A.D. 1763.] IMPRISONMENT AND RELEASE OF WILKES. lord Halifax. Lord Temple, with whom, as well as with Pitt, Wilkes had been on good terms, hurried to the court of common pleas for a writ of habeas corpus on his behalf; but lord Halifax and his brother secretary, Egremont, had used such diligence, that Wilkes, who refused to answer any questions put to him under such a warrant, was already committed to the Tower. 29 My lords,-On my return from Westminster Hall, where I have been discharged from my commitment to the Tower under your lordships' warrant, I find that my house has been robbed, and am informed that the stolen goods are in the possession of one or both of your lordships. I therefore insist that you do forthwith return them to your humble servant,-JOHN WILKES." Besides his papers, the articles missing were a silver candlestick, his pocket-book, containing some bills, and a quarto paper-book, containing private accounts. Wilkes set up in his own house a printing press, for printing the "North Briton." He printed and circulated this letter, and the secretaries of state felt compelled to reply to it. They told him that his expressions were indecent and scurrilous; but the very act of replying to such an accusation was a humiliation. There were not wanting numbers, both in parliament and out of it, who took the part of Wilkes, as an oppressed individual. The press loudly vindicated him; it went for little with the opposition and the newspapers that Wilkes was a man of a notoriously profligate life; that he had abused and forsaken his wife; that he had dissipated his and her fortune; and then had abused the ministry because they would not pension him. He was held up as one of the greatest and purest patriots that ever lived-a second Hampden or Algernon Sydney. He commenced an action against the secretaries of state, and threatened Egremont with a challenge as soon as these proceedings should terminate. He then went over to Paris, where he was challenged by Forbes, a Scotch exile in the French service, but the duel was prevented by the lieutenant of police. Wilkes entered the Tower in all the elation of spirits which the occasion of acting the political hero naturally inspired. He asked to be confined in the same room which had been occupied by lord Egremont's father on a charge of treason; and he sate down and wrote to his daughter in France, congratulating her on living in a free country. He was soon called on by the dukes of Bolton and Grafton, and lord Temple, who, as well as his own friends, his solicitor, and counsel, were refused admittance. His house was entered, his papers seized, and examined by Wood, the under-secretary of state, and Carteret Webb, the solicitor to the treasury. It was soon deemed advisable to relax the severity of Wilkes' confinement, to allow him the free use of writing materials, and to admit his friends, amongst whom appeared lord Temple and the duke of Grafton. A second writ of habeas corpus was obtained, and, on the 3rd of May, Wilkes was conveyed to the court of common pleas, before Sir Charles Pratt, where his case was stated by Mr. Serjeant Glynn, and then Wilkes himself made a speech of an hour long. In this he spoke with much flippancy, declaring that there was a dark conspiracy on foot to destroy the liberties of the nation, and that he had been selected as the first victim, because he had refused to be corrupted and bought up by governmentthe notorious fact being that Wilkes had repeatedly been The English government, instead of treating Wilkes with refused admission to place, and that his rancour against a dignified indifference, was weak enough to show how deeply government sprang from that cause. As for himself, he it was touched by him, dismissed him from his commission declared that he had been treated worse than any rebel Scot. of colonel of the Buckinghamshire militia, and treated lord At this word Scot, the people, being reminded of their Temple as an abettor of his, by depriving him of the lordantipathy to Bute, set up a great shout, which the lord chief-lieutenancy of the same county, and striking his name justice instantly stopped. from the list of privy councillors, giving the lord-lieutenancy On the 6th of May he was brought up to hear the joint | to Dashwood, now lord le Despencer. Whilst these damaging proceedings were in course, Wilkes, elated with his triumph and this public favour, wrote a letter to the secretaries of state, lords Halifax and Egremont, charging them with having robbed his house: : Bute at That Bute should recommend Pitt, whose policy he had so long and utterly condemned, was not the result of spleen against Grenville, but it was a wonderful justification of Pitt's administration. It was, in fact, admitting that he alone was the man of successful management; that all other attempts were failures. The duke of Bedford gave the same counsel; although, little more than five months before, he had been equally hostile to Pitt. The king sent for the great commoner, who, however, would not come till he had 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 Boling. broke, 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, 1 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 movel 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 A.D. 1763.] THE "NORTH BRITON" ORDERED TO BE BURNT. 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. 33 was the name of Sandwich much more commonly than that of his title. 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 commons, that the paper should be burnt by the hangman. Still the affairs of Wilkes continued to occupy almost the sole thought and interest of the session. On the 23rd of November the question of privilege came on; and though he was absent, it was actively pushed by the ministers. Mr. Wilbraham protested against the discussion without the presence of Wilkes, and his being heard at the bar in his defence. Pitt attended, though suffering awfully from the gout, propped on crutches, and his very hands wrapped in flannel. He maintained the question of privilege, but took care to separate himself from Wilkes in it. He was vehement against parliament surrendering one atom of its privilege; but he was equally vehement against Wilkes and the "North Briton." Wilkes and his publisher he gave up to all the vengeance of government, as just and necessary for the maintenance of religion and morals; but he en 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. Nor did the wrath of the commons stop here; some of the members actually thirsted for his blood. There was a common opinion at that time that Wilkes, with all his bluster, was a coward. The challenge of Forbes had come to nothing; but that was not the fault of Wilkes, but of the French police. He had been challenged by lord Talbot for ridiculing the fact of Talbot's horse at the coronation, when performing an absurd part of that old feudal ceremony, turning his tail on the king and queen. There resulted no harm from that; for having exchanged shots by moonlight, without injury to either of them, they had shook hands and retired to the Red Lion, at Bagshot, and spent the evening together in jollity-Talbot being as great a bon vivant as Wilkes. This friendly termination-no uncommon circunstance-occasioned the report that the whole was a sham. Encouraged by this popular notion of Wilkes'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. |