Choice of "Junius" as a pseudonym

The name may have been chosen because the same author had already
signed Lucius and Brutus, and wished to exhaust the name of Lucius Junius Brutus,
the Roman patriot who led the overthrow of the Roman monarchy. Alternatively, the name may
have been derived from the Roman poet Juvenal, who was thought also to have had the nomen
Junius. Some say that the author of the Junius letters had previously written under numerous
other pseudonyms, and that he continued to do so, under different pseudonyms, after the 36-
month period (January 1769 January 1772) in which the Junius letters were published. He may,
for example, have written as Philo-Junius, a character who came to the rescue of Junius when it
was clear that the public was misinterpreting his messages. There is weak evidence that he also
wrote as Veteran, Nemesis and other anonymous correspondents published in the Public
Advertiser.

Objectives, goals and achievements

There is a marked distinction between the main Letters of Junius, intended for the erudite public,
and his miscellaneous letters. The second deal with a variety of subjects, some of a purely
personal nature, such as the alleged injustice of the Viscount Barrington, the secretary at war, to
the officials of his department.

The Letters of Junius had a definite objective:

to inform the public of their historical and constitutional rights and liberties as
Englishmen;

To highlight where and how the government had infringed upon these rights.

Foremost in his sights was the ministry of Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, a fellow
Whig whom Junius viewed as particularly corrupt. Grafton's administration had been formed in
October 1768, when William Pitt the Elder was compelled by ill health to retire from office, and
was a reconstruction of his cabinet of July 1766. Junius fought for the return to power of Pitt, who
had recovered and was not on good terms with his successors.

Junius' private correspondence has been preserved, written in his usual disguised handwriting.
He communicated with Pitt, with George Grenville, with Wilkes (all opponents of the Duke of
Grafton), and also with Henry Sampson Wood fall, printer and part owner of the Public
Advertiser.

The letters are of interest on three grounds:

their political significance;

their style; and

 The mystery which long surrounded their authorship.

The matter of his letters is considered by some to be invective, though close inspection of his
writings reveals a principled man ahead of his time, exposing blatant corruption by the only
means available (anonymity) in a country struggling with the idea of freedom of speech.

He began with a general attack on the ministry for their personal immorality. An ill-judged
defence of John Manners, Marquess of Granby, the popular Commander-in-Chief of the Forces,
by Sir William Draper gave Junius an easy victory over a vulnerable opponent with weak
arguments. It was in this short tussle that Junius' style and wit first developed a reputation and
public audience. Junius then realised the potential he had to influence public opinion.

Confidently, Junius then went on to expose the problems at their causethe ministries
of Grafton, Lord North (Grafton's cousin) and the Duke of Bedford. The cores of Junius
arguments were the arbitrary appointments made by Grafton, presumably to stay in favour with
the Duke of Bedford and his party (also known as the Bedfordites or Bloomsbury Gang). Most
notable was Col. Henry Lawes Luttrell (later 2nd Earl Carhampton), whom Grafton appointed MP
for Middlesex (instead of the duly elected Wilkes), and Richard Rigby, whom Grafton
made Paymaster of the Forces. Junius ended with an assault on Lord Chief Justice Mansfield,
who Junius argued had set dangerous legal precedents regarding press freedom and political
libel from the Wilkes affair.

Junius was highly disappointed not to have influenced King George III in his 19 December 1769
letter. He tried to encourage the King to overcome his resentments towards the petty Wilkes and
also to relinquish his trust in corrupt officials. Junius was not a radical anti-royal Whig, as many
texts suggest, though he did trouble himself with explaining to the public the real constitutional
role of the royal prerogative, and (if engaged correctly) how it benefited the country.

Contrary to some opinions, the practical effect of the letters was highly significantthey made
Grafton unpopular enough to end his ministry in January 1770. Junius could only have been
disappointed by Grafton's replacement, Lord North. Junius confessed himself beaten in his
private letter to Woodfall of 19 January 1773 for not having achieved his goals. Despite this,
Junius' letters were noticed and talked about for generations afterwards and spread throughout
Europe in many languages. His concepts on democratic elections, freedom of the press, legal
history and the constitutional rights of individuals are now common-place. Few in history have
influenced so many and sparked an interest in such real concepts of liberty.

Style
Latin literature was not only studied but imitated at that time, and supplied the inspiration for
numerous writings (such as the satires of Juvenal, and the speeches of Cicero against Verres
and Catiline). If Junius was doing what others did, he did it better than anybody else, a fact which
sufficiently explains his rapid popularity. His superiority lay in his style. Here also he was by no
means original, and he was uneven. There are passages in his writings which can be best
described in the words which Burke applied to another writer: "A mere mixture of vinegar and
water, at once vapid and sour". But at his best Junius attains to a high degree of artificial
elegance and vigour. He shows the influence of Bolingbroke, of Swift, and above all of Tacitus,
who appears to have been his favourite author. The imitation is never slavish. Junius adapts, and
does not only repeat. No single sentence will show the quality of a style which produces its effect
by persistence and repetition, but a typical passage as follows displays at once the method and
the spirit.[citation needed] It is taken from Letter XLIX to the duke of Grafton, 22 June 1771:

"The profound respect I bear to the gracious prince who governs this country with no less honour
to himself than satisfaction to his subjects, and who restores you to your rank under his
standard, will save you from a multitude of reproaches. The attention I should have paid to your
failings is involuntarily attracted to the hand which rewards them; and though I am not so partial
to the royal judgment as to affirm that the favour of a king can remove mountains of infamy, it
serves to lessen at least, for undoubtedly it divides, the burden. While I remember how much is
due to his sacred character, I cannot, with any decent appearance of propriety, call you the
meanest and the basest fellow in the kingdom. I protest, my Lord, I do not think you so. You will
have a dangerous rival in that kind of fame to which you have hitherto so happily directed your
ambition, as long as there is one man living who thinks you worthy of his confidence, and fit to be
trusted with any share in his government.... With any other prince, the shameful desertion of him
in the midst of that distress, which you alone had created, in the very crisis of danger, when he
fancied he saw the throne already surrounded by men of virtue and abilities, would have
outweighed the memory of your former services. But his majesty is full of justice, and
understands the doctrine of compensations; he remembers with gratitude how soon you had
accommodated your morals to the necessities of his service, how cheerfully you had abandoned
the engagements of private friendship, and renounced the most solemn professions to the
public. The sacrifice of Lord Chatham was not lost on him. Even the cowardice and perfidy of
deserting him may have done you no disservice in his esteem. The instance was painful, but the
principle might please."

What seems artificial and stilted in this style did not offend the would-be classic taste of the
eighteenth century and no longer conceals a venomous hate and scorn that the laboriously
arranged words and artfully counterbalanced clauses convey.

Readership
The pre-established harmony between Junius and his readers accounts for the rapidity of his
success, and for the importance attributed to him by Burke and Johnson. Before 1772 there
appeared at least twelve unauthorized republications of his letters, made by speculative printers.
In that year he revised the collection titled Junius: Stat nominis umbra, with a dedication to the
English people and a preface. Other independent editions followed in quick succession. In 1801
one was published with annotations by Robert Heron. In 1806 another appeared with notes
by John Almon. The first new edition of real importance was issued by the Wood fall family in
1812. It contained the correspondence of Junius with Henry Sampson Wood fall, a selection of
the miscellaneous letters attributed to Junius, facsimiles of his handwriting, and notes by John
Mason Good. Curiosity as to the mystery of the authorship began to replace political and literary
interest in the writings. Junius himself had been early aware of the advantage he secured by
concealment. "The mystery of Junius increases his importance" is his confession in a letter to
Wilkes dated 18 September 1771.

Wood fall felt assured that

when kings and ministers are forgotten, when the force and direction of personal satire is no
longer understood, and when measures are only felt in their remotest consequences; this book
will, I believe, be found to contain principles worthy to be transmitted to posterity.

Identity of Junius
Main article: Identity of Junius

The identity of Junius is open to question and debate, and may never be finally resolved unless
documents are found which establish his identity. Some scholars support the identification
of Philip Francis.[2] The 1st Marquess of Lansdowne claimed to know the 'Junius secret' a
fortnight before his death, but died without revealing what he thought he knew.

More recent use of Junius

Rosa Luxemburg published the Junius Pamphlet in Switzerland in April 1916, and it was secretly
distributed in Germany. The text, also known as The crisis in German Social Democracy, had
been started in prison in February 1915. It was adopted as the founding policy statement of the
International Group, better known as the Spartacus League, which became one element of
the Communist Party of Germany in January 1919.

The pseudonym was used as well by the great Italian economist Luigi Einaudi, who expressed
his liberal beliefs in two series of letters signed 'Junius': the former published in 1920, the latter in
1944, while he was living as a refugee in Switzerland.[3]

Robert Goddard's 2005 suspense novel Sight Unseen is set in the present day; however, the
identity of Junius is a major theme in the novel.

The Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail has carried the following legend on its editorial or
front page for many years: "The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither
advise nor submit to arbitrary measures. Junius".

A Boston, Massachusetts, indie-rock band has been performing and recording under the
name Junius since around 2003.