Perhaps no man could have felt all these mortifying circumstances so keenly as he who had directed the successful war against the House of Bourbon, conquering the French islands in the West Indies, and all their possessions in the East, and dispossessing them entirely of the vast region under the name of Canada. The honor and glory of old England lay so near Lord Chatham's heart, that they constituted his ruling passion. Next to that in his affections were these North American colonies. Take likewise into view the dark and rolling clouds rapidly approaching from this country, after George Grenville became minister, threatening a dreadful storm; and we shall be convinced, that such a temperament as Chatham's could not possibly sink, at once, into a state of apathy to the manifold dangers and disgraces of the nation. This would be to suppose with the sordid vulgar, that Pitt's patriotic spirit evaporated when be became a peer.

The condition of this retired statesman was, in a degree, deplorable. Disease forbade him the benefit of travelling, prohibited hunting, and the easier gesture of ordinary horse-back exercise; and, what marks his bodily decrepitude still stronger, he was unable to perform on any musical instrument, so cruelly had the gout fed on his extremities. How could such an active mind of ethereal fire fill up the hours? What, think ye, were the hora politice of such an experienced personage? Thought, keen thought, and alternately painful and gratifying reminiscences; for none could suppose, that the virtuous Earl of Chatham could, like too many disgusted men, "steep his senses in forgetfulness."

If we consider human nature in its brightest point of view,— genius disciplined by careful education, as that of Lord Chatham's, we cannot suppose that, after he withdrew from the turmoils of a complicated office encumbered with deep responsibility, he could have sunk, all at once, to indolence. He had raised his country, in the short space of three years, from depression and disgrace to exaltation and glory, and that by force of his superior genius and spotless moral character. His plans

were the wisest, his instruments the best, and his success the completest of any prime minister's on the annals of fame. Can it be believed, that a statesman thus endowed, and with transcendent eloquence, should have left behind him no other productions of his pen than a few very tame, if not lean, letters to his son and his nephew, compositions which many a mother in old England and New could have equalled? To such a mir

It is no way

ror of eloquence "vita sine literis mors est." probable, that the ardent mind became suddenly cold, that the strong and burning wave of political zeal stopped at once. These sudden stagnations occur, only from an instantaneous stroke, impairing at once the mainspring of the intellectual organ; whereas Chatham, it is well known, blazed forth in Parliament, two or three years after, stronger and brighter than ever. Nay, in 1770, he denounced the conduct of the cabinet in such a bitter and overwhelming torrent of eloquence, as induced several in the ministry to resign their offices, and sadly distressed the monarch himself. It was when the king passionately dismissed the Lord Chancellor Camden, the intimate friend of Lord Chatham. This was a period of confusion and distress at court, from occurrences which rendered the primary object of it a subject of commiseration and tears. It was when difficulties, perplexities, and embarrassments led the monarch to send for the Hon. Mr. Yorke, to whom were offered the great seals. By long and very earnest entreaties, which at length overpowered his reluctance, he was compelled in a manner to accept them. The infliction of this high honor compelled the unhappy man, soon after, to put an end to his mortal exisience.*-Who can wonder, that "uneasy is the head that wears a crown?"

Few people in this country are aware of the deep impression made upon the minds of people of the first rank by the

"The

*JUNIUS, alluding to the violent death of Mr. Yorke, says, most secret particulars of this detestable transaction shall, in due time, be given to the public. The people shall know what kind of man they have to deal with." Is that due time not yet arrived?

Letters in question. Hear what the eminent English moralist, the very able, rough, and scragged Samuel Johnson says of the author of them. "JUNIUS burst into notice with a blaze of impudence which has rarely glared upon the world before, and drew the rabble after him, as a monster makes a show." This is unjust, untrue, and abusive. It was not the rabble, but the deep-thinking aristocracy, both whigs and tories, who were moved the most by the voice of JUNIUS. Dr. Johnson adds," He is an unusual phenomenon, on which some have gazed with wonder and some with terror, but wonder and terror are transitory passions. He soon will be more closely viewed, or more attentively examined; and what folly has taken for a comet, that, from its flaming hair, shook pestilence and war,' inquiry will find to be only a meteor, formed by the vapors of putrefying democracy, and kindled into flame by the effervescence of interest struggling with conviction, which, after having plunged its followers in a bog, will leave us inquiring why we regarded it." What labor,-what painful straining to evacuate a hard, mephitic paragraph! Compare it with the ease, elegance, dignity, and precision of most of the pages of the writer he reviles. The Rambler, in pursuing his figure, lost his chemistry, and forgot that effervescence and putrefaction are steps to regeneration. The literary giant adds,— "JUNIUS has sometimes made his satire felt; but let not injudicious admiration mistake the venom of the shaft for the vigor of the bow. He has sometimes sported with lucky malice; but to him who knows his company, it is not hard to be sarcastic in a mask. While he walks, like Jack the giant-killer, in a coat of darkness, he may do much mischief with little strength." All this appears like a day-laboring man working for wages. The same renowned critic proceeds thus,-"Finding sedition ascendant, he has been able to advance it; finding the nation combustible, he has been able to inflame it. Let us abstract from his wit the vivacity of insolence, and withdraw from his efficacy the sympathetic favor of plebeian malignity;-I do not say that we shall leave him noth

ing; the cause that I defend scorns the help of falsehood; but if we leave him only his merit, what will be his praise?" That is in substance to say,-Kill the lion, and give his flesh to the dogs, break all his bones, and pick out their marrow, and what will you leave of the monarch of the woods but his matchless skin?

Mr. Burke, who never sold his brilliant talents, and who, Johnson thought, was the only man capable of writing the Letters in question, took a different and more honorable view of JUNIUS. He speaks with astonishment of his hardihood, and admiration of his talents, knowledge, and integrity. That JuNIUS, in a visor and complete armor of polished steel, was a terrific object, appears from other evidence than that of Burke, and the affected contempt of Johnson. Kings, Lords, and Commons, the army, the literary aristocracy of Britain, the autocracy of the people,-all, all felt the power of a free press, when wielded by the hand of this very able and fearless champion of liberty. Instead of the transitory effect of the principles of Junius, predicted by Dr. Johnson, they are still felt. Their deep impression yet remains in Great Britain. Nor is this all. The same spirit even now walks these shores of the Atlantic, "magni nominis UMBRA." Nay, more. FRANCE is wide awake, where

"Millions of souls

Shall feel its power,

And bear it down

To millions more."

CHAPTER VII.

LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE EARL OF CHATHAM, CONTINUED.

GREAT BRITAIN, at peace with all the world, her own subjects excepted, was, between the years 1767 and 1770, sadly perturbed by Wilkes and Liberty. Behind the stalking-horse of the Middlesex election marched the formidable corps of ousted and resentful whigs. To this respectable English force was opposed a Scotch one, commanded by the Earl of Bute, assisted by Lord Mansfield. This army of raw troops was rendered in a degree formidable, by having, as in the civil war with Charles the First, a royal generalissimo at its head. What it lacked in experience, discipline, and steady Roman valor, was made up by the magical circumstance of royal influence. In the first army John Wilkes was a daring and very successful partisan officer; while in the latter, Mansfield was at the head of the sappers and miners.

The first Parliament, in the reign of George the Third, was dissolved in March, 1768. Of this Parliament it is observed by a sensible and candid historian,* that it exhibited no distinguishing marks of legislative wisdom; that its chief objects were individual prosecution and colonial regulations; in which its members proceeded with the passion of partisans, and not the cool policy of senators; and towards these colonies with a succession of contradictory measures. They irritated," says the historian, "conciliated, and irritated again, and left the

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* Dr. Bisset's History of George III.