Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/180

 Chatham spoke on 10 Dec., and the ‘London Evening Post’ of the 11th reported that he had condemned Mansfield's conduct as ‘irregular, extrajudicial and unprecedented,’ the words used in Francis's private letter. Chatham's argument, however, was not given, and ‘Nerva’ in the ‘Public Advertiser’ of 14 Dec. showed that he had missed the point. On 17 Dec. ‘Nerva’ was answered by ‘Phalaris,’ who restates Francis's argument with such verbal closeness that there can be no doubt that he was Francis, or had read Francis's confidential communication to Chatham (see Herman Merivale in Fortnightly Review, March 1868). This letter, by omitting the three italicised words in ‘I affirm with Lord Chatham,’ became Chatham's speech in the report of the ‘Museum’ for January. In 1772 Junius cited this report in a note to the preface of the collected edition of his letters, and added ‘it is exactly taken.’ The ‘Phalaris’ letter, which was almost certainly by Francis, is included in the ‘Miscellaneous Letters’ of Junius; and the probability that Junius was the author is increased by his guarantee of its accuracy, and by the fact that he was keenly anxious to attack Mansfield; that he was writing the letter of ‘Domitian’ at least, and private letters to Woodfall, and that, if he was not ‘Phalaris,’ he made no direct attempt to support Chatham's assault upon the common enemy. A violent scene took place later in the debate of 10 Dec., at which Francis states that he was present, and it is described in the ‘Museum,’ obviously by an eye-witness. It ended in the expulsion of all strangers. Junius's private letter to Woodfall of 31 Jan. 1771 shows his extreme anxiety that the doors of the House of Lords might not be closed in the coming session. Francis, who attributes the closing to his publication of the 22 Nov. speech, declares that the closure was fatal to the opposition.

Francis and Junius were equally interested in the Falkland Islands quarrel. Francis thought that a war would necessarily place Chatham in power, and in that case he says ‘I might have commanded anything.’ He speculated in the funds, and by the peaceful settlement of the dispute in 1771 lost 500l. Calcraft told Chatham on 14 Jan. 1771 that war ‘is more and more certain.’ Junius told Woodfall, 16 Jan. 1771, that ‘every man in the administration looks upon war as inevitable.’ The ‘Domitian’ letter of 17 Jan. argues the same point, and on 30 Jan. Junius argues the case in a letter to which Johnson made a well-known reply. The remarks in this letter are curiously coincident with remarks from an unnamed correspondent, communicated to Chatham by Calcraft on 20 Jan.

The settlement of this question strengthened the ministry; and the opposition gradually declined and fell into discordant factions. Junius supported the city in the quarrel with the House of Commons. In the summer he again attacked Grafton, who in May 1771 accepted the privy seal; and was diverted by a sharp encounter with Horne, who was now quarrelling with Wilkes. He afterwards corresponded privately with Wilkes, suggesting means for pacifying the conflicting factions. The opposition grew daily weaker. At the end of 1771 Junius made his last assault upon Mansfield for bailing Eyre. The letter, composed with great labour, is said by Campbell and Charles Butler to prove that Junius was not a lawyer. Like the attack made by Francis, however, it turns upon a technical point, and Junius, like Francis, sent the proof-sheets of his letter to Chatham, asking him to co-operate in the House of Lords. The letter, which appeared 21 Jan. 1772, with another to Lord Camden, was a complete failure, and Junius, under that name, wrote no more.

On 21 Jan. 1772 D'Oyly, Francis's intimate friend, resigned his post at the war office. Barrington appointed Anthony Chamier [q. v.] in his place. Francis himself resigned in March. On 25 Jan. Junius told Woodfall of Chamier's appointment, and announced his intention of ‘torturing’ Barrington, requesting Woodfall at the same time to be careful to keep it secret that Junius was the torturer. The intention was fulfilled in the letters under various signatures, presumably intended to suggest different authors, which appeared on 28 Jan. and in the following months. They show Junius in his cruellest mood, and are in a vein of brutal pleasantry which, though it occurs in some of the other unacknowledged letters, is so unlike the more dignified style of Junius as to evade recognition. If Francis wrote them, they gave vent to the accumulated bile of an ambitious and arrogant subordinate against a dull and supercilious superior, whose politics he despised, who had turned out his dearest friend, and who had not yet had his fair share of abuse in Junius.

It is, however, remarkable that the facts, very partially known to us, do not fully explain Francis's wrath. The memoir in the ‘Mirror’ (1811), probably inspired by Francis, states that he resigned ‘in consequence of a difference with Viscount Barrington, by whom he thought himself injured.’ Yet in a private letter of 24 Jan. 1772 Francis says that Barrington had offered D'Oyly's place to him ( and, i. 275), which