LETTER LXXXIX. TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER. SIR, February 16, 1771. IT is proper the public should be informed that, upon Lord Gower's election to be a knight of the garter, there were but four knights present, besides the Sovereign, and the Duke of Gloucester was lugged in to be one of them. He intreated, he begged, he implored, but all to no purpose. Poor Peg Trentham was forced to submit to an election, which, by the statutes of the order, is void. Ashmole informs us, that "tc make up a complete chapter of election, there should be assembled six knights companions at the least, besides the Sovereign; the due observance of which hath been so strict formerly, that elections have been deferred, where chapters have been deficient in that number." * The same fact is related, and probably by the same correspondent, in the following article of the Public Advertiser, February 15, 1771: A correspondent has sent us the following remarks on the London Gazette, published by authority. This lying paper contains the following unprecedented article:-'St. James's, Feb. 11. This day a chapter of the most noble order of the garter was held in the great council chamber, when Granville Levison Gower, Earl Gower, being first knighted, was afterwards elected and invested with the garter, ribbon, and George, with the usual solemnity.' It is most notorious to a great concourse of nobility and gentry then present, that there were only assisting the best of Kings, the Dukes of Gloucester, Newcastle, and Northumberland; consequently it is impossible that any election can have been made, the statutes of the order requiring the presence of the Sovereign with six knights. The best of Kings, whose duty it is to preserve the laws inviolable, could, to be sure, on no consideration, not even the election of that most worthy peer the Earl Gower into this noble order, be prevailed upon in the face of all England to set the example of openly violating the statutes which have hitherto been so religiously respected and observed through so many ages. Had there been an election, the Gazette would have proclaimed it in the usual form-the knights present would have been enumerated and named. It is impossible that the best of Kings can be a party to the illegally smuggling in a knight upon that most noble order, in the same manner as a knight for the county of Middlesex has been smuggled into the House of Commons. If this article of news could be true, would not the kingdom have reason to lament that all order, decency, and respect for ancient rules and establishment is now broken through by the person whose peculiar duty and interest it is to preserve them? Is the Court itself so unpopular, or is the subject of his Majesty's favour so unworthy, that it was, after ten days waiting, impossible to procure the attendance of more than the King's own The present way of electing Peg Trentham is, for two reasons, remarkable. It shows first, in what profound comtempt poor Peggy is universally held. And secondly, the pious resolution of our gracious Sovereign to introduce a new system of arithmetic. In the decision of the Middlesex election, it was resolved that 296 were more than 1143, and now we are told that four are equal to six. This puts me in mind of Lord March's election to the coterie. All the balls were black; but the returning officer, George Selwyn, thought proper to swear he was duly elected, and he took his seat accordingly. A. B. LETTER XC. TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER. SIR, February 22, 1771. THE advocates of the ministry are, in point of ignorance, upon a level with the people whose conduct they defend *. The questions they ask are suicide to their own cause. Gibraltar and Minorca were yielded to England by the treaty of Utrecht, to which treaty Spain acceded; and, admitting that they have never given up in form their claim to Jamaica, it is also true, that, since the treaty of Utrecht, they have never asserted such a claim, much less have we allowed it to be inserted in any treaty between the two crowns. But, Sir, the real question is, not what declarations or pretensions Spain may have thought proper to advance, but, what declarations or preten sions on their part have we admitted and accepted? To sup brother, the Lord Chamberlain, the Auditor of the Exchequer, and the Duke of Northumberland in flannels? "9 "Risum teneatis amici! * The following is a copy of the paragraph which occasioned the foregoing essay : People who would cavil, and are clamorous about that part of the Spanish declaration where the King of Spain makes a reservation of a prior claim of right to Falkland Island, would do well to consider that such reservation is only mere matter of form, and is never likely to produce the smallest misunderstanding between the two crowns, especially when they recollect, or may inform themselves, that Spain never to this hour has renounced her formal claim of right either to Minorca or Gibraltar, in the treaties subsequent to our possession of those places." port a fair comparison between the terms on which we hold the above places, and those on which Port Egmont is restored, it should be proved that Spain, in some treaty between us and it, has asserted its claim of prior right to Jamaica, Gibraltar, and Minorca, and that we have, with equal formality, accepted a treaty containing such an express reservation, and declared ourselves satisfied with it. The ministry would then have an example in point*. VINDEX. LETTER XCI. TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER. SIR, March 6, 1771. PRAY tell that ingenious gentleman, Mr. Laughlin Macleane†, that when the King of Spain writes to the King of Great Britain, he omits four-fifths of his titles, and when our King writes to him, his address is always Carolo, Dei gratia, Hispaniarum, utriusque Sicilia, et Indiarum Regi Catholico. It was reserved for his present Majesty to say, in a public instrument, " Falkland Island is one of my possessions, and yet I allow the King of Spain to reserve a claim of prior right, and I declare myself satisfied with that reservation." In spite of Mr. Laughlin's disinterested, unbroken, melodious eloquence, it is a melancholy truth that the crown of England * The printer thought proper at the time, with the consent of the author (see Private Letter, No. 33), to break off at this point, and to suppress the remainder of the essay. The autograph of the entire letter is still in the hands of the proprietor of this edition; but it would be a breach of confidence to continue it further. Independently of which, he altogether approves of the suppression. Laughlin Macleane had been under secretary of state during Lord Shelburne's possession of the office for the southern department. In his defence of the ministry here referred to, he still discovers a hankering after office, and at least a disposition to forgive them for his dismission. Mr. Campbell, however, in his life of Hugh Boyd, p. 125, tells us that at this very period he possessed "a mortal hatred for his Grace (of Grafton), and indulged his resentment by painting him in the blackest colours !!!" See observations on this subject in the Preliminary Essay, vol. i. p. 78. In January, in the following year, he received from Lord North the collectorship of Philadelphia, and subsequently an appointment to India, in his voyage to which he was lost. was never so insulted, never so shamefully degraded, as by this declaration, with which the best of sovereigns assures his people he is perfectly, entirely, completely satisfied. VINDEX. LETTER XCII. TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER. SIR, March 25, 1771 HOWEVER the Court might have concealed its designs, however it might have deluded those who were disposed to be deceived, the imposition can exist no longer. The triplet union of Crown, Lords, and Commons against England displays itself with a violence and a candour which statesmen in other conspiracies seldom have adopted. It is no more a question of royal antipathy or feminine unrelenting resentment; it is not a single inconsequent act of arbitrary power; it is not the offensive individual, but the free constitution of this country, whose destruction engages the influence of the crown and the authority of parliament. The House of Commons assume a power of imprisonment during pleasure for actions which the laws have not made criminal. They create a crime as well as a punishment. They call upon the King to support their illegality by a proclamation still more illegal; and the liberty of the press is the object of this criminal alliance. They expunge a recognizance; they stagnate the course of justice, and thereby assume an absolute power over the law and property of Great Britain *.. *The whole of this requires explanation. The printers of newspapers, having long intended it, now resolutely determined to report the debates of both Houses. Col. Onslow made a motion against them as guilty of a violation of the privileges of parliament, and the printers were summoned to attend. Wheble and Mil'er, however, refused to obey the order; and the minister thought proper to issue a proclamation in his Majesty's name, and insert it in the Gazette, offering a reward of fifty pounds for apprehending John Wheble, printer of the Middlesex Journal, and John Miller, printer of the London Evening Post, for daring to publish certain speeches delivered in parliament. In consequence of this proclamation, they were both apprehended-Wheble by a brother printer of the name of Carpenter, who owed him a grudge; and Miller by William Whittam, a messenger of the House of Commons. The former was carried before Mr. Wilkes, at that time just The House of Lords have not been hackward in their contribution to the scheme of slavery; for they have imprisoned, liberated from the King's Bench, and, as alderman for Farringdon Without, sitting magistrate at Guildhall; who, denying the legal authority of a mere proclamation, discharged Wheble, and took a recognizance of him to prosecute Carpenter for an assault and unlawful imprisonment. Miller, upon his arrest, sent for a constable, to whom he gave charge of the messenger who arrested him, and immediately carried him to the Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor, Mr. Alderman Wilkes, and Mr. Alderman Oliver jointly heard the cause, discharged Miller, and signed a warrant of commitment of the messenger to the Compter for the assault and false imprisonment; from which, however, he was released upon finding bail. Wilkes, at the same time that these transactions were officially entered by the Lord Mayor's clerk into the Mansion House rota book, addressed a letter to Lord Halifax, one of the Secretaries of State, informing him of the steps he had taken. All was confusion and uproar. The House of Commons supported the legality of the proclamation, issued an order to prohibit every kind of prosecution or suit from being commenced or carried on for or on account of the assault and imprisonment of the printers, ordered the clerk to attend who had entered the proceedings in the Mansion House minute book, erased the entire record, and summoned the different aldermen who had officiated to appear at the bar of the House to answer for their conduct. The City first of all, and afterwards the nation at large, was extremely indignant at such illegal violence. The Lord Mayor's clerk was severely reprimanded, at a general court of aldermen, for suffering the City minute book to be mutilated; the Bill of Rights Society complained vehemently against the outrages committed; Wilkes refused to obey the summons for his attendance; and the Lord Mayor and his other colleagues, upon attending and justifying their conduct, were committed to the Tower for pretended contumacy. It was on this occasion that the Lord Mayor (Crosby) made the following spirited reply: "Mr. Speaker,-An honourable gentleman has talked of the lenity to be shown me on account of my health, and my being only committed to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms. I thank God that my health is better than it has been for some time past. I know that I was prejudged on Monday, and that the string of resolutions and warrants is now in the gentleman's pocket. I ask no favour of this House. I crave no mercy from the Treasury-bench. I am ready to go to my noble friend at the Tower, if the House shall order me. My conscience is clear, and tells me that I have kept my oath and done my duty to the city of which I have the honour to be chief magistrate, and to my country. I will never betray the privileges of the citizens nor the rights of the people. I have no apology to make for having acted uprightly, and I fear not any resentment in consequence of such conduct. I will through life continue to obey the dictates of honour and conscience, to give my utmost support to every part of the constitution of this kingdom, and the event I shall always leave to Heaven, at all times ready to meet my fate." The Lord Mayor was accompanied to the Tower by an immense concourse |