"The present Machiavellian Dowager Julia may send the young queen's soul to Heaven in a night, and through the shameful remissness of you, Lord North, as prime minister of this unhappy country, the public may remain ignorant of every circumstance relative to the murder. Be not, however, deceived: the blood of our sovereign's sister shall not be suffered to cry in vain for vengeance: it _shall_ be heard; it _shall_ be revenged; and what is still more, it shall besprinkle Lord North, and thus affix a stigma on his forehead, which shall make him wander like another Cain, accursed through the world."[59] This vigorous appeal for Caroline Matilda was followed shortly after by a temperate letter in the _Public Advertiser_, signed Q. Q. This writer has the merit of seeing further through a millstone than his fellows. He was of opinion that the Danish revolution, far from being general, was merely the effect of a court faction, and that a squadron of British ships sent to Copenhagen would "inspire the queen's friends with confidence and courage, and will check and dispirit those who are her opponents, so that she may either expect to have her conduct cleared up by a fair and impartial trial, or, if it is thought an indignity to submit to that, she may at once be restored to that rank and authority which I am well persuaded she never deserved to lose." It must not be supposed, however, that Caroline Matilda's defenders were allowed to have it all their own way. A fellow, writing under the name of ATTICUS, befouled the columns of the _Public Advertiser_ with one of the most scandalous libels on an unoffending woman which ever appeared in those unhappy days, when liberty was confounded with licence of the press. According to this worthy, the Earl of Bute advised the war with Denmark, and Lord Sandwich seconded him in the hope of increasing his income at the Admiralty. Lord North, "perplexed lest he may on the one hand be deserted by a perfidious master in the midst of the tempest, or, on the other hand, lose the favourite's influence, therefore, temporises, flatters, and procrastinates." After defending the queen dowager from the charges brought against her and alleging the notorious intimacy of the queen and Struensee, Atticus draws the following inference:-- "I will refer the conclusion (of the intimacy) to those best acquainted with women, whether it ever so happens that they surrender power, confer honours, and resign up all reputation to any man who had not made a _deep impression_? I am a married man, have a very good kind of dame at my table, and am not at present disturbed with jealousy: but were I to see my wife fond of another man's company, solicitous to do him partial honours, and impatient for his increasing glory, happiness, and renown, and prefer his interest to mine, it would to me be a more certain proof of her criminality than is commonly produced in cases of divorce."