The following is the warrant of Mr. Wilkes's commitment to the King's-bench-prifon, on the 27th of April, 1768. Wednesday next, after three weeks from the feast day of Eatter, in the eighth year of King George the Third. Middlefex, the THE defendant being brought here into court king against in cuftody of the sheriff of the county of MiddleJohn Wilkes, fex, by virtue of a writ of Capias Utlegatum, it Efquire. is ordered, upon the motion of Mr. AttorneyGeneral, that he, the faid defendant, be now committed to the cuftody of the Marfhal of the Marshalfea of this court, to be by him kept in fafe cuftody, until he shall be from thence difcharged by due courfe of law; and the faid defendant, now here in court, producing a writ of error, and praying Oyer of the Record, it is ordered by this court, that the faid writ of error be allowed. On the motion of Mr. Attorney-General. By the Court, The following is faid to have been the conclufion of Mr. Serjeant Glynn's speech, on Tuesday laft, in Mr. Wilkes's-caufe ; "My lords, "I have now done with my client and his caufe; your lordfhips will determine according to your wifdom. But here let me entreat you for the fake of the fafety of every fubject of this nation, that your lordships will pleafe to fix fome limits to the dif cretionary power of altering records; that we may know for the future when we can be certain of the caufe we are to plead; and that the fubject may not be liable to ruin at the difcretion of a judge." The following paper is very curious. It is copied from the St. James's Chronicle and the other public prints. In the KING'S BENCH. Middlefex. THE KING against JOHN WILKES, Efq; RANCIS BARLOW, of the Crown-office, in the Temple, and William Hughes, of the fame place, feverally make oath; and first the deponent Barlow for himielf faith, that on the eighteenth day of February last, he received directions from Mr. Wallace or Mr. Webb, to apply to a judge to get the information against the defendant amended, by ftriking out the word PURPORT and inferting in its ftead the word TENOR, that he this deponent did accordingly apply to the Right Hon. Lord Mansfield, and obtained a fummons to fhew caufe why it fhould not be amended; a copy whereof is hereunto annexed: And this deponent, immediately after he had obtained the fame, fent two copies thereof, viz. one to the other deponent, Hughes, who was clerk in court for the defendant, and the other copy to Mr. Philips, folicitor for the faid defendant; and this deponent was informed, and does believe, that fuch fuch copies were left that night at their respective houses; and this deponent Barlow further fays, that in confequence thereof, he this deponent, on Monday the twentieth day of the fame month of February in the morning, attended Lord Mansfield at his houfe, and there met the other deponent, Hughes, and Philips; and this deponent remembers, that Lord Mansfield afked them what objection they had to fuch an amendment, and that they or one of them made answer, that they could not confent; and this deponent remembers, that Lord Manfield faid he did not afk their confent, but wanted to know what their objections were, and asked them if it was not ufual or the common practice to amend informations, or to that or the like effect, and that Lord Mansfield mentioned or read from a book or manuscript, which his lordship had in his hand feveral cafes of amendments; and that afterwards his lordship made an order to amend the information in this caufe, a copy of which order is hereunto annexed; and this deponent, Hughes, for himfelf faith, that he remembers to have been ferved with a copy of fuch fummons, and that he attended Lord Mansfield when fuch order was made as above fet forth; and accordingly, to the best of his remembrance and belief, what is above depofed by the other deponent Barlow is true. Sworn by the deponent Francis Barlow, the 22d of January, 1765, at my Chambers in Serjeant's-inn. } FRANCIS BARLOW. WILLIAM HUGHES. Before me, E. WILMOT. Sworn by the deponent William Hughes, in the Middlesex, The King against John Wilkes, Efq; On an information for publishing a Libel, initled the North Briton. Let the defendant's clerk in court, agent, attorney, or folicitor, attend me at myhouse in Bloomsbury-fquare, on Monday, the 20th day of February inftant, at eight o'clock in the morning, to fhew caufe why the information in this caufe fhould not be amended by ftriking out the word "PURPORT" in the feveral places where it is mentioned in the faid information (except in the first place) and inferting inftead thereof, the word" TENOR." Dated this 18th day of February, 1764. MANSFIELD. Middlefex, Middlefex, The King against John Wilkes, Efq; On an information for publishing a Libel, intitled the North-Briton. Upon hearing the clerks in court on both fides, I do order that the information in this caufe be amended, by ftriking out the word, "PURPORT" in the feveral places where it is mentioned in the faid information (except in the first place) and by inferting inftead thereof, the word "TENOR." Dated this 20th day of February, 1764. The fame alteration was made in the cause refpecting the Essay on Woman. This alteration feems trifling in appearance, but is in reality of the utmost importance. It totally changed the nature of the defence. If the word PURPORT had remained, upon which Mr. Wilkes's council were prepared to argue, scarcely any two men could have been found, who would have agreed in a verdict finding him guilty to the PURPORT, or effect charged in the information; but by the alteration to the word TENOR, the PURPORT was not in question, and the defence was changed into a critical comparifon of the words, letters, and figures in the papers published with those in the information filed, for which no time was allowed. The caufes were tried the very next morning,, fo that Mr. Wilkes's council were deprived of making the defence, for which they were prepared, and forced upon a defence, which they had neither time to confider, nor reafon to apprehend. Mr. Wilkes himself was at that time in another kingdom, very dangerously ill. From the GAZETTEER. S the following the of has ap As peared in ing letter fropers, I have fent it to you, and be you would infert it, as the public will have the fatisfaction of reading the particular directions given by that able conveyancer of his pleasure. "It having been reprefented, that for fome nights paft feveral diforderly and riotous perfons have illegally affembled themselves in the Borough of Southwark, and in the neighbourhood thereof, and have committed divers outrages; and a military force having been judged neceffary for putting a ftop to fuch diforders, and the fame having been requested by the civil magiftrates, it is hispleasure that you cause a detachment, confifting of one hundred men, with proper commiffioned and non-commiffioned officers, to be made from the battalions of his foot guards, and march forthwith to the guard room apoointed by the civil magiftrates in the Borough of Southwark for the reception of the faid detachment: where they are to do duty, and be aiding and affifting to the civil magiftrates, magiftrates, on their requifition, in cafe any riots or diforders fhall happen, in putting a top to the fame, in preferving the public peace, and in fecuring the offenders; but not to repel force with force, unless in cafe of abfolute neceffity, or being thereto required by the civil magiftrates: And it is his pleasure, that you caufe the faid detatchment to be relieved by a like detachment from the foot guards, as often as upon concerting with the civil magiftrates, fhall be judged neceffary; wherein the civil magiftrates, and all others concerned, are to be affifting in providing quarters, impreffing carriages, and otherwife, as there fhall be occafion. Given at the this-day of, 1768. By his To the field officer in staff waiting for the regiments of foot guards. command, On this order I beg leave to add, that every lover of the conftitutional laws of this kingdom, will be fired with indignation, to fee that a military force, the utter aversion of every friend to libera ty, fhould be judged a neceffary power to keep that peace and good order, which ftatutes innumerable have folely invented the civil magiftrates with. I cannot in times like the prefent, pretend to determine what a riotous and illegal means, though in my own opinion, the innumerable multitude of the penfioners and placemen is the most i-1, as well as the most p-rn e-s of any that can meet for the deftruction of the public peace, and I fincerely wish the laws and conftitutional methods, to prevent and put a stop of all illegal affemblies, were frictly put into execution; however, I cannot fuppofe, that the laws, made for the prevention of fuch affemblies, were meant to debar the meeting of a number of people, unarmed, out of curiofity, to behold a miraculous phænomenon, a fteady and uncorrupted patriot, a firm supporter of their rights and liberties; particularly when they are induced to think, that he is an injured and oppreffed member of the community, fuffering for what he has been fuppofed to have published of the tyrannical proceedings of a Scottish minifter and his adherents, under the mafque of perfecution, for having too freely made ufe of his -name which his ftrongeft opponents, and even the Js of the age themfelves would not have thought fufficient to have been deemed a libel, had it been fpoke in another place; but to speak, to think, to write, to approve, or difapprove, out of that place, are now deemed treafonable practices; and flavifh fubmiffion feems the only remains of freedom we can boaft but I muit further add, that if crowds affembling to applaud particular perfons for their fuppofed good conduct be a crime that the laws of the kingdom are not ievere aough to punish, but requires a tyrannical military force to inflict immediate death on, and indifcriminately to kill the innocent with the guil y-Why were not the troops ordered to fhew their alacrity and good behaviour agant the crouds that fo tumultuoufly followed E-1 C-m's carriage when he attended his- to dinner at Guildhall, robVOL. III. G bing bing his -, by artful courtefies, of thofe acclamations he alone had any right to. I have been informed that the civil magiftrates, with the power they have of obliging every perfon within the county to affift them, is the only legal method in this kingdom of putting a stop to riotous and tumultuous affemblies; and I ana forry to find this conflitutional method was not pursued the day fo much blood was fhed in St. George's-fields by the military, under the command of , who, on account of a fmall fcratch on his face, by a ftone flung from a hand that could not easily be fixed on, was fo exafperated that he determined immediately to conceive, that then was the time abfolutely neceffary, as the of's letter directs, to repel force by force; but I cannot, by all the enquiry I have made, make out what force there was to repel, except the blow of the ftone; which had he had prefence of mind to have repelled, his choler had not boiled for fuch bloody revenge: but I muft obferve in respect to the words abfolutely neceffary to repel force by force, that it requires the head and experience of a very skilful general to determine, when it is abfolutely neceffary, and proper, to order troops to make the executive use of their arms, and can never imagine that every man, dignified with the commiffion of justice of the peace, can acquire that judgment, unlefs, the like L-d C-e, they were all heaven-born generals,and had frightened Indians, to reap the like conquests from. Repelling force by force is oppofing armed men against armedmen ;and if there ever fhould be an occation to make it absolutely neceffary to pursue the true meaning of thofe particular words, I hope his worship, armed like a foldier, will fhew as great alacrity in making ufe of his muwet, as he did in ordering those he had not a just reason, if he had a just right to do it. From the St. James's CHRONICLE. SIR, M R. Wilkes is too busy so near the end of this term to attend to anonymous writers in the newfpapers, and therefore I beg you would give me leave to fettle the week's account for him. In the Public Advertifer of Thursday, a correfpondent who figns himfelf Inquifitive, repeats from a foolish forgotten pamphlet feveral queries, either trifling in their nature, or which have already been anfwered. The fignature Impertinent would therefore have become him much better; and all the answer he deferves to his queries is the very thort, but the very true one, the little negative NO. He fays, "is there, or was there not fome time ago, fubfifting in the county of Kent, a fociety of gentlemen bearing the name of Francifcan Friars? Did he not folicit to be admitted one of the number? Did he not divulge the fecrets of the fociety, in oppo fition |