[224] Common Hall Book, No. 8, fos. 146b-147b. The petition is printed in a small volume of "city petitions, addresses and remonstrances," (1778), preserved in the Guildhall Library.

[225] Beckford denied this—Walpole, Memoirs, iii, 380.

[226] "That the moment of his [Chatham's] appearance, i.e., so immediately after the petition of the livery of London set on foot and presented by his friend Alderman Beckford, has a hostile look, cannot be doubted."—Walpole to Mann, 19 July, 1769. Letters, v, 177.

[227] Common Hall Book, No. 8, fo. 148b.

[228] "London, for the first time in its life, has not dictated to England. Essex and Hertfordshire have refused to petition; Wiltshire and Worcester say they will petition, and Yorkshire probably will."—Walpole to Mann, 19 July, 1769. Letters, v, 177.

[229] Common Hall Book, No. 8, fo. 149.

[230] Journal 65, fos. 62b-63b.

[231] Common Hall Book, No. 8, fos. 152-153.

[232] Walpole to Mann, 15 March, 1770.—Letters, v, 229.

[233] Repertory 174, fos. 155, 156.