He was once more rechosen for Middlesex, February the 16th, without opposition, being proposed by two members, James Townshend and Sawbridge. The next day Lord Strange moved the House that Mr. Wilkes having been expelled, was and is incapable of sitting in the present Parliament. This Beckford strongly opposed; and Dowdeswell proposed that his crimes should be specified, as in the case of Sir Robert Walpole. Grenville seconded, and moved that mere expulsion should not be deemed a foundation of incapacity. When Sir Robert Walpole was rejected on his re-election, Parliaments were triennial; being now septennial, the punishment of Wilkes would be more than double. T. Townshend threatened the House, that the freeholders of Middlesex would, in a body, petition the King to dissolve the Parliament. On a division for amendment of the question on Dowdeswell’s idea, 102 were for it, 224 against it; and then the simple question of expulsion being put, it was carried by 235 to 89.[202] Wilkes, however, the very next morning persisted in offering himself again to the county of Middlesex, and dispersed handbills for that purpose.
The next step of the Court was weak, and betrayed their timidity. Not satisfied with the interposition of the House of Commons in favour of the condemned chairmen, against which no objection could lie, they had recourse to an expedient, which, however humane, was liable to censure from the novelty, and did occasion a controversy in print. It appeared, that by the negligence of Macquirk’s counsel, no surgeons had been called before the Bench at his trial, to depose whether Clarke had died of his wounds or not. Had he had no counsel, the judges themselves would have ordered surgeons to give their opinion on Clarke’s death. On representation of this neglect to the King, the Chancellor advised his Majesty to refer the consideration to a court of examiners, or surgeons. Bromfield, a surgeon and an apothecary, made a report, that in their opinions, Clarke had not died of his wounds, but from a bad habit of blood, inflamed by strong liquors, after the election. On this Balf was entirely pardoned, Macquirk respited till other favourable circumstances could be examined[203]—and next month he was pardoned too. The grand jury in the meantime found a bill against Sir William Beauchamp Proctor, Tatum, an agent of the Duke of Northumberland, and Broughter, a boxer and yeoman of the guard, for hiring the mob that committed the riot and murder at Brentford—but it came to nothing.
On the 21st a meeting was held at the London Tavern, of the principal gentlemen and merchants of Middlesex in the interest of Wilkes, when three thousand three hundred and forty pounds were subscribed to support him and his cause; and a committee was appointed to promote the same throughout the Kingdom. The Assembly then formed themselves into a society which they denominated the Supporters of the Bill of Rights. The city of Bath also sent instructions to its members to the same tenor with those of the city of London.
On the 24th was read in the committee of the House of Commons, Sir George Saville’s quieting Bill, called the Nullum Tempus, of which an account has been given before. When it had been rejected the last year, there had been a kind of promise that it should be suffered to pass another time; yet the Ministers, to save as much as possible of prerogative, proposed that the prescription should be granted only for the last sixty years, instead of a current and constant prescription of sixty years against the Crown, as there is between subject and subject. This subterfuge of the Court was, however, rejected by 205 against 124—a wonderful event after the late triumphs of the Administration! Many causes contributed; honesty probably operated on some, and indignation at the mean evasion attempted. Others who possessed Crown lands preferred the security of their property to present Court favour. The Bedford faction, for some political view, absented themselves, though probably not expecting the Duke of Grafton[204] would receive so total a defeat in a measure to which his own violence had given occasion. In short, that Parliament had some virtues, or some vices, which now and then prevented its being so universally servile as the preceding.[205]
On the 27th the Administration laid before the House the agreement with the East India Company, which after a long debate, in which it was rather discussed than contested, passed without a division, Grenville himself approving it. Lord Clive spoke against it, and gave an account of the bad posture of their affairs in India. He was answered by Governor Johnstone, who imputed those misfortunes to Lord Clive’s own conduct, and even reproached him with the murder of the Nabob.[206]
The borough of Southwark, and soon after the city of Bristol, sent instructions to their members. To stem the increasing torrent, the Court endeavoured to set on foot counter addresses of loyalty. The first attempt was unsuccessful: a meeting having been summoned in the City to express dissatisfaction at the assemblies in favour of Wilkes, not above thirty persons attended the citation, and they broke up in confusion: but in the county of Essex the Court were more prosperous; the Opponents having met to instruct their members, Rigby and Bamber Gascoyne prevailed on the sheriff and the gentlemen to address the King in high strains of loyalty—an example that was followed in few other places.
Yet under this unfavourable aspect did the Court venture on a measure of great import to themselves, threatening much unpopularity, and yet not attended by any uncommon clamour. This was to demand of Parliament the payment of the King’s debts. In truth, considering the expenses of the outset of a new reign, of a coronation, of a royal wedding, that the Crown had possessed no jewels,—the late King’s having been bequeathed by him to, and re-purchased of, the Duke of Cumberland,—that the King had limited himself to a certain revenue, and, considering the numerous branches of the Royal Family, the debt incurred, especially by so young a Sovereign, and amounting to 513,000l., could not be thought exorbitant. The Hanoverian revenues, indeed, were now in great part remitted into the Privy Purse; but the nation had nothing to do with that channel of supply, nor could pretend to ask an account of it. The message of demand was made on the 28th to both Houses. In the Commons, Dowdeswell immediately moved that not only the particulars of the expense might be specified, but that the papers might distinguish under what Administration each debt had been incurred. This was intended to bring out that Lord Rockingham’s Administration had been the most frugal. The Ministers pleaded that such minuteness would occasion much delay; and the motion was rejected by 169 to 89.[207] The same fate attended another motion made on March the 1st, by which the Opposition desired that the money might not be voted till the accounts had been examined; but this, as unreasonable, was overruled by 248 to 135.
The next day the Lords entered on the same business. The Lords Temple, Lyttelton, and Suffolk showed the wanton impropriety of not examining the accounts before granting the money. Even Lord Rockingham attempted, though under great perturbation, to open his mouth; and, being very civil and very gentle, he was well heard. The Ministerial advocates, as if imposing a gabel instead of begging a supply for the Crown, behaved with insolence and scorn. Lord Sandwich made a mockery of unanimity, and desired to see who would vote against a measure that was personal to his Majesty. Lord Talbot, talking of the King, and by mistake saying your Majesties instead of your Lordships, corrected himself; but said he should have used the royal style by design if he had been talking to the mob.
The modesty of the Ministers was not more conspicuous in the other House. On the Report from the Committee, Lord North made an able invective against popularity; and avowed that he had voted for every unpopular, and against every popular measure. Rigby went still farther against instructions to members: asked what place was large enough to hold all that ought to give them? “They should meet,” said he, “in Moorfields, which is the only spot that would give or receive instructions.” He talked of the two pamphlets on the State of the Nation, and declared he gave the preference to Grenville’s. It was carried without a division to agree with the Report of the Committee; which, of course, was in favour of granting the money.[208] The Lords were as complaisant. The Opposition laboured to show that the principal load of the debt had been incurred during Lord Bute’s Administration.[209] The Duke of Grafton provoking Lord Rockingham, the latter replied with spirit unusual to him, and said the Duke had braced his nerves. The Court-Lords were 60 to 26.
To balance that success Burke endeavoured to revive the clamour on the massacre, as it was called, in St. George’s Fields; and moved to inquire into it, and into the part taken by the Lords Weymouth and Barrington—but it was too late. Sir William Meredith abandoned him, and Grenville discountenanced the motion, which was rejected by 245 to 39.[210]