the Pretender's orders for no quarter, commending him very much but being interrupted, he desired (briskly) to go on, and said he should lay down his head with pleasure on that block, pointing to it, and desiring those between him and it to remove. He reflected very much upon General Williamson, but said he had received the Sacrament that morning, and was told it was not proper for a person of his condition to say more of him, but referred for his character to Psalm 109, from verse 5th to 15th. He said the Pretender gave him leave to enter our service, but soon as he could be of service to him, he left us. He talked to the executioner, took the ax in his hand, and tried the block, and told and showed him where to strike (near his head), and gave him three guineas (all he had); kneeled down and presently gave the sign. The first blow did not strike his head off, so that the assistants were forced to lift up his body to receive a second, but the third finished him.

I own I was a great deal more moved when I called on my friend Mr. Gill in the afternoon, and found him in great pain and given over by his Doctor, than I was with what I saw in the morning.

The Guards attending were 1,000, and I am sure the spectators were 100 to 1 of the Guards.

I am yours and Mr. and Mrs. Grimstons

Most obliged servant,

R. Graham.

(Diaries of a Lady of Quality (Miss Wynn), ed. by A. Hayward Q.C.

London, 1864, P. 142.)

CHAPTER XXVII

JOHN WILKES

201. No. 45 of the "North Briton"

We cannot better introduce the following paper than by quoting the words of Sir THOMAS ERSKINE MAY, in his Constitutional History of England:

"On the 23rd of April, 1763, appeared the memorable number of the North Briton,' commenting upon the king's speech at the prorogation, and upon the unpopular peace recently concluded. It was at once stigmatized by the court as an audacious libel, and a studied insult to the king himself; and it has since been represented in the same light, by historians not heated by the controversies of that time. But however bitter and offensive, it unquestionably assailed the minister rather than the king. Recognizing, again and again, the constitutional maxim of ministerial responsibility, it treated the royal speech as the composition of the minister."

The result of the publication was the prosecution of Wilkes for libel in the Court of King's Bench. A verdict was easily obtained, but the people considered Wilkes their champion, and the illegal proceedings against him made him a hero. He was punished by imprisonment, but finally triumphed by being seated in that Parliament which had ousted him from their midst as a thing unclean.

THE NORTH BRITON

No. XLV, Saturday, April 23, 1763.

Genus orationis atrox, et vehemens, cui opponitur lenitatis et mansuetudinis.

CICERO.

The King's Speech has always been considered by the legislature, and by the public at large, as the Speech of the

Minister. It has regularly, at the beginning of every session of parliament, been referred by both houses to the consideration of a committee, and has been generally canvassed with the utmost freedom, when the minister of the crown has been obnoxious to the nation. The ministers of this free country, conscious of the undoubted privileges of so spirited a people, and with the terrors of parliament before their eyes, have ever been cautious, no less with regard to the matter, than to the expressions, of speeches, which they have advised the sovereign to make from the throne, at the opening of every session. They well knew that an honest house of parliament, true to their trust, could not fail to detect the fallacious arts, or to remonstrate against the daring acts of violence, committed by any minister. The speech at the close of the session has ever been considered as the most secure method of promulgating the favourite court creed among the vulgar; because the parliament, which is the constitutional guardian of the liberties of the people, has in this case no opportunity of remonstrating, or of impeaching any wicked servant of the crown.

This week has given the public the most abandoned instance of ministerial effrontery ever attempted to be imposed on mankind. The minister's speech of last Tuesday, is not to be parralleled in the annals of this country. I am in doubt, whether the imposition is greater on the sovereign, or on the nation. Every friend of his country must lament that a prince of so many great and amiable qualities, whom England truly reveres, can be brought to give the sanction of his sacred name to the most odious measures, and to the most unjustifiable, public declarations, from a throne ever renowned for truth, honour, and unsullied virtue. I am sure, all foreigners, especially the king of Prussia, will hold the minister in contempt and abhorrence. He has made our sovereign declare, My expectations have been fully answered by the happy effects which the several allies of my crown have derived from this salutary measure of the definitive Treaty. The powers at war with my good brother, the King of Prussia, have been induced to agree to such terms of accomodation, as that great prince has approved; and the success which has attended my negociation, has necessarily and immediately diffused the blessings of peace through every part of Europe. The infamous fallacy of this whole sentence is apparent to all mankind: for it is known, that the King of Prussia did not barely approve, but absolutely dic

tated, as conqueror, every article of the terms of peace. No advantage of any kind has accrued to that magnanimous prince from our negociations, but he was basely deserted by the Scottish prime-minister of England. He was known by every court in Europe to be scarcely on better terms of friendship here, than at Vienna; and he was betrayed by us in the treaty of peace. What a strain of insolence, therefore, is it in a minister to lay claim to what he is conscious all his efforts tended to prevent, and meanly to arrogate to himself a share in the fame and glory of one of the greatest princes the world has ever seen? The king of Prussia, however, has gloriously kept all his former conquests, and stipulated security for all his allies, even for the elector of Hanover. I know in what light this great prince is considered in Europe, and in what manner he has been treated here; among other reasons, perhaps, from some contemptuous expressions he may have used of the Scot: expressions which are every day echoed by the whole body of Englishmen through the southern part of this island.

The Preliminary Articles of Peace were such as have drawn the contempt of mankind on our wretched negociators. All our most valuable conquests were agreed to be restored, and the East India Company would have been infallibly ruined by a single article of this fallacious and baneful negociation. No hireling of the minister has been hardy enough to dispute this; yet the minister himself has made our sovereign declare, the satisfaction which he felt at the approaching re-establishment of peace upon conditions so honourable to his crown, and so beneficial to his people. As to the entire approbation of parliament, which is so vainly boasted of, the world knows how that was obtained. The large debt on the Civil List, already above half a year in arrear, shews pretty clearly the transactions of the winter. It is, however, remarkable, that the minister's speeche dwells on the entire approbation given by parliament to the Preliminary Articles, which I will venture to say, he must by this time be ashamed of; for he has been brought to confess the total want of that knowledge, accuracy and precision, by which such immense advantages both of trade and territory, were sacrificed to our inveterate enemies. These gross

blunders are, indeed, in some measure set right by the Definitive Treaty; yet, the most important articles, relative to cessions, commerce, and the FISHERY, remain as they were, with respect to the French. The proud and feeble Spaniard,

too, does not RENOUNCE, but only DESISTS from all pretensions, which he may have formed, to the right of fishing — where? only about the island of NEWFOUNDLAND till a favourable opportunity arises of insisting on it, there, as well as elsewhere.

The minister cannot forbear, even in the King's Speech, insulting us with a dull repetition of the word œconomy. I did not expect so soon to have seen that word again, after it had been so lately exploded, and more than once, by a most numerous audience, hissed off the stage of our English theatres. It is held in derision by the voice of the people, and every tongue loudly proclaims the universal contempt, in which these empty professions are held by this nation. Let the public be informed of a single instance of economy, except indeed in the household. Is a regiment, which was compleated as to its compliment of officers on the Tuesday, and broke on the Thursday, a proof of economy? Is the pay of the Scottish Master Elliot to be voted by an English parliament, under the head of œconomy? Is this, among a thousand others, one of the convincing proofs of a firm resolution to form government on a plan of strict œconomy? Is it not notorious, that in the reduction of the army, not the least attention has been paid to it? Many unnecessary expenses have been incurred, only to increase the power of the crown, that is, to create more lucrative jobbs for the creatures of the minister. The staff indeed is broke, but the discerning part of mankind immediately comprehended the mean subterfuge, and resented the indignity put upon so brave an officer, as marshal Ligonier. That step was taken to give the whole power of the army to the crown, that is, to the minister. Lord Ligonier is now no longer at the head of the army; but Lord Bute in effect is: I mean that every preferment given by the crown will be found still to be obtained by his enormous influence, and to be bestowed only on the creatures of the Scottish faction. The nation is still in the same deplorable state, while he governs, and can make the tools of his power pursue the same odious measure. Such a retreat, as he intends, can only mean that personal indemnity, which, I hope, guilt will never find from an injured nation. The negociations of the late inglorious peace, and the excise, will haunt him, wherever he goes, and the terrors of the just resentment, which he must be to meet from a brave and insulted people, and which must finally crush him, will be for ever before his eyes.