with Burke in the impeachment of Hastings,
against whom he showed extraordinary vindictiveness. Later he was a
sympathiser with the French Revolution, and a member of the association
of the Friends of the People. He retired from public life in 1807, and
_d._ in 1818. He was the author of about 20 political pamphlets, but the
great interest attaching to him is his reputed authorship of the _Letters
of Junius_. These letters which, partly on account of the boldness and
implacability of their attacks and the brilliance of their literary
style, and partly because of the mystery in which their author wrapped
himself, created an extraordinary impression, and have ever since
retained their place as masterpieces of condensed sarcasm. They appeared
in _The Public Advertiser_, a paper _pub._ by Woodfall, the first on
January 21, 1769, and the last on the corresponding day of 1772, and were
chiefly directed against the Dukes of Grafton and Bedford, and Lord
Mansfield; but even the king himself did not escape. Not only were the
public actions of those attacked held up to execration, but every
circumstance in their private lives which could excite odium was dragged
into the light. Their authorship was attributed to many distinguished
men, _e.g._ Burke, Lord Shelburne, J. Wilkes, Horne Tooke, and Barre, and
recently to Gibbon; but the evidence appears to point strongly to F.,
and, in the opinion of Macaulay, would "support a verdict in a civil,
nay, in a criminal trial." It rests upon such circumstances as the
similarity of the MS. to what is known to be the disguised writing of F.,
the acquaintance of the writer with the working of the Sec. of State's
Office and the War Office, his denunciation of the promotion of a Mr.
Chamier in the War Office, which was a well-known grievance of F., his
acquaintance with Pitt, and the existence of a strong tie to Lord
Holland, the silence of Junius when F. was absent, and resemblances in
the style and the moral character of the writer to those of F.

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN (1706-1790).--American statesman, philosopher, and
writer, was one of a numerous family. His _f._ was a soap-boiler at
Boston, where F. was _b._ He was apprenticed at the age of 13 to his
brother, a printer, who treated him harshly. After various changes,
during which he lived in New York, London, and Philadelphia, he at last
succeeded in founding a successful business as a printer. He also started
a newspaper, _The Gazette_, whic