whom obeying the fummons were reprimanded and difcharg ed; and the remaining delinquent, Miller, was ordered to be taken into cuftody for contempt of the house. Wheble being apprehended in confequence of the proclamation, and carried before Mr. Wilkes, recently chosen an alderman of London, he was discharged by that magiftrate, and bound over to profecute the perfon who apprehended him: and in a letter addressed to the earl of Halifax, fecretary of ftate, Mr. Wilkes declared, "that Wheble had been apprehended in violation of the rights of an Englishman, as well as of the chartered privileges of a citizen of London." Thompson alfo was apprehended, and difcharged in the fame manner. Miller being taken into cuftody by the meffenger of the houfe of commons, at his own dwelling, was carried before the lord mayor (Crosby), and the aldermen Wilkes and Oliver, at the manfion houfe. The ferjeant at arms attending to demand the prisoner, the legality of the warrant was denied, and the printer not only discharged, but the meffenger of the houfe, on pretext of a falfe arreft, ordered to be committed to prison in default of bail, which was at first refused, but at length reluctantly given; and for these proceedings the thanks of the corporation of London were immediately voted them.

The house of commons now found themselves once more reduced, by their own rashness and indifcretion, to a most vexatious perplexity; and the oppofition, who, as members of the house, felt for its honor, and participated in the general indignation excited by this unparalleled affront, reminded the ministers that to them must be imputed the odium under which the houfe had fallen with the people, who embraced with eagernefs every occafion to mock their power and baffle their meafures. Thefe reflections admitted of little reply, and the lord mayor and Mr. alderman Oliver, as members of the houfe, were ordered to attend in their places the next day. The lord mayor pleaded, in his juftification, that he was bound by oath to preferve the franchises of the

city, that his conduct had been strictly agreeable to law, and he demanded to be heard by counsel. This was refufed, on the ground that, no counsel could be heard in oppofition to the privileges of the house; and the lord mayor's book of minutes being called for, the recognizance of Whittam the meffenger was expunged from the record by order of the house; and a refolution passed, that to inftitute any proceeding at law in this cafe was contrary to the privileges of the houfe; and also that it was a breach of privilege to hold the meffenger to bail for fuch pretended affault. Mr. Oliver was proceeded against in a fimilar manner; and the two magiftrates refolutely refusing to make any conceffion or apology, it was at length by a very great majority voted that they be committed prifoners to the Tower.

On the last day of the attendance of the lord mayor, vast multitudes of people affembling in the vicinity of Westminster Hall, a violent riot took place, and several of the ministerial members were grofsly infulted-Lord North himself being perfonally attacked, and with difficulty rescued from the fury of the populace. Mr. Wilkes, having received a fummons to attend at the bar of the house, addreffed a letter to the Speaker, in which he declared that he could attend only in his place as member for the county of Middlesex. After some fruitless repetitions of the order, the house, now eagerly defirous to difmifs the business, ordered a new fummons for the 8th of April, and at the fame time wifely appointed, with much more attention to their fafety than their DIGNITY, the 9th as the first day of meeting after the Eafter recefs.

The lord mayor and Mr. Oliver foon after their commitment applied for a writ of habeas corpus, which was accordingly iffued by the court of common pleas; but after very long and learned pleadings these magiftrates were remanded by the court, and continued in cuftody till the end of the feffion, when their liberation was celebrated by great and univerfal rejoicings; and from this time forward the proceed

ings of parliament and the fpeeches of the members have been published without interruption or moleftation. So dangerous is it to bring undefined privileges or prerogatives into conteft, where a difpofition prevails to dispute all doubtful affumptions of authority.

It did not tend to diminish the public discontents that a bill was brought into parliament at this period, " for enabling certain perfons to enclose and embank part of the river Thames adjoining Durham Yard, &c. it being confidered as an invasion of the property claimed by the city of London in the foil or bed of the river. But whatever might be the motives in which this bill originated, or whatever indemnification the city of London might be entitled to expect as proprietors of the foil, certain it is that the magnificent and ftupendous pile of buildings conftructed in virtue of this act, under the appellation of the Adelphi, will remain to future times a noble monument of architectural genius and utility; and will be confidered as reflecting honor on the reign of George III. when the vast fums expended in fubfidies, penfions, and extravagant grants to the crown are configned to indignation or oblivion.

Soon after the rifing of parliament the city of London prefented another petition and remonftrance to the king, in which they complain of this bill as a violation of their chartered rights, of the arbitrary imprisonment of their chief magiftrate, of the enormity of erafing a judicial record in order to stop the course of juftice; and again urge, on these accounts, as well as upon the grounds formerly stated, the immediate diffolution of the parliament, and the removal from his majesty's perfon and councils, for ever, of the present wicked and defpotic minifters. But this petition, however vehement and intemperate in its language, excited neither alarm nor very peculiar attention. The ftorm had in a great measure spent its rage; and, though the waves ftill Auctuated with apparent violence, the danger of minifterial fhipwreck was paft. The king, in anfwer to this petition,

coldly

coldly expreffed his readiness to redress the real grievances of his fubjects; but he was forry to find that a part of them re newed requests which he had repeatedly refused to comply with.

In the speech from the throne at the termination of the feffion May 8 (1771), his majesty congratulated the parliament on the prospect of a permanent continuance of peace, and earnestly exhorted them to difcourage and fupprefs all groundless fufpicions and domeftic difturbances, in order that the national happiness might be rendered complete. His majesty declared, "that he had no other object, and could have no other interest than to reign in the hearts of a free and happy people." Certainly, if this could by an high ftretch of courtly complaifance be fuppofed "the only object" of his majesty's reign, it must at least be allowed that he had hitherto been peculiarly unfortunate in the choice of those means and ministers which he had employed in the attainment of it.

During the recefs of parliament died the earl of Halifax, a nobleman generous, liberal, and accomplished; but as a minister unpopular and unfortunate. He was one of the few whigs who enjoyed any share of court favor during the prefent reign; but tory maxims were unhappily predominant, and his ambition induced him to acquiefce and temporize. Nevertheless he filled the high office of lord lieutenant of Ireland, to which he was appointed on the return of the duke of Bedford in 1761, with diftinguished ability and applause. The earl of Suffolk fucceeded the earl of Halifax as fecretary of state for the northern department, and the duke of Grafton accepted the vacant poft of lord privy feal.

The fummer and autumnal months rolled away in a fort of fullen languor, and, no circumstances of a nature peculiarly urgent arifing, the parliament was not convened till January 21, 1772, when the feffion was opened with a speech from the throne, in which his majesty confidently announced the continuance of peace from the repeated affurances he

had

had received of the amicable difpofition of the powers on the continent. It occafioned therefore great furprise, when in a few days a demand was made on the part of the administration for twenty-five thousand seamen to be employed in the fervice of the current year, under the pretext of the neceffity of our maintaining a fuperior force, both in the Eaft and West Indies, to the French, who had lately fent confiderable reinforcements to thofe diftant quarters. It was faid in reply," that this was in fact a war establishment in the midst of peace-that if fo great an augmentation was in present circumstances thought neceffary, it was impoffible to say when it could with propriety be diminished-that the apprehension of an attack from France was futile and ridiculous, and that the naval force of that power employed in actual service was totally inadequate to any hoftile attempt-that the present motion would add 500,000l. to the public expence—and that, bending under the weight of an enormous public debt, it behoved us to adopt effectual measures for its reduction; instead of which our peace establishment was every year increasing, and was now nearly double what it had been at the acceffion of king George I." Such however was the inefficacy of these arguments, in oppofition to those urged by the ministers of the crown, that the motion was carried without a divifion.

Soon after the meeting of parliament (February 8, 1772) died her royal highness Augusta princefs dowager of Wales, in the fifty-third year of her age-a princefs poffeffed of many virtues, perfonal and relative, and, till the acceffion of the present fovereign, greatly beloved and esteemed by the English nation: but, in the latter years of her life, it too plainly appeared that the extenfive influence the poffeffed over the mind of the king her fon was exercised in a manner very pernicious to the nation. It might appear harsh to doubt the general rectitude of her intentions; but unhappily, bred up in the defpotifm of German courts, fhe attained not to juft ideas of the fpirit of the English conftitution, or the