The Major had likewise a written order, to take down the names of all persons who applied for admittance to Mr Wilkes. On the morning of Tuefday May, 3, Mr. Wilkes was brought to the bar of the court of Common Pleas, Westminster, where he made the following fpeech. I FEEL myself happy to be at last brought before a court, and before judges, whofe cha⚫racteristic is the love of liberty. I have many humble thanks to return for the immediate order you were pleased to iffue, to give me an opportunity of laying my grievances before you. They are of a kind hitherto unparaleled in this free country, and I truft the confequences will teach minifters of Scottish and arbitrary principles that the liberty of an English subject is not to be fported away with impunity, in this cruel and delpotic manner. I am accufed of being the author of the North Briton, No. 45. I fhall only remark upon that < paper that it takes all load of accufation from the facred name of a prince, whofe family I love and honour as the glorious defenders of the cause of liberty, and whofe perfonal qualities are fo amiable, great, and refpectable, that he is defervedly the idol of his people. It is the peculiar fashion and crime of thefe times, and of thofe who hold high minifterial offices in government, to throw every odious charge from themfelves upon majefty. The author of this paper, whoever he may be, has, upon conftitutional principles, done directly the reverfe, and is therefore in me the fuppofed author, meant to be perfecuted accordingly. The particular cruelties of my treatment, worfe than if I had been a fcottish rebel, this court will hear, and I dare fay, from your juftice in due time retrof . < I D I may perhaps ftill have the means left me to 'fhew that I have been fuperior to every temptation of corruption. They may indeed have flattered themselves, that when they found corruption could not prevail, perfecution might intimidate. I will fhew myself fuperior to both. My papers have been feized, perhaps with a hope the • better to deprive me of that proof of their mean'ness, and corrupt prodigality, which it may pof'fibly, in a proper place, be yet in my power to give.' He then pleaded by his council, Mr. Serjeant Glynn, for his discharge, alledging that his commitment was not valid. The debate lafted from eleven o'clock till a quarter past two; when after feveral learned arguments on both fides, he was remanded back to the Tower; and his friends had, for the first time, the opportunity of access to him. At his departure from the hall, the acclamations of the people were, Liberty! Liberty! Wilkes for ever, and no excife! The court then adjourned to Friday the 6th of May, at which time he was ordered to be brought up again, that the affair might be finally determined. His friends now had the liberty of vifiting him; and perhaps no prifoner in the Tower of London ever before, was attended by fuch an illuftrious train of visitors. During this refpite his majesty was pleased to iffue orders to lord Egremont, to remove him from his post of colonel in the militia of the county of Buckingham, which was fignified to him in the following letter. A Copy of a letter from the Earl of Egremont to the Earl Temple. My Lord, THE king having judged it improper, that John Wilkes, efq; fhould any longer continue to be colonel of the militia for the county of Buckingham, I am commanded to fignify his majefty's pleasure to your lordship, that you do forthwith give the neceffary orders for difplacing Mr. Wilkes, as an officer in the militia for the faid county of Buckingham. Whitehall, I am with respect, May, 4, 1763. Your fordships moft obedient humble fervant, EGREMONT. Letter from the earl Temple to John Wilkes, efq; SIR, AT my return laft night from the Tower, I received the enclosed letter from the Earl of Egremont: in confequence of his majefty's commands therein fignified, you will pleafe to obferve, that you no longer continue colonel of the militia for the county of Buckingham. I cannot, at the fame time, help expreffing the concern I feel in the lofs of an officer, by his deportment in command, endeared to the whole corps. I am, Sir Copy of a letter from John Wilkes, efq; to the Earl Temple. My Lord, I HAVE this moment the honour of your lordship's letter, fignifying his majefty's commands that I should no longer continue colonel of the militia for the county of Buckingham. I have only to return your lordship my warmeft thanks for the spirit and zeal you have fhewn in the fupport of that conftitutional measure from the very beginning. Your lordship will please to remember, that I was amongst the foremost who offered their fervices to their country at that crifis. Buckinghamshire is fenfible, and has always acknowledged, that no man but your lordship could have given fuccefs to that measure in our inland county. I am proud of the teftimony your lordship is pleased to give me, and am happy, in these days of peace, to leave fo amiable a corps in that perfect harmony, which has from the beginning fubfifted. I have the honour to be, Tower, May 5, 1763. Your lordship's most obedient, To the Earl Temple JOHN WILKES. ANGLIE JURA in omni cafu LIBERTATI dant Favorem. Impius et Crudelis judicandus eft qui LIBERTATI Non Coke Littleton. favet. On Friday the 6th of May, Mr. Wilkes was brought up from the Tower to the court of common pleas pleas, where as foon as the court was seated) he made the following speech: My Lords, FAR be it from me to regret that I have pass⚫ed fo many more days in captivity, as it will have afforded you an opportunity of doing upon mature reflection, and repeated examination, the more fignal justice to my country. The liberty of all peers and gentlemen, and what touches me more fenfibly, that of all the middling and inferior fet of people, who ftand most in need of protection, is in my cafe this day to be finally decided upon: a queftion of fuch importance as to ⚫ determine at once, whether English liberty be a reality or a fhadow. Your own freeborn hearts ⚫ will feel with indignation and compaffion all that load of oppreffion under which I have fo long ⚫ laboured. Clofe imprisonment, the effect of premeditated malice; all accefs for more than two days denied to me; my house ranfacked and plundered; my most private and secret concerns divulged; every vile and malignant infinuation even of high treafon itself, no less industriously, than falfely circulated, by my cruel and implaca'ble enemies, together with all the various infolence of office, form but a part of my unexampled ill treatment. Such inhuman principles of itar chamber tyranny, will, I truft, by this court, upon this folemn occafion, be finally extirpated, ⚫ and henceforth every innocent man, however poor • and unfupported, may hope to fleep in peace and fecurity in his own houfe,unviolated by king's mesfengers, and the arbitrary mandates of an overbearing fecretary of state. 'I will no longer delay your justice. The nation is impatient to hear, nor can be fafe or happy till 'that is obtained. If the fame perfecution is after all to carry me before another court, I hope I fhall |