Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/361

Rh HE Reverend Mr. John Horne having with his usual veracity and honest industry, circulated a report that Junius, in a letter to the Supporters of the Bill of Rights, had warmly declared himself in favour of long parliaments and rotten boroughs, it is thought necessary to submit to the public the following extract from his letter to John Wilkes, Esq; dated the 7th of September 1771, and laid before the society on the 24th of the same month.

" regard to the several articles, taken separately, I own I am concerned to see that the great condition, which ought to be the sine quâ non of parliamentary qualification,—which ought to be the basis (as it assuredly will be the only support) of every barrier raised in defence of the constitution, I mean a declaration upon oath to shorten the duration of parliaments, is reduced to the fourth rank in the esteem of the society; and even in that place, far from being insisted on with firmness and vehemence, seems to have been particularly slighted in