Page:Letters of Junius, volume 1 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/90

44 other concerns yourself. After selling the companions of your victory in one instance, and after selling your profession in the other, by what authority do you presume to call yourself a soldier? The plain evidence of facts is superior to all declarations. Before you were appointed to the 16th regiment, your complaints were a distress to government;—from that moment you were silent. The conclusion is inevitable. You insinuate to us, that your ill state of health obliged you to quit the service. The retirement necessary to repair a broken constitution would have been as good a reason for not accepting, as for resigning the command of a regiment. There is certainly an error of the press, or an affected obscurity jn that paragraph, where you speak of your bargain with colonel Gisborne. Instead of attempting to answer what I do not really understand, permit me to explain to the public what I really know. In exchange for your regiment, you accepted of a colonel's half-pay (at least 220l. a year) and an annuity of two hundred pounds for your own and lady Draper's life jointly.—And is this the losing bargain, which you would represent to us, as if you had given up an income of 800l. a year for 380l.? Was it decent, was it honourable,