evil spirits will be aggravated by their being compelled to pass sentence on themselves. The utmost stretch of my malignity towards Sir PHILIP shall go no further than to put JUNIUS in the chair, and record the sentence he would award on this occasion.

"Whenever a fact is touched upon, there I fix. When a distinct charge is made, I look for a distinct and particular answer, that denies, or admitting, explains, or in some favourable manner accounts for the fact charged. If instead of this I find nothing more than a paper, in which the author of the charge is called names, I am obliged, as an equitable judge, to consider the cause not as defended, but as utterly abandoned; and the Court must enter an admission by his own advocate of the charge against him."

Sir PHILIP FRANCIS, in his own person, maintains the same doctrine; " When nothing is said in support of the affirmative of any question, that circumstance alone is sufficient to justify the negative."

And JUNIUS gives us this further maxim for the occasion:-"not to defend, is to relinquish §.”

* JUNIUS, iii. 208, signature AMICUS CURIE.

+ Mr. FRANCIS's Minute, 18th July, 1778. Vide No. 70, Appendix to the Sixth Report of the Secret Committee on the Carnatic War.

§ JUNIUS, ii. 178, signature JUNIUS.

Before quitting this topic, I beg to assure Sir PHILIP FRANCIS that I am in perfect good humour with him, notwithstanding this finesse respecting falsehood and malignity. I am not so testy as to say, "Do you bite your thumb at me, Sir," because he chooses to bite his thumb. The respect I entertain for him would rather incline me to address him in these words of our great poet,

"Here I salute thee, and thy pardon ask,

That now I use thee in my latter task :-"

a task which he may rest assured I should never have undertaken, had he not called on me to justify my original statement by the charges thus indirectly brought against it.

17

CHAPTER II.

HAVING frequent occasion, in the course of this inquiry, to refer to the Memoir of Sir PHILIP FRANCIS, contained in the Monthly Mirror, I shall make no apology for inserting it in this place. A vein of pleasantry runs through the account, incompatible, it may be thought, with the gravity of our investigation; but I shall be the last to complain of any addition to my reader's amusement. As the biographical sketch is attributed to a gentleman, whose intimacy with Sir PHILIP leaves no doubt as to the accuracy of the facts, it is of importance that it should be given entire.

"MEMOIRS OF SIR PHILIP FRANCIS, K. B.

"The origin of this gentleman is not, like that of some of the greatest names of antiquity, buried in the impenetrable obscurity of unrecorded ages. He was born in Dublin on the 22d of October, 1740, old style. His father, PHILIP FRANCIS, D. D. is sufficiently known in the learned world. His grandfather, JOHN FRANCIS, was dean of the cathedral of Lismore in Ireland, to which he was appointed on the 30th of July, 1722, and his great

C

grandfather, JOHN FRANCIS, became dean of Leighlin, by patent, dated 21st of August, 1696, and appears by Ware's History of Ireland, to have sat in convocation in Dublin, in 1704. This old gentleman is also supposed to have had a father, whose name and memory are unfortunately lost in the abyss of time. These particulars have been carefully collected from the herald's offices in Doctor's Commons, and in Dublin. In the former, it was discovered by a great antiquary, whose business it was to find materials for the pedigree of Sir PHILIP, on his admission to the order of the Bath, that previous to the coronation of Richard II. Richard Francis, who bore exactly the same arms as the present knight, was created a Knight of the Bath, and if Sir PHILIP does not descend lineally from that person, it was entirely his own fault. The heralds offered to prove it by an exact genealogy, provided always that Sir PHILIP would pay down two hundred pounds for such advantage. After maturely weighing the honour against the price, he is believed to have declined that liberal offer. His mother's name appears to have been Elizabeth Roe, whose father thought himself descended from the famous Sir Thomas Roe, who lived in the reign of James the First, and was sent embassador to the great Mogul, by that learned monarch. But here again the links are wanting, or the heralds ran mute for want of encouragement.

"Sir PHILIP received the first elements of his education under Thomas Ball, who succeeded Dr. Dunkin, (names well known in Ireland) and who kept a school in a church in Ship-street. In the beginning of 1750 he came to England. In 1753 he was placed at St. Paul's school, under the care of Mr. George Thicknesse, of whose virtues and learning we have often heard him make honourable mention, and always with an effusion of gratitude for the care he took of him. In 1756 Mr. Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, gave him a little place in the Secretary of State's office. Mr. Pitt, who succeeded Mr. Fox, patronized and encouraged him, in consequence of the recommendation of his secretary, Robert Wood. Through that patronage he was appointed secretary to General Bligh, in 1758, was present at the capture and demolition of Cherburgh, and at the attack on the rear guard of our army at St. Cas. From mere curiosity, and without arms, he was found standing in the ranks when the French approached very near, and the firing began. In 1760, by the same recommendation, he was appointed secretary to the Earl of Kinnoul, embassador to Lisbon, when the present Queen of Portugal was married to her uncle. The uncle and the niece had a son, the present Prince of the Brazils, who married his mother's sister. Such is the constitution of the house of Braganza. In 1763 he was appointed by the late Lord Mendip,