Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/249

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JUNIUS.
239

But what excuse will he make to the friends of the constitution, for labouring to promote this consummately bad man to a station of the highest national trust and importance? Upon what honourable motives did he recommend him to the livery of London for their representative;—to the ward of Farringdon for their alderman;—to the county of Middlesex for their knight? Will he affirm, that, at that time, he was ignorant of Mr. Wilkes's solicitations to the ministry? That he should say so, is, indeed, very necessary for his own justification; but where will he find credulity to believe him?

In what school this gentleman learned his ethics, I know not. His logic seems to have been studied under Mr. Dyson. That miserable pamphleteer, dividing the only precedent in point, and taking as much of it as suited his purpose, had reduced his argument upon the Middlesex election to something like the shape of a syllogism. Mr. Horne has conducted himself with the same ingenuity and candour. I had affirmed, that Mr. Wilkes would preserve the public favour, "as long as he stood forth against a ministry and parliament, who were doing every thing they