livered in the true spirit of a philippic, and with a fury, which, considering the relative situation of the parties, astonished every body."

They remind us of the attacks which JUNIUS made on LORD MANSFIELD, and render perfect one of the most remarkable parallels for sentiment and conduct, that has been produced on any subject.

185

CHAPTER XII.

THE reader is now desired to mark the positive agreement between Sir PHILIP FRANCIS and JuNIUS, on the subject of Parliamentary Reform.

In the first place, consistently with JUNIUS's recommendation, Sir PHILIP was very active in founding a distinguished constitutional club; and secondly, the principles he entertained, and those which this club supported, were the same which JUNIUS insisted on throughout his Letters.

The society of the Friends of the People owed, in a great measure, its origin to Sir PHILIP. He had the principal share in drawing up its address and declaration; and he continued to the last one of its firmest supporters. His own words confirm this, in his vindication of that society from the misrepresentations of Mr. Burke, who accused the Friends of the People of uniting with the " Constitutional Society" in support of annual Parliaments and universal suffrage.

"We are accused in violent terms of uniting with parties with whom we have no communication; and of supporting principles, and abetting

those

factions, which we have renounced in the strongest terms that the English language could suggest. I had some share in the construction of the declaration and address; and surely I am, or ought to be, a competent judge of the true intent and meaning of Unless I have lived to these years papers. without understanding my native tongue, I may safely challenge the most acute and malignant observer to point out a single sentence, or even a word, to justify the atrocious charges brought against us. You look for our principles not in our declarations, but in the supposed views and projects of other men, whose views and projects, if any such exist, we have expressly renounced and disclaimed. As to the object we avow, we

may or may not succeed in it. On that point I am not sanguine: but I am perfectly sure that they who have recourse to mere cœlumny and invectives, have not taken the best method to defeat us *."

Whether JUNIUS would have assisted in the establishment of such a society as that of The Friends of the People, we may ascertain from the following observation. In one of his private Letters to Wilkes, after censuring the vanity and folly of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights, he declares, "I am far from meaning to undervalue the insti

Speech, April 30, 1792.

tution of the 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 I 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 any thing 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*."

The society of the Friends of the People was not only formed on the foundation recommended by JUNIUS, but from him it seems to have derived its name. On the subject of dissensions in the Bill of Rights' Society, he thus addresses the public.— "No man laments more sincerely than I do, the unhappy differences which have arisen among the friends of the people, and divided them from each other." Thus twenty years before the institution of a society under that title, we find its designation in the Letters; and though it was undoubtedly possible that any other person might have conceived a similar title, or have adopted it from the passage here quoted, yet, under all the circumstances, it certainly contributes to identify JUNIUS

* JUNIUS i. * 279. Private letter to Wilkes.

with Sir PHILIP FRANCIS-the sponsor with the founder.

With regard to the plan of the society of the Friends of the People, two objects were proposed: First, To restore the freedom of election, and a more equal representation of the people in Parliament; secondly,-To secure to the people a more frequent exercise of their right of electing their representatives." Whoever was the author of these two propositions, they are couched in such terms as JUNIUS must have approved. When he condemned the resolutions of the Bill of Rights' Society, it was for their bulk and style :-it was because the society grasp at the impossible and lose the really attainable;-because, they insist upon a FULL and EQUAL representation of the people;" while "the great condition, which ought to be the sine quá non of parliamentary qualification, which ought to be the basis, as it assuredly will be the only support, of every barrier raised in defence of the constitution; I mean, a declaration upon oath to SHORTEN THE DURATION OF PARLIAMENTS, is reduced to the fourth rank in the esteem of the Society, and, even in that place, far from being insisted on with firmness and vehemence, seems to have been particularly slighted in the expression, you shall endeavour to restore ANNUAL Parliaments*."

* JUNIUS, i. 284.