not timidity, occasioned. His cir- There is no order in our law-books 'that mentions these kinds of warrants, but several that in express words condemn them. Upon the maturest consideration, 1 am bold to say, that this warrant is illegal; but I am far from wishing a matter of this consequence to rest solely on my opinion; I am only one of twelve, whose opinions I am desirous should be taken in this matter; and I am very willing to allow myself to be the meanest of the twelve. There is also a still higher court, before ment to his room, and the impossi-which this matter may be canbility, from his state of health, of vassed, and whose determination his venturing to undertake the jour-is final; and here I cannot help 6 ney back to England. Unsatis observing the happiness of our "On the 11th of March the public were awakened by the following address: To the liverymen of the city of London. ⚫tion. myself to your service, and to dis the various and important duties I am, with the utmost respect, ⚫ obedient humble servant, JOHN WILKES. < March 10, 1768.' tion. The approbation you have your approbation; the most pre been pleased on several occasionscious reward to which I aspire. to express of my conduct, induces If I am honoured with so near a me to hope that the address I have • relation to you, it will be my amnow the honour of making to you,bition to be useful, to dedicate ⚫ will not be unfavourably received. The chief merit with you, gentle-charge with spirit and assiduity, men, I know to be a sacred love of liberty, and of those generous principles, which at first gave, and have since secured to this nation the great charter of freedom. I will yield to none of my countrymen in this noble zeal, which has always characterised Englishmen. I may appeal to my whole conduct, both in and out of parliament, for the demonstration that such principles are deeply rooted in my heart, and that I have steadily pursued the interests of my country, without regard to the powerful enemies I created, or the manifest dangers in which I must thence be necessarily involved; and that I have fulfilled the duties of a good subject. The two important questions of public liberty, respecting general warFrants and the seizure of papers, may perhaps place me among those who have deserved well of mankind, by an undaunted firmness, perseverance, and probity; these are the virtues which your ⚫ ancestors never failed to exert in the same national cause of liberty, and the world will see renewed in their descendants on every great ⚫ call of freedom and our country. The nature and dignity of the trust, gentlemen, which I now solicit, strike me very forcibly. I feel the warmest zeal for your interests, and affection for your service. I am conscious how unequal my abilities are, yet fidelity and integrity shall in some measure compensate that deficiency, and I will endeavour through life to merit the continuance of "Nothing could well be more adventurous than this declaration. Broken in fortune, outlawed, two convictions upon record against him, should that outlawry be reversed, the throne and its ministers arrayed in opposition to him, unsupported as heretofore by connexion with the great, with nothing on his side but the favour of the multitude-relying upon that favour, and animated with an undaunted spirit of energy, he took his stand, and dared his antagonists to remove him. This stand was not made unadvisedly. His letter of submission to the king was written on the 4th of March, his address to the liverymen of London on the 10th of the same month. It was probably intended as prelusive to the course upon which he had de termined. It was not the mere populace only that supported him. He was looked up to by the middle ranks of society as a martyr for their rights. The fate of the letter in no way could have been other than of advantage to him. If received with benignity, and his pardon granted, from many of his difficulties he would have instantly been relieved. Couched in terms peo of humility to the sovereign, yet as it still arraigned the former servants of the crown, he perhaps scarcely expected it would be treated otherwise than it was. If unnoticed, or rejected, as the enmity borne towards his person and his cause would be more apparent, his claim upon the affection of the ple would of course be strengthened. His outlawry was, he know, no bar to his, return to parliament. Precedents of outlaws sitting as representatives existed, at once precise and numerous. The love of the people was his; to that he trusted, and through that he triumphed. He threw himself into their embrace, and it at length bore him safely to shore armis præceps saltu sese omnibus In fluvium dedit: ille suo cum gurgite flavo Accepit venientem, ac mollibus extulit ulnis.' "The election for the city of London took place on the 16th. Six candidates started along with him; and though finally the lowest in number on the poll, he yet had a respectable minority of votes. Baffled in the city, he declared himself a candidate for the county. The sympathy of popular opinion in the interval spread from man to man. The beacon on one hill was answered by the flame kindled on the next. They were friendly signals, that the country was in arms for his defence. He carried his election for Middlesex on Monday the 28th, against two gentlemen of large property and hereditary interest, and carried it by a great majority. The whole poll was conducted with the greatest regularity and order, nor was the least violence offered to the voters of either party. "Mr. Wilkes, on the 22d, a week 1804. 6 previous to the day of election for Middlesex, wrote to the solicitor of the treasury, intimating his intention, in the ensuing term, to appear personally in the court of king's bench. Mr. Wilkes fulfilled his engagement, and no sooner had finished the address in which he surrendered himself up to the discretion of the court, than the attorney general moved for his instant commitment upon the outlawry. Mr. attorney general (Thurlow) was replied to by Mr. serjeant Glynn and other counsel, who moved, on their part, for a writ of error: it had before been demanded of the law-officers of the crown, and had been refused. Lord Mansfield and the rest of the judges concurred in opinion that luntary appearance. they could not commit upon a voThe attor ney general could not with the least appearance of reason or law move for the commitment of a person who was not legally before them; nor had the counsel for the defendant any better plea for their motion in favour of a man who appeared in court gratis.' Both parties were dismissed. On the 27th, at noon, Mr. Wilkes was served with a writ of capias ullagatum, and in about a week after, writs of error were allowed. Bail, offered on behalf of Mr. W. was rejected by the attorney general, and he was consequently ordered to the king's bench prison. The uproar of the multitude during these events, and the armed preparation and military precaution of the ministry, are well known. Mr. W.'s letter of thanks to the electors of Middlesex on his being chosen their representative, was written to them from prison, on the 5th of May. The argument upon the outlawry was heard upon the 7th of the same month. 1 month, and on the 9th of June, in the following term, it was finally reversed. "The outlawry reversed, objections were next taken to the verdicts found against him. Amongst others, one was vehemently urged on the ground of the informations having been altered by lord Mansfield, without the consent of the solicitor of the defendant, the evening previous to the trial. The word tenor was substituted for purport. That it was altered without the consent of the defendant's agent is true; but in none but a political cause would a practitioner of experience have withheld his consent. "The objections were over-ruled; and he was sentenced, for re-printing and publishing the North Briton, No. 45, to pay a fine of 5001. and (having already been imprisoned two) to a confinement of ten months longer. For publishing the Essay on Woman his sentence was to pay a second fine of 5001. and to be imprisoned for another twelvemonth. He was at the expiration of these terms to find securities for his future conduct during seven years, himself under a penalty of 10007. his sureties in 5001. each. This judgment was far milder than had been expected by the public and it is said indeed that Mr. Wilkes might, had he chosen so to do, have certainly made, at this period, his peace with government. A negotiation was opened with him upon the subject, with the knowledge of the duke of Grafton (the prime minister), and one condition only was proposed to him, in which he refused to concur. Mr. Wilkes declared, on the 3d of November, to the freeholders of Middlesex, that he should shortly present to the house of commons a petition relative to his case, upon which he should demand their de cision. This, administration foresaw, would necessarily involve in its discussion all the transactions of the late parliament. The condition therefore proposed, upon which he was to take his seat unimpeded, was, that this petition should not be presented. A pledge, however, he conceived had been given to the contrary, and from this public pledge he resolved not to withdraw. The petition was laid before the house on the following day by sir J. Mawbey. It was received as the declaration of a second war. "On the 10th of May the populace had assembled in great numbers about the neighbourhood of the king's bench prison, where Mr. Wilkes was in confinement. The riot-act was read by the justices of Surrey, and the mob not dispersing, the military was imprudently ordered to fire: several persons were slightly wounded, some more sericusly, and one was killed on the spot. Lord Weymouth, the secretary of state, had written to the magistrates a letter dated April 17, exhorting them to firmness in the suppression of any popular tumult which might arise: and lord Barrington, the secretary at war, returned written thanks after the fatal 10th of May, in the name of his majesty, to the officers and soldiers of that regiment of guards which had been employed upon the occasion. These two letters were transmitted to the newspapers by Mr. Wilkes, accompanied with some prefatory remarks, in which he termed the unhappy transaction a massacre. Of these remarks he avowed himself, at the bar of the house of commons, to be the author. The remarks were voted libellous, and he, as the author of them, them, was expelled. If the people were irritated before, they were still more irritated now. If Mr. Wilkes was dear to them before, he was now endeared to them tenfold. If before the voice of the county of Middlesex was favourable to him, it was now wholly his own: it uttered no sound but that of his name, unless it was the cry Liberty,' which, echoed far and wide, was considered as almost synonymous with Wilkes.' He was rechosen on the 16th of February, without opposition. On the following day he was declared by a majority of the house of commons incapable of being elected into that parliament, and the election was vacated. This was assuming at once that the expulsion of a member of parliament was equivalent to exclusion; and that a single branch of the legislature could control by its fiat the choice of electors, however explicitly declared. But it rested not here. On the 17th of February, the day after his re-election, Mr. Wilkes was again expelled, the house resolving that he was incapable of being elected into that parliament. Notwithstanding this resolution, he was a third time elected, again without opposition; a Mr. Dingley indeed offering himself as a candidate, but not obtaining a single freeholder even to nominate him. That election was also, on the next day, declared void. On the 13th of April Mr. Wilkes was, a fourth time, elected by a majority of 1143 votes, against Mr. Luttrell, who had only 296. The same day the house of commons resolved that Mr. Luttrell ought to have been returned.' On the 29th of April a petition was presented by sir George Saville, from the freeholders of Middlesex, declaring that their intention was 1 not, in voting for Mr. Wilkes, to throw away those votes, or waive their right of representation, and praying therefore against the return of Mr. Luttrell. Notwith standing which it was finally determined, on the 8th of May, that Mr. Luttrell was duly elected.' Mr. Wilkes's contests, like the battles of Homer, arose one above the other in progressive majesty. Not within the walls of the legislative assemblies only was it fought, but without also; in the wider plains of literature, of general intellect, and general feeling. In this, his fiercest and most important fight, the immortals descended into the war. The gravity of Johnson, biassed by its favourite political prepossessions, brought forward to the aid of power its impressive weight. The sage Blackstone, with his book of wisdom, the characters of which were attempted to be read against him, supported also the cause of ministers. Burke, more subtle, if less vehement than in latter days, broke his lance in defence of popular right; Burke, supporting as utility seemed to him to require, the people or the throne; and turning, like the poet's feigned Almanin favour of the weaker side, the scale of fortune. Above all, the fiery and the rapid Junius, in dazzling armour, but his beaver down, coursed along the lists, scattering lightnings round him. Nor were the thunders rolled in the senate less awful than the eloquence. of the press. Lord Chatham, how much soever he had once personally condemned Mr. Wilkes, was now, with the fulness of his great soul, of his party; for his party was that of the constitution. He quoted lord Somers and lord Holt; he zor, called them honest men, who 'knew and loved the English conB2 stitution. |