POLITICAL REGISTER,

AND

IMPARTIAL REVIEW

O F

NEW BOOK S,

FOR MDCCLXIX.

VOLUME THE FIFTH.

LONDON:

Printed for HENRY BEEVOR in Little-Britain.

1769.

THE

POLITICAL REGISTER,

For JULY, 1769.

NUMBER XXVIII.

For the POLITICAL REGISTER.

MINISTERIAL OPPRESSION exemplified in the Cafe of THOMAS MORTIMER, Efq; late his Majefty's Vice Conful for the Auftrian Netherlands. Addreffed to LORD WEYMOUTH, and his under Secretaries Meffieurs R. WOOD and W. FRASER.

My Lord, and Gentlemen,

T

HE neceffity you have laid me under of publishing to the world, the following very fingular cafe, points out the propriety of addreffing it to you, that you may have a fair opportunity of canvaffing every fact therein ftated; and of comparing your unprecedented behaviour to me, with the conduct of your predeceffors in office, who honoured me with a confiderable fhare of their confidence, who approved my services, rewarded me for them publickly, and promised me their protection, and recommendation to the King.

You will probably be called upon by an equitable, generous and compaffionate people, to affign a fufficient reason for the removal of a commercial officer from a ftation of fuch importance to the trading intereft of this country, as the port of Oftend; and for leaving him, by a fudden, inftantaneous deprivation of his office, totally unprepared to fettle his private affairs, or to fcreen himself from the refentment Vol. V. B

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of the magiftracy of Oftend; whofe difpleasure he had in curred by an active and diligent discharge of the duties of his office, in a point of the utmost importance and of the greatest delicacy.

I am aware that you are furnished with a variety of excuses for this measure, all of them equally frivolous, and calculated by low policy to deprive me of my worthy patrons. Tired however of waiting the long expected time, when you fhould make fome retribution for the irreparable injury you have done me, by removing me without any previous notice from his majesty's fervice, I now carry my cause, by ap peal, to the tribunal of an impartial public; where I hope to make it appear that there never was fuch an inftance in England, of an officer fo difmiffed, and fo wronged for doing his duty. And give me leave to obferve, that I fhould not have delayed this publication fo long, if I had not been buoyed up by the affurances given me, by your particular friends, that you were fenfible of the injuftice you had done me, and "that Mr. Wood in particular, was forry for it, " and wifhed to provide for me, but could not find an "opening."

Another inducement for poftponing this narrative was, a hint from a refpectable character abroad," that you would "look upon the publication of my cafe, as intended to foment thofe "political factions that have lately distracted us at home, and "rendered us contemptible in the eyes of all Europe." Profeffing myself a firm friend to our happy conftitution in its genuine purity, founded on revolution principles, and of course a zealous advocate for the rights and privileges of the people, I forbore troubling the public with the private griefs of an obfcure individual, not because I dreaded the imputation of fomenting political factions, but because I was unwilling to divert the attention of my countrymen from those important objects which demanded all the efforts of national virtue, and every exertion of that noble ardour in the caufe of public freedom, which diftinguished and dignified our forefathers. I have therefore chofen the prefent interval of domestic tranquility, which cannot be of long duration, for a publication, the chief intent of which is, to convince my friends in particular, and the world in general, that I have not deserved the fhameful treatment I have met with from you.

Your lordship's removal with your under-fecretaries from the Northern to the Southern department, doubles the weight of the blow, you have given me, and increases theneceffity

of

of prefenting my cafe at this time to the public. By this removal the fcene is clofed upon me in the Northern department, and the nobleman who now holds that office is left an utter ftranger to my perfon, my character and my pretenfions in cafe of a future vacancy; when had your lordThip been continued there, it would hardly have been poffible for you to have evaded my juft expectations. The fucceffion to the confulfhip of Flanders had been repeatedly promised to me by fucceffive adminiftrations, when your lordship, or more properly fpeaking, your lordship's fecretaries, came into office, and I may venture to affirm they made little other use of the feals than to remove me from my employment, and enable Mr. Hatton and Mr. Irvine to put the finishing hand to a venal contract, commenced in 1766, and at that time rendered abortive by the candid, benevolent conduct of the right honourable General Conway.

I muft obferve here, that it has been hinted to me by fome gentlemen of diftinguished rank, that the tranfient civilities I fhewed Mr. Wilkes in the month of December, 1767, while he was wind-bound at Oftend, in waiting for a paffage to England, had done me fingular differvice with your lordship. It has also been afferted, "that I was one of Wilkes's faction." I therefore think it incumbent on me in this public manner, to declare, that I deteft the name of faction as much as Lord Weymouth, and that from my foul I abhor all tumultuous, irregular proceedings that tend to disturb the peace and good order of a wellregulated civil government, if it were for no other reafon, but because I wifh the friends of the conftitution of this free country, would avail themfelves of the true fpirit of the laws, which afford the most speedy and effectual method of inflicting condign punishment on bad minifters. Those that knew me in office, can teftify the proofs I gave of my loyalty to my fovereign on every occafion, proofs that are incompatible with the idea of faction; but which did not debar me of fhewing politenefs and civility to a private gentleman in a foreign country, which was all the connection I ever had with Mr. Wilkes, and fince my difmiffion, however I might privately espouse the cause of freedom, I have not attached myfelf to any man's particular intereft. Mr. Wood knows the contrary. Having faid this, let me exprefs my grateful fenfe, as an Englishman, of the fervices Mr. Wilkes has rendered his countrymen; by the fpirited measures he took in fupport of his own inherent rights as a British subject, and of his acquired privileges as a reprefentative of a free people;

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