been formally commanded. On the 27th of August he had an audience of the king at Buckingham House. Grenville, coming there to transact business, was annoyed to see Pitt's chair standing in the court, and had to wait till the interview was over, when he went in himself; but the king said not a word of Pitt having been there. George had, indeed, intimated a day or two before, that he might send for Pitt; but this closeness was not very encouraging to Grenville. Pitt, however, insisted on having in with him all, or nearly all, his old colleagues, and this was too much for the king; whilst not to have had them would have been too little for Pitt, who was too wise to take office without efficient and congenial colleagues. The king, nevertheless, did not openly object, but allowed Pitt to go away with the impression that he would assent to his demands. This was Saturday, and Pitt announced this belief to the dukes of Devonshire and Newcastle, and the marquis of Rockingham. But on Sunday Grenville had had an interview with the king, and finding that he considered Pitt's terms too hard, had laboured successfully to confirm him in that opinion. Accordingly, on Monday, at a second meeting, the king named the duke of Northumberland, lord Halifax, and George Grenville, for leading posts in the cabinet, saying, "Poor George Grenville, he is your near relation, and you once loved him." Pitt said that it would not do, bowed and retired; the poor king saying, "My honour is concerned, and I must support it." He could not perceive that only able men can support a king's honour. with the age as to corrupt it. But the most singular part of the matter, and the great offence, was its publication; and this was not the work of Wilkes, but of lord Sandwich himself. Wilkes never had published the filth. He had written, as it appeared, by the assistance of a profligate, and now deceased son of archbishop Potter, this "Essay on Woman;" but he had never published it. It had lain in his desk, and had only been read to two persons-one of whom was Sandwich himself. When Wilkes, however, was driven to set up a printing press in his own house, he had printed a dozen copies of the "Essay on Woman," to give to his dissolute friends, whom he used to meet at the Dilletanti Club, in Palace Yard. Sandwich, aware of the existence of the essay, had bribed one of Wilkes's printers, named Curry, to lend him a copy of it, and had paid him five guineas as a guarantee for its safe return. Such were the disgraceful means employed to drag this nuisance under the public nose, in order to damage Wilkes. Sandwich, and both houses of parliament, which entertained the matter, were the real publishers. They, who should have suppressed it, if published, made it known, and really committed the greatest offence; for they gave it a universal notoriety, and excited a keen curiosity about it. The ministers listened to passage after passage, which Sandwich read, till lord Lyttleton, sick of the rubbish, begged that they might have no more. The whole thing was a stupid parody on Pope's "Essay on Man;" in which, instead of the inscription to Bolingbroke, commencing "Awake, my St. John!" it commenced, "Awake, my Sandwich!" The name of the prelate introduced was that of Warburton, now bishop of Gloucester, in ridicule of his celebrated commentary on the "Essay on Man." Warburton, who was rather famous for heterodoxy, but not for indecency, might have let the silly squib alone, but he was transported to fury, and declared in the wildest excitement, that the blackest fiend in hell would scorn to keep company with Wilkes-nay, he begged pardon of Satan for naming them together. Grenville, chagrined as he was, still clung to the government, and called in the duke of Bedford, as president of the council, lord Sandwich, as secretary of state, lord Egremont succeeding the latter at the admiralty. Lord Hillsborough succeeded lord Shelbourne at the board of trade. Such was the government which was to supersede the necessity of Pitt; lord Chesterfield declaring that they could not meet the parliament, for that they had not a man in the commons who had either abilities or words enough to call a coach. The ministers endeavoured to obtain congratulatory addresses from the mayors of towns and lord-lieutenants of counties, This was severe satire on a good many members of parliaon the peace, but there was a mortifying coldness every-ment, especially on Sandwich and Dashwood, now in the where. peers, who had long been boon companions of Wilkes in the most indecent of his orgies. These virtuous peers, these Satans correcting sin, readily agreed to vote the two parodies blasphemous, and breaches of privilege, but lord Mansfield moved that they should adjourn the question for a couple of days, in order to give Wilkes opportunity for explanation or defence. Parliament met on the 15th of November, and the very first object which engaged the attention of both houses was Wilkes. In such fiery haste were ministers, that lord Sandwich, in the peers, started up, before the king's speech could be considered, and declared that he held in his hand a most filthy and atrocious libel, written by Wilkes, called "An Essay on Woman." He denounced it as everything that was impious and indecent, and as a breach of privilege, by most unwarrantably and scandalously introducing the name of one of the right reverend prelates. He complained, too, of another profane production by the same hand-a parody on "THE VENI CREATOR." Now, though the "Essay on Woman" was undoubtedly a vile production, it was as dull as it was vile. The wit of Wilkes, such as it was, came from his tongue, and not from his pen. It was of that coarse character, and derived so much of its pungency from the adventitious circumstances of the moment, that it was lost in transferring it to paper, and was by no means likely to acquire so much admiration In the commons, on the same day, Grenville delivered a message from the crown, announcing to the house the imprisonment of one of their members during the recess. Wilkes immediately rose in his place, and complained of the breach of that house's privilege in his person; of the entry of his house, the breaking open his desk, and the imprisonment of his person-imprisonment pronounced by the highest legal authority to be illegal, and therefore tyrannical. He moved that the house should take the question of privilege into immediate consideration. On the other hand, lord North, who was a member of the treasury board, and Sir Fletcher Norton, attorney-general, put in the depositions of the printer and publisher, proving the authorship of No. 45 of the "North Briton" on Wilkes, and pressing for rigorous measures against him. A warm debate ensued, in which Pitt opposed the proceedings to a certain extent, declaring that he could never understand exactly what a libel was. Notwithstanding, the commons voted, by a large majority, that No. 45 of the "North Briton" was a false, scandalous, and seditious libel, tending to traitorous insurrection, and that it should be burnt by the common hangman. all charge of intimacy or concert with Wilkes. This was certainly no maintenance of morals in Pitt's own person, for nothing was more notorious than lord Temple's intimacy and advocacy of Wilkes. He had actually paraded both since these prosecutions began. He had visited Wilkes at the earliest possible moment in the Tower; he had exerted himself personally to procure the writ of habeas corpus for him; he had zealously defended him in his place in the house of peers. Yet, notwithstanding this high tide of public opinion, parliament went on trying to crush, but only, in reality, to deify Wilkes. He could not be called to the bar of the lords, as was ordered, but that house carried an address to the crown, praying for a prosecution of the author of the "Essay on Woman;" and assented to the order of the Nor did the wrath of the commons stop here; some of the commons, that the paper should be burnt by the hangman. members actually thirsted for his blood. There was a com- Still the affairs of Wilkes continued to occupy almost the mon opinion at that time that Wilkes, with all his bluster, sole thought and interest of the session. On the 23rd of was a coward. The challenge of Forbes had come to November the question of privilege came on; and though he nothing; but that was not the fault of Wilkes, but of the was absent, it was actively pushed by the ministers. Mr. French police. He had been challenged by lord Talbot for Wilbraham protested against the discussion without the ridiculing the fact of Talbot's horse at the coronation, presence of Wilkes, and his being heard at the bar in his when performing an absurd part of that old feudal cere- defence. Pitt attended, though suffering awfully from the mony, turning his tail on the king and queen. There gout, propped on crutches, and his very hands wrapped in resulted no harm from that; for having exchanged shots by flannel. He maintained the question of privilege, but took moonlight, without injury to either of them, they had shook care to separate himself from Wilkes in it. He was hands and retired to the Red Lion, at Bagshot, and spent vehement against parliament surrendering one atom of its the evening together in jollity-Talbot being as great a privilege; but he was equally vehement against Wilkes and bon vivant as Wilkes. This friendly termination-no un- the "North Briton." Wilkes and his publisher he gave up common circumstance-occasioned the report that the whole to all the vengeance of government, as just and necessary was a sham. Encouraged by this popular notion of for the maintenance of religion and morals; but he enWilkes's cowardice, during the debate in the commons, Mr. | deavoured to separate his brother-in-law, lord Temple, from Samuel Martin, member for Camelford, who had been secretary to the treasury under Bute, and had been grievously ridiculed in the "North Briton," made a point of insulting Wilkes. Looking across the house to where Wilkes sate, he said, in a marked and ferocious manner, "Whoever stabs a reputation in the dark, without setting his name, is a cowardly, malignant, and infamous scoundrel." To leave no mistake, he repeated the words a second time. Wilkes appeared to take no notice at the time, but the next morning he wrote a note to Martin, concluding thus :"To cut off ignorance as to the author, I whisper in your ear, that every passage in the 'North Briton,' in which you have been named, or even alluded to, was written by your humble servant, JOHN WILKES." The consequence was a duel that evening, in which Wilkes received a dangerous wound in the side from Martin at the second fire. The consequences were an intense excitement in favour of Wilkes, and of execration against the commons. Wilkes was reported to be delirious, and crowds collected in the streets before his house, calling for vengeance on his murderers. Sandwich was especially denounced; in return for his dragging forth the obscenity of Wilkes, his own private life was ransacked for scandalous anecdotes, and they were only too plentiful. His lewd and blasphemous revels with Wilkes himself, at Medenham Abbey, and in London, were exposed. It was declared that only a fortnight before he The next day Wilkes was ordered to attend at the bar of had supped at a tavern in town with Wilkes, and other the house, if his health permitted him; and, on the 3rd, the loose characters, and singing lewd catches together. Horace sheriff of London was ordered to execute the burning of Walpole says that Sandwich's conduct to Wilkes had the "North Briton" in Cheapside. Alderman Harley, the brought forth such a catalogue of his own impurities as was sheriff, attended by one of the members for the City, and all incredible. The "Beggars' Opera" being just then acted at the City officers, and the hangman, proceeded to perform this Covent Garden, when Macheath uttered the words, "That most unpopular office-the lord mayor and the common Jemmy Twitcher should 'peach, I own surprises me!" the council awaiting the event at the Mansion House. The whole audience burst into one most tumultuous applause at duty was no less dangerous than had been anticipated. The the obvious application; and thenceforth Jemmy Twitcher | mob cried "Wilkes and liberty for ever!" and were en : The rest of the debate was violent and personal, and ended in voting, by two hundred and fifty-eight against one hundred and thirty-three, that the privilege of parliament did not extend to the publication of seditious libels; the resolution ordering the "North Briton" to be burnt by the hangman was confirmed. These votes being sent up to the lords, on the 25th they also debated the question, and the duke of Cumberland, lord Shelburne, and the duke of Newcastle, defended the privilege of parliament as violated in the person of Wilkes. In the end, however, the ministers obtained a majority of a hundred and fourteen against thirty-eight. Seventeen peers entered a strong protest against the decision. On the 1st of December there was a conference of the two houses, when they agreed to a loyal address to the king, expressing their detestation of the libels against him. couraged by numbers of gentlemen from windows and balconies waving their handkerchiefs, for Wilkes was supported almost to a man in the City. The sheriff and his company were hissed, hooted, pelted with mud from the kennels, and other missives of a more substantial nature. A piece of wood from the fire was flung at the sheriff's carriage, dashed in the window, and wounded him in the face with the broken glass. The hangman struggled boldly to set fire to the obnoxious journal, and, having only partly succeeded, the whole City host of officials hurried back to the Mansion House, and the hangman after them. The mob then carried the rescued "North Briton" in triumph as far as Temple Bar, where they made a bonfire, and burnt, instead of it, a huge jack-boot. Ministers, and their abettors in parliament, were highly incensed at this outburst. An inquiry was instituted in the house of lords, and continued for four days, witnesses being examined, but to little satisfaction of government, for these declared that the whole City thought Wilkes in the right. Both houses passed resolutions, thanking the sheriff for the discharge of his duty, but severely blaming the lord mayor and common council, and even threatening to deprive the City of its charter. Simultaneously with these proceedings, the actions commenced by Wilkes, and the printer, publishers, and others arrested under the general warrant, were being tried in the common pleas. All the parties obtained verdicts for damages, and that of Wilkes was for a thousand pounds. Wilkes, all this time, had contrived to entertain his visitors with all kinds of stories to the disadvantage of lord Sandwich, and the ministers in general, which flew abroad like wildfire. Chief-justice Pratt, strengthened by the verdicts, made a most decided declaration of the illegality and unconstitutional nature of general warrants. He said, "There is no authority in our law-books that mentions this kind of warrant, but in express terms to condemn them. Upon the most matured consideration, I am bold to say that this warrant is illegal; but I am far from wishing that a matter of this consequence should rest solely on my opinion." He then intimated that government could refer the question to the twelve judges, or to parliament itself. If he were proved wrong, he said, he should kiss the rod; but he should always consider it as a sort of iron for the chastisement of the people of Great Britain. Ministers did not think proper to refer the question to the twelve judges; but Pratt's judgment was afterwards confirmed by the court of king's bench. Whilst all London was in a state of effervescence with the triumph of Wilkes over the ministers in the court of law, a foolish, or perhaps crazy, Scotchman, named Dun, went to Wilkes's house, and, being refused admittance, declared in a neighbouring coffee-house, that he and ten others had sworn to take Wilkes off. The Scotch hated him for his continual sarcasms on them in the "North Briton," and some members of the opposition of that country had voted with government against him in their spleen. Dun made a second attempt to get access to Wilkes; and a new penknife being found in his pocket, the friends of Wilkes in the commons charged him with an attempt against the life of a member of the house. He was brought to the bar of the house, but he was dismissed, as being insane. The court of king's bench, however, did not let him off so easily; it detained him in prison, in default of finding bail and security. The day had now arrived for Wilkes to appear at the bar of the commons in obedience to its order; but, instead of Wilkes, two physicians appeared to testify that his health would not allow him to attend. The house granted a further delay till the 16th of December; but the physicians again appearel, and made the same statement. The house then appointed two other physicians to see him and report the state of his health, but Wilkes refused to see them, and sent in a report by two Scotch doctors, as a jocose proof that they must give a truthful report, as all Scotchmen were so hostile to him. And in this violent excitement regarding one man, which had occupied nearly the whole of the session, closed the year 1763. As this excitement closed the old year, so it opened the new one. No sooner did the parliament meet, after the Christmas recess, than, on the 17th of January, the order for Wilkes's attendance at the bar was read. It was then found that he had thought it best for him to get over into France. His notoriety in England had made him a subject of curiosity in Paris, where he was enjoying himself in fashionable society. Still he did not hesitate to send over a medical certificate, signed by one of the king's physicians and an army surgeon, affirming that his wound was in such a condition that it was not safe for him to leave Paris. As all Paris was making a lion of him, and wonderfully admiring his wit and jokes, imagining him as great a man as Pitt, the house of commons paid no attention to the certificate, but proceeded to examine evidence, and the famous No. 45 of the "North Briton;" and after a violent debate, continuing till three o'clock in the morning, passed a resolution that the paper in question contained the grossest insults to his majesty, to both houses of parliament, and tended to traitorous insurrection against the government. Accordingly, the next day, he was formally expelled the house, and a new writ was issued for Aylesbury. Wilkes continued in Paris, being now afraid of being arrested for debt, being no longer a member of parliament. Still the people regarded him as a man persecuted for his defence of their rights, and did not hesitate to show their disapprobation even to the king. Whenever he appeared in public, or at the theatre, they gave no token of loyalty towards him, but shouted "Wilkes and liberty!" On the 13th of February the opposition in the commons brought on the question of the validity of general warrants. The debate continued all that day and the next night till seven o'clock in the morning. Numbers of whigs and many ladies of rank, amongst them lady Rockingham, lady Sondes, the duchess of Richmond, lady Pembroke, &c., sate out the whole debate. The motion was thrown out; but Sir William Meredith immediately made another, that a general warrant for apprehending the authors, printers, and publishers of a seditious libel is not warranted by law. The combat was renewed, and Pitt made a tremendous speech. declaring that if the house resisted Sir William Meredith's motion, they would be the disgrace of the present age, and the reproach of posterity. He upbraided ministers with A.D. 1764.] WILKES EXPELLED FROM THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. taking mean and petty vengeance on those who did not agree with them, by dismissing them from office. This charge Grenville had the effrontery to deny, though it was a notorious fact. Even whilst he was denying it, general A'Court, who had just been dismissed from his command of a regiment of the guards, walked up the house, as if to convict the minister of the lie; the circumstance being noticed by a murmur through the whole house. Soon after the speaker calling on Barré, as colonel Barré, that officer said, "I beg your pardon, sir; you have given me a title I have no right to, I am no longer a colonel; they have dismissed me from my regiment, and from the office of adjutant-general." In addition to these two unfortunate contretemps, it was equally well known that they had dismissed Mr. John Calcraft from the post of deputy commissioner-general of musters, and menaced many others; and, spite of this public exposure, they soon after dismissed general Conway, brother of the earl of Hertford, our ambassador at Paris, both from his military and his court employments, simply for his voting against them on the general warrant question, though it was the only instance in which he had voted with the opposition. The chagrin of ministers was made the more intolerable because they saw that their conduct was thus alienating their supporters in the house. As the debate approached its close, they called in every possible vote; the sick, the lame were hurried into the house, so that, says Horace Walpole, you would have thought they had sent a search warrant into every hospital for members of parliament. When the division came, which was only for the adjournment of Meredith's motion for a month, they only carried it by fourteen votes. In the City there was a confident anticipation of the defeat of ministers, and materials for bonfires all over London, and for illuminating the monument. Temple was said to have faggots ready for bonfires of his own. Government, not content with expelling Wilkes from the house of commons, had commenced an action against him in the court of king's bench, where they succeeded in obtaining a verdict against him for a libel in the "North Briton." Temple paid the costs, and the City of London turned this defeat into a triumph, by presenting its freedom to the lord chief-justice Pratt, for his bold and independent conduct in declaring against the general warrants. They ordered his portrait to be placed in Guildhall; and the example of London was followed by Dublin and many other towns, who presented freedoms and gold snuff-boxes to Pratt. The City of London also presented its thanks to their members of the house of commons for their patriotic conduct there. During this session, the princess Augusta, one of the king's sisters, was married to the hereditary prince of Brunswick, and parliament voted her a dowry of eighty thousand pounds. The prince, who was a nephew of Frederick of Prussia, and had fought in Germany with our army under the auspices of Pitt, gave offence to the court, during his visit, by showing his veneration for the great man, and by paying him a visit at Hayes. He lived to engage in the campaign, as Duke of Brunswick, against Buonaparte, and died of a wound received, in 1806, at the 35 battle of Jena. A daughter of his marriage was the unfortunate queen Caroline, wife of George IV. Another minor act of this summer was the presentation of our bills for the two million dollars from Spain, as the Manilla ransom, given to Sir William Draper by the governor of the Philippines. The Spaniards laughed at the demand; and the feeble Grenville, whom Dr. Johnson said could have counted the money had he been able to get it, for that was rather his post than governing a great nation, knew not how to enforce it. Had Pitt been in power, he would have seized unceremoniously a Spanish treasure ship, and paid himself. Several distinguished members of the opposition died during this year, amongst them Legge, formerly Pitt's chancellor of the exchequer, the duke of Devonshire, and the earl of Hardwicke. Pitt, though tortured with the gout, received the unexpected legacy of an estate in Somersetshire of three thousand pounds a-year, from Sir William Pynsent, whom he had never seen in his life, but who had a wonderful admiration of him. CHAPTER III. REIGN OF GEORGE III. (Continued). Commencement of the Troubles with America - Grenville's Stamp ActBarre's Speech-Franklin's Letters-Ferment in America-House of Burgesses dissolved in Virginia-Patrick Henry-Dangerous Illness of George III.-Regency Bill-Insult to the Princess Dowager-Disturbances in Spitalfields-Attack on Bedford House-Pitt asked to form a Government-Declines-Again applied to-Declines a Second Time-Marquis of Rockingham minister-Parties in Ireland-Death of Duke of Cumberland-Tumults at Boston in America-Resistance to the Stamp Act-Petitions from Commercial Towns-Franklin examined at the Bar of the Commons-Repeal of the Stamp Act-Rejoicings in AmericaFirst Appearance of Edmund Burke-Ministers treat with Wilkes-Pitt Minister, and created Earl of Chatham-Murmurs against him-The Design of the Northern Alliance-Mismanagement of the East Indis Company-Chatham's Illness-New Taxes on America-Mutiny TaxGrafton Minister-Nullum Tempus Bill-Wilkes Candidate for Westminster-Committed to Prison-Riots-War between Russia and Turkey -Jesuits expelled from Spain-Corsica taken by France-Death ol Duke of Newcastle-Resignation of Chatham. IF Grenville and his cabinet, in their ignorance of human nature, had made a gross mistake in their conduct towards Wilkes, they now made a more fatal one in regard to our American colonies. These colonies, as we have stated, in our progress of the nation at the close of our last volume, had now assumed an air of great importance, and were rapidly rising in population and wealth. The expulsion of the French from Canada, Nova Scotia, and Cape Breton, the settlement of Georgia by general Oglethorpe, the acquisition of Florida from Spain, had given a compactness and strength to these vast colonies, which promised a still more accelerated and prosperous growth. At this period the inhabitants are calculated to have amounted to two millions of Europeans, and half a million of coloured people, Indians and negroes. The trade was becoming every day more extensive and valuable to the mother country. The imports from England, chiefly of her manufactures, amounted to three million pounds annually in value. They carried on a great trade with our West Indian islands and the Spanish American colonies, and French and Dutch West Indies, importing thence sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, ginger, pimento, &c., and carrying out in exchange flour, biscuits, pease, timber, pork, hams, bacon, cider, cheese, leather, &c. |