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 wrung from the natives, all he brought back was £30,000, for the most part saved out of his salary. Immediately on his return to England, he entered Parliament for Yarmouth, his introduction to the House being heralded by a strong eulogium from his friend Burke. He sided with the Whigs, then in opposition, led by Fox, and soon became a distinguished member, but never rose to any height of oratory. The impeachment of Hastings was to a great extent his work. Though he did not take a prominent part in the matter, it was he who supplied most of the grounds of impeachment, and he was ever at hand to second the action of Burke and the other accusers. Through the horrors of the French Revolution his radicalism continued of the most prominent type. From 1797 to 1802 he was out of Parliament. The death of Pitt in 1805 brought his party again into power, and he strove in vain to be appointed Governor-General of India; he was, however, made Knight of the Garter. His parliamentary career closed in 1807. His latter years, rendered irksome by disease, were spent in literary pursuits and social intercourse. He died on the 23rd of December 1818, aged 78, and was buried at Mortlake. In religion he was through life a freethinker. There are good grounds for believing that Francis was the author of the Letters of Junius, and the several anonymous contributions to the public press, under the signature of "Candor" and "Anti-Sejanus," that led up to "Junius." The first letter of the "Candor" series appeared in Woodfall's paper, the Public Advertizer, in August 1764. Two years afterwards, in 1766, a series of sixteen letters in the same paper, under the signature of "Anti-Sejanus," were commenced. The Junius Letters number sixty-nine — the first appeared in the Public Advertizer, 21st January 1769; the last, 21st January 1772. This series of powerful letters from the pen of an anonymous writer asserted the claims of civil liberty, constitutional law, and freedom of religious thought and profession, against the Government policy that culminated in the arrest and trial of Wilkes. They are singularly free from personalities and coarseness, though lavish in sarcastic irony and wit. We are not told how the copy and proofs were conveyed between Woodfall and his anonymous correspondent, nor is it believed that Woodfall had any idea as to who it was that so largely contributed to the enormous sale and popularity of his paper, and the large profits arising therefrom — profits that amply repaid him for the risks he ran of public and private actions at law. "The classic purity of their language, the exquisite force and perspicuity of their argument, the keen severity of their reproach, the extensive information they evince, their fearless and decisive tone, and, above all, their stern and steady attachment to the purest principles of the constitution, acquired for them, with an almost electric speed, a popularity which no series of letters have since possessed, nor, perhaps, ever will; and, what is of far greater consequence, diffused among the body [of the people] a clearer knowledge of their constitutional rights than they had ever before attained, and animated them with a more determined spirit to maintain them inviolate. Enveloped in the cloud of a fictitious names, the writer of these philippics, unseen himself, beheld with secret satisfaction the vast influence of his labours, and enjoyed, though, as we shall afterwards observe, not always without apprehension, the universal search that was made to detect him in his disguise. He beheld the people extolling him, the court execrating him, and ministers, and more than ministers, trembling beneath the lash of his invisible hand." '* Charles Chabot, the distinguished expert, says, in summing up a report upon a comparison of handwriting of "Junius" and Francis, which occupies a large quarto volume, published in 1871: "I have shown in matters of detail, in the several component parts of the writing, in matters of style connected therewith, and in matters of material, there is in each abundance of evidence to justify me in the opinion I have formed, and to demonstrate that the Junian letters have emanated from no other hand than that of Sir Philip Francis." ^' The controversy regarding the authorship of the Letters of Junius cannot, however, be considered as definitely settled.

Fraser, John, a verse- writer, was born near Birr about 1809. He was a cabinet-maker, "a steady and unassuming workman, enjoying the respect of his fellow-workmen, and the friendship of those to whom he was known by his literary and poetic talents. He possessed much mental power; and had his means permitted him to cultivate and refine his poetic mind, he would have occupied a higher position as a poet than is now allotted to him. As it is, he has clothed noble thoughts in terse and harmonious language." He wrote under the assumed name of "J. De Jean." Pieces from his pen will be found in most collections of Irish poetry. He died in Dublin in 1849.

French, Nicholas, Bishop of Ferns, a distinguished politician and writer, was 214