c and solemn acknowledgment, which
ought only to follow the most eminent exertions of duty.

[Illustration: WILKES ON HIS TRIAL. (_From a Contemporary Print._)]

In 1770 Brass Crosby (mayor) signalised himself by a patriotic
resistance to Court oppression, and the arbitrary proceedings of the
House of Commons. He was a Sunderland solicitor, who had married his
employer's widow, and settled in London. He married in all three wives,
and is said to have received L200,000 by the three. Shortly after
Crosby's election, the House of Commons issued warrants against the
printers of the _Middlesex Journal_ and the _Gazetteer_, for presuming
to give reports of the debates; but on being brought before Alderman
Wilkes, he discharged them. The House then proceeded against the printer
of the _Evening Post_, but Crosby discharged him, and committed the
messenger of the House for assault and false imprisonment. Not long
after, Crosby appeared at the bar of the House, and defended what he had
done; pleading strongly that by an Act of William and Mary no warrant
could be executed in the City but by its ministers. Wilkes also had
received an order to attend at the bar of the House, but refused to
comply with it, on the ground that no notice had been taken in the order
of his being a member. The next day the Lord Mayor's clerk attended with
the Book of Recognisances, and Lord North having carried a motion that
the recognisance be erased, the clerk was compelled to cancel it. Most
of the Opposition indignantly rose and left the House, declaring that
effacing a record was an act of the greatest despotism; and Junius, in
Letter 44, wrote: "By mere violence, and without the shadow of right,
they have expunged the record of a judicial proceeding." Soon after this
act, on the motion of Welbore Ellis, the mayor was committed to the
Tower. The people were furious; Lord North lost his cocked hat, and even
Fox had his clothes torn; and the mob obtaining a rope, but for Crosby's
entreaties, would have hung the Deputy Sergeant-at-Arms. The question
was simply whether the House had the right to despotically arrest and
imprison, and to supersede trial by jury. On the 8th of May the session
terminated, and the Lord Mayor was released. The City was illuminated at
night, and there were great rejoicings. The victory was finally won.
"The great end of the contest," says Mr. Orridge, "was obtained. From
that day to the present the House of Commons has never v