< me on fo interesting, so affecting an occafion. The perfonal regard you have fhewn me, indeed, confers on me an obligation, the due sense of which I too cordially feel to find < words to describe. I cannot, however, forbear congratulating you, as the moft diftinguifhed of Englishmen, on the honourable proof you have given, that the genuine spirit of independency, the true love of our country (for which the county of Middlefex has, for ages, been fo eminently confpicuous) still glow in your breafts with unremitting ardour, ftill fhine forth with undiminished luftre. Let them call their PUSILLANIMITY prudence, while they ignominioufly kifs the rod of power, and tamely ftoop to the yoke, which artful minifters infidioufly prepare, and arbitrarily <impofe. You, Gentlemen, have shewn, that you are neither to be deceived nor enflaved. In proving yourselves enemies to ministerial perfecution, the eyes of the whole kingdom, of the whole world, are upon you, as the first • and firmest defenders of public liberty. Happy < fhall I think myself, if, fired by your ex6 ample, the efforts of my warmeft zeal may be deemed an adequate return for the favours you have bestowed on me; but however inefficient my abilities, my will to ferve you is unbounded as it is unalterable. Engaged as I have long been in the glorious cause of freedom, I beg you to confider my past conduct as an earnest of the future, and to look 4 од L 4 on me as a man, whofe primary views will · ever regard the rights and privileges of his ⚫ fellow countrymen in general, and whose se'condary views fhall be attentively fixed on the dignity, advantage, and prosperity of the coun ty of Middlesex. Let me therefore defire of you, gentlemen, to favour me from time to time, with fuch inftructions as may best enable me to accomplish thofe ends; refting affured of always finding me devoted to your service, and that the happiest moments of my life will be those in which I am employed in maintaining the civil and religious rights. of Englishmen, and in promoting the interefts of my constituents. I am, with the trueft refpect, Tuesday, March 29. JOHN WILKES,' Among the many cruel and oppreffive meafures of this administration against Mr. Wilkes, the following ought to be noticed. When Mr. Wilkes dined with his friends, on the 10th of April laft, at the King's Arms Tavern, in Cornhill, he was served, in the midst of them, by an agent of the secretary of the Treasury, with an exchequer writ and bill of difcovery, pon information, confifting of many fheets of paper, paper, in order to difcover and feize all his effects under the outlawry, as being forfeited to the crown, although the writs of error in the cafe of the outlawry had been actually allowed. The outlawry has fince been declared illegal from the beginning. Query, If the Treasury had fucceeded in their attempt of feizing the effects of Mr. Wilkes, under that illegal outlawry, would it not have been a downright robbery ? In confequence of the promise contained in the letter to Mr. Nuthall, Mr. Wilkes appeared before the Court of King's Bench, on the 20th of April 1768, the first day of Term, and there delivered the following Speech. • My Lords, According to the voluntary promise I made to the public, I now appear before this fove6 reign court of juftice, to fubmit myself in every thing to the laws of my country. Two verdicts have been found against me. One is for the re-publication of the North Briton, No. 45, the other for the publication • of a ludicrous poem. As to the re-publication of that number of the North Briton, I cannot yet see that there is the smallest degree of guilt. I have often read and examined with care that famous paper, I know that it is in every part founded · on on the strongest evidence of facts. I find it full of duty and refpect to the perfon of the King, although it arraigns, in the feverest manner, the conduct of his Majefty's then minifters, ' and brings very heavy charges home to them. I am perfuaded they were well grounded, • because every one of thofe minifters has fince been removed. No one inftance of falfhood has yet been pointed out in that pretended libel, nor was the word falfe in the informa⚫tion before this court. I am therefore perfectly eafy under every imputation respecting a paper, in which truth has guided the pen of the writer, whoever he was, in every fingle line, and it is this circumftance which has drawn on me, as the fuppofed author, all "the cruelties of minifterial vengeance. As to the other charge against me for the publication of a poem, which has given just offence, I will affert, that fuch an idea never entered my mind. I blush again at the recollection that it has been at any time, and in < any way, brought to the public eye, and drawn from the obfcurity in which it remained under my roof. Twelve copies of a fmall part of it had been printed in my house at my own private prefs. I had carefully locked them up, and I never gave one to the most intimate friend. Government, after the affair of the North Briton, bribed one of my fervants to rob me of the copy, which was produced in the Houfe of Peers, and ⚫ afterwards • afterwards before this honourable court. The nation was juftly offended, but not with me, for it was evident that I had not been guilty of the leaft offence to the public. I pray 'God to forgive, as I do, the jury, who have found me guilty of publishing a poem I con•cealed with care, and which is not even yet published, if any precife meaning can be af• fixed to any word in our language. But, my lords, neither of the two verdicts could have been found against me, if the <records had not been materially altered with' out my confent, and, as I am informed, con⚫trary to law. On the evening only before the two trials, lord chief juftice Mansfield caused the records to be altered at his own house, ⚫ against the confent of my folicitor, and with• out my knowledge; for a dangerous illness, arifing from an affair of honour, detained me at that time abroad *. The alterations were • of The fact refpecting the alteration of the record in the cafe of the North Briton is ftated in the following manner in' the Hiftory of the Minority, page 265. "When this caufe ftood ready for trial, Francis Barlow of the crown-office received directions from Mr. Wallace or Mr. Webb, to apply to a judge to get the information against Mr. Wilkes amended, by flriking out the word "purport," and inferting in its ftead, the word "tenor." Upon which Barlow applied to lord Mansfield, and obtained a fummons to fhew caufe why it should not be fo amended; and Mr. Phillips, Mr. Wilkes's folicitor, attended lord Mansfield, at his house in Bloomsbury fquare, on Monday the 20th of February 1764, (which was the day before Mr. Wilkes' |