which consists in equivocal compliment. Walpole also excelled in
this; and prided himself upon doing so. Are we not justified in
saying, that of all who, in the eighteenth century, cast their
thoughts on public occurrences into the form of letters, Junius
and Walpole are the most distinguished! that the works of no
other prose writer of their time exhibit a zest for political
satire equal to that which is displayed in the Letters of Junius,
and in the Memoires and Political Letters of Walpole and that
the sarcasm of equivocal praise was the favourite weapon in the
armoury of each, though it certainly appears to have been
tempered, and sharpened, and polished with additional care for
the hand of Junius? When did Francis ever deal in compliment or
in equivoque? In his vituperation there was always more of fury
than of malice: but Junius and Walpole were cruel. Madame du
Deffand says to the latter, "Votre plume est de fer tremp`e dans
de fiel." I have sometimes thought that clever old woman either
knew or suspected him to be Junius. She uses in one place the
unusual expression, "Votre `ecrit de Junius:" and if Walpole was
Junius, some of the most carefully composed letters in 1769 and
1771 were written in Paris ; where, indeed, it would seem that
Junius, whoever he was, collected the materials for the
accusation with which he threatened the Duke of Bedford, and
which he evidently knew to be untrue.

6. It has sometimes been said, that the Letters of Junius must
have been written by a lawyer, and they were at one time
attributed even to Mr. Dunning. The mistakes which I am about to
notice, trifling as they may be, make it impossible that any
lawyer should have been the author; and it appears to me that not
only is there a considerable resemblance in those mistakes which