TO THE EDITOR OF THE LETTERS OF HORACE WALPOLE,
EARL OF ORFORD.



Sir,

1. Before your last volume is published, I am desirous of stating
to you some of the considerations which, more than seventeen
years ago, led me to the belief I still entertain, that Walpole
had a principal share in the composition and publication of the
Letters of Junius: though I think it likely that Mason, or some
other friend corrected the style, and gave precision and force to
the most striking passages.

2. It was in 1823, whilst I was residing in India, that Lord
Holland's edition of Walpole's Memoires of the Last Ten Years of
the Reign of George the Second suggested to me this notion; and
it was shortly afterwards communicated to several of my friends.
The edition of Junius which I had with me, was that of Mr.
Woodfall the younger, in three volumes; and I am not at present
by any means satisfied that all the letters which the editor
assigns to Junius were written by him: but in this hasty notice I
must proceed upon the supposition that they were.

3. It will be remembered that the Memoires were composed by
Walpole in secrecy, and that he left them in a sealed box, which,
by his will, was forbidden to be opened till many years after his
death. The letters from which the corresponding passages are