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to know when the King would be pleased to receive the petition of the livery, agreeable to the form here pointed out; when they were informed that His Majesty would receive no petition from the city of London on the throne, except in its corporate capacity; but that he was willing to receive it at the levee, in the ordinary manner of accepting addresses.

A common-hall was now called on the first of April, when the lord mayor laid before the livery the report of the sheriffs, stating the answer given to them by the Duke of Portland when they attended at the levee but the livery thought proper to resolve, that the sheriffs of London had an acknowledged right to an audience of the King, and were in duty bound to demand the same; directing the sheriffs, attended by the remembrancer, to demand a personal audience of the King, to know when he would be pleased to receive, upon the throne, the address and petition.

In pursuance of this resolution, Sheriffs Staines and Langstone proceeded on the fifth of April to St. James's, to have a personal interview with His Majesty, to which they were admitted; and, on being introduced, explained to His Majesty the conceived right or privilege of the citizens of London, in livery, to present their addresses to the throne, informing him at the same time, that in the present instance they could not deliver their petition in any other manner

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The King, in his reply, plainly stated that he should always be ready to receive their addresses or petitions at the levee; but that he could not receive any petitions from the city of London upon the throne, except in its corporate capacity—that is, of mayor, aldermen, and common-council only; with which answer the sheriffs and remembrancer returned to the lord mayor, who called another common-hall on the twelfth, in which the report was read, with the additional circumstance, that the sheriffs had been informed officially, that the answer first given by the Duke of Portland was by His Majesty's own desire.

Two resolutions were now put and carried, declaratory of the assumed privilege; but the partisans of the measure went rather too far in proposing a third resolution, which the lord mayor declared he could not, consistently with his duty to preserve inviolate the rights of the livery, admit to be put for as the business of the day upon which the livery were met was specified in the summons issued to call them together, so it was his duty to take care that no other business should be discussed.

This was loudly resented by the demagogues; but after considerable altercation, the lord mayor ordered the insignia of office to be taken up, and the hall was, of course, dissolved: yet the reformers did not separate before a vote of censure was proposed by a leading member of the common-council, and of

course carried by acclamation, against the lord mayor, for what the proposer thought proper to call "an unprecedented attack on the deliberate rights of the livery of London, in common-hall. assembled."

A new requisition was next presented to the lord mayor (Brook Watson), on the twenty-second of the month, requiring him to call a common-hall within eight days, for the purpose of again taking into consideration the sheriffs' report," to investigate the real causes of the awful and alarming state of public affairs; and to adopt such measures as may be expedient in the present conjuncture;" to which his lordship replied, on the twenty-fifth, stating his willingness to call a hall for the purpose of taking into consideration the sheriffs' report; but at the same time declaring, that he felt it incompatible with his duty to assemble the livery for the other purposes expressed in the requisition, considering the investigation of the real causes of the state of public affairs as a proposition too extensive and unqualified to admit of discussion in an assembly confessedly not deliberative.

But the business did not drop here; for, on the third of May, another requisition was sent to the lord mayor to take into consideration the sheriffs' report; also" the grievances brought on by a corrupt system of undue influence, and the incapacity of His Majesty's ministers ;" and to submit several

resolutions, expressive of the sentiments of the livery, contained in the former petition, with a motion that the city representatives should be instructed to move an address to the King, "praying him to dismiss from his presence and councils his present weak and wicked ministers, as the most likely means of obtaining a speedy and permanent peace.

To this most absurd and preposterous requisition, the lord mayor returned for answer, that he would call a common-hall for all the above-mentioned purposes, except the report, which was accordingly held on the eleventh of May, when several strong resolutions to the same purport were carried by a packed and crowded hall; and the lord mayor had the singular pleasure of signing a vote of censure on himself, for dissolving the former court, and for convening the existing court for purposes short of those mentioned in the requisition, by which, said the resolution, he has violated the rights of the livery, has suffered his political attachments to warp his official conduct, and proved himself to be utterly undeserving of the confidence of his constituents."

This was certainly strong language; but the Wilkes of that day, like his predecessor, well knew that an appeal to the passions would surpersede the use of reason.

The nuptials of the Princess Royal with the Prince of Wirtemberg, on the eighteenth of May,

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