ment to the riots you complain of, and even to future murders. You are partial, perhaps, to the military mode of execution; and had rather see a score of these wretches butchered by the guards, than one of them suffer death by regular course of law. How does it happen, my Lord, that, in your hands, even the mercy of the prerogative is cruelty and oppression to the subject?

The measure, it seems, was so extraordinary, that you thought it necessary to give some reasons for it to the public. Let them be fairly examined.

1. You say,

that Messrs. Broomfield and Starling were not examined at M'Quirk's trial. I will tell your Grace why they were not. They must have been examined upon oath; and it was foreseen, that their evidence

'next general pardon that shall come out for the poor convicts of Newgate, without any condition whatsoever; and that, in the mean time, you take bail for his appearance, in order to plead Our said pardon. And for so doing this shall be your warrant.

Given at Our court at St. James's, the tenth day of Marcht, 1769, in the ninth year of Our reign. By His Majesty's command,

To Our trusty and well-beloved James Eyre, Esq. Recorder of Our city of London, the Sheriffs of Our said city and county of Middlesex, and all others whom it may concern.

ROCHFORD.

would either not benefit, or might be prejudicial to the prisoner. Otherwise, is it conceivable that bis counsel should neglect to call in such material evidence?

You say, that Mr. Foot did not see the deceased until after his death. A surgeon, my Lord, must know very little of his profession, if, upon examining a wound or a contusion, he cannot determine whether it was mortal or not. While the party is alive, a surgeon will be cautious of pronouncing; whereas, by the death of the patient, he is enabled to consider both cause and effect in one view, and to speak with a certainty, confirmed by experience.

Yet we are to thank your Grace for the establishment of a new tribunal. Your inquisitio port mortem is unknown to the laws of England, and does honour to your invention. The only material objection to it is, that if Mr. Foot's evidence was insufficient, because he did not examine the wound till after the death of the party, much less can a negative opinion, given by gentlemen who never saw the body of Mr. Clarke, either before or after his decease, authorise you to supersede the verdict of a jury, and the sentence of the law.

Now, my Lord, let me ask you, Has it never occurred to your Grace, while you were withdrawing this desperate wretch from that justice which the laws

had awarded, and which the whole people of England demanded against him, that there is another man, who is the favourite of his country, whose pardon would have been accepted with gratitude, whose pardon would have healed all our divisions? Have you quite forgotten that this man was once your Grace's friend? Or, is it to murderers only that you will extend the mercy of the Crown!

These are questions you will not answer, nor is it necessary. The character of your private life, and the uniform tenor of your public conduct, is an answer to them all.

LETTER IX.

JUNIUS.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.

MY LORD,

April 10, 1769.

I HAVE so good an opinion of your Grace's discernment, that when the author of the vindication of your conduct assures us, that he writes from his own mere motion, without the least authority from your Grace, I should be ready enough to believe him,

VOL. I

bnt for one fatal mark, which seems to be fixed upon every measure in which either your personal or political character is concerned. Your first attempt to support Sir William Proctor ended in the election of Mr. Wilkes; the second insured success to Mr. Glynn. The extraordinary step you took to make Sir James Lowther lord paramount of Cumberland, has ruined his interest in that county for ever. The House List of Directors was cursed with the concurrence of Government; and even the miserable * Dingley could not escape the misfortune of your Grace's protection. With this uniform experience before us, we are authorised to suspect, that, when a pretended vindication of your principles and conduct, in reality, contains the bitterest reflections upon both, it could not have been written without your immediate direction and assistance. The author, indeed, calls God to witness for him, with all the sincerity, and in the very terms, of an Irish evidence, to the best of his knowledge and belief. My Lord, you should not encourage these appeals to Heaven. The pious prince from whom you are supposed to descend, made such frequent use of them, in his public declarations, that, at last,

This unfortunate person had been persuaded by the Duke of Grafton to set up for Middlesex, his Grace being determined to seat him in the House of Commons, if he had but a single vote. It happened, unluckily, that he could not prevail upon any one freeholder to put him in nomination.

the people also found it necessary to appeal to Heaven in their turn. Your administration has driven us into circumstances of equal distress: beware, at least, how you remind us of the remedy.

You have already much to answer for.-You have provoked this unhappy gentleman to play the fool once more in public life, in spite of his years and infirmities; and to shew us, that, as you yourself are a singular instance of youth without spirit, the man who defends you is a no less remarkable example of age without the benefit of experience. To follow such a writer, minutely, would, like his own periods, be labour without end. The subject too has been already discussed, and is sufficiently understood. I cannot help observing, however, that, when the pardon of M'Quirk was the principal charge against you, it would have been but a decent compliment to your Grace's understanding, to have defended you upon your own principles. What credit does a man deserve, who tells us plainly, that the facts set forth in the King's proclamation were not the true motives on which the pardon was granted? and that he wishes that those chirurgical reports, which first gave occasion to certain doubts in the royal breast, had not been laid before his Majesty? You see, my Lord, that even your friends cannot defend your actions, without changing your principles; nor justify a deliberate measure of government, without contradicting the main assertion on which it was founded.