been granted; and with his perfecution his influence and popularity would of course ceafe to exist. To halt between the two opinions, was an infallible proof of weakness and infirmity in the cabinet counsels.

It is remarkable, that although this pfeudo-patriot was received by the populace with loud acclamations, and a great majority of hands appeared in his favor, he was on the poll contemptuoufly rejected. Far from being difpirited by this defeat, he immediately declared himself a candidate for Middlesex; and the electors for this county consisting chiefly of freeholders of the loweft clafs, he was returned by a decifive majority. Such was the exultation of the populace at this event, that they paraded the streets of the metropolis, and compelled the inhabitants to illuminate their houses, as if fome fignal victory had been gained; and the chief magiftrate Harley was openly and grofsly infulted by a violent affault upon the manfion house.

The ministry, who had remained unaccountably paffive at his first appearance, now feemed to awaken from their lethargy. Mr. Wilkes, haying with much difcretion furrendered himfelf to the jurifdiction of the king's bench, obtained a reverfal of his outlawry: but the verdicts given against him on both trials were now affirmed by lord Mansfield, and he was in confequence condemned to fuffer two years imprisonment; to pay a fine of one thoufand pounds; and to find fecurity for his good behaviour during the space of seven years. The severity of this fentence was rendered more odious by the extraordinary and unjuftifiable 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 oppreffive procedure, refcued by force Mr. Wilkes from the officers who were conducting him to prifon, and carried him in triumph through the city; but through his earnest endeavors and

entreaties

:

entreaties they were prevailed on to abftain from all further acts of outrage. At midnight, when the mob was dispersed, Mr. Wilkes again furrendered himself to the custody of the marshal of the king's bench, in meritorious obedience to the laws of his country. Many perfons being accustomed to affemble before the gates of the prifon, it was judged expedient to ftation a military guard in the vicinity for its fecurity.

On the 10th of May 1768, the new parliament was convened, and vaft multitudes were collected about the king's bench and the fields adjacent, under the idea of seeing Mr. Wilkes go to the house of common. Having waited a long time in vain, they began to grow infolent and clamorous; and the juftices of the peace, who attended for the purpose, thought it neceffary, after enduring much outrage and perfonal injury, to read the riot act : on which the people, highly exafperated, interrupted them with throwing fhowers of ftones and other miffile weapons. The foldiers, irritated in their turn, and impatient of attack, were now ordered to fire, and more than twenty perfons were killed or wounded at the first discharge. Several of the military, pursuing a fuppofed offender, fhot most unfortunately in his ftead one Allen, a youth who had taken no part whatever in the affray, dead, in a hovel or cowhoufe belonging to his father, in the very act of imploring mercy. This incident awakened the pity, as the conduct of the magiftrates, however justifiable in their circumftances, excited the indignation of the public. It was faid with bold and injurious affeveration, that the juftices caused the riot by reading the riot act; and the thanks returned in the king's name to the detachments employed in this odious fervice, who were all drafted from Scotch regiments, heightened and inflamed to an incredible pitch the paffions of the people.

After a very short feffion, and merely paffing one or two bills pro forma, the parliament was prorogued till Novem

ber,

ber, and the minifters had full leifure to confider what specific measures, after the multiplied errors of their predeceffors, prudence and moderation, words of hateful found within the verge of a court, now dictated as the rule of their future conduct. During the recefs, and while the fecret advisers of the court were yet perhaps fufpended in doubt, a trivial event turuned the scale in favor of that plan of mean and mischievous revenge which seemed most congenial to the genius and policy of the prefent reign. A letter from lord Weymouth, fecretary of state addressed to the chairman of the bench of juftices for the county of Surry, and expreffive of the highest approbation of the late proceedings of the magiftrates, fell into the hands of Mr. Wilkes, who immediately published it with a preface fufficiently daring and indignant. When the parliament met, lord Weymouth made a formal complaint of breach of privilege, and the house of commons with little hefitation refolved this prefatory introduction to be "an infolent, fcandalous, and feditious libel." And it being alfo urged that Mr. Wilkes was fentenced to a long imprifonment for former offences of a fimilar nature, and incapable of attending his duty in parliament, it was moved by lord Barrington, fecretary at War, that he be expelled the house. His lordship's motion was feconded by Mr. Rigby, paymaster of the forces, a man who under a fpecious veil of hilarity and urbanity concealed a difpofition fervile and corrupt, combined with a profligate contempt of the obligations of morality and even the appearances of decorum. The motion was carried by a great majority, but not without fevere animadverfion. It was intimated to be very extraordinary that fuch zeal should be displayed against the author of an obscene and impious libel, by him whofe life had been one continued scene of obfcenity and impiety. It was affirmed "that the libel with which Mr. Wilkes now ftood charged, did not come properly under the cognizance of the houfe. If the privileges of the peers were

violated,

violated, or their proceedings arraigned, they were compe→ tent to the vindication of their own honor. For the other libels he has been already expelled. Shall the house punish twice for the fame offence? In order to fatisfy the vengeance of the court, fhall we act in direct oppofition, not to the forms only, but to the very effence of the conftitution? Shall we blend the executive and judicial powers with the legiflative, and take upon ourselves the odium of trying and punishing in a fummary manner an offence cognizable by the laws in the ordinary courts of judicature? Will not this pretended zeal for the honor of religion, and the support of good order and government, be clearly difcerned to originate in a flavish complaifance to the mandates of the court? Diffimulation is a falfe garb, which fools put on, and think they wear the robe of wisdom. In the profecution of this defign, if the houfe fhould condefcend to become the paffive inftruments of ministerial oppreffion, nothing can enfue but humiliation, contempt, and disgrace."

It is notwithstanding fingular, that the apparently obvious and probable confequence of this expulfion does not seem to have occurred either to the minifters of the crown, or to the members in oppofition. But whatever might have been. previously expected, the fact is, that, a new writ being iffued, Mr. Wilkes was a fecond time returned with the greateft unanimity. The houfe now began to perceive the dilemma in which it had with fuch palpable indifcretion inyolved itself. By proceeding in this business, they muft incur the refentment, perhaps the deteftation, of the public; by receding, it were impoffible to efcape their contempt. Preferring what appeared to them the leaft of these two evils, they refolved, "that Mr. Wilkes, having been once expelled, was incapable of fitting in the fame parliament, and that the election was therefore void." The frecholders of Middlefex, equally determined with the houfe of commons, chofe him a third time their reprefentative, with the fame unanimity. The election was again declared void by the commons;

and

and in order to terminate a conteft in which the house appeared to fo little advantage, colonel Luttrell, a member of that affembly, had the courage voluntarily to vacate his feat in parliament, with a view to offer himself as a candidate for Middlesex; being previously affured that he fhould at all events, and whatever might be the disparity of numbers upon the poll, be the fitting member. At the fourth election Mr. Wilkes was again returned by the fheriffs; the votes in his favor being 1243 to 296: but, on a petition from colonel Luttrell, he was, after a vehement debate continued to a very late hour (March 3, 1769), declared DULY ELECT ED!

By this decifion the nation was thrown into a paroxyfm of rage and confternation, which the occafion certainly could not justify, and which only served to fhew how a comparatively trivial queftion may be magnified into artificial im `portance, by making it the object of political and perfonal contention. It could not be denied that the house of com'mons had ever exercised a judicial authority, which could in no other hands be fo properly placed, in determining upon the validity of returns, and the qualifications of their own members. This authority might undoubtedly be abused or indifcreetly exercised, but all power is in its own nature liable to abufe; and if so vague an objection be admitted, the powers vefted in all political bodies, however conftituted, must be annihilated, and the bands of civil fociety are at once diffolved. The power of expulfion for fuch offences as appear to the houfe to render any of its members unworthy of the truft repofed in them, had been exercised in numerous inftances from time immemorial; and though no cafe precifely fimilar to the prefent in all its circumftances could be adduced, the house of commons now exifting had certainly as valid a right to make a precedent in a new cafe within the limits of their own peculiar jurifdiction as any former houfe of commons, or as the courts fitting in Westminster Hall-And had the expulfion of Mr. Wilkes been itfelf a popular mea

fure,