Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/32

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LETTERS OF

LETTER XXXIV.

TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.


12. Dec. 1769.
MY LORD,

I Find, with some surprise, that you are not supported as you deserve. Your most determined advocates have scruples about them, which you are unacquainted with; and though there be nothing too hazardous for your Grace to engage in, there are some things too infamous for the vilest prostitute of a newspaper to defend[1]. In what other manner shall we account for the profound, submissive silence, which you and your friends have observed upon a charge, which called immediately for the clearest refutation, and would have justified the severest measures of resentment? I did not attempt to blast your character by an indirect, ambiguous insinuation; but candidly stated

  1. From the publication of the preceding to this date, not one word was said in defence of the Duke of Grafton. But vice and impudence soon recovered themselves, and the sale of the royal favour was openly avowed and defended. We acknowledge the piety of St. James's, but what is become of his morality?