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And there is pofitive evidence in contradiction to what was ftated in The True Briton, that Mr. Woodfall never heard of any fuch letters, nor even knew that Mr. Boyd had written for his paper before the year 1777, until he was requefted, about three months ago, by Mr. Boyd's friends, to point out thofe letters that had been written for The Public Advertiser during the three years abovementioned. The writer in The True Briton has told the public with great confidence, that Mr. Boyd's contributions to The Public Advertiser, during the time of Junius, are not to be held in comparison with the productions of that admirable writer.' Where are thofe contributions of Mr. Boyd's Mr. Woodfall has homeftly confeffed he knows nothing of them; and I defy the writer in The True Briton, or any other man, to fhew me any letters of Mr. Boyd's in The Public Advertifer in the fame years with thofe of Junius, except one to Sir Fletcher Norton, which was fent to Woodfall in Mrs. Boyd's handwriting, and which will not be found inferior in ftrength and elegance of diction to the moft finifhed production of Junius's pen. "Thefe fads, together with fome very ftrong concurring circumftances, will be given in detail in the new edition of Mr. Boyd's Life, which will be published, along with two octavo volumes of his writings, early in the enfuing winter. In corroboration of the circumftantial evidence which fhall be adduced in proof of Mr. Boyd having written the Letters of Junius, a letter from Mr. Almon to the Editor of Mr. Boyd's

Works, in fupport of his affertion in the first volume of his Biographical and Political Anecdotes, that Mr. Boyd was actually the Author of Junius,' will be publifhed in Mr. Boyd's Life, and it contains the strongest prefumptive proofs of the fact afferted.

"From the talents and dili gence of Mr. Chalmers much additional information may be expected when he fhail prefent the public with the documents which he fays he has collected. But I lament that a man of his fagacity fhould have been betrayed by political prejudice, or controverfial rancour, into a violation of that decorum, the breach of which he was at the fame moment condemning in his opponent, by endeavouring to blacken the fair fame of departed genius, and to wound the generous feelings of an honourable

family. Junius," fays he (meaning Mr. Boyd,) was an United Irishman by birth, by habit, and by practice. If he grounds this affertion on the writings of Junius, it is too abfurd to merit a reply. Every one knows that Junius, although highly blameable for the violence and afperity of his language towards a great perfonage, was nevertheless, both in principle and practice, a zealous friend to the British Constitution, and an avowed enemy to a Republican form of government. If the affertion be grounded on the political writings of Mr. Boyd, published in Ireland, which Mr. Chalmers has lately perused, it is fill more erroneous; inafmuch as there is not a fingle expreffion is thefe writings, which even the most ingenious calumny can poffibly torture into fedition, far less into

any

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any meaning whatever, that will afford Mr. Chalmers the fainteft colour of juftice in the inference he has drawn. To fay nothing of the forced reafoning that would trace the origin of the recent confpiracy of United Irishmen as far back as the year 1776, it must be perfectly evident to every man of common fenfe, who may have read Mr. Boyd's political writings, that this affertion of Mr. Chalmers is unfounded in fact, unjuftifiable in argument, and altogether uncalled for in the investigation in which he was engaged. Mr. Hugh Boyd was in truth throughout his whole life, by principle, by habit, and by practice, an Arifocratical Whig; and with regard to the French Revolution, he was fo early as 1789 decidedly of Mr. Burke's opinions, which, until the day of his death, he uniformly and ardently continued to fupport.

"It remains to fay a few words relative to another expreffion in Mr. Chalmers's Book: Hugh Mac Aulay,' fays he, who affumed the name of Boyd,' &c. Now as Mr. Chalmers was perfectly well acquainted with the caufe of Mr. Boyd's changing his name, he ought to have explained it, or at least not to have used a phrafe which admitted of the following interpretation: Mac Aulay,' fays the writer in The True Briton, might have changed his name to Boyd; but would a man, with the fubtlety and caution of Junius, have fubjected his character to the difgrace of an alias?' The writer of this obfervation himself will think it abfurd, when he is informed that Hugh Mac Aulay changed his name to Boyd in frict conformity to the will of

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his maternal grandfather, Hugh Boyd, Efq. of Bally Caffle, in the county of Antrim, who bequeathed to his grandfon, Hugh Mac Aulay, part of the eftate of Bally Caftle, on condition of changing his name from Mac Aulay to Boyd. Tranfactions of this nature are fo common, that it were a waste of time to fay any thing farther on the fubject, and fo pleasant, that I am fure the writer in The True Briton is a man of too much taste to throw any odium upon them!!

Thus much I have thought it my duty to ftate in this place. When the new edition of Mr. Boyd's Life fhall be published next winter, the public will be furnished with the most ample means of judging whether he was in reality the celebrated Junius. "THE EDITOR OF MR. BOYD'S WORKS.

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"I YESTERDAY heard that an article had appeared in your paper of Tuesday, figned The Editor of Mr. Boyd's Works, and entitled, A few Facts concerning the late Hugh Boyd, the reputed Author of Junius.' I immediately fent for the paper and read it. I mean not to interfere in the fmalleft degree with the controverfy between the Editor of Mr. Boyd's Works and Mr. Chalmers; but I come forward, in the caufe of truth, and with a view to refcue the public from the grofs error refpecting the Author of Junius, into which Mr. Almon firft, and the Editor of Mr. Boyd's Works and Mr. Chalmers, have

equally

equally fallen, when they took upon them to affert, and next to attempt to prove, that the late Mr. Hugh Boyd was the writer of the popular political letters, which appeared in The Public Advertiser between the commencement of the year 1769 and a part of the year 1772, under the fignature of Junius.

"That Gentleman, whoever he was, wrote in The Public Advertiser under the three diftinct fignatures, which conftitute one celebrated Roman name, Lucius Junius Brutus, exclufive of, what he himself terms, 'the auxiliary part of his Correfpondence,' the letters figned Philo Junius. I believe I may fafely affert, that ev. ery one of his letters was fhewn to me in manufcript by my brother previous to publication, and no one of them ever bore the appearance of being written in a disguif

ed hand.

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"During the period that Junius was in the habit of correfponding with The Public Advertifer, the late Mr. Hugh Boyd was in that habit likewife, but not as a ftudioufly concealed writer; and, howeyer Mr. Boyd might disguise his hand-writing (in which by the bye, he could not eafily deceive the acute difcernment of a newspaper printer's eye, although he might poffibly efcape the detection of others,) it must be admitted on all hands, that he could not disguise his ftyle, and least of all in that most extraordinary way of writing, infinitely above his own reach of literary talent. The writer in The True Briton was therefore amply juftified in faying, that Mr. Boyd's contributions The Public Advertiser, in the

fame years with thofe of Junius, are not to be held in comparison with the productions of that admirable writer.' Mr. Boyd was a refpectable man, and undoubtedly a valuable correspondent to a certain extent to any newspaper; but he did not poffefs any thing like an equal degree of that tafte in compofition, and that command of words, which fo evidently diftinguish the letters figned Junius.

The felicity of expreffion and beauty of ftyle in those letters are fo captivating, that a judicious reader who would perufe them now (when the fubject of each is no longer impulfive on the paffions, but capable of calm confideration, as a matter of hiftorical controverfy,) will often find a weak argument rendered too dazzling and fplendid for immediate detection, by the glare of brilliant phrafeology.

"The Editor of Mr. Boyd's Works afks-Where are those contributions of Mr. Boyd's that are to prove that they were not to be held in comparison with the productions of that admirable writer (Junius ?) Mr. Woodfall has honeftly confeffed, he knows nothing of them.' Has heWhen? I was prefent at the converfation, when the Editor of Mr.` Boyd's Works called on my brother, and questioned him on the fubject at his house at Chelsea, and

do not recollect any fuch confeffion. On the contrary, I well remember that the Gentleman had the fulleft affurances from my brother, that Mr. Boyd was not the writer of the letters figned Junius; and my brother alfo told him that Mr. Boyd was his frequent correfpondent.

[To be continued.

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AN AUTHENTIC FRAGMENT.

Written in Scotland. By ANTHONY PASQUIN.

DURING
URING a very hea

vy fall of fnow, in the winter of 1784, we rode on horfeback from Berwick to Kelfo, upon the banks of the Tweed; regardless of the remonftrances of many, who infifted that the roads were impaff able to the weft---and, in truth, it was an act of hardihood and folly, as the congealed flakes were drifted by the blast, and beat violently against our eyes and teeth -at every step, the jaded animals were more than knee deep, and may be rather said to have plunged onward than otherwife. When we arrived, with much difficulty, at a lonely alehoufe, near Twee zle, on the river Till; we found an inhabitant of Kelfo, who had been detained in this thatched hotel, two days, by the inclement feafon he fat in a contracted ftate, inclining over the embers on the hearth, like the perfonification of the ague. When he recognized us, his features refumed rheir wonted firmnefs, and gathering intrepidity from example, he refolved to accompany us; although the roads and ditches were fo filled with fnow, that the vast face of the country feemed an unbroken, white expanfe. On our arrival in the middle of a heath, which we did not accomplish until the dufky and infidious approaches of night; we faintly difcovered a female form, wading and floundering irregularly towards us, in the tracklefs fnow her attire was fo loofe, and involved fo much of the fimplicity

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of a villager, that the appeared as if habited merely to pass from one houfe to another-Viewing her through the mifty atmosphere, we heftated to pronounce her human; the contour of her body was fo foftened by the intermediate vapours, that she seemed ærial. On our coming nearer, we afcertained her, with extreme astonishment, to be the wife of our companion: fhe had been wandering, in a spirit of desperation, thirteen miles from her home and her infant, in that bleak day, to find the remains of her beloved Willy; believing him, from his unusual and alarming abfence, to have perished in the hard weather. Upon the inftantaneous affurance, that she beheld her husband once more, fhe iffued a loud and piercing fhriek, aud funk motionless in the fnow when we had chaffed her temples, and imperfectly recovered her; fhe clafped her hands, in all the fervour of exceeding piety, and raifing her eyes to heaven, bleffed God for her deliverance from trouble; and a more genuine thanksgiving never afcended the empyrean !---At the conclufion of her prayer, we placed the fhivering, amiable woman on the ableft horfe, and conveyed her to Coldstream, overpowered by the fenfations of an exceffive joy, fucceeding the conflicts of fevere duty and the most agonizing woe. What an inftance of conjugal tendernefs !---Could Cornelia or Portia have done more?

For

For the Columbian Phenix.

THE GENTLEMAN AT LARGE. No. I.

To hold the mirror up to nature.

Shakefpere's Hamlet.

IT has ever been the profeffed imaginations. When we perceive

object of my predeceffors to delineate human nature, and to defcribe its various appearances under the control of different fituations; and I do not fpeak without authority when I fay, that there is no form in which inftruction is fo well calculated to im

-prefs itfelf, as that, adopted by the feveral periodical writers of eminence in Great-Britain.

The axioms of morality, and the most evident propofitions of reafon, when they are laid down in a style of dogma, and appear in an abftract form, will oftentimes be rejected as vifionary fpeculations, or, at beft, but as the opinions of the learned. But when the moral is fo artfully protected by allegory and fo fecured by allufion as to appear the refult of -the reader's deduction, it gains its proper afcendency over the heart, and procures a ready admiffion to the understanding. This way of infinuating inftruction is certainly the most obvious, because the mind is, as it were, fascinated into conviction; but in the former cafe it perceives the gradual approaches of the affailant, and, of course, fortifies itself against his attacks.

There is a falfe pride incident to mankind, to which they owe that ignorance of themselves, which is a fruitful fource of their unhappiness. The most candid The most candid and ingenuous are bold to acknowledge their errors, and our prejudices will hardly allow us to part with a fentiment, which long indulgence has made dear to our

any one endeavoring to prove the fallacy of our opinions or the abfurdity of our conduct, we are apt to regard him as a kind of enemy, who has challenged us to an intellectual combat, or as a more malignant being, who wishes to make us diffatisfied with ourfelves.

This fufpicion awakens all our refentment, and we prepare our-` felves for obviating those arguments, which we think are furnifhed for our diminution. Thus are we prevented, by a ridiculous pride, and by a criminal obftinacy, from knowing ourselves, a kind of knowledge the most valuable. The only way, then, to address the understanding, is through the medium of the paffions and the imagination. These are qualities of that artlefs and playful nature, that they are eafy of accefs, and eafy of captivity; and when we have once gained them over to our fide, we find but little difficulty in our way to the understanding.

This indirect mode of coming at the reafon, has ever been fuccessful, when attempted by writers of genius and ability.M'Kenzie, more particularly, has, in two inftances, in the fimple narratives of La Roche and Father Nicholas, done more for the caufe of religion and virtue, than if he had written a folio of fpeculative morality. In thefe little ftories, the principles which they illuftrate carry along with them the most impreffive recommenda

tion.

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