JUNIUS IS STILL A MYSTERY

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 24, 29 January 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)

JUNIUS IS STILL A MYSTERY

W| AM the sole depository of 1 my own secret, and it shall perish with me," wrote Junius, in dedicating to the English nation Jhe two-volume edition of his letters, published by Henry Sampson Woodfall, the printer and proprietor of the "Public Advertiser," in which the letters originally appeared. The first of these letters was published in the "Public Advertiser" on January 21, 1769, and the last on the same date in 1772. They created an immense sensation at the time, not only because of the vigour of their rhetorical antithetical style, modelled on the Latin claseics, but also because of the inner knowledge Junius displayed concerning affairs of State, secrets of the court, and scandals concerning the private lives of prominent public men, whom he denounced with bitter invective. Many of the letters attacked the Prime Minister, the Duke of Grafton, and other Cabinet Ministers; Lord Manefield, the Lord Chief Justice, was another outstanding figure to whom Junius directed his invective. He even ventured to address a letter to King George 111. through the columns of the "Public Advertiser," and to remind him of the fate of Charles I. The "Public Advertiser" was one of the first daily newspapers published in London, and even before the Junius letters began to appear it was the leading newspaper in England. It was I i.l in 1752 h y Woodfall'e father; and the younger Woodfall. .when 19, l°°r "**•- ehwae of it. H*e was 30 fetw °f, age T When he Polished the first lounS i m - J V nius - He was a man of sound classical education.

Waodfall's policy as a newspaper owner was expressed in the following announcement: "The printer looks on himself only as a purveyor; the "Public Advertiser' is in short what its correspondents please to make it." He took credit to himself in not paying correspondents to advocate any special views and for refusing mowsy to keep out of the columns of his paper anything displeasing to prominent men" which he regarded as of public interest. Many Read One Copy The circulation of the paper in December, 1771 (after the Junius letters had been appearing at intervale for nearly three years) wae about 3000 daily. Before the first of the Junius letters was published the circulation wae about 2000. But as the copies taken by the coffee houses were read by many of the patrons of these pieces, and as it was a common cuetom for two or more neighbours to share a subscription to a newspaper (the cost of which was high owin■» to the stamp duty on each co~py), the readers of the "Public Advertiser" were more numerous than the circulation figures would indicate. Woodfall was prosecuted .by the Attorney-General on a charge of malicious and seditious libel after Junius' letter to the King had been published, but he escaped with a verdict of "guilty of printing and publishing" only, and was not even fined. Nine years later he was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment in Newgate for publishing a libel in which satisfaction was expressed at the acquittal of Admiral Keppel, 'vho h-' been tried by court martial on charges of misconduct and neglect of duty in the battle with the Trench fleet off Brest.

r In 1784 Edmund Burke brought an j action against Woodfall, claiming , f 10,000 damages; but the jury awarded ; him only £100. More than 20 years : after the last of Junius' letters had appeared in the "Public Advertiser," ; Woodfall sold his share in the paper. To the modern reader the most amaz- , ing thing about the Junius letters is not that the authorship of them has never been established beyond all doubt by any of the numerous writers who have investigated the matter, but that the Government of the day failed to discover the identity of the writer. His letters, 09 in all, continued to appear in the "Public Advertiser" at irregular intervals over a period of three years and from the first the Government was anxious to get hold of him and deal with him through the Courts, or in some more drastic way. Junius in one of hie letters expressed the opinion that if he were discovered steps Vould be taken to assassinate him. Of course, he took precautions to avoid detection, but it ought not to have been a difficult task to track him down. In our day the police would regard a similar task "as an easy one. Among the many people to whom the authorship of the letters of Junius has been attributed are Sir Philip Francis Lord George Sackville, Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon, the Duke of Portland Lord Chesterfield. Lord Chatham, William Gerard Hamilton ("Single Speech" Hamilton). Dr. Butter, Bishop of Hereford, Lord Ashburton. Charles Lloyd (sacretary to George Grenville). John Wilkes, John Roberts (a clerk in the Treasury), the American General Charles Lee, Henry Flood. Richard Glover. Samuel Dyer. Dr. Wilmot and Hugh Vlacaulay Boyd.