Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/265

You declared that it was illegal; and swore, in a fit of foaming frantic passion, that it never should be executed. You asserted, upon your honour, that in the grant of the rangership of Whittlebury Forest, made by Charles the Second (whom, with a modesty that would do honour to Mr. Rigby, you are pleased to call your ancestor) to one of his bastards, (from whom I make no doubt of your descent,) the property of the timber is vested in the ranger.—I have examined the original grant; and now, in the face of the public, contradict you directly upon the fact. The very reverse of what you have asserted upon your honour is the truth. The grant, expressly and by a particular clause, reserves the property of the timber for the use of the crown.—In spite of this evidence,—in defiance of the representations of the admiralty, in perfect mockery of the notorious distresses of the English navy, and those equal pressing and almost equally notorious necessities of your pious Sovereign,—here the matter rests. The Lords of the Treasury, recall their warrant; the deputy surveyor is ruined for doing his duty;—Mr. John Pitt (whose name I suppose, is offensive to you) submits to be browbeaten and insulted;—the oaks