BOOK XV.

Mr. Wilkes returned for Middlesex-Committed to the King's Bench-Expelled the House of Commons. Consequences of the Expulsion. Charter of the East India Company renewed. The King's Debts discharged without Investigation, 513,000l. Lord Hillsborough's Circular Letter. Ferment in the Nation. Letters of Junius. Lord Chatham's successive Motions respecting the Middlesex Election, Dismission of Lord Camden. Changes at Court-Duke of Grafton resigns, Resignation of Sir John Cust, the Speaker-succeeded by Sir Fletcher Norton. Farther Proceedings on the Middlesex Election. American Port Duties repealed-Tea excepted. Grenville All passed. Inflexibility of the Irish Parliament on the Subject of Money Bills. Petition and Remonstrance of the City of London to the King. Transactions relative to Falkland's Islands. New Shoreham Disfranchisement Bill, The Lord Mayor of London committed to the Tower. Enormous Addition to the Peace Establishment. Princess Dowager of Wales's Death. Royal Marriage Bill. Petition of the Clergy to the House of Commons. Motion for a farther Enlargement of the Toleration Act. Character of Mr. Fox. India Affairs-Inquiry into the Conduct of Lord Clive, War waged by the King of England against the Caribbs of St. Vincent's. Second Motion for an Enlargement of the Toleration Act.

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IT is necessary to recall to our recollection, воок that Mr. Wilkes, by his contumacions contempt of the proceedings instituted against him in 1768. the courts at Westminster, suffered a sentence of outlawry to be passed upon him; and for several

BOOK years preceding this period he had resided in difXV ferent parts of the continent. But at the eve of 1768. the present election, he had the audacity to appear publicly at Guildhall, and offer himself as a candidate for the city of London.

On the first advancement of the duke of Grafton to the premiership, Mr. Wilkes had written to that nobleman in a strain sufficiently respectful, and even flattering, "congratulating his country on that event, and entreating his grace to mediate his pardon from the king; declaring, that he had never, in any moment of his life, swerved from the duty and allegiance he owed his sovereign; and professing in every thing to submit to his majesty's clemency. 'Your grace's noble manner of thinking,' says he, ' and the obligations I have formerly received, which are still fresh in my mind, will, I hope, give a full propriety to this address; and I am sure, a heart glowing with the sacred zeal of liberty must have a favorable reception from the duke of Grafton." This application was unfortunately treated with neglect and disdain; and Mr. Wilkes's hopes of pardon being extinguished, he resolved to make his enemies feel, if possible, the effects of his resentment. At the present crisis, the conduct of the court appeared wholly unaccountable. There was plainly no just medium discoverable between the opposite deter

XV.

1768.

minations of rigor or lenity. If the former were воок adopted, by putting into immediate execution the sentence of outlawry, his projects of revenge and ambition would have been easily and completely defeated. If, on the contrary, the wiser and more generous plan of lenity were preferred, a full and free pardon should have been granted; and with his persecution his influence and popularity would of course cease to exist. To halt between the two opinions, was an infallible proof of weakness and infirmity in the cabinet councils.

It is remarkable, that although this pseudopatriot was received by the populace with loud acclamations, and a great majority of hands appeared in his favor, he was on the poll contemptuously rejected. Far from being dispirited by this defeat, he immediately declared himself a candidate for Middlesex; and the electors for this county consisting chiefly of freeholders of the lowest class, he was returned by a decisive majo- Mr. Wilkes rity. Such was the exultation of the populace at for Middlethis event, that they paraded the streets of the metropolis, and compelled the inhabitants to illuminate their houses, as if some signal victory had been gained; and the chief magistrate Harley was openly and grossly insulted by a violent assault upon the mansion-house.

The ministry, who had remained unaccount

returned

sex.

XV.

BOOK ably passive at his first appearance, now seemed ☑ to awaken from their lethargy. Mr. Wilkes, 1768. having with much discretion surrendered him

committed

bench.

self to the jurisdiction of the king's bench, obtained a reversal of his outlawry: but the ver

dicts given against him on both trials were now Mr. Wilkes affirmed by lord Mansfield, and he was in conto the king's sequence condemned to suffer two years' im. prisonment; to pay a fine of one thousand pounds; and to find security for his good behaviour during the space of seven years. The severity of this sentence was rendered more odious by the extraordinary and unjustifiable methods taken to procure his conviction, and by the arbitrary and unprecedented alteration of the records, by direction of the judge, on the very night preceding the trial.

The multitude, enraged at this oppressive procedure, rescued by force Mr. Wilkes from the officers who were conducting him to prison, and carried him in triumph through the city; but through his earnest endeavours and entreaties, they were prevailed on to abstain from all further acts of outrage. At midnight, when the mob was dispersed, Mr. Wilkes again surrendered himself to the custody of the marshal of the king's bench, in meritorious obedience to the laws of his country. Many persons being accustomed to assemble before the gates of the prison, it was judged expedient to station BOOK a military guard in the vicinity for its security.

XV.

On the 10th of May, 1768, the new parlia- 1768. ment was convened, and vast multitudes were collected about the king's bench, and the fields adjacent, under the idea of seeing Mr. Wilkes go to the house of commons. Having waited a long time in vain, they began to grow insolent and clamorous; and the justices of the peace, who attended for the purpose, thought it necessary, after enduring much outrage and personal injury, to read the riot act; on which the people, highly exasperated, interrupted them with throwing showers of stones, and other missile weapons. The soldiers, irritated in their turn, and impatient of attack, were now ordered to fire, and more than twenty persons were killed or wounded at the first discharge. Several of the military, pursuing a supposed offender, shot most unfortunately in his stead one Allen, a youth who had taken no part whatever in the affray, dead, in a hovel or cow-house belonging to his father, in the very act of imploring mercy. This incident awakened the pity, as the conduct of the magistrates, however justifiable in their circumstances, excited the indignation of the public. It was said, with bold and injurious asseveration, that the justices caused the riot by reading the riot act; and the thanks returned