then Richard Grenville, was in France, and chiefly at Paris, from the autumn of 1731 to the spring of 1733, he had, consequently, many opportunities of witnessing the ceremonies of the burning of 'scores of Jesuitical books' by the common hangman, as described by Junius."—(Introductory notes relating to the authorship of Junius, p. cxliv.)
Mr. Smith is scarcely so familiar with the details of French as of English history. No doubt books were publicly burnt in Paris about the time he mentions: but the books were Jansenist, not Jesuit: the letters concerning the Miracles of M. de Paris, the Nouvelles Ecclésiastiques, and the like—not the works of the Casuists. In 1732, the Jesuits were the executioners: their turn, as victims, came a generation later.
A writer, who endeavours to establish a claim for Lord Lyttelton, is nearer the mark: but, unluckily, just misses it:
"We may assume," says he, "that this burning took place in 1764, as it was in that year that Choiseul suppressed the Jesuits. Thomas Lyttelton was on the continent during the whole of 1764, and for part of the time resided at Paris."
The burning of books, so accurately described by Bifrons, took place, beyond a doubt, as we shall presently see, on August the 7th, 1761. Now this date raises a curious question, which is indicated, but in a very careless manner, by Mr. Wade (in his notes to Junius, Bohn's edition):
"It may be doubted, indeed, whether Bifrons was an Englishman, or even an Irishman: he certainly could not have been a British subject in 1761, unless he was a prisoner of war: for in that year we were at war with France. But if a prisoner of war, how unlikely that he could be at Paris to witness an auto-da-fé of heretical works: he would have been confined in the interior of the kingdom, not left at large to indulge his curiosity in the capital."
Now, assuming (as all these writers do), that Bifrons-Junius actually saw what he says he saw, how does the circumstance bear on the claims of the several candidates?
What was Lyttelton in August, 1761? An Eton boy, enjoying his holidays.
Where was Lord Temple? At Stowe (see the Grenville Letters) caballing with Pitt.
Where was Burke? At Battersea, preparing to join Gerard Hamilton in Ireland.
Where were Burke the younger, Lord George Sackville, and the rest of the illustrious persons implicated in some people's suspicions? Not in Paris, we may safely answer, without pursuing our inquiry farther.
But it is undoubtedly possible that Bifrons-Junius, after all, did not himself see the auto-da-fé in question: he may have heard of it, or read of it, and may have described himself as a witness for effect, by way of a flourish, or even by way of false lure to throw inquirers off the scent.
It would then only remain to inquire, in what way, by what association of ideas, Bifrons-Junius came to give so circumstantial a description, and in
