* * * * *
_Junius_.--Nobody can read, without being struck with the propriety
of it, that beautiful passage in the 8th letter--"Examine your own
breast, Sir William, &c. &c. &c." A parallel passage may however be
found in _Bevill Higgons's Short View of English History_ (temp. Hen.
VI.), a work written before 1700, and not published till thirty-four
years afterwards:--
"So weak and fallible is that admired maxim, 'Factum valet,
quot fieri non debuit,' an excuse first invented to palliate
the unfledged villainy of some men, _who are ashamed to be
knaves, yet have not the courage to be honest_."
I have not quoted the whole of the passage from _Junius_, as I
consider it to be in almost every body's hands. I am collecting some
curious, and I hope valuable, information about that work.