the duke of Newcastle. To impartial investigation, however, it appears evident that lord Bute merely preferred himself, as a minister, to the duke of Newcastle: if we examine his particular nominations, we shall find that he neither exalted the friends of liberty nor despotism, but his own friends. It would probably have been better for this country had lord Bute never been minister; but all the evils that may be traced to that period, did not necessarily proceed from his measures, as many of them flowed from circumstances over which he had no control. Candour must allow that the comprehensive principle on which his majesty resolved to govern, was liberal and meritorious, though patriotism may regret that he was not more fortunate in his first choice. The administration of lord Bute teaches an instructive lesson, that no man can be long an effectual minister of this country, who will not occasionally attend, not only to the well-founded judgment, but also to the prejudices, of Englishmen. CHAP. IV. 1763. Mr. Gren CHAP. IV. George Grenville prime minister.-Violent writings.-North Briton-Joha Wilkes his character-Proceedings against him.-Outery against ministers. Wilkes engrosses the chief attention of the public.-Meeting of parliament.— Animadversions on Mr. Wilkes-be is expelled the commons-in the lords charged by the earl of Sandwich with an impious and immoral libel-withdraws into France to avoid prosecution-is outlawed.-His cause continues popular.-Prejudices against Scotchmen.-Churchill's satires.-Question on the legality of general warrants.-Waved by a ministerial majority.-Mr.' Grenville's character and schemes of finance.-His measures for the suppression of smuggling-he intimates a project of taxing America.-Marriage of the prince of Brunswick to the princess Augusta of England.-Prince Frederick, the king's second son, appointed bishop of Osnaburg.-Session rises.-Affairs of Europe.-France experiences the effects of her impolitic wars.-Pecuniary embarrassments and refractory parliaments.-Beginning spirit of liberty.→→ Austria.-Prussia.-Catharine of Russia.-Election of the king of Poland. Joseph, heir of Austria, chosen king of the Romans. American colonies.-Ef fect of the minister's intimation in the colonies.-Meeting of parliament.-The minister's plan for levying stamp duties on America-important debates în parTiament thereon-opposed on two grounds, right and expediency-represented as a dangerous innovation against beneficial experience-passed into a law.→→→ Stamp act, an important epoch in history.-Ferment in the colonies.—Massachusetts Bay takes the lead in opposition, and instigates concerted resistance.→→ Annexation of the Isle of Man to the crown of Great Britain-Indisposition of the king-Bill for a regency in case of a minority.-Ministers lose the favour of the court-are dismissed from administration. ON the resignation of lord Bute, the honourable George Grenville, brother of earl Temple, became prime minister; lords Egremont and Halifax continued secretaries of state; and the earl of Sandwich was appointed first lord of the admiralty in As the present ministers were all ville prime the room of Mr. Grenville. minister. intimately connected with lord Bute, it was believed that his influence continued to predominate, and that his maxims were still adopted. Party rage increased in virulence, and the press teemed with invective. During the administration of lord Bute,. government had appeared totally indifferent to these attacks; but an essay published a few days after his retirement, changed its plan. One of the most abusive assailants of the late minister had been the North Briton, which was begun in the preceding year, and being continued periodically, had, at the resignation of lord Bute, sent forty-four numbers into the world; and to this work, the celebrated Mr. Wilkes was an occasional contributor. John Wilkes. John Wilkes, esq. member for Aylesbury, was a man of ready ingenuity, versatile talents, taste, and classical erudition; he IV. 1763. was distinguished for wit and pleasantry, and surpassed most CHAP. men as an entertaining and engaging companion. He was not, however, eminent as a senator or a lawgiver; he was extremely dissipated; as indifferent to religion as to morals, and to his pecuniary circumstances as to either. Prodigality had ruined his fortune, and profligacy his character. Bankrupt in circumstances and reputation, he had applied to lord Bute to extricate him from his difficulties. His character was so notorious, that a statesman who regarded religion and morality could not patronize him, though he might have easily rendered him a tool. Wilkes in revenge, became a flaming patriot, inveighed against the attacks upon our rights and liberties, and against the unprincipled wickedness of the rulers; and the North Briton was The North one of the chief vehicles of his animadversions. The observa- Briton. tions and arguments in this work were merely declamatory invectives, and the echoes of vulgar prejudices, which nothing but popular prepossession could have preserved from contempt. That abuse which preceding North Britons had poured out against lord Bute and Scotchmen, No. 45. had the audacity to direct with increased scurrility against the sovereign. The matter was false and absurd; the language used by a subject to a sovereign, was totally unworthy of the pen of a gentleman: the wickedness of the intention, and insolence of the address, deserved detestation; but the frothy feebleness of the execution ought to have overwhelmed that sentiment in contemptuous neglect. The course which ministry pursued, gave a consequence both to the paper and its author which the intrinsic merit of either would never have attained. On the 23d of No. 45. April 1763, this number was published, and it was no sooner perused by ministry, than a council was called, and an immediate prosecution proposed. The chief justice Mansfield declared his disapprobation of that mode of procedure: "I am, "(he said) decidedly against the prosecution: his consequence "will die away if you let him alone; but by public notice of him, you will increase that consequence; which is the very "thing he covets, and keeps in full view." The contrary opinion, however, prevailed; and on the 26th, a warrant was issued for seizing the authors, printers, and publishers of the North Briton, No. 45. By the law, a general warrant to apprehend all Wilkes is persons suspected, without specially naming or describing any apprehendperson, was illegal, and, to use Blackstone's words, "void for its ed; 66 uncertainty; for it is the duty of the MAGISTRATE, and ought 46 not to be left to the officer, to judge of the ground of suspi"cion." But this mode of procedure, though it was inconsis y The character of Mr. Wilkes is accurately, justly, and severely drawn, in a celebrated publication of those times, entitled, the Adventures of a Guinea, vol, iv. z Blackstone's Commentaries, book iv p. 291. Judge Blackstone, in a note upon this place, explains how such a proceeding, though actually illegal, came to be reckoned justifiable, "A practice had obtained (he says) in the secretary's IV. 1763. and his papers are seized. CHAP. tent with written law, had all the sanctions which it could derive from precedent. It had been used ever since the revolution, and by the successive whig administrations from that time, had never before been called arbitrary, and indeed was nothing but an irregularity. Mr. Wilkes refused to comply with the warrant, but was at last compelled to accompany the messengers to the secretary of state's office; he was committed to the Tower, HIS PAPERS WERE SEIZED, and admission to him was strictly prohibited, until a motion was made in the court of common pleas for a writ of habeas-corpus; by virtue of which, on the 3d of May, he was brought into Westminster-hall. That they might have time to form an opinion upon so important a case, the judges deferred decision till the 6th, on which day the lord chief justice Pratt delivered an opinion that did not, as is commonly alleged, declare general warrants to be illegal, but the warrant in question to be void, on a specific ground, the privilege of parliament. Members of the legislature are exempted from arrest, except in three cases, treason, felony, and breach of the peace; and as neither of these applied to the charge against Mr. Wilkes, he was released by the court. This liberation, on account of parliamentary privilege, was by the popular party construed to be a victory gained by an oppressed individual over an arbitrary government, wishing to crush constitutional liberty. The day before his release, in consequence of an order from the secretary of state to earl Temple, lord-lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, he was discharged from the command of the militia of the county; and the attorney-general was directed to commence a prosecution against him for a libel. Mr. Wilkes not only refused to answer the information which He is dis charged from confinement, office, ever since the restoration, grounded on some clauses in the acts for regulating the press, of issuing general warrants to take up (without naming any person in particular) the authors, printers, and publishers of such obscene and seditious libels as were particularly specified in the warrant. When those acts expired in 1694, the same practice was inadvertently continued in every reign, and under every administration (except the last four years of queen Anne), down to the year 1763: when, such a warrant being issued to apprehend the authors, printers, and publishers, of a certain seditions libel, its validity was disputed ; and the warrant was adjudged by the whole court of king's bench to be void, in the case of Money, v. Leach." a Lord Temple having supported Mr. Wilkes in combatting the prosecutions carried on at the instance of ministers, his lordship also, in officially announcing the dismissal of Mr. Wilkes from the militia, expressed regret for the loss sustained by the county from this resolution. The conduct of lord Temple was so disagree. able to his majesty's counsellors, including his lordship's own brother Mr. Grenville, that he was discharged from the lord-lieutenancy of Buckinghamshire. His lordship continued to support Wilkes; but it was evidently on account of his political prosecution, and not from an approbation of his private conduct and character. See History of the Minority; Universal and Gentleman's Magazines før 1763. IV. 1763. thusiasm in the law officer filed, but on the other hand brought an action CHAP. against Mr. Wood, under secretary of state, for seizing his papers, and procured a verdict, with a thousand pounds damages, and full costs of suit. He also commenced a process against lord Halifax, which, however, subsequent occurrences abated. The proceedings relative to Mr. Wilkes during the year popular en1763, occupied the principal attention of the whole nation. his favour. The popular party represented him as the champion of liberty, and the object of persecution on account of his patriotism. Anti-ministerial writers directed their efforts almost exclusively to the praises of Wilkes, and the abuse of his prosecutors. Every publication, of which he was the subject, was read with astonishing avidity. Not the populace merely, but men of real talents, and virtue, though they detested his profligacy, considering the freedom of Englishmen as violated in his person, associated the idea of WILKES AND LIBERTY. Wilkes was not slow in availing himself of the popular opinion in his favour. He set up a printing press, and published the proceedings against him at one guinea a copy; by the extraordinary sale of which, he procured a degree of affluence to which he had been long unaccustomed, and a degree of importance which he could never otherwise have established. Finally, he expressed his resolution of making the proceedings against him a subject of formal complaint in parliament. The ministers who now conducted public affairs were want, State of the ing, if not in talents, at least in influence and estimation. Their ministry. supposed dependence prevented both respect and popularity; and the proceedings against Mr. Wilkes, which were presumed to originate with lord Bute, rendered his conceived tools hateful as a body, however meritorious some of the members were individually accounted. George Grenville, a man of sound understanding, with a resolute heart, and fair and unimpeached integrity, had been, during the greater part of his public life, the friend and partisan of his brother-in-law Mr. Pitt; and, though deserving of respect and influence on his own account, had been indebted for actual consideration to his connexion with that illustrious character. His personal importance was by no means sufficient to give strength and stability to a political party, especially to an administration having such formidable opponents. Of his colleagues in office, lord Egremont, by his abili ties, experience, and reputation, possessed the greatest weight. Of this statesman's assistance, he, on the 21st of August, was deprived by death; and the cabinet was now reckoned extremely feeble and inefficient. The object of the king uniformly was, to employ political Overtures ability and virtue in the government of the nation, without to Mr. Pitt. regard to party. The first statesman of the kingdom had withdrawn from the cabinet; and to recall his most efficacious talents into the executive service of his country, was the benignant wish of our sovereign. He accordingly made application VOL. I. 27 |