COMMITTAL OF THE LORD MAYOR AND ALDERMAN OLIVER TO THE TOWER.
The above transactions were reported to the commons by the sergeant-at-arms, and orders were issued for the lord mayor to attend in his place, and his clerk to bring up the mansion-house minute-book, in which the proceedings had been entered. Alderman Oliver was likewise ordered to attend in his place, while Wilkes was directed to appear at the bar of the house. The two members obeyed the summons, and boldly justified their conduct; but though they were ably supported by many members in the house, and though the public emphatically displayed their approbation of their conduct, they were committed to the Tower. As for Wilkes he defied the government, refusing to attend unless in his seat as member for Middlesex. Three several times he was summoned to attend, but he would not listen to it under any other conditions, and nothing remained but compulsion, which the ministers were afraid of using. His majesty, indeed, is expressly said to have asserted, that he would have nothing to do with him, and he was left to act with impunity. This confessed weakness brought the cabinet into utter contempt, for though ministers resorted to the trick of adjournment with regard to his non-appearance, all men saw that it was fear alone which prevented them from taking him into custody. And that they had reason to fear there can be no question, for had any attempt been made to compel his appearance, it would have revived all the uproar of the election questions, and brought him forward with tenfold powers of mischief, as the champion of the mob: and, even as it was, ministers had brought themselves, by the proceedings against the printers, into no very enviable position. Riots and tumults in the avenues of the house were the order of the day, and the life of Lord North was on one occasion brought into imminent danger. On the day that the lord mayor was committed, indeed, the tumult was so violent that the house was obliged to stop business for some hours, and it was in vain that magistrates and constables endeavoured to restore peace: it was only through the speeches of some of the more popular members, who left the house on purpose to address them, that the minds of the chafed multitude became tranquil. It was thought that Lord North would now resign, and a report had been made to that effect, but he declared that though he wished for retirement, he entertained no such design; that nothing but the king or the mob, who were near destroying him, could remove him; and that he was determined to weather out the storm. He ungraciously charged the minority with hiring the mob to destroy him; upon which Burke’s brother, William, indignantly exclaimed, —“It is a falsehood, a most egregious falsehood; the minority are to a man persons of honour, who scorn such a resource. Such a charge could only emanate from a man hackneyed in indirect measures.”