"Here are deposited the remains of William Great rakes, Esq. a native of Ireland, who, on his way from Bristol to London, died in this town, in the 52d year of his age, on the 2d day of August,

1791.

"Stat Nominis Umbra."

The same number of the Magazine has, in its second plate, an engraving of the autograph to which the preceding letter refers, and a specimen of the handwriting of the real Junius, from Mr. Woodfall's edition. The present writer does not discover much resemblance between them.

The Gentleman's Magazine for July 1813, contains a letter, that details a conversation, which sir Richard Phillips had with lord Shelbourne, then lord Lansdowne, on the subject of Junius. He represented his lordship as scouting the notion that Boyd was the author of the Letters; and made his lordship say, "I knew Junius, and I knew all about the writing and production of those Letters. If I live over the summer, which, however, I do not expect, I promise you a very interesting pamphlet about Junius. I will set the question at rest for ever."

The perusal of these Letters induced the Reminiscent to make some inquiries respecting the gentleman to whom the first letter relates. He has ascertained that a gentleman of the name, family, and occupations mentioned in that letter did exist; that he died on a journey from Bristol to London; that he was known both to the late lord Chatham and Mr. Charles Fox; that his name was mentioned among those who were first surmised to be authors of the Letters of Junius; that his family ascribed those Letters to him and that one of his surviving nieces, on being shown the fac simile of Junius's handwriting, published by Messrs. Taylor and Hessey, expressed herself by letter in these words,-" As to the fac simile, the hand struck me at once as being my uncle's; but that as more studied, as my uncle's was more sloping, which I suppose is owing to this being stamped" (engraved.)

In page 93 of the text, there is a reference to the present note, for a wonderful tale respecting Junius.We shall here present it to our readers.

The Scots Magazine printed at Edinburgh, for November 1799, No. xi. p. 734, contains the following letter.

"Remarks towards a Discovery of the Author of Junius's Letters.

"In our last we gave the correspondence which has been published in London, regarding the author of Junius's Letters. Some interesting and striking circumstances have lately appeared in some Edinburgh publications, which regard this interesting topic, and which we think worthy of notice. These point out a gentleman, who, though high in literary fame, never has heretofore been reputed, so far as we recollect, the writer of these celebrated Letters. With what degree of probability our readers will judge from the following circumstances:-In the year 1768, (says this writer,) Dr. Stuart went to London, expecting the patronage of lord Mansfield, on account of his Essay on the British Constitution. His hopes, however, were defeated. Disappointment, probably, as well as revenge, caused him to embrace the interest of the opposition. He procured an introduction to an English gentleman strongly connected by ties of blood to lord Camden. This man is yet living, now in Parliament, and the bosom friend of Mr. Pitt; his name I shall call Lucius. Lucius soon discovered the merits of young Stuart. The scheme of Junius's Letters was immediately planned by Lucius and a Mr. Fitzgerald, an accomplished Irishman, since dead. They were to give the information, and Stuart was to be the author; but a confidential amanuensis was still wanting. Mr. Fitzgerald at last found one in his countryman Hugh Boyd.

66

A room was taken in a coffee-house in the Strand, where Lucius, Fitzgerald, and Stuart, nightly met.Stuart wrote the letters in his own lodgings; Fitzgerald

sent them to Hugh Boyd to be transcribed; the latter returned them to Fitzgerald, who sent them back to Stuart, and he conveyed them by street porters to Woodfall's.

"An intimate acquaintance of Fitzgerald, from whom I had this story, and in whose veracity I may perfectly confide, happened to frequent the same coffee-house. The mistress of the house one day took my friend aside, and cautiously advised him to break off all acquaintance with Fitzgerald; 'for,' added she, 'I strongly suspect he frequents the high road. About six weeks ago he took a room from me, for the purpose, he said, of spending the evening agreeably with a few friends. But he never comes till twelve at night, and he brings with him two persons whose appearance I sadly dislike. I listen often at the door; their conversation in general is about noblemen: but one night I heard them say they robbed a linen-draper. I mean to tell them to-morrow to leave the house." My friend's curiosity was naturally excited: He bored a small hole in an unobservable part of the door, and told the landlady he would come early the next morning between one and two, which he accordingly did; and saw his intimate acquaintance Fitzgerald, Lucius, (whom he knew by sight) and another person sitting between them; but what was his astonishment when he found their conversation respected the writing of Junius's Letters.

"He called upon Fitzgerald the next morning, and found him in bed, who apologized, by saying he had been late in the city with some acquaintances. Yes, said my friend, sir William Draper always entertains his company well at night; he is a jolly fellow; there are a number of racks and vipers that dance through his conversation in all the mazes of metaphorical confusion.' Fitzgerald immediately knowing he was discovered, after being informed how his acquaintance came to the knowledge of the secret, took his promise never to reveal it until after his (Fitzgerald's) death.

"To the public this may appear a romantic story, but they may depend on the authenticity of it, which is supported by many other facts.

"It is well known that one of the parcels of Junius was marked with the seal of Edmund Burke; and upon Burke being challenged as to the fact, he declared that it was either a forgery, or that his friend Fitzgerald was the author of Junius; for he recollected breakfasting with Fitzgerald the morning the parcel was delivered, and that Fitzgerald asked his seal to put upon a letter, by apologizing that he could not find his own.

"It is also well known that the Letters of Junius were traced first to Lincoln's-inn-fields, and next to Chancerylane, in which two places Gilbert Stuart at different times resided. "AN OLD MAGISTRATE."

It is needless to observe that this letter is entitled to little attention,-it is an anonymous communication, and unsupported either by external or internal evidence; it is also open to the objection, that it makes four persons possessed of the secret; now, that four persons, such as the letter describes, should keep such a secret inviolate, in spite of all the temptations to betray it, which vanity and interest would present, is highly improbable. Stuart was in narrow, Boyd in embarrassed circumstances, and neither remarkable for circumspection.

The writer was acquainted with the family of Mr. Fitzgerald, who is mentioned in the transcription, and with several of his friends. He took a leading part in the riot at Drury-lane, which enforced, against the unwilling manager, the admission into the theatre, after the close of the third act, at half price. This exposed Mr. Fitzgerald to ridicule, but he was allowed to be a man of learning and elegant pursuits. He resided at Hampstead; one of his most intimate friends was a Mr. Madan, a gentleman who resided in the same place; a profound classical scholar, and yet remembered by many with respect. This gentleman, in 1776, mentioned to the Reminiscent, that he always suspected his friend Fitzgerald was the author of Junius's Letters, and

thought him more than equal to the composition of them. But such circumstances are light as air, and even this mention of them may be thought to require an apology.

NOTE II. referred to in page 177.

EXTRACT from Letters, with which Doctor Parr has honoured the Reminiscent :-On the high polish of Virgil's diction--the Character of Archbishop Cranmer-and Polemic Moderation in religious Disputes.

"AS to your own book, I read the two first volumes attentively. I was very much instructed by them: I was, in general, pleased with their spirit; but, upon one point, you have dropped from your dignified eminence of liberality. You have been pointedly acrimonious, and, in my judgment, have been glaringly unjust to the memory of CRANMER. It was impossible for me not to contrast your elaborate and most peremptory strictures upon him, with the conciseness, which you preserved, when you spoke of two well known Roman Catholics, who were his contemporaries.* I do not mean to say that Cranmer was faultless, or quite consistent. I have not seen the human being, who, under similar circumstances, would not sometimes have failed. I do not lay much stress upon self-preservation, when Cranmer was in danger of his life from a capricious tyCranmer ought to have cared little about life and death but in yielding to the tyrant, he was enabled to carry on that scheme of reformation, which perhaps you regret, and in which I triumph.--I lately turned to Lingard; and, upon the whole, I am much less dissatisfied with him than with yourself, so far as Cranmer is concerned; and I quite agree with Lingard, that, after

rant.

* Gardiner and Bonner;-the Reminiscent believes that the first was highly blameable, the second perfectly detestable, if one half reported of them be true.