It was in the same pamphlet that Johnson offered battle to JUNIUS ; a writer, who, by the uncommon elegance of his style, charmed every reader, though his object was to inflame the nation in favour of a faction. Junius fought in the dark ; he saw his enemy and had his full blow, while he himself remained safe in obscurity. But let us not, said Johnson, mistake the venom of the shaft for the vigour of the bow r . The keen invective which he published on that occasion, promised a paper-war between two combatants, who knew the use of their weapons. A battle between them was as eagerly expected as between Mendoza and Big Ben 2 . But Junius, whatever was his reason, never returned to the field. He laid down his arms, and has, ever since, remained as secret as the MAN IN THE MASK in Voltaire's History 3 .
The account of his journey to the Hebrides or Western Isles of Scotland, is a model for such as shall hereafter relate their travels. The author did not visit that part of the world in the character of an Antiquary, to amuse us with wonders taken from the dark and fabulous ages ; nor as a Mathematician, to measure a degree, and settle the longitude and latitude of the several islands. Those, who expected such information,
1 Works, vi. 205. later the Prince of Wales witnessed
2 ' Big Ben (Mr. George C. Boase a fight at Brighton, in which one writes to me) was Benjamin Brain of the men was killed. Ib. 1788, or Bryan, champion of England in p. 745.
1790. I do not think he ever fought Horace Walpole wrote on June 20,
with Mendoza; but Mendoza sue- 1760: 'It is a comfortable reflec-
ceeded him as champion in 1791. tion to me that all the victories of
Big Ben was never beaten.' It was last year have been gained since the
probably after him that the Warden suppression of the Bear Garden and
of Wadham College, Oxford, of my prize-fighting ; as it is plain, and
undergraduate days, Dr. Benjamin nothing else would have made it
Symons, was called ' Big Ben.' so, that our valour did not singly
In the Gentleman's Magazine, for and solely depend upon these two
1787, p. 361, an account is given Universities.' Letters, iii. 320. If
of a fight between Mendoza a Jew, prize-fighting was suppressed for a
and one Martin, a Bath butcher, in time, it soon revived,
the presence of some of the first 3 Sihle de Louis XIV, ch. 25 ;
personages of the kingdom. It was ante, p. 172. decided in favour of the Jew. A year
expected
�� �
