assembly would rescind the resolution which gave birth to the offensive letter, and declare their disapprobation of, and dissent to, so rash and hasty a proceeding but in case of their refusal to comply with his majesty's reasonable expectation, the governor had orders to dissolve them immediately, and to transmit a copy of their proceedings, to be laid before parliament. These instructions having been communicated to the assembly in the latter end of June, and the question put for rescinding the resolution of the last house, it was negatived by a majority of ninety-two to seventeen. A letter was then resolved on to lord Hillsborough, containing several strictures on the requisition made to them, which they alleged to be unconstitutional and without precedent; and intermixing some af fected professions of loyalty with the strongest re. monstrances against the late laws. They were also preparing a petition to the king for the removal of their governor, when they were suddenly dissolved.

Previous to the dissolution of the assembly, the popular ferment was greatly increased by another occurrence which took place on the tenth of June. A sloop called the Liberty, laden with wine from Madeira, was seized under the authority of the board of customs for a false entry; and being cut from her moorings, was conveyed, by the order of the commissioners, under the guns of the Romney, a ship of war then lying in Boston harbour. A violent riot ensued, in which the mob burned the collector's boat before the door of John Hancock, the owner of the sloop; and compelled the commissioners for the security of their lives, to take refuge at first on board the Romney, and afterwards at Castle William, a fortress on a small island contiguous to the town. The temper and conduct of the people became every day more licentious. Town-meetings were held, and a remonstrance was presented to the governor insolently requiring him to issue an order for the immediate departure of the Romney. The natural effects of such conduct being justly apprehended, two regiments were ordered from Ireland to support the civil government, and several detachments from different parts of the continent met at Halifax for the same purpose. Upon the first intimations of this measure, an alarm was insidiously spread amongst the inhabitants of Boston and of the whole province, that their property, their liberties, and their lives would soon lye at the mercy of the bayonet; and that no alternative would be held out to them by the invaders, but servile submission or death. Under these impressions, a great multitude of people of all ranks crowded together at Faneuil-hall, the leading incendiaries having issued a summons for such a meeting. Finding that the governor would not at their desire, and without his majesty's instructions, convene a general assembly, they drew up a long catalogue of their pretended grievances; protested against keeping an army in the province without their consent; ordered the select-men of Boston to write to the select-men of the several towns within the province, recommending the speedy choice of committees (another name for representatives) to form a convention; appointed Messrs. Otis, Cushing, Hancock, and Adams, their late members to act for them in that capacity; and concluded their proceedings with a vote for a day of public prayer and fasting, and with a requisition to the people, under the pretence of an approaching war with France, to prepare arms, ammunition, and every other accoutrement necessary in cases of sudden danger. A better comment cannot be made on these transactions than in the words of the inhabitants of Hatfield, in their spirited and judicious reply to the circular letter of the select-men of Boston. After showing the precipitancy of the steps already taken, and the inconsistency, frivolousness, and insincerity of the pretences for calling a convention, "suffer us," say they," to observe, that, in our opinion, the measures the town of Boston are pursuing, and proposing to us and the people of this province to unite in, are unconstitutional, illegal, and wholly unjustifiable, and what will give the enemies of our constitution the greatest joy, subversive of government, destructive of that peace and good order which is the cement of society, and have a direct tendency to rivet our chains, and deprive us of our rights and privileges, which we, the inhabitants of this town, desire may be secured to us, and perpetuated to our latest posterity,”

A CONVENTION.

THE temper and good sense, which influenced the conduct of the people of Hatfield, seemed, at that moment of infatuation and turbulence, to be confined to themselves. About a hundred towns and districts in the same province agreed to the proposal of a convention, and immediately appointed committee-men, a great number of whom met at Boston on the twenty-second of September. Their first act was a message to the governor, in which they disclaimed all pretence to any authority whatever; but said they were chosen by the several towns, and came freely, at the earnest desire of the people, to consult and advise the most effectual measures for promoting peace and good order, as far as they lawfully might, under the very dark and threatening aspect of public affairs: they then reiterated the detail of their grievances, and urged the absolute necessity of his convening without delay a general assembly, which they looked upon to be the only means of preventing the most unhappy consequences to the parent country and to the colonies. The governor refused to receive any message from an assembly, the legality of which he could not allow, but admonished them by letter, as a friend to the province, and a well-wisher to the individuals of it, to break up their meeting instantly, and to separate before they did any business. He said, he was willing to believe that the gentlemen who had issued the summons for this meeting were not aware of the high nature of the offence they were committing; and that those who had obeyed them did not consider the penalties they should incur, if they persisted in continuing their session: at present, ignorance of law might excuse what was past; a step farther would take away that plea. He asserted, that a meeting of the deputies of the towns was an assembly of the representatives of the people to all intents and purposes; and that the calling it a committee of convention could not alter the nature of the thing. At the conclusion of his letter, he informed them, that, if they paid no regard to this friendly admonition, he must, as governor, assert the prerogative of the crown in a more public manner. This remonstrance produced another message, in which they attempted to justify their meeting; begged the governor to be sparing of his frowns to their proceedings; and desired explanations of the criminality with which they were charged. The governor repeated his former refusal to receive any message from an illegal assembly; upon which they appointed nine of their number to draw up a report on the causes and express objects of their meeting. This report being made on the twenty sixth of the same month, a letter with a representation of their transactions and grievances, in which was inclosed a petition to his majesty to be delivered in person, was forwarded to their agent in London; and on the twenty ninth the convention dispersed.

The very day the convention broke up, the fleet from Halifax, consisting of several frigates and transports with two regiments and a detachment of artillery on board, arrived in the harbour. Quarters were procured for the troops by contract with private persons; and the council, upon that footing, allowed them barrack provisions. General Gage arrived soon after, as did the two regiments from Ireland. The factious and disorderly were by these means for some time intimidated: the soldiers bèhaved with the utmost discretion; and a tolerable harmony seemed to subsist between them and the inhabitants.

While things remained in this state rather of sullen repose than of assured tranquillity abroad, administration at home received a new shock from the clash of those discordant principles, on which it had been framed by the earl of Chatham. The duke of Grafton and lord Shelburne, though introduced into their respective offices as his friends and by his desire, were never cordially united. The latter had lately taken particular offence at the disregard of his recommendation of lord Tankerville to succeed George Pitt as ambassador at Turin. A marked preference was shown to the duke of Bedford's application in favour of Sir William Lynch. Lord Shelburne, upon this, retiring in disgust, his place was supplied by lord Weymouth, from the northern department; and the earl of Rochford, late ambassador at Paris, was appointed successor to lord Weymouth. In a few days after,

lord Chatham, who had long been prevented by bodily infirmities from attending to public business, resigned the privy seal, which was immediately delivered to his friend, the earl of Bristol.

Parliament met on the eighth of November; and one of the first objects that were pressed upon their notice in the speech from the throne, was to resume the consideration of those great commercial interests which had been entered upon before, but which the shortness of the last session of the late parliament had prevented from being brought to a final conclusion. The unhappy disorders in the colonies were in the next place very affectingly described. "At the close of the last parliament," said his majesty, "I expressed my satisfaction at the appearance which then induced me to believe, that such of my subjects as had been misled in some parts of my dominions were returning to a just sense of their duty but it is with equal concern that I have since seen that spirit of faction, which I had hoped was well-nigh extinguished, breaking out afresh in some of my colonies in North America; and, in one of them, proceeding even to acts of violence, and of resistance to the execution of the law; the capital town of which colony appears by late advices, to be in a state of disobedience to al law and government; and has proceeded to meas ures subversive of the constitution, and attended with circumstances that manifest a disposition to throw off their dependence on Great Britain. On my part I have pursued every measure that appear. ed to be necessary for supporting the constitution, and inducing a due obedience to the authority of the legislature." Addresses, in perfect unison with the sentiments expressed in the speech, were agreed to by both houses. They were particularly explicit on the subject of America, and declared, that though they should be ever ready to redress the just complaints of the colonies, they were neverthe less determined to maintain the supreme authority of the British legislature over every part of the British empire. Thanks were then given for the measures already taken to support the laws in the colonies, and strong assurances of their ready concurrence in every regulation that appeared like to establish the constitutional dependence of the Americans.

WILKES PETITIONS THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS.

On the fourteenth of November, a petition was delivered from Wilkes containing a recapitulation of all the proceedings against him, from the time of his having been apprehended by a general warrant till his late commitment to prison. This produced an order for the proper officers to lay before the house a cory of the records of the proceedings in the court of king's bench. The journals and reso. lutions of the house in 1763, relative to the same subject, were also examined; and a day was ap pointed for hearing the matter of the petition, of which notice was ordered to be given to Wilkes, and to a great number of persons who were concerned as actors, or witnesses in those transactions. In the mean time, Webb, late secretary to the treasury, against whom a very heavy charge was laid of suborning and bribing with the public money one of Wilkes's servants, having petitioned for an opportunity to vindicate himself at the bar of the house, and application being also made by Wilkes for leave to attend in order to support the allegations of his petition, the requests of both were complied with, and liberty of counsel was allowed them for their respective purposes. After these preparatory steps, the hearing of the petition, which at first had been ordered to take place on the second of December, was put off to the twelfth of the same month, and then finally adjourned to the twenty seventh of January following. This delay could not be avoided, as the merits of the disputed elections, many of which were violently contested, took up so much time, that although parliament continued sitting almost to the eve of the holidays, they had not leisure to attend even to any of the objects recommended to them from the throne, except the renewel of the provision-bills, to prevent a return of the scarcity from which the people had been providentially relieved. A committee of the whole house of commons had, indeed, been formed early in the session, for the purpose of an inquiry into American affairs; but this subject though of

far greater importance than Wilkes's petition, was necessarily deferred from the same cause, want of time. That gentleman's appeal on a writ of error to the house of lords, admitting of a very short and easy decision, was heard on the twenty-first of December, when the judgment of the court of king's bench was affirmed in both sentences; and next day the parliament adjourned to the nineteenth of January.

As lord Chatham still remained confined by illness, he had not been able since his resignation to give any public proofs of his hostility to the ministry whom he had deserted; but there could be no doubt of his intending upon the recovery of his health to join the standard of opposition. That standard was now upheld by the marquis of Rockingham, who became leader of what was called the old Whig party, in consequence of the duke of Newcastle's death about the middle of November.

THE ROYAL ACADEMY INSTITUTED. BUT the most memorable event that distinguished the close of the year 1768, was the institution of the Royal Academy, under the king's immediate patronage, and subjected to the direction of forty artists of the first rank in their several professions. The great object of this institution, which will reflect immortal honour on the taste and munificence of its illustrious founder, was the establishment of well-regulated schools of design, where students in the arts might find proper instruction and the best helps as well as incentives to aspiring genius, without going in search of them to foreign countries. Here the pupils had the finest living models, and choice casts of the most celebrated antiques to copy after. Nine academicians elected annually from amongst the forty were to attend the schools by rotation, to set the figures, to examine the performances of the students, to promote their improvement, and to turn their attention towards that branch of the arts in which they appeared most likely to excel. Professors of painting, of architecture, of perspective, and of anatomy were also appointed, with liberal salaries, to read annually a certain number of public lectures in the schools; and the admission to these and all the other advantages of the institution was made free to every person properly qualified to benefit by the studies there cultivated. That nothing might be wanting to rouse and encourage emulation, prizes were held out to those who made the nearest approaches to excellence; and the discourses delivered at the annual distribution of them

by the president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, were well calculated to fan the flame of youthful ardour, to unfold the true principles and laws of composition, to strengthen the judgment, refine the taste, and impress upon the fancy the strongest images of that ideal perfection, which, as he himself said, it is the lot of genius always to contemplate, and never to attain. Under such a master, whose precepts were so happily illustrated by his own practice, it is no wonder that the English school soon rose to celebrity, and exhibited models of beauty and grandeur which may be fairly put in competition with the most admired productions of any age or any country. It is with unwillingness that history turns away from such delightful objects, to record the harsh wrangles of party, which were renewed at the meeting of parliament after the Christmas

recess.

DISCUSSIONS ON AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

1769. THE grand debate on the American affairs began the twenty-sixth of January. An infinite number of papers relating to the troubles in the colonies had been read the day before; and some resolutions and an address were now produced as sent down from the lords, in order to their being concurred in by the commons. By these resolutions it was declared, that the acts of the late assembly of Massachusets Bay, which tended to call in question' the authority of the supreme legislature, were illegal, unconstitutional, and derogatory of the rights of the crown and parliament of Great Britain: that the circular letters written by the same assembly to those of the other colonies on the subject of the late import duties, stating them to be infringements of the rights of the people, and proposing combinations and other modes of pretended redress, were of a most unwarrantable, dangerous, and inflammatory nature: that the town of Boston had been for some time in a state of great disorder

and confusion, during which the officers of the revenue had been obstructed by violence in the discharge of their duty, and their lives endangered; and that neither the council of the province, nor the ordinary civil magistrates having exerted their authority for suppressing such tumults, the preservation of the peace, and the due execution of the laws became impracticable without the aid of a military force: that all the proceedings in the townmeetings at Boston on the fourteenth of June and twelfth of September were calculated to promote sedition; and that the appointment of a convention, the elections of deputies by the several towns and districts for that purpose, and their meeting were daring insults offered to his majesty's authority, and audacious usurpations of the powers of government. In the address, the greatest satisfaction was expressed in the measures already pursued for supporting the constitution, and inducing a due obedience to the legislature; and the strongest assurances were given of effectual concurrence in such farther measures as might be found necessary to maintain the civil magistrates in a proper execution of the laws, within the province of Massachusets Bay. It was given as matter of opinion, that nothing could be more immediately necessary, either for the maintenance of royal authority in the said province, or for guarding his majesty's subjects there from being farther deluded by wicked and designing men, than to bring the authors of the late disorders to condign punishment; and for this purpose, it was earnestly requested, that gov ernor Bernard might be directed to transmit the fullest information he could obtain of all treasons committed within his government since the thirtieth of December, 1767, together with the names of the persons most active in the perpetration of such offences, in order that his majesty might issue a special commission for trying the offenders within this realm, pursuant to the statute of the thirty-fifth of Henry VIII. in case his majesty should, upon receiving the said information, see sufficient ground for such a proceeding.

As soon as both houses concurred in the proposed avowal of these sentiments, it was resolved in the cabinet that a circular letter should be sent by lord Hillsborough to the governors of the different provinces, containing an engagement, as far as the ministers of the crown could engage, to procure a repeal, on the principles of commercial expediency, of the taxes on glass, paper, and colours. They were in hopes, that a well-timed show of vigour in the first instance, and of lenity and condescension afterwards, would bring the colonists to a sense of their duty, and make them desist from their seditious practices. Unfortunately the event did not correspond, in any degree, with these expectations.

DEBATES ON THE CIVIL LIST. THOUGH the parliamentary strength of the ministry was fully demonstrated in carrying the resolutions and address by a majority of almost three to one, they were opposed with much greater vehemence on a point, where they thought themselves more secure, an article of the supplies. A message from the king was delivered to the house of commons on the last day of February, acquainting them that the arrears of the civil list amounted to five hundred and thirteen thousand pounds, and expressing his majesty's reliance on their known zeal and affection, to enable him to discharge that incumbrance. This message gave rise to a contest, which was kept up with uncommon warmth for three days successively. Several motions, diversified by all the manoeuvres of political dexterity, were made for papers which might lead to a discovery of any mismanagement or profusion in the conduct of the revenue, and of the royal expenses. A review was taken of the state of the civil list, and private revenues of the crown: comparisons were drawn between the income of the present and of former reigns: and it was asserted in very plain terms, that unless the most scrupulous inquiry was always made into the particulars for which such debts were contracted, an arbitrary and unlimited revenue would be gradually established at the will of the prince, and for the purpose of promoting the most pernicious measures. The chancellor of the exchequer expressed the greatest readiness to lay all the accounts and papers that were desired before the house; but said that the length of time which was requisite to prepare them, and the late

ness of the session made it necessary to be deferred to the next meeting, while decency to the king required an immediate relief of his wants. Lord North farther observed, that it would be ungener ous, by any act, to show the smallest suspicion of a prince, whose first care upon his accession to the throne, was to strengthen the freedom of the subject, by establishing the independency of the judges: that his majesty, who had, in his private share of the captures made during the late war, given up seven hundred and thirty thousand pounds to the nation, was certainly entitled to some regard in his present exigencies: and that the gratitude, not to say the justice of the kingdom was called upon in the loudest manner, to comply readily and gracefully with his request. In one of the debates on this subject, the division was, for the ministry, one hundred and sixty-four, against eighty-nine, and in another, two hundred and forty-eight against one hundred and thirty-five.

No objections could have been urged with any great degree of plausibility or force to the other parts of the supplies, or to the ways and means for the service of the current year. The supplies amounted to little more than six millions and a half, including the arrears of the civil list, and four hundred thousand pounds of the navy debts which were to be paid off. The ways and means consisted of the land and malt taxes; exchequer bills to the amount of one million eight hundred thousand pounds; anticipations of the sinking fund for the like sum; a lottery; money due for the ceded islands and for French prizes; small sums in the exchequer, which were a sort of scrapings from the monies issued in the war, and balances of different treasurers' accounts; expected produce of American taxes, estimated at thirty thousand pounds; and the annual contribution of four hundred thousand pounds from the East India com pany, whose charter was prolonged for the farther term of five years, on conditions in some respects similar to the last agreement: but the company were now allowed to increase their dividend to twelve and a half per cent. during this term, provided they did not in any one year raise it above one per cent. on the other hand, should the dividend be reduced below the present standard of ten per cent. the stipulated payment of four hundred thousand pounds should be proportionally diminished; and if the dividend should sink to six per cent. the payment to the nation was to be wholly discontinued (1). Such easy and judicious provisions for the public service afforded very little room for cavilling or debate. But the spirit of altercation found sufficient exercise in the proceedings concerning Wilkes.

IOLENT DEBATES RESPECTING WILKES.

ON the twenty-seventh of January, the day to which the hearing of that gentleman's pretended grievances had been deferred, a motion was made by the chancellor of the exchequer, and carried by a very considerable majority, that Wilkes's counsel should confine themselves to the alteration of the records, and to the charge against Webb, as the other parts of the petition had either been decided upon already, or were now under consideration of the courts below. Four days after, Wilkes proceeded with his evidence; but he was totally unable to make good his accusation against Webb, which plainly appeared to have been a most audacious falsehood. There was no difficulty in proving the alteration of the record, which had been acknow ledged and fully justified by lord Mansfield in the court of king's bench, where the practice was confirmed on the opinion of all the judges. But Wilkes having disingenuously and malignantly left out so material a circumstance in his complaint, the house agreed to a vote of censure on that part of the petition, as tending to asperse lord Mans field's character, and to prejudice the people against the administration of public justice. This, however, was not the only step Wilkes had lately taken to provoke the rigour of parliament, and to endear himself more strongly to the infatuated populace.

Some little time previous to the riot in St. George's Fields, a letter had been written by lord Weymouth, one of the secretaries of state, to the chairman of the quarter-sessions at Lambeth, recommending an early and effectual use of the mili[tary, if the civil power was trifled with or insulted;

Grenville now followed in rapid succession. Wilkes's popularity increased with what was termed his persecution. His bold defence of the prefatory remarks on lord Weymouth's letter, at the very bar of the house of commons that expelled him, was captivating to many persons, and raised him friends and admirers in every quarter. The freeholders of Middlesex confirmed their former choice of him as their representative, and had, at a previous meeting, agreed to support his election at their own expense. The return being made to the house of commons, it was resolved by a majority of 225 to 89," that Wilkes, having been once expelled, was incapable of sitting in the same parliament, and that the election was therefore void." But before the sense of the county was taken again, a month was suffered to elapse, in hopes that the popular ferment might be somewhat abated in that time. The delay bad a contrary effect. It afforded Wilkes's partisans an opportunity of spreading the flame wider, and seizing the moment of general frenzy to levy contributions for the relief, as they said, of the persecuted assertor of the Bill of Rights, At the first meeting called together for this purpose at the Londen tavern, above three thousand pounds were immediately subscribed, and a committee was appointed to circulate proposals of the like kind through the kingdom, the following claim being urged in Wilkes's favour, " that as he had suffered very greatly in his private fortune, from the severe and repeated prosecutions he had undergone; it seemed reasonable that those who suffered for the public good should be supported by the public." This scheme was in the true spirit of Wilkes's old maxim, and his expectations of its success were not disappointed. When the election came on again at Brentford, Wilkes was chosen for the third time with the former unanimity. This election being also declared void, and a new writ ordered, colonel Luttrell, a member of the house of commons, had the courage to vacate his seat by the acceptance of a nominal place, in order to try his strength in a contest for Middlesex. Whitaker, a serjeant at law, ventured also to enter the lists; and another gentleman had been nominated, but did not choose to take the oaths necessary on that occasion. At the close of the poll, the numbers were for Wilkes 1143, for Luttrell 296, and for Whitak er only 5; upon which the return was made in favour of Wilkes, but was, of course, ánnulled by the house of commous; and in two days after, a resolution was carried by a majority of 221 to 139, to amend the return by razing out the name of Wilkes, and inserting that of colonel Luttrell in its place. Fourteen days having been allowed for a petition against this decision, one was accordingly presented, signed by several freeholders; which again brought the matter into warm and serious debate on the eighth of May, when the former resolution was confirmed by a still greater majority.

selves; for the ministers were dismissed, and the parliament dissolved. The mob idol, when he ceased to be a martyr, soon sunk into his original insignificancy, from which that martyrdom alone had raised him. Wilkes, apprehensive of the same fate, and thoroughly sensible that the continuance of his popularity will depend upon your conduct, uses every means in his power to provoke you to some instance of unusual severity. Suppose that you could otherwise have doubted of it, yet his behaviour here at your bar, when called upon to justify himself, is fully sufficient to prove the truth of what I have asserted. If he had intended to deprecate your resentment, and to stop your proceedings against him, he is not so void of parts and understanding, as to have told you in the words he used at the bar (when charged with writing the libel against lord Weymouth) that he was only Borry he had not expressed himself upon that snb. ject in stronger terms; and that he certainly would do so whenever a similar occasion should present itself; nor would he have asked, whether the precedents quoted by lord Mansfield were not all taken from the star chamber? If he had wished to prevent this expulsion, he would have employed other methods to accomplish his purpose; but his object is not to retain his seat in this house, but to stand forth to the deluded people as the victim of your resentment, of your violence and injustice. This is the advantage which he manifestly seeks to derive from you; and will you be weak enough to give it to him, and to fall into so obvious a snare? What benefit will you gain, or what will he lose, if this motion for his expulsion shall take effect? Whatever talents he has to captivate or to inflame the people with out doors he has none to render him formidable within these walls. He has holden forth high, sounding, and magnificent promises of the signal services which he will perform to his country in parliament; and there are many who are ignorant and credulous enough to believe them. Whenever he comes here, I will venture to prophesy that they will be grievously disappointed. That disappointment will be followed by disgust and anger at their having been so grossly deceived, and will probably tuin the tide of popular prejudice. But as soon as he shall be excluded from this house, they will give credit to him for more than he has even promised. They will be persuaded that every real and imagi nary grievance would have been redressed by his patriotic care and influence."-Grenville here took occasion to point out some other bad consequences of the proposed measure. He said there could be no doubt, in the present temper of the freeholders of Middlesex, but that Wilkes would be re-elected after his expulsion. The house would probably think it necessary to expel him again, and he would as certainly be again elected. What steps could the house then take to put an end to a disgraceful contest, in which their justice would be arraigned, and their authority and dignity essentially compromised? By the rules of the house, the vote for excluding Wilkes could not be rescinded in the same session in which it had passed. No alternative would therefore remain, but either to refuse is suing a new writ, and by that means to deprive the county of the right of choosing any other representative; or bringing into the house, as the knight of the shire for Middlesex, a man chosen by a few voters only, in contradiction to the declared sense of a great majority on the face of the poll. Are these then," continued Grenville," the proper expedients to check and to restrain the spirit of faction and of disorder?-Can we serionsly think they will have that salutary effect? Surely it is time to look forwards, and to try other measures."-He concluded with recommending a cool and temperate conduct, unmixed with passion, or with prejudice; and deprecated the exercise of a discretionary power, the extent of which no man knew, and the extent of the mischiefs arising from it no man could tell.

WILKES EXPELLED, BUT RE-ELECTED. BUT neither the candour of Grenville's advice, nor the force of his prophetic warnings could subdue the indignation which the house felt at the unparalleled insolence as well as criminality of Wilkes's behaviour. The vote of expulsion was carried by a majority of 219 to 136; and a new writ was issued for the election of a member in the room of Wilkes. The train of events predicted by

If the minds of the people had not been totally blinded by the mists of prejudice and passion, or by the illusions of factious artifice, they must have pei ceived the necessity, as well as regularity of the steps taken by the house of commons after the expulsion of Wilkes, however impolitic that measure might be deemed in the first instance. It was evident, that the right of expelling delinquents and of deciding on the validity of elections, which the commons derived from the first principles of the constitution, and had always exercised, would be a nominal or frivolous authority, if it was not supported by the farther power of excluding such persons, as they had been declared to be ineligible or improper. "That the right claimed by the greater part of the freeholders of Middlesex was no other than the right of doing wrong,-the right of sending inadmissible representatives to parliament: that, if the house was obliged by the constitution to receive all persons duly qualified, who were returned by a majority of the electors, the latter were equally bound not to return disqualified persons:" It had been asked by the gentlemen of the opposi tion, with a sort of insulting confidence, under what head of legal disability Wilkes's exclusion was to be found; or how the electors were to know it? The reply, however, was easy: the records of parliament would inform them." How," said the ministerial party, "have the electors learned, that judges of the superior courts cannot be chosen representatives of the people? How are aliens,-how are clergymen disqualified? The house has