by death; an incidental expression that at once 
intimated a knowledge of the author, and that 
he was dead at the time when this conversation 
took place. The importance of the matter, as an 
object of literary curiosity, will excuse the intro- 
duction, in an abbreviated form, of What passed 
at that interview, as well as of some minor 
circumstances connected with the question. 
During the printing of Almon's edition of 
Junius, in which he endeavoured to show that 
the letters were written by a Mr. lValter Boyd, 
Sir Richard Phillips, the publisher of that work, 
sought opinions among the characters then sur- 
viving, whose names had been mixed with the 
writings of Junius; and he addressed himself 
particularly to the Duke of Grafton, the Mar- 
quis of Lansdowne, Mr. Horne Tooke, and Mr. 
Grattan. Through two friends of the Duke of 
Grafton he was informed, " that His Grace had 
endeavoured to live down the calumnies of  
Junius, and toforget the name ofthetauthor; 
and that,,at the period of the (publication, offers 
were made to him of legal evidence on which 
to convict the author of a libel; but that,