Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/300

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290
LETTERS OF

LETTER LXII.


TO AN ADVOCATE IN THE CAUSE OF THE PEOPLE.


18. October 1771.
SIR,

You do not treat Junius fairly. You would not have condemned him so hastily, if you had ever read Judge Foster's argument upon the legality of pressing seamen. A man who has not read that argument, is not qualified to speak accurately upon the subject. In answer to strong facts and fair reasoning, you produce nothing but a vague comparison between two things which have little or no resemblance to each other. General Warrants, it is true, had been often issued but they had never been regularly questioned or resisted, until the case of Mr. Wilkes. He brought them to trial; and the moment they were tried, they were declared illegal. This is not the case of Press Warrants. They have been complained of, questioned, and resisted in a thousand instances; but still the legislature have never interposed, nor has