CHARACTERS. 
atithors, printers, and publifhers 
of the North Briton, No. 45, and 
carried to his own houfe. The 
publicity of the act having occa- 
fioned much noife, he was inftantly 
_ vifited by 2 number of his friends, 
and, among others, by Charles 
Churchill, a fellow-labourer in the 
one vineyard, whom he faved 
rom imprifonment by that pre- 
fence of mind which never deferted 
him on trying occafions. In the 
mean time he defired two other 
gentlemen to repair to the court of 
Common Pleas, and fue out a writ 
wf habeas corpus, in’ confequence of 
his being detained a prifoner in his 
own houfe, by an illegal arreft. 
As Lord Halifax did not choofe 
to proceed direftly to extremities, 
the fent feveral polite meflages to 
Mr. Wilkes, requefting his compa- 
ny: but the latter refolutely refuf- 
ed, and could not be prevailed up- 
on to repair to his Lordfhip’s houfe, 
until he was threatened with perfo- 
nal violence, and given to under- 
dtand that a regiment of guards 
would, if neceffary, be called in. 
.On this he proceeded in a chair, 
attended by the meffengers and 
their followers; he, however, re- 
fufed to anfwer.any queftions what- 
ever, and treated Lord Egremont, 
the other fecretary of ftate, who 
exhibited too much of the info- 
lence of office in his demeaner, with 
great fpirit. 
- On his being committed to the 
‘Tower, he was preffed to offer bail ; 
but he ftrenuoufly refufed, as it 
would have looked like an acqui- 
eicence in the juftice of the pro- 
ceedings againft him, although two 
noblemen offered to become fure- 
ties to the amount of 100,0001. 
gach. In confequence of ftriét or- 
373: 
ders for that purpofe, he was kept 
a clofe prifoner; and Earl Temple, 
and the reft of his friends, denied 
accefs to him, until two habea/es 
were iffued, the firft having beem 
evaded by chicanery. At length, 
on Tuefday the $d of May, he was 
brought up to the bar of the Com- 
mon Pleas, where, in an appofite 
{peech, he complained of the viola- 
tion of the laws; and afferted, that 
he had been treated worfe “ than 
if he had been a Scotch rebel.” 
The court having ‘taken time to 
deliberate, he was remanded, ard 
brought up once more, on the 6th, 
when the Lord Chief Juftice, Sir 
Charles Pratt, afterwards Lord 
Camden, ordered him to be dif- 
charged. Flufhed with this victo- 
ry, in the courfe of that very night, 
he wrote a bitter and farcaftic letter 
to the two tecretaries of ftate; in 
which, after recapitulating the cir- 
cumftances relative to the feizure 
.of his papers, he demanded the re- 
ftitution of them, under the title of 
** ftolen goods,’’ and actually appli- 
ed ‘to Bow-ftreet for a warrant to 
fearch their houfes, in order to re- 
cover pofleffion of his property, 
which had been felonioufly taken 
away. It may be eafily fuppofed, 
that a magiftrate under the immedi- 
ate influence of the miniftry, refufed 
his countenance to this proceeding ; 
but recourfe was foon had to a 
higher authority, and ample {fatis- 
faction received. 
While Mr. Wilkes was yet in the 
Tower, unlawfully imprifoned, and 
unconvicted, therefore, in the eye 
of the law, fuppefed to be at once 
innocent and oppreffed, he was 
doomz2d to experience all the rigour 
of royal vengeance, having been 
actually difmiffed from his fituation 
Aas of 
