[264] Journal 65, fos. 82b, 94. A year later he held more decided views as to the advantage of short Parliaments. Writing to Earl Temple on the 17th April, 1771, he remarks: "Allow a speculator in a great chair to add that a plan for more equal representation by additional knights of the shire seems highly seasonable, and to shorten the duration of Parliaments not less so. If your lordship should approve, could Lord Lyttleton's caution be brought to take these ideas, we should take possession of strong ground, let who will decline to follow us. One line of men, I am assured, will zealously support, and a respectable weight of law, si quid novisti rectius istis candidus imperti." This extract was read at a Common Council held the 13th April, 1780, and was ordered to be entered on the Journal of the Court.—Chatham Correspondence, iv, 155, note.—Journal 68, fo. 52.
[265] Annual Register, xiii, 111.
[266] Annual Register, xiii, 112.
[267] Repertory 166, fo. 358.
[268] Repertory 174, fo. 276. Annual Register, xiii, 119.
[CHAPTER XXXVIII.]
Barlow Trecothick mayor, June-Sept., 1770.
Upon Beckford's decease Trecothick was elected mayor for the remainder of the year. It was no easy matter for the successor of one of the wealthiest and most hospitable of mayors to avoid invidious comparison, and at the close of his short term of office Trecothick was satirised by Wilkes for not maintaining the City's reputation for hospitality.[269] Trecothick was also out of favour with Wilkes for having officially backed press warrants, the legality of which was much disputed at the time. The mayor, however, justified his conduct in this respect to the livery when they met at Michaelmas, and his speech was very favourably received.[270] Wilkes on the other hand was so strenuously opposed to press warrants that he went so far as to release a man who had been pressed for the navy, although he had been taken by virtue of a warrant from the Lords of the Admiralty, backed by Trecothick.[271]
Brass Crosby elected mayor, 29 Sept., 1770.
When Michaelmas arrived, the livery refused to re-elect Trecothick—as indeed Wilkes had foretold. Bankes was again passed over, and Brass Crosby chosen mayor for the ensuing year. In character he was scarcely less spirited and patriotic than Beckford, and he was made to suffer in consequence. Very early in his mayoralty (21 Nov.) it fell to his lot to carry up another address and remonstrance to the king for the dissolution of parliament, and to listen to a curt refusal.[272]