Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/96

 T8 NOTES AND QUERIES. CD* s. vi. JULY as, im (nie Pitt) had provided for revealing the family secret at a certain date. I admit the toss-up—Pitt or Grenville. It was a genea- logical affair, but the elimination of one served to identify the other as Earl Temple. Guess is chancework. Conjecture is rational deduction from evidences of facts ; the greater and more varied their number the closer conjecture approximates to truth, until a stage is reached when the distinction is in- appreciable. My conjecture had been formed inde- pendently of 'The Grenville Papers,' edited by Mr. W. J. Smith, otherwise I should have read them more attentively and spared myself the trouble of looking up Harry and Nan in the 'Political Register' (ii. 431). I culled sufficient to displace Sir Philip Francis, not knowing that he had been ex- tinguished in the At/tenceum (4 May, 1895) On the appearance of ' N. & Q.' I devoted the day to MR. PHASER RAE, our best-in- formed Junius-hunter. I do not share his opinion of Mr. Smith's essay, over which Mr. Dilke seemed uncandid, though they agreed about the handwriting of Junius. Government offices may have been supplied with similar paper, but impressed to dis- tinguish the office ; and Francis's letter in- forming his cousin that he was about to leave the War Office on his own account was bravado. Domestics give notice if they foresee dismissal. I took it that "his own pen " meant Junius's pen ; the reply to Junia upsets Caleb Whitefoord's claim. I should infer from the information amassed by MR. FRASER RAE that he does possess a burning desire to learn the name of Junius. He discovered that Crito, in writing two letters to George Woodfall, 1820, stated that he had " most of Junius's papers and manuscript memorandums" ; also that the letters were sealed with the identical seal used by Junius—facts most interesting ; and to identify Crito is the problem to be solved by aid of genealogical analysis. The duke hurried off with them to Drop- more, where his uncle. Lord Grenville, nephew of Earl Temple, at once recognized them and declared his intention of providing for their publication after his death, and the brothers promised secrecy :— "So my fat friend Lord Nugent tells me. Nugent is bursting with the secret, and I am bursting to obtain it. I wish I had heard nothing about it."—Jnmector Magazine, 1827, p. 585 (see 11 sqq., 9'» S. iv. 201). The narrative is taken from the diary of a member of Parliament who had been a Junius- hunter and a Franciscan before Lord Nugent told him of his mistake. This interesting story was soon followed by a denial in the same magazine, as in the cases of Woodfall and Alraon, or of Caleb above. Lord Nugent, so excited over the discovery of Junius, was the person most likely to have prized and securea the particular seal and the MSS. of Junius that remained outside the Dropmore packet. He was M.P. for Aylesbury, and printed a letter to his con- stituents, in 1820,' On the Catholic Question.' On the title-page is a long quotation : " I look upon my Roman Catholic brethren as fellow subjects and fellow Christians," <fcc. (Bishop of Killala's speech, 1793). He advocated the admission of Roman Catholics to all the rights and privileges of other British sub- jects, short of accession to the throne, which would be treason. He also printed a state- ment he made to the Rev. Sir George Lee, Bart., respecting the political claims of the Catholics, and passed in review the cruelties of both Catholics and Protestants : "Queen Mary, weak, bigoted, and cruel, her husband a bloody despot, herself a willing agent in the hands of Spain and the tyrant of her people." On the other hand, Calvin burnt Servetus, Knoxdefended themurderof Cardinal Beaton, and much more tu <fuoque argument, for which he ransacked old authors, as shown by his numerous foot-notes. He and Lady Nugent Crito was, I Richard, Earl have no doubt, related to Temple, or Junius, whose favourite nephew, G. G. N. Temple, sue ceeded to his title, and was created Marquis of Buckingham. He named his first son Richard after his uncle; his second son, George Grenville Nugent Temple, became Lord Nugent on his mother's death. These brothers—Richard was then Duke of Buck- ingham—hunting together for private papers in the library at Stow, the duke's seat, lit on a parcel in a, to them, unknown recess, containing original letters signed in the proper and in the fictitious name of Junius. wrote 'Legends of the Library at Lilies,' among them a story of ' The Odious Catholic Question,' and he wrote the well - known 'Memorials of John Hampden,' in two volumes. MR. FRASER RAE says, "Crito had a know- ledge of Junius such as no person has yet displayed." He had defended Junius in the PiMic Advertiser. Crito wrote to the Gentleman's Magazine, asking for information respecting Tillotson and others. The editor replied that Dr. John Prideaux, Rector of Exeter College, resigned in 1642 and died 1650; Dr. Rob. Abbot was Master of Balliol College; Bishop Earle died 17 Nov., 1665;