“Sir,

“You complained yesterday before five hundred gentlemen, that you had been stabbed in the dark by the North Briton. But I believe you were not so much in the dark as you affected and chose to be. Was the complaint made before so many gentlemen on purpose that they might interpose? To cut off every pretence of this kind, as to the author, I whisper in your ear, that every passage of the North Briton in which you have been named or alluded to, was written by

“Your humble servant,

“John Wilkes.”

To this letter Mr. Martin returned the following answer:—

“Sir,

“As I said in the House of Commons yesterday, that the writer of the North Briton, who had stabbed me in the dark, was a cowardly as well as a malignant scoundrel, and your letter of this morning’s date acknowledges that every passage of the North Briton in which I have been named, or even alluded to, was written by yourself, I must take the liberty to repeat, that you are a malignant and infamous scoundrel, and that I desire to give you an opportunity of showing me whether the epithet cowardly was rightly applied or not. I desire that you may meet me in Hyde Park immediately, with a brace of pistols each, to determine our difference. I shall go to the ring in Hyde Park, with my pistols, so concealed that nobody may see them, and I will wait in expectation of you one hour. As I shall call on my way at your house to deliver this letter, I propose to go from thence directly to the ring in Hyde Park, from whence we may proceed, if it be necessary, to any more private place. And I mention that I shall wait an hour, in order to give you the full time to meet me.

“I am, sir, your humble servant,

“Samuel Martin.”

When the parties met in Hyde Park, they walked together a little while to avoid some company which seemed coming up to them. They brought each a pair of pistols. When they were alone, the first fire was from Mr. Martin’s pistol, which missed Mr. Wilkes. The pistol in Mr. Wilkes’s hand only flashed in the pan. The gentlemen then each took one of the remaining pistols. Mr. Wilkes missed, and the ball of Mr. Martin’s pistol lodged in Mr. Wilkes’s belly. He bled immediately very much. Mr. Martin came up, and desired to give him all the assistance in his power. Mr. Wilkes replied, that Mr. Martin had behaved like a man of honour; that he was killed; and insisted on Mr. Martin’s making his immediate escape, adding, that no person should know from him how the affair happened. Upon this they parted. Mr. Wilkes was carried home; but would not tell any circumstance of the case, till he found it was perfectly known. He only said to the surgeon, that it was an affair of honour.

The day following, Mr. Wilkes, imagining himself in great danger, returned to Mr. Martin his letter, that no evidence might appear against him, and insisted upon it, with his own relatives, that in case of his death, no trouble should be given to Mr. Martin, for he had behaved as a man of honour.

The ball was extracted by Mr. Graves, a surgeon. It had struck Mr. Wilkes’s coat-button, entered his belly half an inch below the navel, and sunk obliquely on the right side towards the groin; but it had not penetrated the cavity of the abdomen. It was extracted behind.

When he was able to write, he sent notice by letter to the Speaker of the House of Commons of the condition of his health; and on Friday, the 16th, the House made the following order:—“That Dr. Heberden, physician, and Mr. Cæsar Hawkins, one of His Majesty’s sergeant-surgeons, be desired to attend John Wilkes, Esq., to observe the progress of his cure; and that they, together with Dr. Brocklesby and Mr. Graves, do attend this House to report their opinion thereupon, on the 19th of January next, in case the said John Wilkes, Esq. be not then able to attend in his place.”

The order being sent to Dr. Heberden, by order of the Speaker, he sent it to Dr. Brocklesby, with a letter, desiring to know when he might attend Dr. Brocklesby to Mr. Wilkes. Dr. Brocklesby sent the order of the House and Dr. Heberden’s letter to Mr. Wilkes, who immediately showed his delicacy of feeling on the subject by sending a polite card to Dr. Heberden, saying, that he was well satisfied with the attention and skill of Dr. Brocklesby and Mr. Graves; that he did not wish to see Dr. Heberden for some weeks. He sent a similar card to Mr. Hawkins.^[6] Mr. Martin immediately proceeded to Paris; and on Mr. Wilkes’s arrival in that city, notes, and a friendly visit, were exchanged between them.

Mr. Martin’s conduct in this transaction had been highly honourable; but the public was so much exasperated at the danger to which Wilkes had been exposed, that no credit was given to the spirit which his antagonist had displayed. On the contrary, it was remarked, that Mr. Martin had taken no notice of the objectionable passage in the North Briton until about eight months after the publication, and that in so public and official a manner before the House, as almost to demand an interference. He was also accused of having during that period practised every day at a target, Sundays not excepted; and also with not having returned Mr. Wilkes’s letter till a month after the duel, with a view, as it was suggested, had Mr. Wilkes speedily recovered, of making use of it in evidence of his being concerned in the North Briton.

These were not the only instances of his life being perilled as a political and party editor. He had not been long in Paris, after his recovery, when a Scotch captain, of the name of Charles John Forbes, called him out, as the writer of several articles in the North Briton against the dignity of Scotland. Wilkes pleaded other engagements of the same nature, but expressed his willingness to give him satisfaction as soon as they were disposed of. The captain, in a wild manner, insisted upon an immediate meeting; but not being able to find a second, or any one to vouch for his being a gentleman, Wilkes declined accepting his request. This affair coming to the ear of the police, the parties were put upon their parole not to fight within the French dominions. Mr. Wilkes, upon this, offered to meet him in Flanders, or any country in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, excepting the French territory. Soon after the return of Wilkes to London, Captain Forbes appeared there, with a view, as it was suspected, of fighting with him; but the ministry, upon getting notice of the arrival and intention of the Scotchman, very prudently caused it to be intimated to him, that his presence could not but be very disagreeable; upon which the doughty champion of Caledonia thought proper to leave the kingdom, and afterwards entered the Portuguese service a desperate adventurer.

In December 1763, another Scotchman, of the name of Alexander Dunn, obtained admission into Wilkes’s apartment; but being suspected of a design to assassinate him, he was immediately seized and searched, when a new large penknife was found in his pocket; which circumstance, coupled with a declaration which he had been heard to make, that he, and ten other sworn Scotch accomplices, had determined to cut Mr. Wilkes off, whatever might be the result, left little doubt of his intention. The papers found upon his person were laid before the House of Commons; but it was found upon further examination, that the man was deranged.

The duel of Wilkes with Lord Talbot was one of the first that occurred in the beginning of the reign of George III. Hostile meetings had now assumed a different character. Swords were no longer drawn in bagnios, taverns, and chocolate houses, on the spur of the moment, and public broils had ceased to become fashionable: since the wearing of side-arms had ceased to be customary, duels assumed a more regular and civilised form. The desperate conduct of the “bloods” and “bucks” of the day was no longer considered a proof of gentlemanlike bearing, and a man might be looked upon as fashionable without being what was called a hell-fire rake. The violence of party had now succeeded trifling dissentions and tavern quarrels; and political differences not unfrequently excited high feelings of animosity, which could only be tempered in the field: and in the following chapter we shall see that duels were but of too frequent occurrence during this momentous reign, a circumstance which we shall endeavour to account for.