ployed, not in maintaining an army to defend the colonies, but in paying their judges and governors, with the object of making them dependent on the Crown, and independent of the public opinion of the colonists. From the point of view of the British Parliament, the colonists were like unruly children, who required to be kept in order. In America, on the other hand, the new duties were denounced as an attempt to govern America from England. Not only did people agree together to avoid the consumption of articles subject to the new duties, but attacks were made on the revenue officers who had to collect the money, and whatever violence was committed against them, juries refused to convict the offenders. On September 4, 1767, before further steps could be taken in England, Townshend died. His successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer was Lord North, who was inclined to carry out Townshend's policy. In reality, however, the king was himself the head of the ministry. 15. The Middlesex Election. 1768–1769.—Though before the end of 1768 Chatham recovered his health, he felt himself helpless, and formally resigned office. In that year there was a general election, and Wilkes, reappearing from France, was elected in Middlesex. His election was a token of a wide-spread dissatisfaction, not so much with the taxation of America as with the corruption by which the king had won Parliament to his side. In February, 1769, the House of Commons expelled Wilkes. He was then re-elected, and the House replied not only by expelling him again, but by incapacitating him from sitting in the House during the existing Parliament. When an election was again held, Wilkes was again at the head of the poll, but the House declared his opponent, Colonel Luttrell, to be duly elected, though the votes for him had been very few. A grave constitutional question was thus raised. George Grenville and the Rockingham Whigs agreed in asserting that nothing short of an Act of Parliament passed by both Houses could deprive the electors of their right of choosing whom they would as their representative, though they admitted that the House might expel a member so chosen as often as it pleased. To this doctrine Chatham, who had now recovered his health, gave his warm support. It seemed as if it would be impossible for the ministry to hold out against such a weight of authority and argument. 16. "Wilkes and Liberty." 1769.-The opponents of the court on the question of the Middlesex election had on their side two dangerous allies a libeller and the mob. The libeller, who called 1769 WILKES AND LIBERTY 775 himself 'Junius,' was probably Sir Philip Francis. He attacked with malignant bitterness the king and all his instruments. The mob, actuated by a sense of the unfairness with which Wilkes was treated, George III. in 1767: from a painting by Allan Ramsay in the took his part warmly. "Wilkes and liberty" was their cry. At the time of the Middlesex election '45' was freely chalked up on the doors of the houses, in allusion to the condemned number of the North Briton. Noblemen most hostile to Wilkes were compelled to illuminate their houses in honour of his success at the poll, and the grave Austrian ambassador was pulled out of his carriage, and '45' chalked on the soles of his boots. In June, Wilkes, having surrendered to take his trial for the publication of No. 45 and the Essay on Woman (see pp. 769, 770), was committed to prison, whence, on May 10, an enormous crowd strove to rescue him, and was only driven off after the soldiers had fired and killed five or six persons. Wilkes was, in June, sentenced to fine and imprisonment as a libeller, but the citizens of London, as enthusiastic in his favour as the crowd, chose him as Alderman whilst he was still in prison. The badness of his character was forgotten, and his pertinacious stand against the Court was alone remembered. 17. Lord North Prime Minister. 1770. When Parliament met, in January, 1770, Chatham, now again in full possession of his powers, took up the cause of Wilkes, maintaining that the House of Commons had no right to place Luttrell in his seat. The very sound of his voice dissolved the composite Ministry. Those who had entered it as his followers rallied to their leader. Pratt, who had become Lord Chancellor with the title of Lord Camden, was dismissed. The king, finding that no notable lawyer agreed with him as to the right of the House of Commons to disqualify Wilkes from being elected, persuaded Charles Yorke, an eminent lawyer and a hitherto devoted follower of Rockingham, to accept the Chancellorship, although in so doing he would have to argue against his own settled convictions. Yorke, tempted by the greatness of the prize, accepted the offer, but he was unable to bear the reproaches of his friends, and, for very shame, committed suicide. Grafton resigned office, and other ministers followed his example. The king then made Lord North First Lord of the Treasury, and gave him the position of a Prime Minister, though the title was still held to be invidious, and North himself objected to have it used in his own case. North was an able man, skilful in the management of public affairs, and honestly a supporter of strong measures against Wilkes and the Americans, and he fully adopted the principle that the king was to choose his ministers and to direct their policy. If North could maintain himself in Parliament, the new Toryism, of which the dependence of ministers on the Crown was the leading feature, would bave won the day. I. North and the Opposition. 1770.-The opposition, seemingly strong, was weakened by a conflict of opinion amongst its leaders. Chatham declared for Parliamentary reform, suggesting that a third member should be given to each county, as the freeholders, who at that time alone voted in county elections, were more independent than the borough electors. Burke and the Rockingham Whigs, on the other hand, objected to any constitutional change as likely in the end to throw power into the hands of the ignorant. The violence of mobs since Wilkes's election no doubt strengthened the conservative feeling of this section of the Whigs, and, at the same time, made strongly in favour of the Government, because in times of disorder quiet people are apt to support the Government whether they agree with it politically or not. North was well fitted to take advantage of this state of opinion. He was an easy-going man, who never lost his temper and never gave unnecessary offence. At the same time, he was an able party manager, and, though not a great statesman, was a sensible politician. With the king at his back, he had at his disposal all the engines of corruption by which votes were gained, and though members of Parliament had for some time ceased to sell their votes for ready money as they had done in the days of Walpole and Newcastle, they still continued to sell them for pensions, III. 3 E offices, and especially for sinecures. Moreover, North had the advantage of sharing in the king's strong feeling against the conduct of the Americans. Public opinion in England was turning more and more against the Americans, and, for the first time in his reign, George III. found support for his policy in public opinion. 2. North and the Tea Duty. 1770.-Only two courses were open to the British Government :-the one to treat the Americans as a virtually independent people, allowing them to tax themselves and to govern themselves as they pleased; the other to compel them to obedience by military force. It is hardly strange that Englishmen were not wise enough to accept the former alternative. They did not perceive that the colonists, in refusing the payment of taxes imposed by others than themselves, had a proper foundation for constitutional resistance, whilst they did perceive |