59 CHAPTER V. ONE method of discovering the rank and station of JUNIUS, is to see with whose names he is most familiar. The common maxim, noscitur à sociis, is, perhaps, as true in this respect, as in morals. Men with whom we daily mix, or who are almost constantly before our eyes, are very soon examined too minutely to be much reverenced; familiar and jocose appellations begin to be applied to them; and we are insensible, though nothing is plainer to others, how naturally, whenever we mention such persons, we prove our acquaintance with them by taking these liberties. A difference, however, must be made between the liberties that are universally taken, and those particular instances which are necessary for our present purpose. It is the fate of all greatness to experience something of the former-- "Then shall our names, Familiar in their mouths as household words, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered. But for our present object we want such examples. as are not the natural consequence of an absolutely high station, or very general notoriety: our end is to be gained only by finding such ludicrous titles employed, as are by no means common among the people. If JUNIUS abounds with epithets of this description, given to men who were undistinguished by popular, or indeed by party ridicule, owing to their unimportance in the battalion of the state, it must be ascribed to some peculiarity of a private kind; doubtless to their immediate proximity to the writer, which gave them in his eyes alone an accidental consequence. The only persons to whom JUNIUS applies epithets of familiarity, which by the foregoing rule would prove the nearness of his connection with them, are Welbore Ellis, Esq. Lord Barrington, Messrs. Rigby, Whateley, Bradshaw, and Chamier. It is not intended to press the reader to any conclusion drawn from the first three names upon this list. They belonged to those who were conspicuous enough, in their day, to claim the notice of a very extensive circle.* But Whateley, and Bradshaw, and Chamier, were men comparatively * The same may be said of Lord Shelburne; otherwise the name of Malagrida would be familiar to Sir PHILIP FRANCIS, from the noise which that Jesuit made in Portugal at the time the English Embassy was there. He was burnt at the stake in the auto da fé, at Lisbon, on the 20th of September, 1761. of so little importance to the country, that to attract, in the way they did, the attention and resentment of JUNIUS, their conduct must have fallen continually under his observation. Mr. Whateley had been private secretary to Mr. George Grenville: his situation, at the time when JUNIUS speaks of him, may be gathered from the following extracts. "This poor man, with the talents of an attorney, sets up for an ambassador, and with the agility of Colonel Bodens, undertakes to be a courier. Indeed, Tom! you have betrayed yourself too soon. Mr. Grenville, your friend, your patron, your benefactor, who raised you from a depth, (compared to which even Bradshaw's family stands on an eminence,) was hardly cold in his grave, when you solicited the office of go-between to Lord North. You could not, in my eyes, be more contemptible, though you were convicted (as I dare say you might be,) of having constantly betrayed him in his life-time. Since I know your employment, be assured I shall watch you attentively. Every journey you undertake, every message you carry, shall be immediately laid before the public. The event of your ingenious management will be this,--that Lord North, finding you cannot serve him, will give you nothing. From the other party, you have just as much detestation to expect as can be united with the profoundest contempt. Tom Whateley, take care of yourself*!” JUNIUS again speaks of him in a Letter to Lord Suffolk. "Had you, like poor Whateley, been reduced from a state of independence, to the humiliating necessity of soliciting your support from administration, our reproach would be only turned against those who creditably took advantage of such a situation, and gratified themselves with the purchase of an honest man's reputation; and though we congratulated them on the acquisition which they had prudently secured, we should sincerely pity the object of their triumph†.” In these quotations, Whateley is not only mentioned in that familiar manner which shews the writer's acquaintance with him, but even his personal and mental qualifications are described,—his family is alluded to-the favours he received from Mr. Grenville, and those he hoped to merit from Lord North-every journey he should undertake, and every message he might carry, are all spoken of as circumstances inevitably coming within the range of the writer's knowledge. Comparing these indications of personal acquaintance with the opportunities afforded Sir P. FRANCIS, we find that Mr. George Grenville was one of the Secretaries of State at the time Sir PHILIP FRANCIS held that place in the Secretary of State's office, which had been given him by Lord Holland; and Mr. Whateley was then Mr. Grenville's private secretary. This contiguity of station would afford Sir PHILIP frequent opportunities of acquiring all that intimate and ocular knowledge of Mr. Whateley which is evinced by JUNIUS. Mr. Bradshaw, we are told by JUNIUS himself, was "originally a clerk to a contractor for forage, and was afterwards exalted to a petty post in the Waroffice*" At the time the Letters of JUNIUS were written, Bradshaw was the Duke of Grafton's private secretary, and Secretary to the Treasury. In May, 1772, he was appointed a Lord of the Admiralty. This person, who is invariably ridiculed and censured by JUNIUS, is frequently addressed by the familiar name of Tommy Bradshaw; we hear also of his sister "Miss Polly Bradshaw, who, like the moon, lives upon the light of her brother's countenance, and robs him of no small part of his lustre." His portrait and character are given us in the "cream-coloured Mercury +," and the "creamcoloured Parasite §. When a statement is made * JUNIUS, ii. p. 99, note by JUNIUS. iii. p. 406. iii. p. 424, signature VETERAN. |