entured to
assail the liberty of the press, or to prevent the publication of the
Parliamentary debates."

At his inauguration dinner in Guildhall, there was a superabundance of
good things; notwithstanding which, a great number of young fellows,
after the dinner was over, being heated with liquor, got upon the
hustings, and broke all the bottles and glasses within their reach. At
this time the Court and Ministry were out of favour in the City; and
till the year 1776, when Halifax took as the legend of his mayoralty
"Justice is the ornament and protection of liberty," no member of the
Government received an invitation to dine at Guildhall.

CHAPTER XXXV.

THE LORD MAYORS OF LONDON (_continued_).

John Wilkes: his Birth and Parentage--The _North Briton_--Duel with
Martin--His Expulsion--Personal Appearance--Anecdotes of Wilkes--A
Reason for making a Speech--Wilkes and the King--The Lord Mayor at
the Gordon Riots--"Soap-suds" _versus_ "Bar"--Sir William Curtis and
his Kilt--A Gambling Lord Mayor--Sir William Staines, Bricklayer and
Lord Mayor--"Patty-pan" Birch--Sir Matthew Wood--Waithman--Sir Peter
Laurie and the "Dregs of the People"--Recent Lord Mayors.

In 1774 that clever rascal, John Wilkes, ascended the civic throne. We
shall so often meet this unscrupulous demagogue about London, that we
will not dwell upon him here at much length. Wilkes was born in
Clerkenwell, 1727. His father, Israel Wilkes, was a rich distiller (as
his father and grandfather had been), who kept a coach and six, and
whose house was a resort of persons of rank, merchants, and men of
letters. Young Wilkes grew up a man of pleasure, squandered his wife's
fortune in gambling and other fashionable vices, and became a notorious
member of the Hell Fire Club at Medmenham Abbey. He now eagerly strove
for place, asking Mr. Pitt to find him a post in the Board of Trade, or
to send him as ambassador to Constantinople. Finding his efforts
useless, he boldly avowed his intention of becoming notorious by
assailing Government. In 1763, in his scurrilous paper, the _North
Britain_, he violently abused the Princess Dowager and her favourite
Lord Bute, who were supposed to influence the young king, and in the
celebrated No. 45 he accused the ministers of putting a lie in the
king's mouth. The Government illegally arresting him by an arbitrary
"general warrant," he was committed to the Tower, and at once became the
martyr