously fat, in which quality he even exceeded his mistress, who yielded to few of her species and sex in the possession of an enviable embonpoint. The doctor was considered to have great skill in his profession, as well as to be a man of wit and general information, but I have never known a person who had a more distressing impediment in his speech."-Memoirs of a Life chiefly passed in Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, 1811. Chap. ii. Mr. West states, and we have elsewhere met with a similar statement, that Macleane came over to England in the same ship with Col. Barré, who had formed such a high opinion of his talents and acquirements, that he introduced him to Lord Shelburne, who appointed him his private secretary. In 1776, Macleane met Barry, the painter,* at Paris, and had an opportunity of being useful to him on his way to Italy; and Burke, in one of his letters to Barry, written in the beginning of 1767, informs him "that Macleane is Under Secretary in Lord Shelburne's office, and that there is no doubt but he will be, as he deserves, well patronized there." consent or approval, as thinking it quite con trary to the King's service. He has a great regard and friendship for him, and thinks his abilities make him necessary in the office he is in, to the carrying on of his Majesty's business. My Lord would think either (viz., that of Sir Jeffery Amherst also) most unhappy and very unfortunate for his Majesty's service."* The Duke of Grafton, however, was determined that Lord Shelburne should resign, and accordingly Lord Chatham and Lord Shelburne retired from the Ministry on the 21st October, 1768. Macleane of course followed the fate of his chief, and doubtless felt keenly his dismissal from the honors and emoluments of office. In less than three months Junius launched his first formidable philippic against the Ministry. Can it be doubted that this attack emanated from Lord Shelburne's party? Lord Shelburne, Barré, and Macleane were the principal persons aggrieved by the change in the Ministry, and it is among them alone that Junius can be found. The whole of Mr. Britton's facts and reasonings confirm this opinion, and we are left only to choose between Barré and Macleane. Having been Lord Shelburne's private In these proceedings the King had taken secretary, and afterwards his Under Secretary an active part, and so early as May, 1767, his for the Southern Department, Macleane had Majesty speaks of Lord Shelburne's party now embarked on a political career which as a hydra-faction," and Lord Shelburne must have led to wealth and honors; but in himself as "a secret enemy." The conduct consequence of the Duke of Grafton's in- of the King therefore could not but irritate trigues in the Cabinet, all his prospects were the friends of Lord Chatham and Lord blasted. So early as July, 1768," the Bed- Shelburne, and it was doubtless to the strong fords" had begun to persecute Lord Shel- feeling which it engendered that we owe the burne. The King preferring Mr. Lynch, re- celebrated address to the King, which forms fused to confirm his nomination of Lord so conspicuous a feature in the history of Tankerville to be Resident Minister at Turin, Junius. From 1768 to 1771, during the and Lord Shelburne was so indignant at his greater part of the time the Letters of Jurefusal, that he would have resigned, had not nius were publishing, Macleane sat in Parliathe Chancellor, Lord Camden, "persuaded ment for the borough of Arundel, but owing him to the contrary." In August "the re- to an impediment in his speech, he was moval of Lord Shelburne was proposed in not distinguished as a speaker, and his great the closet and objected to;" but his enemies talents were therefore to a considerable extent seem to have prevailed, for in September, Mr. concealed from the public. He was the Lynch was appointed Envoy Extraordinary friend of Lord Shelburne and Barré, and to the King of Sardinia. Lord Chatham had from the former he could easily obtain all resolved, under these circumstances, to resign, that knowledge of what was going on at and in mentioning his resolution to the Duke Court which Junius possessed in so remarkaof Grafton on the 12th October, he added, ble a degree. That Macleane had this "that he could not enough lament the remov- knowledge was believed by his contemporaing of Sir Jeffery Amherst, (from the gov-ries, for when Major Campbell wished to ernment of Virginia,) and that of Lord show how Hugh Boyd, whom he believed to Shelburne." Lady Chatham had told the Duke of Grafton "that Lord Shelburne's removal would never have Lord Chatham's * Prior's Life of Burke, vol. i. p. 208. Chatham's Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 337, note. + Dated January 21, 1769. The King's Letter to the Earl of Chatham, May 30, 1767, published in Chatham's Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 206. |