CONTENTS. 38. TO the Printer of the Public Advertiser 39. To the Printer of the Public Advertiser 43. Phile Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 44. Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 45. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 46. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 47. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 48. Philo Junius to the Printer of the Public Advertiser 49. Junius to the Duke of Grafton 50. To his Grace the Duke of Grafton IN my last letter I offered you my opinion of the truth and propriety of his Majesty's answer to the City of London, considering it merely as the speech of a Minister, drawn up for his own defence, and delivered, as usual, by the Chief Magistrate. I would separate, as much as possible, the King's personal character and behaviour from the acts of the present government. I wish it to be understood that his Majesty had, in effect, no more concern in the substance of what he said, than Sir James Hodges had in the remonstrance; and that as Sir James, in virtue of his office, was obliged to speak the senti ments of the people, his Majesty might think himself bound, by the same official obligation, to give a graceful utterance to the sentiments of his Minister. The cold formality of a well-repeated lesson is widely distant from the animated expression of the heart. This distinction, however, is only true with respect to the measure itself. The consequences of it reach beyond the Minister, and materially affect his Majesty's honour. In their own nature, they are formidable enough to alarm a man of prudence, and disgraceful enough to afflict a man of spirit. A subject, whose sincere attachment to his Majesty's person and family is founded upon rational principles, will not, in the present conjuncture, be scrupulous of alarming, or even of afflicting, his Sovereign. I know there is another sort of loyalty, of which his Majesty has had plenty of experience. When the loyalty of Tories, Jacobites, and Scotchmen, has once taken possession of an unhappy Prince, it seldom leaves him without accomplishing his destruction. When the poison of their doctrines has tainted the natural benevolence of his disposition, when their insidious counsels have corrupted the stamina of his government, what antidote can restore him to his political health and honour, but the firm sincerity of his English subjects? It has not been usual, in this country, at least since the days of Charles the First, to see the Sovereign |