Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/71

 9* S. IX. JAN. 25, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

63

JUNIUS. Two portraits of an Under- secretary of State in the reign of George III. being likely to be sold shortly at Christie's, it may be well the public should know somewhat more about their original than is generally the case. He was Mr. Jackson, Secretary of the Admiralty during the whole of the great American war, and subsequently Judge- Advocate of the Fleet. To him was imputed, and not without good reason, the authorship of the ' Letters of Junius,' but there are facts that must have been quite unknown when he was taken for Junius which bring the probability of the ascription within reason- able belief. Having entered the Civil Service about 1743, he afterwards married, when twenty-one, the only daughter of his uncle, William Ward, by one of the Vincent family of Stoke d'Abernon. This connected him with the Clanricardes and Osborns of Chick- sands, and soon brought him into good society. But his intercourse with the Pitts of Dorsetshire is the main consideration. When he first became acquainted with that family is not very certain, but there are two electioneering badges, on blue silk, bearing in gold and silver letters the words " Pitt and Jackson." It does not appear by reference to the Parliamentary returns for what con- stituency these badges were used. It would seem as though it were for the county of Dorset ; nevertheless, although the name of Pitt occurs frequently in boroughs in that county, no name of Jackson appears con- jointly with Pitt to satisfy his election on that occasion. But Mr. Jackson was returned M.P. for Wey mouth at an early date, and sub- sequently stood twice for the borough of Colchester, the first occasion being a con- tested election, of great notoriety at the time, which cost him a fabulous sum of money. There are several letters between himself and the Chatham family extant at Hayes, where he was a constant visitor, Lady Chatham writing to ask intelligence of her son Henry, who was in the navy as to the whereabouts of his ship, and so forth. This Henry, by- the-by, was brother of the great statesman William Pitt, and I have often failed to find his name in any peerage. Whether the supposed Junius set up by different persons as the veritable Junius had all these advan- tages of familiar intercourse with the Pitt family I do not know, but Mr. Jackson had that advantage.

The handwriting of the * Letters of Junius ' is certainly not that of Mr. Jackson, who wrote a large, good hand ; but it is not at all likely that a man who had been in office all his life would have allowed his identity

to be known by his handwriting. There is every reason to believe that a gentleman named Aust, who still lived in 1822, might have been employed by Mr. Jackson for this purpose. Mr. Jackson, who was created a baronet in 1791, left three daughters by his first wife and one son by his second wife, the late Sir George Duckett, who was an original member of the Pitt Club. Why the secrecy of the authorship of the ' Letters of Junius ' should have been so strictly observed, or even thought requisite, is now not easy to under- stand. But as for controversies and those who set up as authorities to solve them, I know from experience that the wildest and most absurd solutions are put forth to serve a purpose, more especially in the present day; but the object of this communication is simply to put the saddle on a probable horse. The secrecy in the matter is quite unex- plainable, but " Omnia rnutantur, nos et mutamur in illis." G. F. D.

" BARRACKED " = HOOTED. The Daily News of 18 December, 1901, contains the following note on the use of the word " barracked " :

"According to the telegrams, the disappointed spectators at Sydney ' barracked ' at the Australian cricketers for the feeble stand they were making against MacLaren's eleven. This is a comparatively new specimen of colonial slang. In the same way 'barracking' is only an elongated form of * barking.' It originated with the rowdy supporters of rival football teams, and has now spread to cricket and various other forms of sport. It has even forced its way into the political arena. People who vociferously cheer a particular public man are not infrequently referred to in Australian papers as his ' barrackers.' A colonial reporter would probably have remarked that Lord Rosebery had a regiment of ' barrackers' at Chesterfield."

While I am quite willing to admit that all

.-.ngation into "barracking. . ^

word is far more likely to have been formed from barreter or barrator, which Bailey (edition 1733) defines as "a wrangler, a stirrer-up, a rnaintainer of quarrels," and gives as a law term derived from the old French barratter.

G. YARROW BALDOCK. South Hackney.

to the brilliant talents of Mr. Tree, there has of late been a revival of interest in the career of D'Orsay, I should like, trusting once again to the kindness of the Editor and the patience of the readers of ' N. & O.,' to recall (may I say rescue?) from oblivion the name of Thomas Henry Nicholson, who was (if I am not mis- taken) "foreman artist" at Gore House.
 * THE LAST OF THE DANDIES.' As, thanks