d the North Briton. This journal, written with some
pleasantry, and great audacity and impudence, had a considerable number
of readers. Forty-four numbers had been published when Bute resigned;
and, though almost every number had contained matter grossly libellous,
no prosecution had been instituted. The forty-fifth number was innocent
when compared with the majority of those which had preceded it, and
indeed contained nothing so strong as may in our time be found daily in
the leading articles of the Times and Morning Chronicle. But Grenville
was now at the head of affairs. A new spirit had been infused into the
administration. Authority was to be upheld. The government was no longer
to be braved with impunity. Wilkes was arrested under a general warrant,
conveyed to the Tower, and confined there with circumstances of unusual
severity. His papers were seized, and carried to the Secretary of
State. These harsh and illegal measures produced a violent outbreak of
popular rage, which was soon changed to delight and exultation. The
arrest was pronounced unlawful by the Court of Common Pleas, in which
Chief Justice Pratt presided, and the prisoner was discharged. This
victory over the government was celebrated with enthusiasm both in
London and in the cider counties.

While the ministers were daily becoming more odious to the nation, they
were doing their best to make themselves also odious to the court. They
gave the King plainly to understand that they were determined not to be
Lord Bute's creatures, and exacted a promise that no secret adviser
should have access to the royal ear. They soon found reason to suspect
that this promise had not been observed. They remonstrated in terms less
respectful than their master had been accustomed to hear, and gave him a
fortnight to make his choice between his favorite and his cabinet.

George the Third was greatly disturbed. He had but a few weeks before
exulted in his deliverance from the yoke of the great Whig connection.
He had even declared that his honor would not permit him ever again to
admit the members of that connection into his service. He now found that
he had only exchanged one set of masters for another set still harsher
and more imperious. In his distress he thought on Pitt. From Pitt it was
possible that better terms might be obtained than either from Grenville,
or from the party of which Newcastle was the head.

Grenville, on his return from an excursion into the coun