doubt that such language as Wilkes
had used was libellous. In its imputation of designs of deliberate
wickedness, it very far exceeded the bitterest passages of _The North
Briton_; and Lord Weymouth's colleagues, therefore, thought they might
safely follow the precedent set in 1764, of branding the publication as
a libel, and again procuring the expulsion of the libeller from the
House of Commons. There were circumstances in the present case, such as
the difference between the constituencies of Aylesbury and Middlesex,
and the enthusiastic fervor in the offender's cause which the populace
of the City had displayed, which made it very doubtful whether the
precedent of 1764 were quite a safe one to follow; but the ministers not
only disregarded every such consideration, but, as if they had wantonly
designed to give their measure a bad appearance, and to furnish its
opponents with the strongest additional argument against it, they mixed
up with their present complaint a reference to former misdeeds of Wilkes
with which it had no connection. On receiving the message of the Lords,
they had summoned him to appear at the bar of the House of Commons, that
he might be examined on the subject; but this proceeding was so far from
intimidating him, that he not only avowed the publication of his comment
on Lord Weymouth's letter, but gloried in it, asserting that he deserved
the thanks of the people for bringing to light the true character of
"that bloody scroll." Such language was regarded as an aggravation of
his offence, and the Attorney-general moved that his comment on the
letter "was an insolent, scandalous, and seditious libel;" and, when
that motion had been carried, Lord Barrington followed it up with
another, to the effect that "John Wilkes, Esq., a member of this House,
who hath at the bar of this House confessed himself to be the author and
publisher of what the House has resolved to be an insolent, scandalous,
and seditious libel, and who has been convicted in the Court of King's
Bench of having printed and published a seditious libel, and three[11]
obscene and impious libels, and by the judgment of the said Court has
been sentenced to undergo twenty-two months' imprisonment, and is now in
execution under the said judgment, be expelled this House." This motion
encountered a vigorous opposition, not only from Mr. Burke and the
principal members of the Rockingham party, which now formed the regular
Opposition, but also fro