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BIOGRAPHY CP JOHN WILKES. ( Concluded.) Petitions were succeeded by remonstrances, some of which were comjKised in language sufficiently intemperate : but tbc flame, which the ministers had incautiously raised, iltey pos sessed not the courage to extinguish. They believed, probably it would of itself in time consume and die away: thev stand therefore wholly on the defensive, rejecting the pro positions made in parliament to rescind the resolution, but carefully avoiding to punish those, without doors, who complaining, how ever rudely, of its injustice. Mr. W ilkes m the mean while, within the walls of the king’s bench prison, continued to pass a not inglorious confinement. From the time of his first elec tion for Middlesex, in March 1768, through the wholejof the year 1769, and even far into 1772, he was the sole and unrivalled political idol of the people, whb Uvislicd upon him all in the ir power to bestow, :<s if willing to prove that i'i England it was pos .ibic for an individual to he great and important through them alone. A subscription was opened for the payment of kis debts, and 20,0001. arc said in a few weeks to have been raised for that purpose, and for the discharging his fine. The society for the support of the bill of rights, presented him w,ith 3001. Gifts of plate, of wine, of house hold goods, were daily heaped upon him. .An unknown pati iot conveyed to him, in a hand somely embroidered purse, five hundred gui neas. An honest chandler enriched him with a box containing of .candles, the magic number of dozens, forty-five. High and low contended with each other who most should serve and ce lebrate hint. Devices and emblems of all des criptions ornamented the liiiikets conveyed to his person : the most usual was the cap of li berty placed over his crest: upon others was i\ bird with expanded wings, hovering over a cage, beneath, a motto, “ 1 love liberty.” live ry wall bore his name, and every window his portrait. In China, in bronze,or in marble, lie stood upon the chimney-piece of half the hous es of the metropolis : lie swung upon the sign post of every village, of every great road throughout the country. He was accustomed himself to tell with much glee of a monarchi cal old lady, behind whom he accidentally wal ked—looking up, she murmured, within his healing, in much spleen—“lie swings every where but where he ought—He passed her, and, turning round, politely bowed. But the voice of disapprobation, whether of old women or young, of men or of youths, was the voice of one amidst a thousand. The most grateful of all harmony, says Balzac, arises from the dis senting voice o! a single individual, when mix ed in the general concert of public applause : the appetite for popularity is not often distin guishing ; it loves to number rather than se lect. *• Piaife from the rivelVl lips of toothless, fold Decrepitude ; and in the looks of lean And craving poverty ; and in the flow Rcfpcetful ol the Imutch’d artificer : Is oft too welcome, and may much diftnib The biui of the purpofu.” What wonder then, if, accompanied hv the praise also of she splendid, the polished and the wealthy, it invigorate and confirm the purpose / Amongst the public bodies that testified their approbation of his spirit, the city of London took the lead. As early as the 2d of January, 1769, lie was elected alderman of the ward of Furingdon without : by a mistake in closing the pool books, the election however was pro nounced void ; but on the 27th of the same month In; wa i declared duly elected. In November, 1769, he brought his action against lord 1 Fail Lx, for false imprisonment, and the seizure of his papers: hi: obtained a verdict ot -UKh)/. On the lVth of April, 1770, lie was discharged from his imprisonment. On the 24tli tie was sworn as alderman. In 1771, be seized tile advantage afforded by l:;s maje- terial situation, to make teprisals on the House of Commons. A messenger having orders from the House to command the attendance of a printer, (against whom com plaint was made that, contrary to the privileges of parliament, he had published the debates of t ie house), attempted in v..ir. to execute what w as required. After several fruitless visitations, the norjeam a’ arms reported that the printer was not to be mot with. An address to the soverei ;n was drawn up, in pursuance of which a proclama tion was issued, ollering for the apprehension of the printer a considerable reward, lie was apprehended and the reward claimed. Mr. aldornian Wilkes discharged him, apprehen ded under an illegal warrant, and bound over die printer to prosecute the party apprehend ing him for an assault, lie at the same time wrote a letter to lord Halifax, the secretary of state, acquainting him with what had hee.n done. The same conduct was adopted b? Mr. Oliver, and the lord mayor, Brass Crosby,with relation to other panics similarly situated : nor did they stop here ; in one instance the magis trates of the city not only discharged the per son again*! whom the house of Commons had directed their orders, but, as thou- joint act, committed the messenger who endeavored to put them in force. The Commons, fired at this contempt of their authority, proceeded to command the attendance of the magistrates. The lord mayor and Mr. alderman Oliver, as members of the house, attended in their places, and justified the part which they had acted. They were committed to the lower ; and though brought up bv habeas corpus to the court of common pleas, where their case was argued at length, were remanded thither, and oontinued there till the close of the sessions, ‘lick- being, however, as mem’-vs, within the iurisuict’en o’ the house, was r.ot applicable to Mr. Wilkes. In a letter to the speaker, he peremptorily refused to comply with the older of attendance, except as representative of the conn”, of Middlesex. The order was renew ed, and renewed again, but it was not obeyed. At length he was ordered to be present on the Bth of April, and an adjournment, was then made to the 3th, and thus, to use the words of Junius, ‘ by this mean, pitiful evasion,’ was the point given up. The wretchedness of this shilt became still more apparent from the house having previously erased out of the Guildhall rota book an entry taken by the magistrates of their examination of the printer, for answering of whose charge they bound over the messen ger to give security. These minutes were at the command of the house expunged by the lord mayor's clerk at the speaker’s table. If the power erf the commons in pailiamcnt was such as to justify this interposition, it seems to follow as a necessary consequence, that it was such as to justify the commitment of Mr. V* ilkes, who with his colleagues had signed the minutes. If their jurisdiction were cir cumscribed, and extended only to that which was immediately a part of their body, it became difficult to say, what controul they possessed over the judicial papers of the city magistracy. Lord Chatham, in the house of peers, denomi nated this interference; the act, not of a parlia ment, but of a mob : and the metropolis at the time approved so much of the conduct of their magisterial officers, that at a court of common council thanks were voted to them, for having supported the privileges and franchises of the city, and having so firmly defended the British constitution. Mr. V* ilkes triumphantly ob served, that it was now evident the house, 1 had had enough of him.’ His victory was decisive : and all that a well wisher to the country could regret was, that it was a victory gained over the elected representatives of the nation, and that those representatives had, in part, merited their defeat. From this period, Mr. Wilke’s career was a course of good fortune. On the 3d of July, 1771, he was chosen sheriff ; in October 1771, he was elected lord mayor ; and parliament 5 being suddenly dissolved in its sixth session, | lie was elected one of the new representatives fj of Middlesex and took his seat unmolested in the December of the same year. lie had er ring the whole of tee lust parliament publicly termed himself’the real and icgai representa tive of that county : its sheriffs too had, at two | distinct calls of tin; house, returned him its 1 such. In 1774, he actually attended to be sworn, but the tender ot the oath was refused, without a certificate from the clerk of the crown ; which, naturally enough, was ref used also. lii:> election- secure, lie had now the privilege “of calling names,” and me slid more important privilege of pressing upon the house, in person, and on repeated motion lor rescinding the resolution of 1763. This lot several years was not accompanied with com plete success, though it was, at almost each at tempt, attended with an augmentation in num ber of those who voted v ita him. In April, i 775, lie presented, us lord mayor, a remon strance to tlie sovereign, from the city of Lon don ; and in July, a petition : both of them ro tating, not to his own peculiar case, but to tlie state of public affairs ; both, however, Hostile to the conduct of ministers. Having several times stood candidate tor the clianibcrlainship of London, against alderman Hopkins, he, in 1773, upon the death ot Ins opponent, obtained that, not dishonorable, and very lucrative office. He obtained it by a most decided majority, ant; held it, without interruption, for file. Amid these more substantial benefits, it is scarcely worth relating, that a Mr. Temple left Km, by will, 300/. “ lor his streanuous endeavors in the cause of freedom, and his noble defence of the constitution against a series of despots and wicked ministers anti that t o city ot London presented him with a valuable silver cup, em bossed with the death of Caesar in the capital. In 1782, upon the dismission from otlieo of the ministers who conducted the war against America, the obnoxious resolution v as, at length, upon his own motion, expunged Irani t c journals, t Ins was tlie crown ot those po litical labors, which mure immediately concer ned his own personal actions. lie thencefor ward deemed himseif “ a lire burnt out.” Such are the main and more important inci dents of th : life of John Wilkes, a man, about whom, even w ere n unwilling, posterity neces sarily must make enquiries ; since the circum stances of his nlc ars interwoven with the his tory ol nis time, and with the history of the constitution ol ..is country. His alter life was passed m the punctual and fi.iihlul discharge of the duties attached to his office of chamberlain ; in a temperate attention, as a senator, to nati onal affairs, and tbe proceedings of parliament ; and in the cultivation of letters and the fine arts; As treasurer of the city of London, (such is the Chamberlain) his accounts were kept with exactness, and his personal atten dance was most legular. No officer subordi nate to him, no person in any way concerned w ith his office, ever had occasion to wait one moment beyond the appointed time of daily business. lie died on the ‘26th, aged seventy. lie was interred in Grosvenor chapel, south Audley street. According to the directions of his will, eight laboring men, dressed in new mourning, bore his coffin from tlie door of the chapel to the vault. The bearers, by Ins will, received, in addition to their clothes, a guinea each. A tablet, its inscription written by himself, has this memorial : THE REMAINS of JOHN WILKES, a ntiESD ro LifiEurr ; Bora at London, Oct. 17, 1727, O. S. Died in this Parish, LONDON, March 23. Tlie rage and ravings of the unfortunate Tr.i ntaters, v. ho, like pigs swimming, have cut their own throats, become greater and louder. Mr. Perceval, with the chancellorship of the exchequer, is to hav e the chancellotship of the duchy of Lancaster conferred upon him for file, and upon this they raise the most violent cry. The first act of the new military is, say thev, to be a job. Have they forgotten that the first act of their military was a job ‘■ It was to bring in a bill to prevent Loid Grcnvfile from being forced to give up tbe auditorslnp exchequer. He would not relinquish that lu crative post, though it was incompatible with the post ot first lord of the treasury-—he w ould not engage “in the sen ice of government for a limited period of service, without a swinging allowance of Chelsea, when ho chooses to re tire, or should be turned out of the regiment.” Yet lord Grenville could not plead, that he had given up any profession, or that he had not an ample private fortune. Lord Grenville at the time he w ould not accept the office of first lord of the treasury, without having the auditorslnp of the exchequer, secured to him, had a pr i vate fortune of about 20,000/. a year. Mr. Per ceval gives up a lucrative profession with the prospects of the seals before him, to take the post of chancellor of the exchequer, and lie has a large family, with little or omprivale fortune. It is quite indecent in him, say the ministers, to accept of any place for life, though it was perfectly dccorus in lord Grenville, with an immense private fortune, not to accept the of fice of first lord of the treasury, without the sinecure post of auditor of the exchequer be ing secured to him 1 But it is not true that the chancellorship of the duchy of Lancaster was never before given to any person for fife. Lord Lansdovvwe gave it to lord Ashburton for file. To be sure it (toes amuse us to hear the Gren villes raising such an outcry against any man for accepting a lucrative office, they would have a mongst them, upwards of 30,000/. a year of the public money for doing nothing. It would have been well if the Grenvilles and the Foxites had compared notes, and arranged their plans of invective before they made them public. We discern in their different vehicles that they are each pursuing a differ ent scent. The Grenville gazette, in speaking of the duke of Portland, says, that “in the prime of his manhood he was deemed unfit by all mankind for the post of first lord of the treasury.”'—llow will the Foxites relish this who placed him at their heads as the most fit man to be their leader, and the head of any ministry that might be formed out of their party ? The last lay of the expiring ministry is still that they have been the victims of intrigue— that their “ real crime is their having been the enemies of jobbers in whatever situation, and their being determined to suppress extrava gance by whomsoever practised, and to check abuses by whomsoever ptotcctcd—-that it is not the Catholic question.” To be sure it is curious to hear, the Grenvilles and Foxites com pluin of intrigue, whose whole lives have been a course of intrigue; who daily and nightly have been intriguing, patching up Coalitions, sacrificing principles, bestowing places, pen sions and honors on borough-mongers-and par liamentary harranguers ; getting over this one, and getting over that one, intriguing day and night, and night and day, to strengthen their party in parliament, and stooping to the mcanc A acts to secure a vote They complan of intrigue ! They ! whose wholt* ait and mys tery consists in intrigue, and whose daily and nightly occupation it is. They, whose whole lives have been one intrigue, to shake govern ment and overturn it; to turn out every one unless they got in. Take any one of the three or four parties composing the cabinet, and it will be found each laboured hard to turn out or keep out the rest. Their whole lives have been a scene of turbulence, endeavoring to distract the king’s councils when they were notin them; and yet they complain that intrigues are prac tised, that changes take place, and the govern ment is unsteady. 15ut they know that no intrigues have been practised against them, and that the Catholic j question is the sole cause of their dismissal.—*- They know- that the first attempt to exact con ditions was not made by his majesty, but bv them, that in consenting to withdraw the Catholic bill, (the Catholics will not fail to see how willing the ministers were to give up their principles, that they might keep their places) they stated to his majesty that they trusted his “ majesty would seethe indispen sible necessity of their expressing, on with drawing the lull, the strong persuasion they felt of the benefits which would result from a different course of policy to the Catholics of Ireland; and'they further stated, that it was indispensible to- their characters, that they should openly avow these sentiments, not onlv on the present occasion, hut in the event of the Catholic petition coming forward ; and they further insisted, that their present deference to his majesty, might not be understood as restraining them from submitting, from time to time', such measures as circum stances might require respecting the state of Ireland.” They know that this demand was delivered in writing to his majesty on the 12th instant. Was it natural or extraordinary that his ma jesty should, after this demand, exact conditions from his ministers, that they would not again harrass his mind by proposing a measure to which they knew he had the most insuperable objections ? Our readers, in referring to what took place last night, will not fail to remark the anxiety which ministers, now that they are going out feel against granting any reversions, or places or pensions for life. It is curious to hoar the fexitex soiiii c hty angry ot tnc system of> Ta ing reversions, who recollect ‘hat their late leader possessed one which lie sold. We are rather surprised too, that Mi. hhe rid an sheuid be presented as having said, that the appoint-’ merits possessed by a distinguished Lh.i.v, the Grenvilles, we:e the rccompence of great ser vices actually peiformed. iNowrealiv it would puzzle any one to point out the great scrcices which derive from the marquis ot Buckingham the tellership of the exchequer, worth 20.000/. a year and upwards. Was it that service winch was so efficacious in throwing out Mr. Fox’s India bill? It would be curious to hear arox ite assert that, that sen ice merited such a re com pence.— Courier. CATUO L I C HI L L. The following is a copy of a Bill introduced into the British Parliament by the late minis try, which eventuated in their dismissal from, office. A HILL for enabling his Majesty to avail him se/f of the services of all his Liege Subjects in his naval and military force , in the manner* therein mentioned. WHEIIEAS it is expedient that his majesty should be enabled to avail himself of the ser vices of all his liege subjects, in his naval and military forces, for the maintairiance of the> rights of his crown, and of the interests, honor and independence of the British Empire : lie it therefore enacted, idc. That it shall and may be lavrii.i for his majesty to grant or con fer, or by his royol sign manual to empower the proper officer or officers to grant cr confer any military commission, warrant, or appoint ment, whatever, either in His majesty’s sea or naval forces, or in any of his majesty’s land or military forces whatsoever, to or upon any of his majesty’s liege subjects, without excep tions ; and that every such commission, war rant or appointment, so granted or conferred,, shall and may tic lawfully exercised by such, his majesty s subjects, in all places within or - without his majesty’s dominions, any law statute, or usage to the contrary notwithstand ing ; pro\ filed that every such person shall, within months after his accepting the said commission, warrant, or appointment, take, make, and subscribe the declaration and oath hereinafter mentioned, which declaration and oath shall be engrossed on the back or at the foot of the commission or appointment so granted or conferred, and shall be there attest ed by the signature of the magistrate or officer iu whose presence the same shall have been subscribed, and by whom the said oath shall have been administered. And be it farther enacted, That the said oath and declaration to he so taken, shall be in tbe words following, viz: “ I A. B. being by this commission appoint ed to be (here set fourth the affiointmcnt) hereby solemnly promise and swear, in the pre sence of Almighty God, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to his majesty king George the third, and that 1 will do my utmost to maintain and riclend him against all treasons and traitorous conspiracies, and against all at tempts whatever that shall be made against his person, crown, or dignity ; and that 1 will to the utmost of my power, resist all such treasons, conspiracies, or attempts, and will also dis close and make known the same as soon as they shall come to my knowledge ; and I do also promise and swear in the presence of the Almighty God, that I will do to the utmost of my power, maintain and support the establish ed constitution and government of the United Kingdom against all attempts whatever that shall be made against the same.” And whereas it is expedient that his majes ty’s subject, however employed in any of his majesty’s sea,or naval forces whatsoever, should be allowed the free exercise of such religious opinions as they may respectively profess ; be it enacted, 1 hat- no person employed in his majesty s sea or naval forces, or land nr milita ry forces, and having, previously signified writing, signed by himself, to his commanding officer, his dissent from the doctrine or worship of the church of England, as by law establish ed, shall under any pretence, or by any means* be prevented from attending, or be subject or liable to any pains, penalties-or disabilities for attending such divine worship or religious ser vice as may be consistent with and accordinp to his religious persuation or opinions, at pro per and seasonable times, and such as shall be consistent with the due and full discharge of his naval or military duties ; nor shall any such person be compelled or compellable tf> attend the worship or service of the said estab lished church j and that any commissioned officer acting in violation of, or contrary to this provision, shall upon conviction thereof before a general court-martial, be liable to be suspend ed or dismissed from his majesty’s service, or to such other punishment, not extending to life or limb, as the said court-martial shall award a and that any warrant or none commissioned officer so offending, shall be liable to such rfu— nishment, not extending to life or limb, as sfiall be awarded by a general or regimental court martial. And be it farther enacted, That this act shall continue in force from the in the year of our Lord until the in year of LIVERPOOL, March 26. esterday arrived here the American ship Lalona, captain Alden, in 32 days from New- York, Having on board the following passengers* who arc come to England as witnesses on the trial of captain Whitby, of his majesty’s ship Leander, for the murder of Pierce, viz. Capt, Brewster, of an American revenue cutter ; Jo nathan L. Brewster, his son ; Robert Mitchell and John V Lite, pilots, and captain Pierce* brother of the deceased.