Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/146

136 contented with throwing an aspersion, equally false and public, upon the character of the servant.

short recapitulation was necessary to introduce the consideration of his Majesty's speech of 13. November, 1770, and the subsequent measures of government. The excessive caution with which the speech was drawn up, had impressed upon me an early conviction, that no serious resentment was thought of, and that the conclusion of the business, whenever it happened, must, in some degree, be dishonourable to England. There appears, through the whole speech, a guard and reserve in the choice of expression, which shows how careful the ministry were not to embarrass their future projects by any firm or spirited declaration from the throne. When all hopes of peace are lost, his Majesty tells his parliament, that he is preparing,—not for barbarous war, but (with all his mother's softness) for a different Situation.—An open hostility, authorised by the Catholic King, is called an act of a governor. This act, to avoid the mention of a regular siege and surrender, passes under the piratical description of seizing by