One hundred years ago
THE Times made a revelation on Wednesday of some literary interest. The elder among our readers will prob- ably remember a series of letters, signed "An Englishman," which began to appear on December 20th, 1851, and attracted unusual attention, owing to the extraordinary literary vigour of their invective against Napoleon III. Good critics pronounced the writer superior to "Junius," and they were attributed to all manner of statesmen of the highest pretensions. They were originally pub- lished by the Times in ignorance of their writer's name, but it was subsequently, it would appear, ascertained that they were written by Mr. H. J. Wolfenden Johnstone, a surgeon, who had lived in France from 1848 to 1850. He died "recently" at Ramsgate, aged 81. He appears to have remained silent ever after, and it is pleasant to think that in our day of self-advertisement, a man could live from middle life to old age in possession of so powerful a weapon as Mr. Johnstone wielded, yet use it only when moved out of himself by moral indignation. There was not a journal in England which would not have been proud of letters from him, and he might have destroyed Ministries; but in an age of gabble, he remained silent.
The Spectator, 30 November 1889
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