e summer, which, however, I don't
expect, I promise you a very interesting pamphlet about Junius. I will
put my name to it; I will set the question at rest for ever." The death
of the Marquess, however, occurred in a week. In a letter to the _Monthly
Magazine_, July 1813, the son of the Marquess of Lansdowne says:--"It
is not impossible my father may have been acquainted with the fact; but
perhaps he was under some obligation to secrecy, as he never made any
communication to me on the subject."

Lord Mahon (now Earl Stanhope) at length and with minuteness enters, in
his History, into a vindication of the claims of Sir Philip Francis,
grounding his partisanship on the close similarity of handwriting
established by careful comparison of facsimiles; the likeness of the
style of Sir Philip's speeches in Parliament to that of _Junius_--biting,
pithy, full of antithesis and invective; the tenderness and bitterness
displayed by _Junius_ towards persons to whom Sir Philip stood well or
ill affected; the correspondence of the dates of the letters with those
of certain movements of Sir Philip; and the evidence of _Junius_' close
acquaintance with the War Office, where Sir Philip held a post. It seems
generally agreed that the weight of proof is on the side of Sir Philip
Francis; but there will always be found adherents of other names--as
O'Connell, in the following passage, of Burke:--

"It is my decided opinion," said O'Connell, "that Edmund Burke
was the author of the 'Letters of Junius.' There are many
considerations which compel me to form that opinion. Burke was the
only man who made that figure in the world which the author of
'Junius' _must_ have made, if engaged in public life; and the
entire of 'Junius's Letters' evinces that close acquaintance with
the springs of political machinery which no man could possess
unless actively engaged in politics. Again, Burke was fond of
chemical similes; now chemical similes are frequent in Junius.
Again; Burke was an Irishman; now Junius, speaking of the
Government of Ireland, twice calls it 'the Castle,' a familiar
phrase amongst Irish politicians, but one which an Englishman,
in those days, would never have used. Again; Burke had this
peculiarity in writing, that he often wrote many words without
taking the pen from the paper. The very same peculiarity existed
in the manuscripts of Junius, although they were written in