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JUNIUS

Chatham, Mr. Grenville, and Lord Rockingham have successively had the honour to be dismissed for preferring their duty as servants of the public to those compliances which were expected from their station. A submissive administration was at last gradually collected from the deserters of all parties, interests, and connections; and nothing remained but to find a leader for these gallant well-disciplined troops. Stand forth, my Lord, for thou art the man.

Lord Bute found no resource of dependence or security in the proud, imposing superiority of Lord Chatham's abilities, the shrewd, inflexible judgment of Mr. Grenville, nor in the mild but determined integrity of Lord Rockingham. His views and situation required a creature void of all these properties; and he was forced to go through every division, resolution, composition, and refinement of political chemistry, before he happily arrived at the caput mortuum1 of vitriol in your Grace. Flat and insipid in your retired state, but, brought into action, you become vitriol again. Such are the extremes of alternate indolence or fury which have governed your whole administration.

Your circumstances

with regard to the people soon becoming desperate, like other honest servants you determined to involve the best of masters in the same difficulties with yourself. We owe it to your Grace's well-directed labours, that your sovereign has been persuaded to doubt of the affections of his subjects, and the people to suspect the virtues of their sovereign, at a time when both were unquestionable. You have degraded the royal dignity into a base, dishonourable competition with Mr. Wilkes,2 nor had you abilities to carry even this last contemptible triumph over a private man, without the grossest violation of the fundamental laws of the constitution and rights of the people. But these are rights, my Lord, which you can no more annihilate than you can the soil to which they are annexed. The question no longer turns upon points of national honour and security abroad, or on the degrees of expedience and propriety of measures at home. It was not inconsistent that you should abandon the cause of liberty in another country,3 which you had persecuted

1 literally, dead head; here, lifeless residue 2 John Wilkes, a worthless profligate, but a vigorous champion of popular rights and constitutional methods 3 America

in your own; and in the common arts of domestic corruption, we miss no part of Sir Robert Walpole's system except his abilities. In this humble imitative line you might long have proceeded, safe and contemptible. You might, probably, never have risen to the dignity of being hated, and even have been despised with moderation. But it seems you meant to be distinguished, and, to a mind like yours, there was no other road to fame but by thought had been too long the admiration of the destruction of a noble fabric, which you mankind. The use you have made of the military force introduced an alarming change in the mode of executing the laws. The arbitrary appointment of Mr. Luttrell1 invades the foundation of the laws themselves, as it manifestly transfers the right of legislation from those whom the people have chosen to those whom they have rejected. With a succession of such appointments we may soon see a House of Commons collected, in the choice of which the other towns and counties of England will have as little share as the devoted county of Middlesex.

people of this country are neither to be intimiYet, I trust, your Grace will find that the dated by violent measures, nor deceived by refinements. When they see Mr. Luttrell seated in the House of Commons by mere dint of power, and in direct opposition to the choice of a whole county, they will not listen to those subtleties by which every arbitrary exertion of authority is explained into the law and privilege of parliament. It requires no persuasion of argument, but simply the evidence of the senses, to convince them that to transfer the right of election from the collective to the representative body of the people contradicts all those ideas of a House of Commons which they have received from their forefathers, and which they have already, though vainly perhaps, delivered to their children. The principles on which this violent measure has been defended, have added scorn to injury, and forced us to feel that we are not only oppressed but insulted.

With what force, my Lord, with what protection, are you prepared to meet the united detestation of the people of England? The city of London has given a generous example

1 Appointed by the House of Commons to the seat to which Wilkes had been elected by the County of Middlesex.

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to the kingdom in what manner a king of this country ought to be addressed; and I fancy, my Lord, it is not yet in your courage to stand between your sovereign and the addresses of his subjects. The injuries you have done this country are such as demand not only redress but vengeance. In vain shall you look for protection to that venal vote which you have already paid for - another must be purchased; and to save a minister, the House of Commons must declare themselves not only independent of their constituents, but the determined enemies of the constitution. Consider, my Lord, whether this be an extremity to which their fears will permit them to advance, or, if their protection should fail you, how far you are authorised to rely upon the sincerity of those smiles which a pious court lavishes without reluctance upon a libertine by profession. It is not, indeed, the least of the thousand contradictions which attend you, that a man, marked to the world by the grossest violation of all ceremony and decorum, should be the first servant of a court in which prayers are morality and kneeling is religion. Trust not too far to appearances by which your predecessors have been deceived, though they have not been injured. Even the best of princes may at last discover that this is a contention in which everything may be lost but nothing can be gained; and, as you became minister by accident, were adopted without choice, trusted without confidence, and continued without favour, be assured that, whenever an occasion presses, you will be discarded without even the forms of regret. You will then have reason to be thankful if you are permitted to retire to that seat of learning1 which, in contemplation of the system of your life, the comparative purity of your manners with those of their high steward, and a thousand other recommending circumstances, has chosen you to encourage the growing virtue of their youth, and to preside over their education. Whenever the spirit of distributing prebends and bishoprics shall have departed from you, you will find that learned seminary perfectly recovered from the delirium of an installation, and, what in truth it ought to be, once more a peaceful scene of slumber and thoughtless meditation. The venerable tutors of the university will no

1 Grafton was elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1768.

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"O goode Syr Charles!" sayd Canterlone,
"Badde tydyngs I doe brynge.'
"Speke boldlie, manne," sayd brave Syr
Charles,

"Whatte says the traytor kynge?"

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"I greeve to telle; before yonne Sonne
Does fromme the welkinn flye,
Hee hathe uppon hys honour sworne,
Thatt thou shalt surelie die.'

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"Wee all must die," quod brave Syr Charles;
"Of thatte I'm not affearde;
Whatte bootes to lyve a little space?
Thanke Jesu, I'm prepar'd:

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"Butt telle thye kynge, for myne hee's not, I'de sooner die to-daie

Thanne lyve hys slave, as manie are,
Though I shoulde lyve for aie.”

Thenne Canterlone hee dydd goe out, To telle the maior1 straite

To gett all thynges ynne redyness For goode Syr Charleses fate.

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Speke, maister Canynge! Whatte thynge else
And hee shalle have hys meede:
Att present doe you neede?"

"My nobile leige!" goode Canynge sayde, "Leave justice to our Godde,

And laye the yronne rule asyde;

Be thyne the olyve rodde.

synne,

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"Was Godde to serche our hertes and reines, The best were synners grete; Christ's vicarr only knowes ne1 Ynne alle thys mortall state. "Lett mercie rule thyne infante reigne, 'Twylle faste thye crowne fulle sure; From race to race thye familie Alle sov'reigns shall endure:

"But yff wythe bloode and slaughter thou Beginne thy infante reigne,

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Thy crowne upponne thy childrennes brows Wylle never long remayne."

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"Canynge, awaie! thys traytour vile Has scorn'd my power and mee;

Thenne Maisterr Canynge saughte the kynge,
And felle down onne hys knee;
"I'm come," quod hee, "unto your grace
To move your clemencye.'

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Thenne quod the kynge, "Youre tale speke out,

You have been much oure friende; Whatever youre request may bee,

Wee wylle to ytte attende."

"My nobile leige! alle my request Ys for a nobile knyghte,

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Who, though may hap hee has donne

Charles Bawdin die to-dai."

Howe canst thou then for such a manne
Entreate my clemencye?"

"My nobile leige! the trulie brave
Wylle val'rous actions prize;
Respect a brave and nobile mynde,
Although ynne enemies."

"Canynge, awaie! By Godde
That dydd mee beinge gyve,

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ynne

Heav'n

I wylle nott taste a bitt of breade
Whilst thys Syr Charles dothe lyve.

"By Marie, and alle Seinctes ynne Heav'n,
Thys sunne shall be hys laste,"
Thenne Canynge dropt a brinie teare,
And from the presence paste.

With herte brymm-fulle of gnawynge grief,
Hee to Syr Charles dydd goe,

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wronge,

Hee thoughte ytte stylle was ryghte:

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Yff that you are resolved to lett

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And sat hymm downe uponne a stoole, And teares beganne to flowe.

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"Wee all must die," quod brave Syr Charles;
"Whatte bootes ytte howe or whenne;
Dethe ys the sure, the certaine fate
Of all wee mortall menne.

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There wythe the sarvants of the Lord Mye name shall lyve for aie.

I leave thys mortall lyfe:

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And nowe the officers came ynne
To brynge Syr Charles awaie,
Whoe turnèdd toe hys lovynge wyfe,
And thus to her dydd saie:

"I goe to lyfe, and nott to dethe; Truste thou ynne Godde above,

And teache thy sonnes to feare the Lorde, And ynne theyre hertes hym love:

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