"a flat lie to the King
himself." Perhaps so; but are royal speeches as a rule
conspicuous for their truth? The King had said: "My expectations
have been fully answered by the happy effects which the several
allies of my crown have derived from this salutary measure. The
powers at war with my good brother the King of Prussia have been
induced to agree to such terms of accommodation as that great
prince has approved; and the success which has attended my
negotiation has necessarily and immediately diffused the
blessings of peace through every part of Europe." Wilkes's
comment was as follows: "The infamous fallacy of this whole
sentence is apparent to all mankind; for it is known that the
King of Prussia did not barely approve, but absolutely dictated
as conqueror, every article of the terms of peace. No advantage
of any kind has accrued to that magnanimous prince from our
negotiation; but he was basely deserted by the Scottish Prime
Minister of England" (Lord Bute). And, after all, that truth was
on the side of Wilkes rather than of the King is the verdict of
history.

The House of Lords, soon after its unconstitutional attack upon
popular liberties in the case of Wilkes, showed itself as
suddenly enamoured of them a few months later, when Timothy
Brecknock, a hack writer, published his _Droit le Roy_, or a
_Digest of the Rights and Prerogatives of the Imperial Crown of
Great Britain_ (February 1764). Timothy, like Cowell in James
I.'s time, favoured extreme monarchical pretensions, so much to
the offence of the defenders of the people's rights, that they
voted it "a false, malicious, and traitorous libel, inconsistent
with the principles of the Revolution to which we owe the present
happy establishment, and an audacious insult upon His Majesty,
whose paternal care has been so early and so effectually shown
to the religion, laws, and liberties of his people; tending to
subvert the fundamental laws and liberties of these kingdoms and
to introduce an illegal and arbitrary power." The Commons
concurred with the Lords in condemning a copy to the flames at
Westminster Palace Yard and the Exchange on February 25th and
27th respectively; and the book is consequently so rare that for
practical purposes it no longer exists. Sad to say, the Royalist
author came to as bad an end as his book, for in his own person
as well he came to require the attentions of the hangman for a
murder he committed in Ireland.

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