re was
a single member of the House whose delicacy was not likely to be
shocked, and whose morals could not be injured by such a composition, it
was certainly Lord Sandwich himself; but his zeal as a minister to
support his chief kindled in him a sudden enthusiasm for the support of
virtue and decency also; and, having obtained a copy by some
surreptitious means, he now made a formal complaint of it to the House,
contending that the use of the name of the Bishop of Gloucester as
author of the notes constituted a breach of the privileges of the House.
And he was seconded by the bishop himself, whose temper and judgment
were, unhappily, very inferior to his learning and piety. It is recorded
that he actually compared Wilkes to the devil, and then apologized to
Satan for the comparison. But the Lords were in a humor to regard no
violence against Wilkes as excessive; and, submitting to the guidance of
the minister and the prelate, resolved that the "Essay on Woman,"[10] as
also another poem by the same writer, a paraphrase of the "Veni
Creator," was "a most scandalous, obscene, and impious libel," and
presented an address to the King, requesting his Majesty "to give the
most effectual orders for the immediate prosecution of the author." And,
in the course of the next few weeks, the House of Commons outran the
peers themselves in violence and manifest unfairness. They concurred
with the Lords in ordering No. 45 of _The North Briton_ to be burnt by
the common hangman, an order which was not carried out without great
opposition on the part of the London populace, who made it the occasion
of a very formidable riot, in which the sheriffs themselves incurred no
little danger; and, by another resolution, they ordered Wilkes to attend
in his place to answer the charge of having published the two works. But
at the time when they made this order it was well known that he could
not obey it. A few days before he had been challenged by a Mr. Martin,
who till very recently had been one of the Secretaries of the Treasury,
and who was generally believed to have prepared himself for the conflict
by diligent practice with a pistol; and in the duel which ensued Wilkes
had been severely wounded. It was not only notorious that he had been
thus disabled, but he sent a physician and surgeon of admitted eminence
in their profession, and of unquestioned honor, to testify to the fact
at the bar of the House; and subsequently he forwarded written
cert