C may be allowed to continue in the land, and among the friends, of liberty. I wifh, my lord, to owe this to the mercy ‹ of my Prince. I entreat your grace to lay <me with all humility at the King's feet, with ⚫ the trueft affurances that I have never, in any moment of my life, fwerved from the duty and allegiance I owe to my Sovereign, and that I implore, and in every thing fubmit to, his Majefty's clemency. Your grace's noble manner of thinking, and the obligations I have formerly received, which are ftill fresh in my mind, will, I hope, give a full propriety to this addrefs, and I 6 am fure, a heart glowing with the facred zeal of liberty, must have a favourable reception from the Duke of Grafton. I flatter my• felf that my conduct will justify your grace's • interceding with a Prince, who is diftinguished by a compaffionate tendernefs and goodnefs. C to all his fubjects. • I am, with the trueft respect, My Lord, your Grace's moft obedient JOHN WILKES." *Cicero, fpeaking of Pompey, fays, Nos, ut oftendit, admodum diligit, amplectitur, amat, apertè laudat: fed-nihil come, nibil fimplex, nibil ev teg moretinog boneftum, nibil illuftre, nibil forte, nibil liberum, 1 A fecond letter to the duke of Grafton. Vacare culpâ magnum eft folatium; præfertim cum habeam duas res quibus me fuftentem, optimarum artium scientiam, et maximarum rerum gloriam, quarum altera mihi vivo nunquam eripietur, altera ne mortuo quidem. CICERO. ‹ MY LORD, ‹ Paris, Dec. 12, 1766. C I am am not yet recovered from the astonish⚫ment into which I was thrown by your grace's ‹ verbal message, in answer to my letter of the first of November. In a converfation I had with colonel Fitzroy at the Hôtel d'Espagne, he did me the honour of assuring me, that • I should find his brother my real and fincere ‹ friend, extremely defirous to concur in doing 6 me justice, that he was to tell me this from your grace, but that many interesting parti<culars relative to me could not be communi'cated by letter, nor by the poft. I fondly believed these obliging afsurances, because on a variety of occafions your grace had testified a full approbation of my conduct, had thanked me in the most flattering terms, as the perfon the most useful to the common cause in which we were embarked *, and had fhewn * Mr. Wilkes might very well exclaim in the words of TULLY, Non eft credibile, quæ fit perfidia in iftis principibus, ut volunt effe, et ut effent, fi quicquam haberent fidei; fenferam, noram, indutus, relictus, projectus ab iis: tamen hoc erat in animo, ut cum iis in Republicâ confentirem. all an uncommon zeal to ferve a man who had • fuffered fo much in the cause of liberty. I returned to England with the gayeft, and the most lively hopes. As foon as I arrived at London, I defired my excellent friend, Mr. Fitzherbert, to wait on your grace with every profeffion of regard on my C part, and the refolution I had taken of en6 tirely fubmitting the mode of the application I fhould make to the throne for my pardon. I cannot exprefs the anxiety, which your grace's anfwer gave me, "Mr. Wilkes muft "write to Lord Chatham." I then begged 6 Mr. Fitzherbert to state the reasons, which made it impoffible for me to follow that advice, from every principle of honour, both public and private. I fhewed too the impropriety of fupplicating a fellow-fubject for mercy, the prerogative good Kings are the moft jealous of, by far the brightest jewel in their crown, and the attribute by which they the nearest approach to the Divinity. may Í afterwards wrote the letter to your grace, which I have feen in all the public • prints. I never received any other answer than a verbal meffage," Mr. Wilkes muft "write to Lord Chatham. I do nothing "without Lord Chatham.” When I found that my pardon was to be bought with the facrifice of my honour, I had the virtue not to hefitate. I fpurned at the proposal, and • left my dear native London, with a heart full Append. VOL. I. I • of of grief that my fairest hopes were blafted, of humiliation that I had given an eafy faith to the promifes of a minifter and a courtier, • and of astonishment that a nobleman of parts and difcernment could continue in an infatuation, from which the conduct of lord Chatham had recovered every other man in the nation. He was indeed long the fa⚫vourite character of our countrymen. Every 6 tongue was wanton in his praife. The whole ⚫ people lavished on him their choiceft favours, • and endeavoured by the nobleft means, by an unbounded generofity and confidence, to • have kept him virtuous. With what anguish · were we at laft undeceived? How much it coft us to give up a man, who had fo long entirely kept poffeffion of our hearts? How cruel was the ftruggle? But alas! how is he changed? how fallen? from what height fallen? His glorious fun is fet, I believe never ⚫to rife again. • We long hoped, my lord, that public virtue was the guide of his actions, and the love of our country his ruling paffion, but he has fully fhewn, omnis vis, virtufque in • linguâ fita eft *. Our hearts glowed with < gratitude for the important fervices he had • done against the common enemy, and the voice of the nation hailed him our deliverer; * Ad C. Cæfarem de Republica Ordinanda Epiftola prima. • but 6 but private ambition was all the while skulking behind the fhield of the patriot, and at length in an evil hour made him quit the fcene of all his glory, the only place in which he could be truly ufeful, for a retreat, where he knew it was impoffible the confidence of the people could follow, but where he might in inglorious eafe bear his BLUSHING ɔnours thick upon him. I might now, my lord, expoftulate with your grace on a verbal meffage, and of fuch a nature, in anfwer to a letter couched in the most decent and refpectful terms, coming too from a late member of the legislature. I might regret, that the largest proffers of friendship and real fervice could mean no more than two or three words of cold advice, that Ifhould apply to another. I might be tempted to think it a duty of office in the first lord of the Treafury, to have fubmitted to his Majefty a petition relative to the exercise of the nobleft act of regal power, which any con• ftitution can give any fovereign. Surely, my lord, my application to the first commiffioner of the treafury, who is always confidered as the first minifter, in England, was the very proper application. As I had made no difcovery of any new wonderful pill or drop, nor pretended to the fecret of curing the gout or the tooth-ach, I never thought of foliciting lord Chatham for a privy feal. His lordship's office was neither important, nor refponfible, • I will I 2 |