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 I adduce of Walpole’s, but that the affectation in both of employing legal terms with which they were not familiar, and of which they did not distinctly apprehend the meaning, is very remarkable.  Junius thought De Lolme’s Essay deep,” (13) and talks of property which “savours of the reality:”  (14) he misapplies that trite expression of the courts, bona fide:  (15) misunderstands mortmain, (16) and supposes that an inquisitio post mortem was an inquiry how the deceased came by his death. (17) Walpole talks of “the purparty of a wife’s lands;” of “tenures against which, of all others, quo warrantos are sure to take place;” (18) of the days of soccage,” which he supposes to be obsolete; and of a fera naturae.

Transcriber’s note:  Again there are a few passages from Junius and Walpole compared in parallel columns, which I present below in sequence.

Junius:  You say the facts on which you reason are universally admitted:  a gratis dictum which I flatly deny.-vol. ii. p. 143.

Walpole:  This circumstance is alleged against them as an incident contrived to gain belief, as if they had been in danger of their lives.  The argument is gratis dictum.-Works, vol. ii. p. 568.

Junius:  They are the trustees, not the owners of the estate. the fee simple is in us.- vol.-vol. i. p. 345.

Walpole:  Do you think we shall purchase the fee simple of him for so many years?-Letters, vol. ii.

7.  Walpole’s time of life, his station in society, means of information, and habits of writing much, and anonymously, and in concealment, all tally with the supposition of his being Junius.  So do his places of residence, when that part of the subject is carefully examined.

8.  It is an odd circumstance that Walpole, who makes remarks on every thing, makes no remark on Junius.  If he ever expressed an opinion of him in his letters to any of his numerous correspondents, those letters have been suppressed.  There are fewer letters of his in the years during which Junius was writing, than in any others.