The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 323: RESOLUTIONS RESPECTING WILKES EXPUNGED FROM THE JOURNALS.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

RESOLUTIONS RESPECTING WILKES EXPUNGED FROM THE JOURNALS.

During this session, Wilkes was successful in obtaining the erasure of the resolutions concerning the celebrated Middlesex election from the journals. The motion was made by himself and was seconded by Mr. Byng. It was opposed by Fox, the “man of the people,” on the principle that the house of commons ought, for the advantage of electors, to have the privilege of expelling those whom they as representatives deemed unworthy of a seat. Elated with his triumph, Wilkes published a letter expressive of delight, but the people generally did not participate in his triumph. The sun of Wilkes’s popularity had long gone down, and the people read his letter with indifference.