Notes and Queries, Number 47, September 21, 1850 by Various
page 8 of 67 (11%)
page 8 of 67 (11%)
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I can assure your correspondent R.J. (Vol. ii., p. 103.) that I was not
only "literally _the writer_," (as he kindly suggests, with a view of saving my credit for having put my name to the book), but in its fullest sense _the author of "Junius Identified"_; and that I never received the slightest assistance from Mr. Dubois, or any other person, either in collecting or arranging the evidence, or in the composition and correction of the work. After I had completed my undertaking, I wrote to Mr. Dubois to ask if he would allow me to see the handwriting of Sir Philip Francis, that I might {259} compare it with the published fac-similes of the handwriting of Junius; but he refused my request. His letter alone disproved the notion entertained by R.J. and others, that Mr. Dubois was in any degree connected with me, or with the authorship of the work in question. With regard to the testimony of Lord Campbell, I wrote to his lordship in February, 1848, requesting his acceptance of a copy of _Junius Identified_, which I thought he might not have seen; and having called his attention to my name at the end of the preface, I begged he would, when opportunity offered, correct his error in having attributed the work to Mr. Dubois. I was satisfied with his lordship's reply, which was to the effect that he was ashamed of his mistake, and would take care to correct it. No new edition of that series of the _Lives of the Chancellors_, which contains the "Life of Lord Loughborough," has since been published. The present edition is dated 1847. R.J. says further, that "the late Mr. George Woodfall always spoke of the _pamphlet_ as the work of Dubois;" and that Sir Fortunatus Dwarris states, "the _pamphlet_ is said, I know not with what truth, to have been prepared under the eye of Sir Philip Francis, it may be through the agency of Dubois." If _Junius Identified_ be alluded to in these |
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