Page:Letters of Junius, volume 1 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/97

 not to attract the public attention to a character, which will only pass without censure, when it passes without observation. JUNIUS.

It has been said, and I believe truly, that it was signified to Sir William Draper, as the request of Lord Granby, that he should desist from writing in his Lordship's defence. Sir William Draper certainly drew Junius forward to say more of Lord Granby's character than he originally intended. He was reduced to the dilemma of either being totally silenced, or of supporting his first letter. Whether Sir William had a right to reduce him to this dilemma, or to call upon him for his name, after a voluntary attack on his fide, are questions submitted to the candour of the public. The death of Lord Granby was lamented by Junius. He undoubtedly owed some compensations to the public, and seemed determined to acquit himself of them. In private life he was unquestionably that good man, who, for the interest of his country, ought to have been a great one. Bonum virum facile dixeris;—magnum libenter. I speak of him now without partiality;—I never spoke of him with resentment. His mistakes, in public conduct, did not arise either from want of sentiment, or want of judgement, but in general from the difficulty of saying to the bad people who surrounded him.

As for the rest, the friends of Lord Granby should remember, that he himself thought proper to condemn, retract, and disavow, by a most solemn declaration in the House of Commons, that very system of political conduct which Junius had held forth to the disapprobation of the public.