In the progrefs of the North Briton fome individuals were infulted who did not fubmit patiently to the ftigma in tended to be taftened on them. For fome expreffions in No. 12, Lord Talbot chal. lenged the fuppofed author to a bloodle's duel, and for No. 40, he was called to account more fucceísfully afterwards by Mr. Martin. Mr. Peregrine Cut had recourfe to the Court of King's Bench 1, and fome irritable Scots relented the imputations on their country in a manner that could not be defended §. The impunity with which the paper had been fuffered to proceed, at length roufed the attention of the Government; and on the publication of No. 45, a iweeping illegal general warrant was iffued against the authors, printers, and publishers, which, though intended to crush the author, operated fo much in his favour as to induce the public to efpoufe his caufe as their own, and laid the foundation of that popularity, by which he afterwards extricated himself from all his difficulties, and long attached the populace to him as a fufferer in the cause of liberty.

The circum'tances which attended his being taken into cultedy have been minutely, and we believe accurately, related by himself: they do credit to him as a Briton . He was committed to the Tower the 30th of April; but a habeas corpus being flued, he was brought up to the Court of Common Pleas the 3d of May, and remanded back until the 6th, when he was discharged. On both thefe occafions he made inflammatory fpeeches against the Government. Previous to this event his Majelty, on the 4th of May, difplaced Mr. Wilkes from being Colonel of the Buckinghamfhire militia, a fituation which he had filled very much to his credit; and foon after, Lord Temple, who had exprefled his concern at the lofs of an oflicer (to ule his own words), "who by his deportment in command was endeared to the whole corps," was deprived of his post of Lord Lieutenant of the county.

During the recefs of Parliament, Mr. Wilkes iet up a printing prefs in his houte in Great George-ftreet, contrary to the advice of many of his friends. The principal work executed there was The North Briton, in three volumes; for the publication of which he was afterwards convicted . He this fummer made a visit to France, to fee his daughter.

On the meeting of the Parliament on the 15th of November, both the contending parties prepared for action. A meffage in the name of his Majesty was fent to the Houte of Commons, informing them of the libel No. 45, and of the fteps taken by the Ministry in contequence of it. Mr. Wilkes alfo laid his complaint of a breach of privilege before the Houfe; the hearing of which was poftponed until a future day. In the Houle of Lords, a complaint of breach of privilege was made by Bifhop Warburton, that his name had been put to a moft blafphemous work, entitled "An Ellay on Woman," fix copies of which had been printed by Nir. Wilkes, without any defign of publication. charge was entirely unlooked for, and occafioned great odium to fall on the offending patriot, whole profligacy was exclaimed againit with the utmolt freedom. Informations were filed againft him, both for this concealed work, and for The North Briton, and the utmost feverity of the law was threatened to be enforced against him. On the other hand, actions were commenced by him against the Secretaries of State, and all the perions concerned in ifining and executing the illegal general wariants for feizing his perion and papers.

This

In

At this juncture the acrimony of party could not be exceeded by any thing which later times have witnefied. the courfe of the debate in the Houfe of Commons on the 15th of November, Mr. Martin, one of the Secretaries of the Treatury, who had been in the grofleft manner infulted in The North Briton,

See North Briton, Vel. iii. p. 82.

No.

mon hangman, and on the 16th the House of Commons directed Dr. Hebberden and Mr. Cæfar Hawkins to attend their devoted Member at proper intervals, to obferve the progrefs of his cure; and that they, together with Dr. Brocklesby and Mr. Graves, his own phyfician and furgeon, fhould report their opinion on the 19th of January enfuing; but in the interval, Mr. Wilkes, confidering himielf not fecure in England, on the 25th of December, without any notice, quietly left London for Paris, where on the 30th he had a friendly meeting with

*

his antagonist Mr. Martin, in which both parties feemed to bury their animofity in oblivion, and behaved to each other with great politeness.

On the 6th of December the action brought by Mr. Wilkes against Mr. Wood, as Under-Secretary of State, for feizing his papers, was tried before Lord Chief Justice Pratt, when a verdict was given for 1000l. damages; and the cause against Lord Halifax proceeded until Mr. Wilkes was outlawed, by which it became neceffarily fufpended.

(To be concluded in our next.)

HAMLET.

LORD CHANCELLOR HARDWICKE.

dominions.

obliged to a learned friend :

The Earl of Hardwicke was certainly one of the greatest ornaments of the English Nation. He was born in very humble life, commenced his legal career in the lowest walk of the profeffion; but, uniting uncommon abilities with uncommon industry, advanced himself to the higheft office of the English Judicature, and to the dignity of a Peer of Great Britain. He acquired an immenfe fortune, and obtained for his fons fome of the first offices in Church and State. It is obfervable, that his Lordship, and his great contemporary the Earl of Manifield, differed extremely in their mode of fructifying their money; the former invefting it immediately in the purchase of land, the latter placing it out upon mortgage. In the event, the mode adopted by Lord Hardwicke proved molt productive, the increase of the value of land, and the advance of rents, greatly counterbalancing the advantage of five per cent. intereft. In the years 1740, 1748, and 1752, his Lordfhip was appointed one of the Lords Juftices for the administration of the Government during King George the Second's abfence on his journies in those years to his German

was appointed Lord High Chancellor of England; and held that office till 1756, when he refigned the feals, to the great concern of the Bar, and, as it was laid at the time, to the great mortification of the King. The period during which he prefided in Chancery is an era in the judicature of that Court. The Bar was never more refpectable; but the fuperior powers of his Lordship were univerfally felt and acknowledged; and, except fome petulant expreffions which fell from Lord Chief Juftice Willes, when he was called to his atlittance in the cafe of Omychund againft Barker, his Lordship was treated in his Court with a degree of refpect that bordered nearly on veneration. He was molt patient in hearing a caufe, almoft always pronounced immediate judgment upon it, and very feldom poftponed his decifions from one term to another. In his arguments from the Bench his language was eafy and dignified; he dif played a profution of legal learning; his mode of applying it was luminous, and his conclufions carried conviction. Only three appeals were made from his decrees, and in thete his decifions were confirmed. A determination of Lord Hardwicke is. to this day, the very highest authority

that

that can be urged in any Court of Equity. He had three fons. Philip, his cideft fon, and his fucceffor in his title, was a man of learning and taste, and is fuppofed to have contributed greatly to the publication called "The Athenian Letters." The celebrated Mr. Charles Yorke was his Lordfhip's fecond fon. The following is a copy of the intro. ductory part of the will of Mr. Charles Yorke :

"Being lately called upon, by the death of my molt affectionate and entirely beloved wife, to reflect on the uncertainty of all enjoyments in this world, I think it an act of duty and prudence to make fome difpofition of my real and perfonal eftate by will. But, having mentioned the affecting occafion which has turned my thoughts to this fubject, I ought, in the first place, to return my grateful acknowledgments to Almighty God (the author of every good and perfect gift) for many great mercies and unmerited advantages, particularly for that greateft of all bleffings conferred upon me, in my marriage with my moft amiable wife Catherine, whofe artlefs manner, sweeteit temper, tender, generous, and difinterefted kindnefs, unaffected piety to God, and habitual chearfulness (the happy refult of the purett innocence, and the most fteady principles of religion and virtue), made her the delight of all who knew her, and an example worthy of imitation. It was the goodness of God to indulge me in the enjoyment of fuch a bleffing; it was his wifdom and righteous will to make that enjoyment fhorts and to take her from me in the bloom of her age, and in the midst of my best hopes, left I might feel more calmnefs and prosperity than was good for me; being conscious of many frailties, errors, and tranfgreffions, of which I humbly implore his forgivenefs, through the merits of Jefus Chrift my only Saviour; and that his Providence will graciously deliver me, both here and in another state of existence, from the evil confequences of them all. In the next place, I defire my executors

to bury me in the fame vault at W. in C.fhire, with my faid deareft wife and my two infant daughters, M. and C. in the firm belief and hope of the refurrection of the innocent and pure in heart to a bleffed immortality."

Lord Hardwicke was of so ardent and fo induftrious a mind, that when Bower's celebrated Lives of the Popes came ́ out, he had read them through, before a fingle fellow of a college in Cambridge had looked into them.

ABULFEDA.

Do

This Arabian Philofopher of the Des fart being asked one day how he came to know that there was a God, replied, “ In the fame way as I know, by the prints that are made in the fand, whether a man or a beaft has paffed before me. not," added he," the heavens by the fplendor of the ftars, the world by the immenfity of its extent, and the fea by the infinity of the waves that it rolls, fufficiently make known to us the power and the greatness of their Author?"

Another Arabian, having the fame queftion put to him, replied, " Does it require a flambeau to fee the fun?"

"A man," fays an Arabian, "who wears finer cloaths than he can afford, is like a perfon who puts on rouge, whilft he has an ulcer that is eating him up t."

DR. THOMAS BURNET,

The fublime writer of the "Theory of the Earth," was educated at the Charter-houfe School, and became afterwards Master of that distinguished hofpital. Like good Bishop Hough, he oppofed the arbitrary power of James the Second, and would not permit him, or any of his fervile courtiers, to nominate Catholics to any of the charities of his hofpital. He would probably have rifen very high in the Church under King William, had he not given offence by fome freedoms with which he treated the Books of Mofes. In the apartments of the Master of the Charter-house there

is a fine whole-length picture of Dr. Burnet by Sir Peter Lely: it exhibits a countenance of great sweetness combined with great fenfe.

SAMUEL BRET.

The Jews have in general been fupposed to have proceeded in their traditions from father to fon without any of those public Councils which obtained fo often in the Chriftian Church. Samuel Bret gives an account of a Jewish Council, at which he was prefent, on the plain of Ageda, in Hungary, on the 12th of October, 1650. The account of the matters agitated in it is very curious, and it ended re infectâ, as moft Chriftian Councils did. It is published in the fourth volume of "The Phoenix," in 1707, and at the end of Dr. Clayton, Bishop of Clogher's "Differtation on Prophecy," 8vo. 1749; and has lately been reprinted, and in a learned and ele gant little work, entitled "Hora Biblice," written by an eminent Advocate, who to the most founded and extenfive knowledge of his profeffion adds a variety of erudition and literature hardly ever to be met with in the most profound fcholar. To the detriment of the country and of literature in general, the modefty of this elegant writer has permitted only a few copies of the work to be printed for the ufe of his friends. It is, however, moft devoutly to be wifhed, that the great merit of the work will prevail upon him to extend the more general diffufion of its valuable contents; and that he will give up his particular feelings to the wishes and inftruction of the public.

JOHN WILKES, ESQ.

This extraordinary perfon died, as he lived, with great philofophic coolness. Not long before he died, he repeated fome paffages from the poem of the "Purfuits of Literature," of which he fpoke highly. He behaved with the greatest kindness and civility to the fervants who waited upon him, and thanked them for their care and attention; and in the laft draught which he took, he drank the health of his beloved and excellent daughter who attended him with great folicitude. He laughed much at politics and at poli. ticians he had, indeed, there played a great part himself; and used to lay of himself, that he was a volcano burnt

:

out." He did not, indeed, laugh at the useful science of politics, but at that art, which, according to Oxenstiern, is that of deceiving, not of governing mankind”; an art which he had practised with great fuccefs himself upon the weak and the incautious, whom he was ever himself the first to ridicule, whilst he profited by their follies, as his predeceffors had ever done before him †. His fucceffors will not, perhaps, be able to enjoy that advantage, as the miferies they have entailed upon the Country may in the end reach themselves no lefs than the perfons whom they have duped, and

Even-banded Juftice May bring the ingredients of the poifon'd

chalice

To their own lips.

Any errors in Mr. Wilkes's political life, to which an ignorant, a foolish, and a vindictive Miniftry gave rife, were amply compenfated by his fubfequent behaviour as a Magiftrate, and by the fenfible and falutary advice which he gave in the riots of 1780, refpecting the prefervation of the Bank of England.

ANTHONY CHEMIER, ESQ.

This acute and excellent Under-Secretary of State told an ingenious friend of his upon his death-bed, "My dear D. take my word for it, it is impoffible to be a politician and to be an honeft man." A queftion of nearly the fame kind was afked of the virtuous Earl Stanhope, foon after he became Secretary of State to George the Second, by that exraordinary perfon, Mr. William Whiston.

M. D'AGUESSEAU, GREAT CHANCEL LOR OF FRANCE.

In a difpute between the Phyficians and Surgeons of Paris, a Physician requefted this great Magiftrate to fet up a wall between the two profeffions. "But pray, Sir," replied he, "on which side am I to place the patient ?"

He was advised by one of his friends to manage his health a little, and not to give fuch long audiences to the fuitors in his Court. "How, Sir," said he, "can I give myself any repofe, when I know there are fo many persons who ftand in need of my affiftance."

He was no lefs a great fcholar and an excellent mathematician, than he was a

2

He is a

fearned