knows in what a hopeful condition you delivered the navy to your successor, and in what a condition we found it in the moment of distress. You were determined it should continue in the situation in which you left it. It happened, however, very luckily for the privy purse, that one of the above wants promised fair to supply the other. Our religious, benevolent, generous Sovereign has no objection to selling his own timber to his own admiralty, to repair his own ships, nor to putting the money into his own pocket. People of a religious turn naturally adhere to the principles of the church; whatever they acquire falls into mort-main. Upon a representation from the admiralty of the extraordinary want of timber for the indispensible repairs of the navy, the surveyorgeneral was directed to make a survey of the timber in all the royal chaces and forests in England. Having obeyed his orders with accuracy and attention, he reported that the finest timber he had any where met with, and the properest, in every respect, for the purposes of the navy, was in Whittlebury Forest, of which your Grace, I think, is hereditary ranger. In consequence of this report, the usual warrant was prepared at the treasury, and delivered to the surveyor, by which he, or his deputy, were authorised to cut down any trees in Whittlebury Forest, which should appear to be proper for the purposes abovementioned. The deputy, being informed that the warrant was signed, and delivered to his principal in London, crosses the country to Northamptonshire,

and, with an officious zeal for the public service, begins to do his duty in the forest. Unfortunately for him, he had not the warrant in his pocket. The oversight was enormous; and you have punished him for it accordingly. You have insisted, that an active, useful officer should be dismissed from his place. You have ruined an innocent man and his family. In what language shall I address so black, so cowardly a tyrant? Thou worse than one of the Brunswicks, and all the Stuarts! To them who know Lord North, it is unnecessary to say, that he was mean and base enough to submit to you. This, however, is but a small part of the fact. After ruining the surveyor's deputy, for acting without the warrant, you attacked the warrant itself. You declared that it was illegal; and swore, in a fit of foaming frantic passion, that it never should be executed. You asserted, upon your honour, that, in the grant of the rangership of Whittlebury Forest, made by Charles the Second (whom, with a modesty that would do honour to Mr. Rigby, you are pleased to call your ancestor) to one of his bastards, (from whom I make no doubt of your de scent,) the property of the timber is vested in the ranger. I have examined the original grant; and now, in the face of the public, contradict you directly upon the fact. The very reverse of what you have asserted upon your honour is the truth. The grant, expressly, and by a particular clause, reserves the property of the timber for the use of the Crown. In spite of this evidence, in defiance of the representa

tion of the admiralty, in perfect mockery of the no torious distresses of the English navy, and those equally pressing and almost equally notorious necessities of your pious Sovereign, here the matter rests. The Lords of the Treasury recal their warrant; the deputy-surveyor is ruined for doing his duty; Mr. John Pitt (whose name, I suppose, is offensive to you) submits to be brow-beaten and insulted; the oaks keep their ground; the King is defrauded; and the navy of England may perish for want of the best and finest timber in the island. And all this is submitted to, to appease the Duke of Grafton! to gratify the man who has involved the King and his kingdom in confusion and distress; and who, like a treacherous coward, deserted his Sovereign in the midst of it!

There has been a strange alteration in your doctrine, since you thought it adviseable to rob the Duke of Portland of his property, in order to strengthen the interest of Lord Bute's son-in-law before the last general election. Nullum tempus occurrit regi was then your boasted motto, and the cry of all your hungry partizans. Now it seems a grant of Charles the Second to one of his bastards is to be held sacred and inviolable! It must not be questioned by the King's Servants, nor submitted to any interpretation but your own. My Lord, this was not the language you held, when it suited you to insult the memory of the glorious deliverer of England from that detested family, to which you are still more nearly allied in

principle than in blood. In the name of decency and common sense, what are your Grace's merits, either with King or Ministry, that should entitle you to assume this domineering authority over both? Is it the fortunate consanguinity you claim with the House of Stuart ? Is it the secret correspondence you have so many years carried on with Lord Bute, by the assiduous assistance of your cream-coloured parasite? Could not your gallantry find sufficient employment for him, in those gentle offices by which he first acquired the tender friendship of Lord Barrington? Or is it only that wonderful sympathy of manners which subsists between your Grace and one of your superiors, and does so much honour to you both? union of Blifil and Black George no longer a romance? From whatever origin your influence in this country arises, it is a phenomenon in the history of human virtue and understanding. Good men can hardly believe the fact; wise men are unable to account for it. Religious men find exercise for their faith, and make it the last effort of their piety not to repine against Providence.

Is the

JUNIUS.

VOL. II.

H

LETTER LVIII.

ADDRESSED

TO THE LIVERY OF LONDON.

GENTLEMEN,

September 30, 1771.

IF you alone were concerned in the event of the present election of a chief magistrate of the metropolis, it would be the highest presumption in a stranger to attempt to influence your choice, or even to offer you his opinion. But the situation of public affairs has annexed an extraordinary importance to your resolutions. You cannot, in the choice of your magistrate, determine for yourselves only. You are going to determine upon a point, in which every member of the community is interested. I will not scruple to say, that the very being of that law, of that right, of that constitution, for which we have been so long contending, is now at stake. They who would ensnare your judgment, tell you, it is a common ordinary case, and to be decided by ordinary precedent and practice. They artfully conclude, from moderate peaceable times, to times which are not moderate, and which ought not to be peaceable. While they solicit your favour, they insist upon a rule of rotation, which excludes all idea of election.