JUNIUS UNVEILED.*
Ma. Saimaa reserves for a future edition of this book "an explanation of the somewhat remarkable circumstances under which the clue to the authorship of the Letters of Junius" came into his possession. This is unfair, since this slender volume is hardly persuasive enough to encourage a reader to demand more, while if Mr. Smith's clue is really worth any- thing it is unjust to himself to rely on the arguments with which he is at present satisfied to prove his case. Mr. Smith's conviction is that Gibbon wrote the Letters of Junius.
He is able, no doubt, to bring forward coincidences of style between Gibbon and "Junius," and to point to circumstances in Gibbon's life which are not incompatible with the author- ship of the letters. This is a pleasing game of skill such as we are accustomed to in the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy ; but it is a very different matter from proof; for Mr. Smith brings forward no tittle of evidence to show that Gibbon was the author. Even the contention that he might have been is supported by an argument like the following, which only needs to be stated to show its absurdity
" In replying to this invitation [from Wilkes] Junius is betrayed into the unguarded use of a phrase which, I think, helps, in however small a degree, to identify the writer. Many thanks,' he says, for your obliging offer ; but alas my age and figure would do but little credit to my partner.' The assumption of 'age' (he was only thirty-four) was probably a pretext to excuse his absence, as also part of his general scheme of disguise ; but may we not find a consciousness of his growing obesity underlying his mention of the unsuitability of his 'figure' to grace a ballroom ? "
Although the present writer believes that the arguments in favour of Francis's authorship are the strongest, he is
quite ready to admit that the point has never been conclusively proved. But at any rate Francis's claims are strong enough to demand careful confutation from any one who is prepared to discard them. This Mr. Smith
has not even attempted, nor does he make any allusion to Leslie Stephen's thorough examination of the evidence in his article on Francis in the Dictionary of Nationca Biography. Perhaps this is due to the same cause as he gives for not pursuing another branch of the inquiry "with the patience and pertinacity which it demands, owing to other and more pressing claims upon my time." If Mr. Smith has any proof, let him bring it forward; as yet he has not attempted it.
Junius Unveiled. By James Smith. London: I. 21. Dent and Co [2s. 6d. net.]
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