The POLITICAL BAROMETER. Sentences on Mr. Wilkes, with prefutory Remarks. Have now on my table office-copies of the two fentences against 1. Mr. Wilkes, but before I transcribe them for your paper, I beg to be indulged a word about the two crimes. The first, that he re-published the North-Briton, No. 45, I will take no pains about. I fhall only fay, that he was a fool, or a real patrio, if he did rift the re-publication of fuch truths as he will never be forgiven the very fufpicion of having divulged or propagated, and that I will not believe there is any harm in that paper, because I have feen No. 45 on almost every coach, chaise, wall, window, hat, &c. in this kingdom, and even on the fnowy bofoms of the prettiest women in the world. No 45. has indeed, Sir, had wonderful luck; but, in my opinion, an elder brother of his, No. 5, deferved still more to have been taken notice of, and perhaps actually laid the foundation of the younger brother's fortune. The first half hour's leifure you have, will convince you of this. i The fecond crime, of publishing the Effay on Woman, was hever committed at all by Mr. Wilkes, although it has in part by fe veral others. I fhall not dwell on this fubject, because it fhews our country in fo infamous a light. Every good man must look with horror on an adminiftration offering a place of one hundred pounds per annum to a fervant to rob his matter of the remainder of that copy. By money they had got a small part before in the fame fcandalous and felonious manner. Mr. Farmer has given this tranfaction to all the world in Curry's own words, to whom the offer was made, and who actually received a part of the public money as the reward of his villainy. What an idea does this give of the manner places are got in the prefent age? As to Mr. Wilkes's not having any degree of guilt in this whole business, though perhaps fome indifcretion to anfwer for, it will very little avail. He will be equally punished, as if he had committed the maft enormous wickedness, for he dared to attack à proud and powerful minifter, confcious of his own crimes, and implacable in his nature. Whatever private caufe, however, of refentment the other enemies of Lord B- →→→→ may have, Mr. Wilkes had none! He can declare in the words of Brutus, For my part, I know no perfonal caufe to fpurn at him, But for the general. I will only add, that he ought to have reflected on what Swift fays to a friend, "Your innocence is a protection that wise men are ashamed to rely on, further than with God,” Copies Copies of the two Sentences against Mr. Wilkes. Saturday next after fifteen days from the day of the Holy Trinity, in the eighth year of King George the third. Middlefex. The KING against John Wilkes, Efq. THE defendant being brought here into court, in cuftody of the Marfhal of the Marfhalfea of this court, by virtue of a rule of this court, and being convicted of certain trefpaffes, contempts, and grand misdemeanors, in printing and publishing a feditious and fcandalous libel, entitled, The North Briton, Nỏ, 45, whereof he is impeached. It is ordered, that he, the said defendant, for his offences aforefaid, do pay a fine, to our fovereign Lord the King, of five hundred pounds of lawful money of Great Britain And it is further ordered, that he, the faid defendant, be imprifoned, in the custody of the faid Marfhal, for the space of ten calendar months now next enfuing; And it is laftly ordered, that he, the faid defendant, be now remanded to the cuftody of the faid Marshal, to be by him kept in fafe cuftody in execution of the judgment aforefaid, and until he shall have paid the said fine. : On the motion of Mr. Attorney General, (Copy.) By the Court, Saturday next after fifteen days from the day of the Holy Trinity, in the eighth year of King George the third. Middlefex. THE defendant being brought here into The KING against fhalfea of this court, by virtue of a rule of this John Wilkes,Efq. court, and being convicted of certain trefpaffes, contempts, and grand mifdemeanors, in printing and publishing an obfcene and impious libel, intitled, An Effay on Woman, and other impious libels in the information, in that behalf specified, whereof he is impeached; and having alfo been convicted of certain other trefpafies, contempts, and mifdemeanors, for printing and publishing a certain other libel, intitled, The North Briton, No. 45: For which he hath this day been fentenced, and ordered by this court to pay a fine of 500l. and to be imprisoned in the cuftody of the faid Marthal for the fpace of ten calendar months. It is now ordered by this court, that the faid defendant, for his trefpaffes, contempts, and mifdemeanors, first above mentioned, in printing and publishing the faid obfcene and impious libels, do pay a further fine to our fovereign Lord the King of five hundred pounds of lawful money of Great-Britain: And that he, the faid defendant, be further imprisoned in the cuftody of the faid Marshal for the space of twelve calendar months, to be computed from and after after the determination of his aforefaid imprisonment for printing and publishing the faid other libel, intitled, The North Briton, No. 45. And it is further ordered, that he, the faid defendant, fhall give fecurity for his good behaviour for the fpace of seven years, to be computed from and after the end and expiration of the faid twelve calendar months, to be computed as aforefaid, to wit, himself, the faid defendant, in the fum of one thousand pounds, with two fufficient fureties in five hundred pounds each: And it is laftly ordered, that he, the said defendant, be now remanded to the custody of the faid Marshal, to be by him kept in fafe cuftody, in execution of this judgment, and until he fhall have paid the faid fine, and given fuch fecurity as aforefaid. On the motion of Mr. Attorney-General, (Copy.) By the Court. Quere, to the gentlemen of the law, Are both the fentences valid? " 66 Defire you to correct a mistake committed by a writer in the public prints, who figns himself An Englishman who has read the hiftory. of Scotland. He fays," Mr. Wilkes's affertion, that James I. croffed the Tweed full of the arbitrary notions of Scottish government, very much amazed me;" but I believe, Sir, you will be more amazed when I tell you, that there is no fuch affertion in Mr. Wilkes's Introduction. His words are, James I. who croffed "the Tweed with all the Scottish ideas of vaffalage, and was ftill to learn the generous principles of our Magna Charta, with his own hand, tore this proteftation (that the liberties of the nation, and the privileges of parliament, were the undoubted birth-right and inheritance of the fubjects of England), out of their jour“nals;” an act of tyranny in our firft Scottish King against an English parliament, more rude, more indecent, more enormous, than any act of the prefent, or the late French King, against the parliaments of France. I wish he would tell us, whether Scotland was not at that time a kingdom compofed almost entirely of imperious, arbitrary nobles, and mean, flavifh vaffals, which is all Mr. Wilkes fays. Rapin, however, fhall inform him what were the first Stuart's ideas of government when he croffed the Tweed." It is cert. in, James's chief care, after his acceffion, was to maintain the prerogative royal in its utmost extent; nay, to carry it higher than any of his predeceffors. He muft, at the time I am now fpeaking of, have conceived a larger notion than had been hitherto formed of the power of an English King, fince, when he came to Newark, he ordered a cut-purje to be hanged by his fole warrant, ond without trial. It cannot be denied, that this was beyond the lawful power of a King of England, and directly contrary to the pri vileges of the English nation." Tindal's tranflation. So early did did the Stuarts begin to invade the rights of this country.-In another place Rapin fays, " He (James I.) was perfuaded, that the authority of fovereigns over their fubjects was unlimited, and that all monarchial governments ought to be abfolute, not confidering, that these maxims could not be applied to the government of England, without deftroying the conftitution." Thefe maxims appear to have been carefully tranfmitted as family maxims from father to fon through the whole Stuart line, who seem to have ftudied every poffible revenge on the English for all the noble victories of their Henrys, and their Edwards, the fame hatred to this nation always rankling in the hearts of the Stuarts, as among the reft of the Scots, A fatal race, Whom God in wrath contriv'd to place, A writer, who means to be fair, always gives an author's own words, and if they are only a quotation from another, he ought to remark it. This is a fault a perfon has very lately committed, who charges to Mr. Wilkes's account a paffage quoted from Rapin relative to Queen Elizabeth. I beg pardon for taking up your time with thefe minute circumflances, but fome answer ought to be given, even to those who have the plain intention to deceive, because every man has not the means and opportunity of detecting them. Epistle to John Wilkes, Efq; in confinement. WHILE ev'ry truly English breast Swells with regret and rage poffefs'd And mourns, O Wilkes, thy doom, See Md, impotent of foul, And yield to Ys the blow! Nor heeds the feeble foe. A. B. That Thus faithful to his country's good, Bravely he met the death he dar'd, Not lefs the malice of t y foes But fhould a venal fenate fear And speed the hours along. Then let no penfive thought be thine, But be these things thy fport; For know that Time fhall fet thee free, Unthank'd a thoughtless court. Oxford, une 30, 1768. To the EDITOR of the POLITICAL REGISTER. The following SPEECH is faid to have been lately made by AGREAT LAWYER, or rather a A GREAT ORATOR, and is reprinted from the public papers, with the addition of a few notes, as a proof how captivating, in many points, are the meretricious arts of eloquence beyond the fober words of truth and fact. I Satis Eloquentia, Veritatis parum. HAVE now gone through the feveral errors affigned by the defendant, and which have been ingeniously argued, and confidently relied on [and furely with the greatest reafon; even the very firft error affign'd by Mr. Serjeant for the reverfal of Mr.outlawry was adopted by -] by his counsel at the bar: I have given my fentiments upon them, and if upon the whole, after the clofeft attention to what has been faid, and with the ftrongeft inclination in favour [Jeffreys faid to Sidney, I am fure you had all the FAVOUR fhewed you that ever any prisoner had, p. 64.] of e the The words of Jeffreys are quoted from the trial of Algernon Sidney, Efq; publifhed in 1684 by the authority of Sir George Jeffreys, Knight and Baronet, Lord Chief Juftice of England, and printed for Benj. Tooke, in folio. |