On the day for fixing hearings of contested elections, Sir George Maccartney, who was returned from Russia, and had married Lord Bute’s second daughter, spoke for the first time, and with very bad success, though his parts had been much cried up. He was a young and handsome Irishman, attached to Lord Holland, with whose eldest son he had travelled as a kind of governor. He was an amiable man, with various knowledge, and singular memory, but no other extraordinary talents. He was now Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in the room of Lord Frederic Campbell, than whom there were few men who had more grievously offended the King; but the humiliations which his Majesty had brought on himself, obliged him at one time or other to employ or reward those most obnoxious to him.
On the 14th, Sir Joseph Mawbey, formerly in Opposition, and made a baronet by the Whigs, presented a petition from Wilkes, complaining of the hard usage he had received, and couched in warm and offensive terms. Mawbey declared he had been enjoined by his constituents of Southwark to present the petition, intimating that his delivery of it was not a voluntary act. The man was vain, noisy, and foolish, and soon grew a hearty partisan of his client.[139] The House ordered the petition to lie on the table--a mark of dislike; and Lord Strange called for the record to show the commitment of Wilkes had been just. The step in his favour was thought injudicious, and likely to advance his expulsion.[140] Grenville, who by Lord Temple’s injunction was to be against that expulsion, knew not how to digest the petition; while the Opposition, with more reason, were for rescinding the iniquitous vote that had taken away Wilkes’s privilege.
War between Russia and Turkey.--The King of France’s new Mistress.--Death of the Duke of Newcastle.--Affairs of Corsica.--Quarrel between the Duke of Grafton and Lord Hertford.--Commencement of the Debate on Wilkes’s Case.--Ayliffe, a Solicitor, sent to Prison by the Lords.--Dispute concerning the Appearance of three Lords as Witnesses for Wilkes.--Riots at the Middlesex Election.--Characters of James Townshend, Sawbridge, and Colonel Onslow.--Publication of a Letter of Lord Weymouth.--Resolution Passed by the Lords on American Affairs.--The Cumberland Election.--Wilkes demands to be heard at the Bar of the House of Lords.--Ridiculous Importance given to this Person.