Edward Dubois [q. v.], who published a life of Francis in the ‘Monthly Mirror’ for 1811. The publication of Taylor's ‘ Discovery of Junius’ in 1813 (in which Junius is supposed to be the elder Francis, assisted by his son), and of ‘Junius Identified’ in 1816, put Francis in a difficult position. When the first was published, Francis wrote to the editor of the ‘ Monthly Magazine,’ who wrote to him on the subject: ‘Whether you will assist in giving currency to a silly, malignant falsehood is a question for your own consideration. To me it is a matter of perfect indifference.’ After the appearance of the second, he behaved equivocally. His first present to his wife on their marriage was a copy of ‘Junius's Letters,’ and he left sealed up for her at his death a copy of ‘Junius Identified.’ She states that he never claimed to be Junius, but gives statements on his authority as to the circumstances of writing the letters, which could hardly have been made without expressly claiming the authorship. He withdrew from Brooks's Club in order, as she thought, to avoid awkward questions, and repelled direct inquiries with his usual severity. The anecdotes of Lady Francis (see Merivale, ii. 386–400) seem to establish this, although little reliance can be placed upon details.
Francis lived during his later years in St. James's Square, a place endeared to him, according to Lady Francis, because he had there acted as Chatham's amanuensis. He was known in society for his caustic humour, his intolerance of bores and long stories (which once led him to snub the prince regent), his real or affected penuriousness, and his old-fashioned gallantry to ladies. He suffered at the end from a painful disease, but retained his faculties to the last, and died quietly in his sleep 23 Dec. 1818.
A portrait of Francis by Hoppner is engraved in the first volume of Parkes and Merivale, and a caricature in the second. Francis had six children by his first wife: Sarah (b. 1763, died unmarried), Elizabeth (b. 1764, died unmarried 14 July 1804), Harriet (b. 1766, died unmarried 2 Jan. 1803), Philip (b. 1768, married Eliza Jane, daughter of Godshall Johnson of Putney, and left issue), Mary (b. 1770, married 1792 Godshall Johnson of Putney, who died 1800), and Catherine (b. 1772, married George James Cholmondeley).
Francis, whether Junius or not, was a man of great ability and unflagging industry; arrogant and vindictive in the extreme; unscrupulous in gratifying his enmities by covert insinuations and false assertions, yet courageous in attacking great men; rigid and even pedantic in his adherence to a set of principles which had their generous side; really scornful of meanness and corruption in others; and certainly doing much to vindicate the power of public opinion, although from motives which were not free from selfishness and the narrowest personal ambition. There may have been two such men, whose careers closely coincided during Francis's most vigorous period; but it seems more probable that there was only one.
Early collections of the letters of Junius were published by Newbery as the ‘Political Convert,’ 1769 (containing the Draper controversy); by Almon, ‘Collection of Letters of Atticus, Lucius, Junius, and Others,’ 1769; by A. Thomson, ‘A Complete Collection of Junius's Letters’ (reissued with additions). For a list of early editions see ‘Notes and Queries,’ 6th ser. v. 282, 342. Wheble printed collections 1770, 1771, 1772, 1775, the first without printer's name. The author's edition appeared in 1772. In 1783 appeared the new edition mentioned above. An edition by Robert Heron (for whom see Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vi. 445) appeared in 1802, another (with additions) in 1804, and Almon's edition appeared in 1806. The edition by George Woodfall, son of Henry Sampson Woodfall, 3 vols. 8vo, 1812, was edited with an anonymous introduction by J. Mason Good [q. v.] This edition included for the first time the private letters of Junius to H. S. Woodfall and to Wilkes. It also included a number of letters under different signatures not previously attributed to Junius. The publisher and editor had no private means of identifying Junius's letters; and some are almost certainly spurious. Others are identified by references in the private letters, or by the use of the letter ‘C.’ as a signature, or in notices to correspondents referring to letters. It is not certain that the same signature may not have been occasionally used by other correspondents. The identification is confirmed in a few cases by the letters to George Grenville (see above), which were not published till 1853. The original manuscripts of the letters to Woodfall and of a few of the later letters are now in the Woodfall MSS. in the British Museum, Addit. MSS. 27774–27788, where various other documents left by Woodfall are also preserved. Later editions of Junius are innumerable. The most convenient is Bohn's edition (1850 and later), edited by John Wade, which is a reprint of Woodfall's (1812) edition, with additional notes, taken in great part from Heron.
Francis printed separately many of his speeches in parliament, and the following pamphlets: ‘Letter to Lord North,’ 1793, and ‘Letter to Lord Howick,’ 1807, upon
