Sir Philip Francis, a British politician and pamphleteer, born in Dublin, Oct. 22, 1740, died in London, Dec. 22, 1818. He was the son of the Rev. Philip Francis, author of an elegant and popular translation of Horace, and also of several tragedies and some liberal political pamphlets. The son removed with his father to England in 1750, and was placed on the foundation of St. Paul's school, where he remained about three years. Here Woodfall, afterward the printer of the "Public Advertiser and publisher of the Letters of Junius," was his fellow pupil. In 1756 he was appointed to a place in the office of his father's patron, Henry Fox, then secretary of state, which he continued to retain under the secretaryship of Mr. Pitt. In 1758 he went as private secretary to Gen. Bligh in an expedition against the French coast, and was present in a battle near Cherbourg. In 1760 he was secretary to the earl of Kinnoul, ambassador to Portugal, and on his return to England in 1763 received an appointment in the war office. Here he remained till March, 1772, when he resigned in consequence of a quarrel with Lord Barring-ton, the new secretary at war.

The remainder of that year he passed in travelling through Flanders, Germany, Italy, and France. In June, 1773, soon after his return, he was appointed one of the council of Bengal with a salary of £10,000. He went to India in the summer of 1774, and remained there till December, 1780, when he resigned on account of a quarrel with Warren Hastings. This quarrel led to a duel, in which Francis was shot through the body. His active and somewhat austere disposition had brought him into constant opposition to Hastings, and for a time he controlled the majority in the council. Two of the members having died, Hastings obtained the mastery; and after their duel Francis returned to England in disappointment and anger. To revenge himself upon Hastings seems to have been the ruling motive of his later life. In 1784 he became member of parliament for Yarmouth in the isle of Wight. He was a bold, severe, and frequent speaker, but he never became distinguished as an orator. His politics were always extremely liberal.

When the prosecution of Hastings began in 1786, its leaders would have committed the management to Francis. The house of commons, however, because of his personal quarrel with Hastings, refused twice, by large majorities, to permit this appointment, and Burke, Fox. and Windham labored in vain to change this determination. Francis, however, consented to a written request of the committee of managers inviting him to aid them in their labors, and passed many years in this occupation. When others tired, he never flagged. He embittered the existence of his enemy, and no doubt destroyed his own peace in the effort. Hastings, however, finally triumphed and was acquitted. When the French revolution broke out, Francis was its firm friend, and became an active member of the revolutionary association of "Friends of the People." He was defeated at the election of 1796, when he stood for Tewkesbury, but in 1802 was returned by Lord Thanet for the borough of Appleby, and continued to sit for that borough while he remained in parliament. He sustained Fox and Grey in their plans of reform, and advocated the abolition of the slave trade with unfailing ardor. In October, 1806, on the formation of the Grenville ministry, Francis was made a knight of the bath.

It is believed that it was also designed to send him to India as governor general, but this appointment never took place. He retired from parliament in 1807, and afterward wrote pamphlets and political articles in the newspapers. From the obscurity of old age he was suddenly recalled to the attention of the public. In 1816 John Taylor published his Junius identified with a Distinguished Living Character," viz., Sir Philip Francis. The argument is ingenious, the coincidences are remarkable, and his authorship has since been maintained by several other writers; but none of Francis's acknowledged writings equal the fierce eloquence of Junius. The representations of what Francis himself said on the subject are contradictory. (See Junius.) He was the author of about 26 political pamphlets.