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circumstance which does not tally with this conclusion, and no difficulty which it does not explain-we shall now very briefly advert to one or two particulars of evidence more strictly external than any which has yet been considered.

From several parts of the correspondence with Woodfall, it should seem that Junius frequently delivered the letters himself. When he employed another hand, we may be well assured it was that of a porter or other ordinary messenger, as was ascertained, in one instance, by Wilkes, who examined the person, and learnt that he received the packet from a gentleman. That he should entrust any body with his secret, for the mere purpose of conveying the letters, appears highly improbable; and to have given a packet for Woodfall to a friend to carry, would have been telling him the whole. Now, it seems that a gentleman of respectability, Mr Jackson of Ipswich, was in Woodfall's employment at the period of the Letters ;-and he states, that he once saw a tall gentleman, dressed in a light coat, with bag and sword, throw into the office-door, opening in Ivy Lane, a letter of Junius's, which he picked up, and immediately followed the bearer of it into St Paul's Churchyard, where he got into a hackney-coach, and drove off. '— (Woodfall, I. 43.) The author of the work before us states, that the figure and appearance of Sir Philip answers to this description as far as it goes.

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There are various peculiarities of spelling which occur uniformly in both writers; and neither of them has any such peculiarity that is not common to both. Thus, they both write ' with an s; compleatly' instead of completely; ' practise ingross,' intire, intrust, and many other such words, which are usually begun with an e-endeavor without an u-skreen with a k, and several others. There may not be much in any of these instances taken singly; but when we find that all the peculiarities that belong to either writer are common to both, it is impossible not to receive them as ingredients in the mass of evidence.

It is stated by a person who examined, with Wilkes, the form and folding of the letters received by him, that they both agreed in thinking they could see marks of the writer's habit of folding and directing official letters.'

Last of all, a careful examination has been instituted of the handwriting of Junius; and the specimens published by Woodfall have been diligently compared with letters of Sir Philip Francis. Those of Junius are known to be all written in a feigned hand; but its general character agrees well with that of Sir Philip's. Wherever, in the hurry of writing, (for example, where

a word is interlined), the natural hand, or something near it, breaks out, the resemblance is more complete; and certain peculiarities, preserved in the feigned hand, occur also in Sir Philip's. We cannot follow the comparison through its minute details; but we are confident that it must go far towards satisfying those whom the rest of the argument may have failed to convince. Some of the more remarkable coincidences are as follows.

When Sir P. F. signs with his initials, he draws a short strong line above and below them. The very same lines are uniformly drawn under and over the initials with which Junius signs his private letters to Woodfall. In correcting the press, they both use, instead of the ordinary sign of deletion, a different and very peculiar sign, exactly the same in both. They both place the asterisk or star of reference to a foot-note, at the beginning, and not at the end of the passage to which it belongs-contrary to what may be termed the invariable usage of other writers. They both write the words you and yours, in all cases, with a large Y, the farm of which is strikingly alike in both authors. They also use a half large c at the beginning of a word,-of a peculiar and characteristic formation. Their ciphers or numerals are all formed exactly on the same plan; as are most of their compound letters. Instead of a round dot over the i, they both invariably use an oblique stroke, sloping in the opposite direction to that of the general writing; and they mark their quotations, not by inverted commas, but by short perpendicular lines. They are both uniformly correct and systematic in the punctuation of their MS. Both write a distinct little a over &c.; and connect words divided at the end of a line, not by a hyphen, but a colon, which is repeated, contrary to general usage, at the beginning of the second line, as well as the end of the first.

Before concluding this article, we must repeat, that the diligence of the author, whose work furnishes the materials of this argument, is very praiseworthy, and that the merit of the investigation belongs entirely to him. We cannot, however, avoid remarking, that he has frequently overloaded his book with useless and irrelevant quotations;-for example, much of the Speeches of Lord Chatham, and of Sir Philip Francis's pamphlets; that he many times draws conclusions from such trivial resemblances in expression as prove nothing,-e. g. p. 236, 237,

VOL. XXIX. No. 57.

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* We understand that it is confidently stated in London, that still more precise evidence exists of the similarity of the hands, drawn from Sir Philip's earlier penmanship.

235, 238-beside a variety of other instances; and that, in some places, he seems to lose himself, and goes on quoting and reasoning, without recollecting the point to be proved-as, where he compares a Report of Lord Chatham's Speeches, admitted to be made by Sir Philip, with the avowed productions of the latter, (p. 266, B. 25.)

ART. VI. Speech of ROBERT, LORD BISHOP OF OSSORY, in the House of Peers, Friday, May 16, 1817, on the Motion of the Earl of Donoughmore, relating to the Roman Catholic Claims. 1817. Stockdale.

2. Speech of LESLIE FORBES, Esq., in the House of Commons, May 9. 1817, on the Motion of Mr Grattan.

3. Speech of the Right IIonourable ROBERT PEEL, on the same Subject.

THO

HOSE who have attended to the progress of any discussion on subjects connected with our passions, as well as our interests, must have observed, that the difficulty of bringing the parties to an agreement, arises, not so much from any insuperable variance respecting assertions or principles, as from the rapidity with which they who are in the wrong usually contrive to change the ground of the argument. When the conclusion will no longer suit their premises, they suit the premises to the conclusion. In this change of position, the youngest and most active of the combatants always take the lead; and while the effective forces are thus moving off to stations, from which they cannot be dislodged without new manoeuvres on the part of their adversaries, the invalids linger round their old watchfires, and make a merit of their tardiness.

In the debates on the Catholic Question, we have a striking example of this evasive system of warfare. The main argument by which the claims of the Catholics were for a long time resisted, was founded on the assertion, that they were the passive instruments of a foreign potentate,-a potentate, too, who was not only Anti-Christ himself, but in alliance with our mortal and still more Anti-Christian enemy. Time has destroyed a part of this argument; and the exclusionists have at length abandoned the rest: But they are just as far from being convinced as ever; and, from the groundlessness of their former pleas, they have actually raised up a new danger, and a new argument in support of their cause. The Catholics offer a plan of domestic nomination, which would secure us against that influence of the

Pope over the King's subjects, which was said to be incompatible with their loyalty. But the enemies of emancipation now turn on them, and say, that the Pope never exercised any power in the nomination of Bishops in Ireland; that, to provide against his interference, is but to mock the Protestants with a security against an unreal danger; that they fear not the Pope, but the Bishops themselves; not the subjection of the Catholic Clergy, but their independence. It is true, there are yet some who talk of the overwhelming power of the Popewho circulate the Book of Martyrs in two-penny numbersand who maintain, that the Coronation oath forbids the King to secure the peace and welfare of his Protestant subjects, if it should be attended with some collateral advantages to the Catholics. It is impossible to go about to light up the dark crannies of every man's understanding. We shall leave these intolerants of the old school to be answered by its younger disciples. We cannot, however, help sympathizing with the Bishop of Ossory, who, in the 27th page of his Speech, says, that if we want a proof of the meddling overbearing spirit of aggrandizement of the Catholic clergy,

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- a very SIGNAL instance might be found in a kind of pastoral letter, (signed by the Archbishop of Mecklin, and I believe all his suffragans, except two), which was' (-what does the reader think?— read in the churches? No; but) thrust under the doors of the shopkeepers of Brussels a few days prior to the inauguration of the King of the Netherlands; in which the Catholics were told, that they could not, as good Catholics, take an oath of fealty and allegiance to a Protestant Prince :-and, what is still more extraordinary, this curious production could not be obtained two days after it had been so dispersed, although very great pains was taken to procure a copy, and much money offered for one.

We congratulate ourselves that the Right Reverend Prelate's productions do not disappear so rapidly; and proceed to Mr Foster, one of the ablest opponents of the cause of emancipation.

In speaking of the offer to secure domestic nomination, he

says,

It proposes nothing new; it proposes merely that the Bishops should be appointed for the future in the same manner as they have, in fact, been appointed hitherto. The nomination of the Roman Catholic Bishops has been, for a long time, as practically domestic as any possible arrangement can now render it. When a see is vacant, a recommendation is forwarded to Rome from Ireland, of the individual who is to be appointed; and I understand that, within the time of memory, there have not occurred more than two or three instances of any difficulty in confirming the choice of this domestic no

mination. The persons who thus nominate to Rome, are, as I understand, a certain number of the Roman Catholic Bishops. How they are selected I do not pretend to know:-latterly, it is said, that, by mutual courtesy, they recommend, as of course, the coadjutor of the deceased Bishop. This coadjutor is selected by the Bishop in his lifetime. The transmission of the Episcopal rank in the Irish Roman Catholic church is therefore, in practice, a mere matter of testamentary bequest, every Bishop taking his office under the will of his immediate predecessor in the see..... A more complete system of domestic nomination, however, cannot be proposed, than that which exists at present. You can vary its form; but more domestic you cannot render it.'

Mr Foster having thus shown us how groundless were the fears once so loudly professed by his own party, of foreign interference in the nomination of the Catholic clergy, goes on to show what, in his opinion, the real danger is.

The Protestant sees, with apprehension, four millions of our people still mainly dependent for their habits and opinions, and more particularly for their impressions of the religion and government of England, on a great body of ecclesiastics, whom the fatal and mistaken policy of our ancestors had treated in such a manner, that it was not in human nature to expect that those ecclesiastics should make their flocks very much attached to the government from which that treatment proceeded. The Protestant sees that body of ecclesiastics, who, till lately, were under absolute proscription, still an insulated and an unacknowledged, but most formidable power, within the country; totally unconnected with the state; studiously independent of it; unattached to it by any of the ordinary motives of human conduct; but acting all the while on the education, the morals, the habits, the opinions and conduct of the greater part of our population, more extensively than the legislative and executive powers united. . . . . . . The Protestant sees, further, this great ecclesiastical community, so powerful in command, itself submitted with unlimited devotion to the orders of a comparatively small portion of their own body; I mean their Bishops; and these again acting with an unanimity and steadiness in asserting their authority, and extending the common interest of their order, not inferior to any thing in the example of papal Rome itself. p. 307.

He then describes the corporation spirit of the bishops, their periodical meetings at Maynooth, and the declarations of their synods, and the hostility of the people of Ireland to British laws.

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The Protestant,' he observes, sees our people in too many districts acting in avowed defiance of the law, subverting the very foundations of society; and he sees them, when finally overtaken by justico, heroically ready to meet their fate, firmly convinced that

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