CHAP.

XV.

1768. Serjeant Glynn

5th June.

8th Dec.

THE tumultuous difpofition of the electors of Middlesex might probably have fubfided had not a new conteft renewed the fermentation. Mr. Cooke, Mr. Wilkes's colleague, died; Sir William Beauchamp elected for Proctor, the unfuccefsful candidate at the late election, Middlefex. again offered himself; and was oppofed by Serjeant Glynn, who being the conftant legal defender of Wilkes, was highly popular, and Sir William loft the election. During its progrefs, a man was killed in a riot, begun by fome chairmen employed by Sir William's party; and as he was understood to be a candidate on the court intereft, this event excited the greatest indignation: two chairmen were apprehended, tried at the Old Bailey, and found guilty. The populace, animated with the defire of vengeance, when the verdict was pronounced, teftified their joy by shouting and clapping of hands; but their fury was not gratified in the expected victims; for, after being refpited for a fhort time, they obtained a pardon.

14th Jan.

1769.

8th Nov. 1768.

In his fpeech to parliament, on the first day of the Meeting of feffion, the King mentioned with fatisfaction the pacific parliament. difpofition of the continental powers, adverted to the rebellious fpirit which prevailed in Maffachuset's Bay, and recommended harmony and union. The address was strenuously oppofed, but carried.

Wilkes's petition. 14th Nov.

Proceedings there

on.

MR. WILKES's affair early engaged the House of Commons: a petition was brought up by Sir Joseph Mawbey, in which all the proceedings against him fince the year 1763 were briefly recited, and the juftice of the house was claimed in redreffing his grievances; fundry motions enfued; the proper officers were directed to lay before the house a copy of the proceedings in the court of King's Bench; and a day being appointed for taking thefe matters into confideration, it was ordered that due notice. fhould be given to Mr. Wilkes, and to feveral other parties, who might appear as witneffes. Among them was Mr. Webb, late fecre

They were afterwards profecuted with unceasing resentment for other murders committed on the fame day, but acquitted.

tary

XV.

tary to the treasury, who being in the petition accufed CHA P. of highly improper conduct, requested an opportunity of vindicating himfelf, and was allowed to be heard 1768. either in perfon or by counsel.

1769.

privilege.

before the

BEFORE the petition was difcuffed, a motion, made 23d Jan. for the purpose of ascertaining whether a member con- Motion revicted of publishing a libel was entitled to privilege, fpecting was debated with much acrimony, and at length decided in the negative. At the time appointed for confidering 27th. his petition, Mr. Wilkes, being brought before the Wilkes house in cuftody, objected that, by an act of parliament, brought he could not legally appear there without taking the Houfe of oaths; but this objection was overruled. On a fub- Commons. fequent day, he took exception to the word blafphe- 31st. mous, used in defcribing the Effay on Woman; which, after a long debate was expunged. The evidence in support of the petition fubftantiated only the undenied fact, that Lord Mansfield had altered the record of his indictment the day before the trial. It was clearly demonstrated that the practice of altering records in the manner complained of was ancient, and fupported by numberless precedents from the beginning of the law books to that period; and on a folemn argument of the fame objection in Westminster Hall, the practice had been confirmed by all the judges. The petition accufed Mr. Webb of bribing, with the public money, one Curry, Wilkes's domeftic, to fteal the Effay on Woman; but this charge was not proved. A vote of ift Feb. severe cenfure was moved, but afterwards modified into His com a declaration, that the afperfions in the petition were clared frifrivolous.

plaints de

volous.

letter to

ANOTHER Complaint against Mr. Wilkes was im- Wilkes's mediately prefented. Lord Weymouth, the fecretary Lord Weyof state, having in the preceding year, written to the mouth; magiftrates of Surrey, recommending them no longer to permit tumults to affume fo dangerous an afpect, but to make early application for a military force in aid of the civil power; the letter came into Wilkes's poffeffion, and he published it, with an inflammatory and

infulting

XV.

1769. who complains of a breach of

CHA P. infulting comment, denominating the affair in St. George's Fields a horrid maffacre, and the confequence of a hellish project, deliberately planned. Lord Weymouth complained to the Houfe of Lords of a breach of privilege; and the printer of the newspaper acknow privilege. ledging that he received the letter from Mr. Wilkes, a conference of the Lords and Commons was held. Mr. Wilkes, at the bar of the lower houfe, triumphantly avowed the publication, and claimed the thanks of the country for having expofed, in a proper light, "that bloody fcroll."

2d.

3d.

Wilkes ex

pelled.

Obfervations.

THE house being thus in full poffeffion of the neceffary evidence, a motion for his expulfionTM was made, and after a strenuous debate, carried by a confiderable majority".

In all the proceedings against Mr. Wilkes, from the moment of his return to England, the miniftry difplayed great want of judgment and prudence, but in this measure, their errors were peculiarly manifeft. On his arrival, in the month of February, his outlawry was in full force; had they then iffued against him the proper process, he would have been legally in cuftody during the period of the election, and thus prevented from influencing, perfonally at least, the public proceedings at that crifis. Such a meafure could not apparently have created a divifion in the cabinet, fince éven Lord Chatham was attacked in the letter to the Duke of Grafton with no lefs virulence than the Duke himfelf. But if they were refolved not to add to the weight of Mr. Wilkes's misfortunes by enforcing his punishment, and content to incur the rifque arifing from his popular oppofition to their measures, the most

62

pru

The motion was in thefe words: "That John Wilkes, Efq. a mem"her of this Houfe, whath, at the bar of this House, confeffed himself "to be the author and publisher of what this Houfe has refolved to be an infolent, fcandalous, and feditious libel, and who has been convicted in the court of King's Bench of having printed and published a feditious libel, and three obfcene and impious libels, and by the judgment of the "faid court has been fentenced to undergo twenty-two months imprisonment, and is now in execution under the fame judgment, be expelled "this house,"

XV.

1769.

dent proceeding would have been to advise the King CHAP. to comply with, or even anticipate, Mr. Wilkes's petition by a free pardon. He could then no longer pretend that he was a mártyr in the cause of liberty, nor would the exceffes of the populace have been fanctioned by any plaufible allegation of grievance. By taking Mr. Wilkes into cuftody after his election, and when his popularity was fo firmly established, they placed the King in direct oppofition to a great portion of his fubjects, and expofed the nation to all the mischiefs and ferments arifing from fuch a conteft. In arguing the merits of his petition the miniftry were guilty of a great error: it claimed no particular notice, made no fpecific demand, and might, with great propriety, have been left to lie on the table. In expelling him the houfe, their conduct was unjustifiable; it might be legal, but a ministry, in a free country, can never fupport themselves by an appeal to the letter of the law; they must also do what is expedient, and even gracious to the people. In this inftance they manifefted no lefs feeblenefs than rancour. As if afraid that they were not fully justified in expelling him in confequence of a complaint from the other house, the motion was loaded with extraneous facts; reciting an offence for which he was expelled by a former parliament, and others for which he was then fuffering the fentence of the law; and even alleging that fentence and those fufferings against him as new crimes.

THROUGH the medium of Mr. Wilkes fome import- Character ant popular queftions were difcuffed, and it was for- of Wilkes. tunate for the country that such an individual was found. The points afcertained by his means are of the highest confequence both to liberty and government; and Mr. Wilkes was, in every refpect, the most proper man to act the part affigned to him. Too enterprizing to be defpifed, too frivolous to excite permanent apprehenfion, he was ever ready to engage in fuch acts as required the interference of the law,

and

XV.

1769.

CHA P. and always fufficiently fubtle to make his errors popular, and his vices venial. Too magnanimous to be actuated by terror, and too venal to refift proffered advantages, he was a fit champion for the people, till his views were answered, but fo open to gratification as never to be permanently dangerous. His avowed vices precluded him from the esteem of the virtuous; and thus his popularity, however apparently extenfive, could never give alarm to a strong and well-combined ministry. It would have been wife to let him take his feat without refistance, for as his oratorical talents were not above mediocrity, he would foon have funk into difregard, and his writings, ceafing to claim attention as the effufions of an injured patriot, would have been rated at their just value, and fallen rapidly into obfcurity.

14th Feb.

His caufe efpoufed by the free holders of

Middlefex.

16th.

He is reelected.

His interests were warmly and eagerly efpoufed: at a meeting of the freeholders at Mile-end, his reelection was recommended. Alderman Sawbridge enforced it by obferving, that if once the ministry should be permitted to fay whom the freeholders should not choose, the next step would be to tell them whom they should choose; he was accordingly re-elected almost without oppofition *.

THE refolution thus difplayed by the people to fupport their favourite might have taught the ministry the inutility of further refistance, and induced them to fubmit with a good grace; but, they now appeared to confider the credit and authority of government at stake, and to have refolved that the question fhould be profecuted to all extremities. On the day fucceeding Mr. Wilkes's return, Lord Strange moved, "That having been expelled, he was incapable of ferving in that parliament." In fupport of this doctrine, it was parliament. alleged, that Robert Walpole having been expelled the house, and re-chofen for Lynn, the Commons declared his incapacity. The members in oppofition

17th.

Declared incapable of fitting in

J

* Serjeant Whitaker was propofed as a candidate, but was fupported only by five freeholders.

made