Some of the more gifted attempted to answer
him, and, as in the case of Sir William Draper, met with signal
discomfiture. Vigorous efforts were made to discover the offender, but
without success; and as to his first patriotic intentions he soon added
personal spite, the writer found that his life would not be safe if his
secret were discovered. The rage of parties has long since died away, and
the writer or writers have long been in their graves, but the curious
secret still remains, and has puzzled the brains of students to the
present day. Allibone gives a list of forty-two persons to whom the
letters were in whole or in part ascribed, among whom are Colonel Barre,
Burke, Lord Chatham, General Charles Lee, Horne Tooke, Wilkes, Horace
Walpole, Lord Lyttleton, Lord George Sackville, and Sir Philip Francis.
Pamphlets and books have been written by hundreds upon this question of
authorship, and it is not yet by any means definitely settled. The
concurrence of the most intelligent investigators is in favor of Sir
Philip Francis, because of the handwriting being like his, but slightly
disguised; because he and Junius were alike intimate with the government
workings in the state department and in the war department, and took notes
of speeches in the House of Lords; because the letters came to an end just
before Francis was sent to India; and because, indecisive as these claims
are, they are stronger than those of any other suspected author.
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