David McDowall Hannay

“ The reasons for believing that Sir Philip Francis (q.v.) was Junius are very strong. His evasions were only to be expected. Several of the men he attacked lived nearly as long as himself, the sons of others were conspicuous in society, and King George III. survived him. Sir Philip, who had held office, who had been decorated, and who in his later years was ambitious to obtain the governor-generalship of India, dared not confess that he was Junius. The similarity of his handwriting to the disguised hand used by the writer of the letters is very close. ”

“ You will have a dangerous rival in that kind of fame to which you have hitherto so happily directed your ambition, as long as there is one man living who thinks you worthy of his confidence, and fit to be trusted with any share in his government.... ”

“ But the letter to the king aroused indignation, and though Grafton’s administration fell in January 1770, it was succeeded by the long-lived cabinet of Lord North. Junius confessed himself beaten, in his private letter to Woodfall of the 19th of January 1773. He had materially contributed to his own defeat by his brutal violence. He sinned indeed in a large company. The employment of personal abuse had been habitual in English political controversy for generations, and in the 18th century there was a strong taste for satire. ”

“ He communicated with Chatham, with George Grenville, with Wilkes, all enemies of the duke of Grafton, and also with Henry Sampson Woodfall, printer and part owner of the Public Advertiser. This private correspondence has been preserved. It is written in the disguised hand used by Junius.
The letters are of interest on three grounds—their political significance, their style, and the mystery which long surrounded their authorship. As political writings they possess no intrinsic value. Junius was wholly destitute of insight, and of the power to disentangle, define and advocate principles. ”