JUN1US, Letters of; a series of political letters which appeared in \Voodfall's Public Advertiser, from the year 1769 to 1772. These Lette•s,—written in a style at once vigorous and classical, displaying an extensive and minute acquaintance with the measures of government, and the character and conduct of the politicians of that day, distin guished by force of argument, eloquent declamation, and powerful invective, and by a zealous and steady assertion of popular rights—attracted a great degree of attention at the period of their appearance ; and, having been frequently reprinted in a collective form, have been stamped with a character of celebrity which no similar productions, per haps, have ever attained. The interest, too, which these po pular philippics have excited in the public mind, has been kept alive, and greatly strengthened, by the impenetrable cloud of mystery which still continues to envelope their anonymous author. When we consider all the circum stances, indeed, this mystery must appear to be a very sin gular fact in literary history. The unprecedented bold rieis with which this invisible author assailed the most ex alted characters in the state ; the freedom and the poig nancy of his personal sarcasms, together with the early popularity of those papers which appeared tinder his ficti tious signature, must necessarily have exposed him to the hatred and resentment of rank and power ; and it is natural to suppose, that the ingenuity of multitudes must have been employed to discover his haunts, and to drag him into light. But Junius contrived to baffle all the efforts of his contemporaries to penetrate his obscurity. The same motives for the prosecution of this inquiry no longer exist ; but an irresistible curiosity has prompted many. ingenious men to attempt to unravel the mystery, hitherto, we think, without success. Nearly half a century has elapsed since the publication of these celebrated Letters ; every witness whose evidence could be supposed capable of throwing light on this subject, has been examined ; printer's repo sitories have been ransacked ; specimens of hand-writing have been produced and compared ; ingenuity has been exhausted in the discovery of probabilities, and the deduc tion of moral certainties; yet, all is conjecture, more or less plausible ; and no one can with justice boast, that he has succeeded in detecting Junius.
These Letters have been too long before the public, and their style and character arc too well known, to render it necessary for us to enter into any critical disquisition on their merit. \Ve shall, therefore, only attempt to present our readers with a summary account. of the various hypo theses which have been entertained with regard to the probable author of these celebrated papers ; not by any means with the view of making way for a new candidate of our own, nor with the hope of bringing the controversy to a satisfactory conclusion ; but solely for the purpose of examining the validity of those claims which have been advanced ; of pointing out the defects in tke evidence brought forward in support of each of the claimants ; and, lastly, of ascertaining those requisites which appear to us to be essentially necessary to every future candidate.
There is scarcely a contemporaneous character of note, whose pretensions are not excluded by some obvious con tradiction, to whom these celebrated Letters have not, at one time or another, been ascribed ; and the confidence with which some of those claims have been maintained, which have since been disproved and abandoned, must in duce us to subject every new hypothesis to a rigorous ex amination.
To those who have attentively perused the Letters of Junius, it must, we think, have appeared, that Junius was a man of a cultivated mind ; skilful in the use of his native language, and well versed in the history, laws, and con stitution of his country, although not a lawyer by pro fession. It is pretty evident, also, both front his public letters, and particularly from his private correspondence with his printer, that he was a man of easy and independ ent, if not affluent circumstances ; that he was in habits of confidential intercourse, if not with the members of the ca binet, at least with persons as ho were intimately familiar with the court ; and, consequently, that he had opportuni ties of becoming acquainted with its secret transactions ; and that he had attained such an age, as allowed him to boast, without vanity, of an ample knowledge and experi ence of the world. From the dates of his various authen ticated papers, it is likewise clear that he must have m elded almost constantly in London, or its vicinity, during the years 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, and part of 1772 ; for although the first of his series of letters under the sig nature of Junius appeared in the Public Advertiser on Sa turday, the 2Ist of January, 1769 ; yet it has been ascer tained, in the most satisfactory manner, that he carried on a con in that paper, under various other signa tures, from the month of April, 1767. The last political letter, under the signature of Junius, was that addressed to Lord Camden, which appeared in the Public Advertiser for January 21, 1772 ; and the last private letter which he is known to have addressed to his printer, Mr. Wocdfall, IF dated January 19, 1773.