Inoculation in Pennsylvania / by J.M. Toner.

  • Toner, Joseph M. (Joseph Meredith), 1825-1896.
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inoculation in Pennsylvania / by J.M. Toner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    by Lauchlin Maclean, M. D., and printed by William Bradford, in 1756, a copy of this scarce publication was given to me in the fall of 1864, by my friend, the learned Dr. R. La Roche, of Philadelphia. Neither Dr. Maclean's biographers nor the critics who have examined his claims to the authorship of the Junius letters1 seem to have been aware of the existence of the medical tract. held until 1771, but, owing to his impediment of speech, his great talents were not made manifest through the ordinary channel of debate. It was just three months from the time he lost his place of under-secretary until the first philippic against the ministry was fulminated. On the 17th of May, 1771, he resigned his seat for Arundel by accepting the Chiltern Hundreds. The majority of the Junius letters, which so electrified the British nation, appeared while he sat in Parliament. Lord North appointed him, in May, 1771, superintendent of lazarettos, with a salary of .£1000 and travelling expenses. From this period his feelings seemed to harmonize with the ruling party. It was during this year that he wrote a pamphlet in defence of the ministry, on the subject of the Falkland Islands. In January, 1772, he received the appointment of collector at Philadelphia, for which place he sailed about the 10th of May. The silence of Junius and the absence of Maclean correspond exactly. He returned to England in the early part of January, 1773, and on the 19th of the same month, Junius, in a short note, took his final farewell of Woodfall, the cause, and the public. He received, in April, 1773, the appointment of a lucrative position in India, as Commissary-General of Musters, &c. The voyage out he made in the same ship with Sir Philip Francis ; and, having discharged the duties confided to him with decided ability, he resigned early in 1775. Warren Hastings, the then Governor-General of India, appointed Colonel Maclean his confidential and political agent to England, which delicate trust he had the good fortune to discharge to the satisfaction of his patron. In July, 1777, he departed for India on business of his friends, intending to return to England with dispatch, but unfortunately the packet Swallow, in which he embarked on his homeward voyage, foundered at sea, and Maclean and all on board were lost. It is probable that buried with him in the ocean is the positive evidence of the authorship of the famous Junius letters. Such was the career in life and melancholy death of an individual possessing the highest order of genius, the associate of Burke and Goldsmith, the intimate friend of Wolfe and Barre, and who was closely connected with the destiny of Warren Hastings, and whose memory is now sharing the contested honors awarded to the mysterious Junius. * 1 About fifty years ago Sir David Brewster, in looking over some papers be- longing to the late James Macpherson, Esq., M. P., found several letters bearing date 1776—1777, with the signature of L. Maclean. These attracted his atten- tion from their forcible expressions, as well as the resemblance which the chiro- graphy bore to that of Junius. Critics agree that Junius must have been an Irishman; that he must have been familiar with military affairs, if not an officer. Maclean possessed both these requisites. Junius seems to have had a dislike to the Scotch. Maclean had reason for this feeling from the persecutions and expulsion of his father.