Banner

The Age of George III

I am happy that you are using this web site and hope that you found it useful. Unfortunately, the cost of making this material freely available is increasing, so if you have found the site useful and would like to contribute towards its continuation, I would greatly appreciate it. Click the button to go to Paypal and make a donation.


The Letters of Junius

Letter IX: To his Grace the Duke of Grafton: 10 April 1769.

[30] MY LORD,  

I HAVE so good an opinion of your Grace's discernment, that when the author of the vindication of your conduct assures us, that he writes from his own mere motion, without the least authority from your Grace, I should be ready enough to believe him, but for one fatal mark, which seems to be fixed upon every measure in which either your personal or political character is concerned. Your first attempt to support Sir William Proctor ended [31] in the election of Mr. Wilkes; the second insured success to Mr. Glynn. The extraordinary step you took to make Sir James Lowther lord paramount of Cumberland, has ruined his interest in that county for ever. The house list of directors was cursed with the concurrence of government; and even the miserable* Dingley could not escape the misfortune of your Grace's protection. With this uniform experience before us, we are authorised to suspect, that, when a pretended vindication of your principles and conduct, in reality, contains the bitterest reflections upon both, it could not have been written without your immediate direction and assistance. The author, indeed, calls God to witness for him, with all the sincerity, and in the very terms, of an Irish evidence, to the best of his knowledge and belief: My Lord, you should not encourage these appeals to heaven. The pious prince from whom you are supposed to descend, made such frequent use of them, in his public declarations, that, at last, the people also found it necessary to appeal to heaven in their turn. Your administration has driven us into circumstances of equal distress: beware, at least, how you remind us of the remedy.

You have already much to answer for. You have provoked this unhappy gentleman to play the fool once more in public life, in spite of his years and infirmities; and to show us, that, as you yourself are a singular instance of youth without spirit, the man who defends you is a no less remarkable example of age without the benefit of experience, To follow such a writer, minutely, would, like his own periods, be labour without end. The subject too has been already discussed, and is sufficiently understood. I cannot help observing, however, that, when the pardon of M'Quirk was the principal charge against you, it would have been but a decent compliment to your Grace's understanding, to have defended you upon your own principles. What credit does a man deserve, who tells us plainly, that the facts set forth in the King's proclamation were not the

* This unfortunate person had been persuaded by the Duke of Grafton to set up for Middlesex, his Grace being determined to seat him in the house of commons, if he had but a single vote. It happened, unluckily, that he could not prevail upon any one freeholder to put him in nomination.

[32] true motives on which the pardon was granted? and that he wishes that those chirurgical reports, which first gave occasion to certain doubts in the royal breast, had not been laid before his majesty? You see, my Lord, that even your friends cannot defend your actions, without changing your principles; nor justify a deliberate measure of government, without contradicting the main assertion on which it was founded.

The conviction of M'Quirk had reduced you to a dilemma in which it was hardly possible for you to reconcile your political interest with your duty. You were obliged either to abandon an active, useful partizan, or to protect a felon from public justice. With your usual spirit you preferred your interest to every other consideration; and, with your usual judgment, you founded your determination upon the only motives which should not have been given to the public.

I have frequently censured Mr. Wilkes's conduct, yet your advocate reproaches me with having devoted myself to the service of sedition. Your Grace can best inform us for which of Mr. Wilkes's good qualities you first honoured him with your friendship; or how long it was before you discovered those bad ones in him, at which, it seems, your delicacy was offended. Remember, my Lord, that you continued your connection with Mr. Wilkes long after he had been convicted of those crimes which you have since taken pains to represent in the blackest colours of blasphemy and treason. How unlucky it is, that the first instance you have given us of a scrupulous regard to decorum, is united with a breach of a moral obligation! For my own part, my Lord, I am proud to affirm, that if I had been weak enough to form such a friendship, I would never have been base enough to betray it. But let Mr. Wilkes's character be what it may, this, at least, is certain, that, circumstanced as he is, with regard to the public, even his vices plead for him. The people of England have too much discernment to suffer your Grace to take advantage of the failings of a private character, to establish a precedent by which the public liberty is affected, and which you may hereafter, with equal ease and satisfaction, employ to the ruin of the best men in the kingdom. Content yourself, my Lord, with the many advantages which the unsullied purity of your own character [33] has given you over your unhappy, deserted friend. Avail yourself of all the unforgiving piety of the court you live in, and bless God that "you are not as other men are; extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." In a heart void of feeling, the laws of honour and good faith may be violated with impunity, and there you may safely indulge your genius: but the laws of England shall not be violated, even by your holy zeal to oppress a sinner; and, though you have succeeded in making him a tool, you shall not make him the victim of your ambition.

JUNIUS.


Table of Contents Previous Next

Meet the web creator

These materials may be freely used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with applicable statutory allowances and distribution to students.
Re-publication in any form is subject to written permission.

Last modified 12 January, 2016

The Age of George III Home Page

Ministerial Instability 1760-70

Lord North's Ministry 1770-82

American Affairs 1760-83

The period of peace 1783-92

The Age of the French Wars 1792-1815 Irish Affairs 1760-89

Peel Web Home Page

Tory Governments 1812-30

Political Organisations in the Age of Peel

Economic Affairs in the Age of Peel

Popular Movements in the Age of Peel

Irish Affairs
1789-1850
 
Primary sources index British Political Personalities British Foreign policy 1815-65 European history
index sitemap advanced
search engine by freefind