Page:Letters of Junius, volume 1 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/133

Rh due to those who come after us; and it is the historian's office to punish, though he cannot correct. I do not give you to posterity as a pattern to imitate, but as an example to deter; and as your conduct comprehends every thing that a wise or honest minister should avoid, I mean to make you a negative instruction to your successors for ever. JUNIUS.

 

12. June, 1769. SIR,

HE Duke of Grafton's friends not finding it convenient to enter into a contest with Junius, are now reduced to the last melancholy resource of defeated argument, the flat general charge of scurrility and falsehood. As for his style, I shall leave it to the critics. The truth of his facts is of more importance to the public. They are of such a nature that I think a bare contradiction will have no weight with any man who judges for himself. Let us take them in the order in which they appear in his last letter. 