and disappointment preyed upon his nervous system, which, though in early life naturally strong, was now become weak by age and infirmity. He was agitated by conflicting passions; with a mind occa sionally vigorous, but often depressed; his body tortured by pain, and impaired by infirmity; he at length fell into a paroxysm of the gout at Bath, which seemed to threaten his existence.

In this critical. conjuncture of affairs, the ministry was still further weakened by the death of Mr. C. Townsend, which took place September 4th, in consequence of a putrid fever. Every effort to form a new administration having proved abortive, the office of chancellor of the exchequer was offered to several gentlemen who refused to accept it. After three weeks' solicitation, it was at last accepted by lord North, and a general revolution now commenced in the cabinet. Lord Weymouth was made secretary of state, and lord Gower president of the council. Lord Hillsborough was created secretary of state for America! an office hitherto unknown.

Such was the state of public affairs at the close of the first parliament of George III. It probably could boast a greater portion of talent than any previous parliament since the Revolution, and yet was attended with less ultimate advantage to the empire. Though the outset of his majesty's reign was crowned with a favourable peace; though the whig interest prevailed, and the great leading families of the nation had no small share of influence in public affairs; though cabinets were formed, comprehending and apparently reconciling discordant interests, in which talents that the world has seldom seen surpassed were called into action; yet, from some fatal propensity to disunion, all the first seven years of this reign present one lamentable scene of instability. Every act of the legislative body seemed

VOL. I.

F

a contradiction to the preceding! General warrants were first sanctioned, and then by a subsequent statute they were condemned. The affairs relating to America were still more inconsistently conducted. By a palpable but deliberate impolicy, the legisla ture first exerted a prerogative in taxation, which reason and expediency proved to be unfounded; and when it was found necessary to retract it, this was not done in a manner at all calculated to quiet the alarms of the colonists; for the tax, disguising itself like a Proteus, appeared under another shape, but calculated still more to insult the understandings of its victims. In the sequel we shall find the evils consummated, of which the foundations were unhappily laid in a few statutes of this parliament 2.

2 Annals of the Reign of George III. Stedman's History of the American War. Dodsley's Annual Register. Parliamentary Debates, and London Gazette. Anecdotes of the Life of Chatham. Thackery's Life of Pitt.

CHAP. III.

Dissolution of Parliament, and Election of a new one....Return of Mr. John Wilkes to England....Is chosen Member for Middlesex.... Violence of popular Favour in his behalf.... Reduction of Corsica by the French.... Discontents in England at this Event....Lord Chatham withdraws from Office.... Speech of the King at the opening of Parliament....Proceedings of the discontented Party in America....Domestic Occurrences.... Proceedings in Parliament. ... Coalition of the Grenville and Rockingham Parties against the ministerial Measures towards America....Mr. Wilkes brought before Parliament....Is expelled on a Complaint of Privilege....Meeting of the Middlesex Electors in consequence of his Expulsion.... Mr. Wilkes is reelected for Middlesex....His Reelection annulled by Parliament.... Affairs in India....Petitions respecting the Middlesex Election....Proceedings in Parliament....Letters of Junius....Dispute with Spain respecting the Falkland Islands....Partial Change of Ministers....Detection of corrupt Proceedings in the Borough of New Shoreham....Dispute between the Commons and the City of London, respecting the Arrest of two Printers....Petition of the City to the Throne. ...Attempt to relieve the Dissenters unsuccessful....Death of the Princess-Dowager.

1768.

THE introduction of lord North into the cabinet, and his lordship's acceptance of the seals of office, as chancellor of the exchequer, constitute an important epoch in the history of England.

On the 10th March a dissolution of parliament took place, and the country was kept in a state of considerable agitation for some time by the election of a new one. The spirit of party ran high, and produced disorder and tumult in several places. Mr. Wilkes, who had nearly sunk into oblivion, in consequence of his residence on the continent, had the presumption to return home on the dissolution of parliament, and to offer himself as a candidate for

representing the city of London. Failing, however, in this instance, he immediately offered himself for the county of Middlesex; and such was his popularity that he was returned by a large majority. After his election, he surrendered himself before the court of King's Bench; but that court refused to commit on his outlawry, and he was consequently discharged. Proceedings of a different nature were now instituted against him: he was apprehended on a writ of capias ut legatum; but as the officers were conveying him to the King's Bench prison, he was rescued by the mob, and set at liberty. He thought proper to go and surrender himself to the keeper of the prison, and he remained in confinement at the meeting of the new parliament, which was assembled on the 10th May. The mob now determined to convey him in triumph to parliament; and to carry their point they assembled in great numbers in St. George's Fields, where, meeting with some unexpected opposition, they became so riotous that the military were ordered to fire on them, and about twenty persons were either killed or wounded. The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder against the magistrate who gave the order to fire, and he was tried for the offence, but acquitted. Mr. Wilkes's outlawry was afterwards reversed by the court of King's Bench as illegal; but judgment was pronounced against him for the two publica tions of which he had been formerly convicted, and he was sentenced in two fines of five hundred pounds each, and to be imprisoned for two years.

The circumstance of a young man being shot, after he had fled from the soldiers, and taken refuge in an outhouse belonging to his father, raised a considerable ferment in the public mind: and what increased the popular odium was, that the regiment employed on the occasion happened to be chiefly composed of Scotchmen; and from the late contest

of Wilkes with lord Bute, it was supposed to have been stimulated by national antipathy. In the mean time the press teemed with inflammatory libels, adapted to the capacities of the licentious politicians whose passions were excited by the present scenes. Alderman Harley, the lord mayor, for the share he had taken, as a public magistrate, against Mr. Wilkes, in superintending the burning of his book, by the hands of the hangman, became an object of their violent animosity. The Mansion House was assailed by frequent mobs; and what was still more alarming, was the discovery of combinations among the inferior classes, who, to avail themselves of the prevailing distress, had recourse to means the most dangerous and illegal.

Although such disturbances as these, emanating from the mob, could not be taken as fair criteria of the opinion entertained of administration by that portion of the public whose judgment was entitled to respect, there were political events which happened nearly at the same time, that tended unfortunately still more to weaken the government in the estimation of the country. Among these was the removal of sir Jeffrey Amherst, a veteran in the public service, from his government of America, which, by long prescription, was regarded as a sinecure. This gave tokens of a harsh and ungrateful disposition, that displeased many impartial observers, and, in particular, disgusted the earl of Chatham, whose loss of favour was too important not to be felt.

In the course of the year 1767, the court of Versailles had purchased from the Genoese the claim of that republic to the island of Corsica; and in 1768 a French army landed to take possession of it. This measure, it was expected, would produce much opposition in Europe; but the French minister contrived such arrangements as deterred the British govern