giving the mayoralty to Mr. Sawbridge, rather than to Mr Crosby.

I am heartily weary of writing, and shall reserve another subject, on which I mean to address you, for another opportunity. I think that this letter, if you act upon it, should be a secret to everybody but Mr. Sawbridge and my Lord Mayor

JUNIUS*.

No. 66.

JUNIUS TO JOHN WILKES, ESQ.

London, September 7, 1771+.

As this letter, Sir, has no relation to the subject of my last. the motives upon which you may have rejected one of my opinions ought not to influence your judgment of another. I am not very sanguine in my expectations of persuading, nor do I think myself entitled to quarrel with any man for not following my advice; yet this, I believe, is a species of injustice you have often experienced from your friends. From you, Sir, I expect in return, that you will not remember how unsuccessfully I have recommended one measure to your consideration, lest you should think yourself bound to assert your consistency, and, in the true spirit of persecution, to pass the

The plan recommended by Junius in the above letter was not acted upon by Mr. Wilkes, for the reasons assigned by him in his letter of Sept. 12, 1771 (No. 67). The consequence was, that Mr. Alderman Nash, the ministerial candidate, was elected Lord Mayor, to the infinite mortification of Junius, who, in Private Letter No. 56, makes the following observation upon him and his election. "What an abandoned prostituted idiot is your Lord Mayor! The shameful mismanagement which brought him into office gave me the first, and an unconquerable disgust." The subjoined is a list of the candidates for that office, with the numbers affixed to their respective names as they stood at the close of the poll :

For Mr. Alderman Nash

Mr. Alderman Sawbridge.
The Lord Mayor

Mr. Alderman Hallifax

Mr. Alderman Townshend
Sir Henry Bankes .

2199

1879

1795

846

151

36

Marked by Mr. Wilkes, "Received in Prince's Court, Saturday, Sept

7,2771."

me sentence indifferently upon all my opinions. Forgive this levity, and now to the business.

A man who honestly engages in a public cause must prepare himself for events which will at once demand his utmost patience, and rouse his warmest indignation. I feel myself, at this moment, in the very situation I describe; yet from the common enemy I expect nothing but hostilities against the people. It is the conduct of our friends that surprises and afflicts me. I cannot but resent the injury done to the common cause by the assembly at the London Tavern, nor can I conceal from you my own particular disappointment. They had it in their power to perform a real effectual service to the nation; and we expected from them a proof, not only of their zeal, but of their judgment. Whereas the measure they have adopted is so shamefully injudicious, with regard to its declared object, that, in my opinion, it will, and reasonably ought, to make their zeal very questionable with the people they mean to serve. When I see a measure excellent in itself, and not absolutely unattainable, either not made the principal object, or extravagantly loaded with conditions palpably absurd or impracticable, I cannot easily satisfy myself that the man who proposes it is quite so sincere as he pretends to be. You at least, Mr. Wilkes, should have shown more temper and prudence, and a better knowledge of mankind. No personal respects whatsoever should have persuaded you to concur in these ridiculous resolutions. But my own zeal, I perceive, betrays me: I will endeavour to keep a better guard upon my temper, and apply to your judgment in the most cautious and measured language.

I object, in the first place, to the bulk, and much more to the style of your resolutions of the 23rd of July*; though

* A copy of which is subjoined, to enable the reader the better to understand Junius's objections to them. They are as follow:

Resolved,

London Tavern, July 23, 1771.

SUPPORTERS OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS.

SAVAGE BARRELL, ESQ., in the Chair.

That the preamble, with the articles reported this day from the committee, be printed and published from this Society.

Whoever seriously considers the conduct of administration, both at home

some part of the preamble is as pointed as I could wish. You talk of yourselves with too much authority and importance. By assuming this false pomp and air of consequence you either give general disgust, or, what is infinitely more dan

and abroad, can hardly entertain a doubt that a plan is formed to subvert the constitution.

In the same manner, whoever attentively examines into the proceedings of the present House of Commons must apprehend that such another House for seven years, after the termination of the present parliament, would effectually accomplish the views of the court, and leave no hope of redress but in an appeal to God.

The Middlesex election, taken on its true ground; the employment of the standing army, in St. George's Fields; the granting half a million, without inquiring into the expenditure of the civil list money, and upon the dangerous principle of considering the debts of the civil list as the debts of the nation, and encroaching, to discharge them, upon the sinking fund, the great support of public credit; the attempts made on juries, the last sacred bulwark of liberty and law; the arbitrary and venal hand with which government is conducted in Ireland; the new and most un constitutional mode of raising a revenue on the people of America, without asking the consent of their representatives; the introduction of an universal excise in America, instead of the laws of customs; the advancing the military above the civil power, and employing troops to awe the legislature; all these are measures of so marked, so mischievous a nature, that it is impossible they should be unfelt or misunderstood: yet these are measures which the House of Commons have acquiesced in, countenanced, or executed.

If the present House of Commons then have given such vital wounds to the constitution, who is it can doubt, who is it can hope, that the conduct of such another House will not be mortal to our liberties?

The trustees of the people should be pure of all interested communication with the court or its ministers; yet the corrupt correspondence between the members of the House and the court is as notorious now as it is abhorrent from every great and good purpose of their institution. Placemen, pensioners, contractors, and receivers of lottery tickets abound to such a degree in the House of Commons that it is impossible a House so constituted can do their duty to the people.

It must be plain to the most common apprehension that men deputed by the people to watch over and guard their rights against the Crown and its ministers, and, for that purpose, vested with the transcendant powers of refusing aid to the one, and impeaching the other, can never duly exercise those powers, or fulfil the intention of their election, if they are kept in pay of that Crown and those ministers. What is the plain and inevitable conse quence, then, of entrusting such men with the guardianship of our rights, but that our rights must be betrayed and violated? Thus we have seen a House of Common infringing, as the court had pre-ordained, the sacred birthright of the people in the freedom of election; erasing a judicial record; committing to the Tower, and threatening with impeachment, the friends of

gerous, you expose yourselves to be laughed at. The English are a fastidious people, and will not submit to be talked to in so high a tone by a set of private gentlemen of whom they know nothing but that they call themselves Supporters of the

the people, and the defenders of the law; while the favourites of the court are suffered to sport with the laws, and trample on the constitution, not only with impunity, but with approbation; curbing the people rigorously, and without feeling; while they uphold ministers, who are abhorred by the nation, in the most dangerous and alarming exertions of power; granting money with the most liberal, the most licentious hand to those ministers against whom the voice of the people calls loudly for impeachment. We have a suspecting people, and a confiding representative; a complaining people, and an exulting representative; a remonstrating people, and an addressing adulating representative-a representative that is an engine of oppression in the hand of the Crown, instead of being a grand controlling inquest in favour of the people. Such a representative is a monster in the constitution, which must fill every considerate man with grief, alarm, astonishment, and indignation.

It is corruption that has engendered, nursed, and nourished the monster. Against such corruption, then, all men, who value the preservation of their dearest rights, are called upon to unite. Let us remember that we ourselves, our children, and our posterity, must be freemen or slaves as we preserve or prostitute the noble birthright our ancestors bequeathed us for should this corruption be once firmly rooted, we shall be an undone people.

Already is it fixed among the representative, and we taste, a thousand ways, the bitter fruit which it produces; should it extend equally to the electors, we must fall, as Greece and Rome have fallen, by the same means, from the same liberty and glory, to slavery, contempt, and wretchedness.

Impressed with these ideas, the gentlemen who compose the Society of the Bill of Rights, have determined to use their utmost endeavours to exterminate this corruption, by providing for the freedom of election, the equal representation of the people, the integrity of the representative, and the re dress of grievances. It is their great wish to render the House of Commons what it constitutionally ought to be, the temple of liberty. With these views they have drawn up the following articles, which they now submit to the electors of Great Britain. At the same time they, with great deference, take the liberty of recommending to the independent electors to form those articles into a solemn declaration, which the candidates whom they support shall be required, as the indispensable condition of their being supported, to sign and seal, publicly, at the general meeting, or at the place of election, binding themselves, by oath, to a due and sacred observance of what is therein contained.

The declaration so executed may be deposited in the hands of the coroner, clerk of the peace, or magistrate before whom the oath was made, as a public emorial of what the constituent has demanded, and the representative has pledged himself to perform.

Bill of Rights. There are questions, which, in good policy, you should never provoke the people in general to ask themselves. At the same time, Sir, I am far from meaning to undervalue the institution of this Society. On the contrary, I think the plan was admirable; that it has already been of signal service to the public, and may be of much greater; and 1 do most earnestly wish that you would consider of, and promote a plan for forming constitutional clubs all through the kingdom. A measure of this kind would alarm government more, and be of more essential service to the cause, than anything that can be done relative to new-modelling the House of Commons. You see, then, that my objections are directed to the particular measure, not to the general institution.

In the consideration of this measure, my first objection goes

1. You shall consent to no supplies without a previous redress of grievances.

2. You shall promote a law, subjecting each candidate to an oath, against having used bribery, or any other illegal means of compassing his election. 3. You shall promote, to the utmost of your power, a full and equal representation of the people in parliament.

4. You shall endeavour to restore annual parliaments.

5. You shall promote a pension and place-bill, enacting, That any member who receives a place, pension. contract, lottery ticket, or any other emolu. ment whatsoever from the Crown, or enjoys profit from any such place, pension, &c., shall not only vacate his seat, but be absolutely ineligible during his continuance under such undue influence.

6. You shall impeach the ministers who advised the violating the right of the freeholders in the Middlesex election; and the military murders in St. George's Fields.

7. You shall make strict inquiry into the conduct of judges touching juries.

8. You shall make strict inquiry into the application of the public money. 9. You shall use your utmost endeavours to have the resolution of the House of Commons expunged by which the magistrates of the city of London were arbitrarily imprisoned for strictly adhering to their charter and their oaths; and also that resolution by which a judicial record was erased to stop the course of justice.

10. You shall attend to the grievances of our fellow-subjects in Ireland, and second the complaints they may bring to the throne.

11. You shall endeavour to restore to America the essential right of taxation, by representatives of their own free election; repealing the acts passed in violation of that right since the year 1763, and the universal excise, 80 notoriously incompatible with every principle of British liberty, which has been lately substituted, in the colonies, for the laws of customs.

SAVAGE BARRELL, Esq., Chairman.