ever was before, for beauty, on a rising ground before the Circus, where my brother's house is, and ten hogsheads of strong beer round it, which drew all the company I desired, and enabled them to sing "God bless great George, our King!" with very good success, with the help of all the music I could get in the Circus. The whole town was illuminated, which, as it is the prettiest in the world, was the gayest thing I ever saw. Mrs. Anne Pitt would scarcely be the one to sneer at her energetic brother, and say he knew nothing but Spenser. She was one of his most serviceable auxiliaries, at home as well as abroad, and very probably as much so during the Junian period as at any other time. Of this, of course, we have no certainty. We have thought that she might have sometimes been her brother's amanuensis in the business of the letters. Her peculiar character and ability would justify such an idea. But this, also, is a mere matter of loose conjecture, which we dismiss, merely stating our belief that she was in her brother's secret of the letters, or at least some of them. We have not dwelt on this matter, as thinking that the agency of this lady particularly affects the main question, but to impress the idea that the ramifications of the Junian secret go a great way off, and that people who would see them more clearly and minutely than we can show them, must make large detours and look liberally about them.

We will close the chapter with a few observations respecting David Garrick. This famous actor was on very friendly terms with Mr. Pitt, who, as we have said, was

*

Quoted from the Appendix of Thackeray's "Biography of the Earl of Chatham."

a lover of the drama, and encouraged dramatic amusements among the children of his family. The great orator was always considered a good judge of dramatic literature. We see in Thackeray's life of him, that the Rev. W. Horne, when he published his tragedy of "Agis," had it sent to Mr. Pitt for his opinion, which the latter, who dates from the Pay Office, gives, with his usual judgment and decision. The Great Commoner had the finest and aptest power of common language, as we gather from his speeches, badly described and reported as they are; and the dramatic features of the Junian literature-the dialogue of the Grand Council in 1767 and "Veteran's" conversations of Lord Barrington and Waddlewell in 1772-are full of the peculiar spirit and ability of Mr. Pitt, such as Garrick and his other friends knew him in his accessible days. Garrick would be very apt to recognize the manner of some of those War Office letters, and this, together with other circumstances of a long intimacy, would make Junius very apprehensive of the actor's attempts to come at the secret. But, it is to be remarked, that Garrick's letter to Mr. Ramus did not concern the identity of the Mask-the man himself-but the cessation of his letters: "Junius will write no more." The ra

pidity with which the knowledge of this private letter to the king's page reached Junius, is a strong proof that he must have communication with some one in the royal household, or very familiar with it. Garrick's interference, though a very slight one, apparently, seems to have disconcerted Junius a good deal; perhaps, as the actor had an interest in Woodfall's paper, he might suspect some collusion between them-some display of the manuscript to a man

1

who was probably acquainted with the handwriting of Lady Chatham, and others of the family. At all events, the angry menace of the note to Garrick shows that Junius was afraid of him, and wished to check his curiosity. The player's voice sinks to a whisper, and he cowers before that awful shadow of a name, as greater men had done before. It is curiously suggestive, that, some months after the date of that fierce little missive to "the vagabond," Lord Chatham, with all his defeats and disappointments rankling in his heart, should have sat down to write those verses to Garrick, which we have already quoted. The talk of a philosophic and contented repose in the country, is mere pretense, as every reader of the earl's history knows, and thus leads us, irresistibly, to the motive. Friendly as the verses seem, Lord Chatham did not go so far as to send them to Garrick. He sent them to Lord Lyttelton, by whom they were transmitted. The actor wrote a copy of verses in return, in which he compared the great earl to Achilles, who could touch the lyre as well as guide the war. We suspect the sentiments of Garrick, on one side, were as forced and affected as those of Lord Chatham on the other. The actor's manner of receiving the abusive and threatening note is noticeable. His reply to Woodfall, published in the Garrick Correspondence, is in a subdued and explanatory tone. He desires it should be intimated to Junius that he would scorn to act the spy or informer-that if he knew who Junius was, he would not reveal his name, seeing that this would be productive of much mischief. No word of disrespect escapes him, and we can plainly see that he regards the masked writer with wonderful deference. He

thinks a discovery would cause much mischief. Not, surely, if the man was only Francis, or Lloyd, or Macleane. No doubt Garrick never made any fuss about the name. He says he only reported that the writing would cease. Among the court people, there was not much anxiety about the real name. The king knew it, and others knew it as well. But they shrunk from pronouncing it. The king and court shrank from meddling with Junius, and the highest and best-informed in the land shrunk from naming him. These are the facts which give you a true idea of the masked writer. You see his cotemporaries looking up at him in hatred, or in fear, but, silently, for the most part, and must feel convinced that the being so regarded was the most formidable man in England. Having perused and pondered on evidences like these, so suitable to a mystery of such subtlety and power, and indicating so plainly some shape of magisterial dignity, the reader will probably be disposed to turn, with something like contempt, from the ignorant or insincere theories of those who look for that most terrible of British writers among the clerks, amanuenses, and secretaries, and bewilder us with a barren clatter of quotations, comparisons, and coincidences about Francis, and Macleane, and Barre, and Lloyd, and others of that common herd of able men who, among them all, could not furnish forth one-half the powers of the single real Junius.

CHAPTER XII.

RECAPITULATION PASSING REMARKS ON THE JUNIAN LETTERS PUBLISHED IN THE GRENVILLE PAPERS AND IN THE CHATHAM CORRESPONDENCE-MR. MACAULAY'S LETTER, AND CONCLUSION.

Here's a maze trod, indeed,

Through forthrights and meanders.

TEMPEST.

I have in this rough work shaped out a man

Whom this beneath world doth embrace and hug
With amplest entertainment.

TIMON OF ATHENS.

In this concluding Chapter, we have only to recapitulate our reasons for regarding Lord Chatham as the Man in the Mask. But we must first take the opportunity of alluding to some late statements concerning the mystery, made in the third volume of the Grenville Papers, lately published. We saw them after having arranged our preceding Chapters, and though they call for no particular notice, they can hardly be passed over in silence. Mr. Smith, late Librarian at Stowe, tries to show that Junius was a Grenvillite-that he was Lord Temple:

That past, vampt, future, old, revived, new claim,