I have no favour or affection, so let all go. It should be copied over in a better hand. If any objections are raised, which are answered in my third letter, you will, I am sure, answer for me, so far forth, gre tenus. JUNIUS. By all means let it be copied. This manuscript is for private use only. No. 73. SIR, Monday. WHEN I wrote to you on Saturday, it did not occur to me that your own advertisement had already informed the public of your receiving two letters; your omitting the preamble to the second letter would therefore be to no purpose. In my opinion you should not wish to decline the appearance of being particularly addressed in that letter. It is calculated to give you dignity with the public. There is more in it than perhaps you are aware of. Depend upon it, the perpetual union of Wilkes and mob does you no service. Not but that I love and esteem the mob.-It is your interest to keep up dignity and gravity besides. I would not make myself cheap by walking the streets so much as you do. Verbum sat. SIR, No. 74. TO JUNIUS. Wednesday, Sept. 25. YESTERDAY I attended the meeting of the Society of the Bill of Rights, and laid before them the letter, which I had the honour of receiving from you on the 7th of September. The few lines of the preamble I omitted, the word ridiculous, according to your directions, and a very few more lines towards the conclusion. All the rest was a faithful transcript, the exact tenor2. The season of the year occa 1 Written on it by Mr. Wilkes, "Received Sept. 23, 1771." 2 When Mr. Wilkes was prosecuted in the year 1764, for publishing the North sioned the meeting to be ill attended, only eleven members were present. The following resolution passed unanimously: "That Mr. Wilkes be desired to transmit to JUNIUS the thanks of the Society for his letter, and to assure him, that it was received with all the respect due to his distinguished character and abilities." Soon after my fever obliged me to return home, and I have not heard of any thing further being done; but Mr. Lee told me he thought the letter capable of a full answer, which he meant on a future day, to submit to the Society, and would previously communicate to me. The letter is left in the hands Mr. Reynolds, who has the care of the other papers of the Society, with directions to permit every member to peruse, and even transcribe it, on the promise of non-publication. Some particular expressions appeared rather too harsh and grating to the ears of some of the members. Surely, Sir, nothing in the advertisement I inserted in the Public Advertiser, could lead to the idea of the two letters I mentioned coming from JUNIUS. I intreat him to peruse once more, that guarded advertisement. I hope that Mr. Bull's, and my address of Saturday, was approved where I most desire it should be thought of favourably. I know it made our enemies wince in the most tender part. I am too ill to-day to add more. JOHN WILKES. SIR, No. 75. 16th October, 1771. I CANNOT help expressing to you my thanks and approbation of your letter of this day1. I think it proper, manly, and North Briton, No. 45, Lord Mansfield issued an order for Mr. Wilkes's attorney or solicitor to attend at his house, on the morning previous to the trial, "to shew cause why the information in this cause should not be amended by striking out the word PURPORT, in the several places where it is mentioned in the said information, (except in the first place) and inserting, instead thereof, the word TENOR." The Chief Justice was accused of having suggested this alteration, and several objections were taken to it, which, in argument, were overruled by the Court. This was a long address from Mr. Wilkes to the livery of London, in his to the purpose. In these altercations nothing can be more useful, than to preserve dignity and sang froid-fortiter in re, suaviter in modo, increases both the force and the severity. Your conduct to Mr. Sawbridge is every thing I could wish1. Be assured, you will find it both honourable and judicious. Had it been adopted a little sooner, you might have returned him and Crosby, and taken the whole merit of it to yourself. If I am truly informed of Mr. S.'s behaviour on the hustings, I must confess it does not satisfy me. But perseverance, management, and determined good humour, will set every thing right, and, in the end, break the heart of Mr. Horne. Nothing can be more true than what you say about great men2. They are indeed a worthless, his own defence, from an attack which had been made upon him by Mr. Alderman Townshend. We shall extract such parts of it as are more particularly alluded to by JUNIUS in this letter. 1 "Mr. Townshend asks, 'Does he (Mr. Wilkes) allow one man in the court of aldermen to be worthy of your confidence, except himself and Mr. Crosby? Let me state the question about Mr. Sawbridge. Mr. Wilkes has declared under his hand, in all the public papers, 'No man can honour Mr. Sawbridge more than I do, for every public and private virtue, which constitutes a great and amiable character. Was this praise cold or penurious? Was it not deserving a better return than it seems to have found? Is not such a character worthy of your confidence?" Mr. Wilkes's letter of Oct. 15. 2 " Mr. Morris told us at the Bill of Rights, that when he pressed Mr. Townshend about the affair of the printers, his answer was, that he did not find he should be supported by any great man, and otherwise it would be imprudent, therefore did not chuse to act in it. The prudent Mr. Townshend may wait the consent of great men. I will on a national call follow instantly the line of my duty, regardless of their applause or censure. Public spirit and virtue are seldom in the company of his Lordship or his Grace. [The case of the printers is detailed in note to Miscellaneous Letters, No. XCII. Vol. II. p. 403] "Has not, by the conduct of your Magistrates, a complete victory been gained over the usurped powers both of the Crown and the House of Commons? The two questions had been frequently agitated among the friends of liberty, even while I remained at the King's Bench. When the eity and the nation had clearly decided in favour of the cause, the great men followed, as they generally do, joined the public cry, and thronged to the Tower to pay their tardy tribute of praise to the persecuted patriots. The business had been completed without their assistance. In all such cases pitiful race. Chatham has gallantly thrown away the scabbard, and never flinched. From that moment I began to like him. I see we do not agree about the strict right of pressing1. If you are as sincere as I am, we shall not quarrel about a difference of opinion. I shall say a few words to-morrow on this subject, under the signature of Philo-Junius. The letters under that name have been hastily drawn up, but the principles are tenable. I thought your letter about the military very proper and well drawn2. JUNIUS. cases I am persuaded we shall find, that the people will be obliged to do their own business; but if it succeeds, they may be sure of the concurrence and applause of the great, and their even entering the most lothsome prisons or dungeons-on a short visit of parade." Mr. Wilkes's letter of Oct. 15. 1 "As a good Englishman and citizen, I thanked my brethren Sawbridge and Oliver for having so nobly discharged their duty as aldermen in the business of Press Warrants, on which I expatiated as the most cruel species of General Warrants." Id. 2 Shortly previous to Messrs. Wilkes and Bull entering upon their office of Sheriffs of London, they addressed a short letter to the livery, containing a paragraph respecting the military, of which the following is a copy: "We have observed with the deepest concern, that a military force has, on several fate occasions, been employed by an unprincipled administration, under the pretence of assisting the civil power in carrying the sentence of the laws into execution. The conduct of the present sheriffs, in the remarkable case of the two unhappy men who suffered in July, near Bethnal Green, was truly patriotic. We are determined to follow so meritorious an example, and as that melancholy part of our office will commence in a very few days, we take this opportunity of declaring, that as the constitution has entrusted us with the whole power of the county, we will not, during our sheriffalty, suffer any part of the army to interfere, or even to attend, as on many former occasions, on the pretence of aiding or assisting the civil magistrate. This resolution we declare to the public, and to administration, to prevent during our continuance in office, the sending of any detachments from the regular forces on such a service, and the possibility of all future alarming disputes. The civil power of this country we are sure is able to support itself and a good government. The magistrate, with the assistance of those in his jurisdiction, is by experience known to be strong enough to enforce all legal commands, without the aid of a standing army. Where that is not the case, a nation must sink into an absolute Vob. I. *2 C No. 76. SIR, Oct. 17, 1771. I am not yet recovered, and to-day have been harassed with complaints against the greatest villains out of hell, the bailiffs; but so very polite and friendly a letter as Junius's of yesterday demands my earliest and warmest acknowledgments. I only take up the pen to say that I think myself happy in his approbation, that a line of applause from him gives the same brisk circulation to my spirits, as a kiss from Chloe, and that I mean soon to communicate to him a project of importance. I will skirmish with the great almost every day in some way or other. Does Junius approve the following manœuvre, instead of going in a gingerbread chariot to yawn through a dull sermon at St. Paul's. "Old Bailey, Oct 24th, 1771. " Mr. Sheriff Wilkes presents his duty to the Lord Mayor, and asks his Lordship's leave to prefer the real service of his country to-morrow in the administration of justice here, to the vain parade on the anniversary of the accession of a prince, under whose inauspicious government an universal discontent prevails among the people, and who still leaves the most intolerable grievances of his subjects unredressed." This card to be published at length. Will JUNIUS suggest any alteration or addition? It is a bold step. The sessions will not be ended on the 25th, and it is the duty of the sheriff to attend. I will follow all your hints about Mr. Sawbridge. I am sorry to differ so much from you, about Press Warrants. I own that I have warmly gone through solute military government, and every thing valuable to the subject be at the mercy of the soldiery and their commander. We leave to our brave countrymen of the army the glory of conquering our foreign enemies. We pledge ourselves to the public for the faithful and exact discharge of our duty in every emergency without their assistance. We desire to save them a service we know they detest, and we take on ourselves the painful task of those unpleasing scenes, which our office calls upon us to superintend. The laws of our country shall, in all instances during our sheriffalty, be solely enforced by the authority and vigour of the civil magistrate." |