of
his being a Virginian. Mr. Adams said that had been a ground of
objection, but it would not avail. He afterwards remarks: "Mr. Canning,
whose celebrity is great, and whose talents are probably greater than
those of any other member of the cabinet, and who has been invariably
noted for his bitterness against the United States, seemed desirous to
make up by an excess of civility for the feelings he has so constantly
manifested against us."

After reading the Gazette Extraordinary sent him by Lord Castlereagh,
containing an account of the victory of Lord Exmouth, on the 27th of
August, over the Algerines, and that the terms of capitulation had
forced them to deliver up all their Christian slaves, to repay
ransom-money, and to stipulate for the formal abolition of Christian
slavery in Algiers forever, Mr. Adams observed, "This is a deed of real
glory."

The Lord Mayor of London introduced Mr. Adams to Sir Philip Francis,
then the supposed author of the letters of Junius. On this celebrated
work, on a subsequent occasion, Mr. Adams remarked: "Sir Philip Francis
is almost demonstrated to be the culprit. The speeches of Lord Chatham
bear the stamp of a mind not unequal to the composition of Junius. Those
of Burke are of a higher order. Were it ascertained that either of them
were the political assassin who stabbed with the dagger of Junius, I
should not add a particle of admiration for his talents, and should lose
all my respect for his morals. Junius was essentially a sophist. His
religion was infidelity, his abstract ethics depraved, his temper
bitterly malignant, and his nervous system timid and cowardly. The
concealment of his name at the time when he wrote was the effect of
dishonest fear. The perpetuation of it could only proceed from the
consciousness that the disclosure of his person would be discreditable
to his fame. The object of Junius, when he began to write, was merely to
overthrow the administration then in power. He attacked them in a mass
and individually; their measures, their capacities, their characters
public and private; charged them with every crime and every vice.
Afterwards, he followed up his general assault by singling out,
successively, the Dukes of Grafton and Bedford, Lord Mansfield, Sir
William Blackstone, and the King himself. He magnified mole-hills into
mountains, inflamed pin-scratches into deadly wounds, and at last
abandoned his course in despair at the very time when he might have
p