Although ministers had triumphed over Wilkes personally, by obtaining his expulsion from the house, yet they were doomed to suffer a check from a motion naturally arising out of his prosecution. On the 13th of February, it was moved by the opposition, that Wilkes’ complaint of breach of privilege should be heard. On this subject they obtained a large majority; his complaint being thrown out, after a stormy debate which lasted three days and one whole night. This, however, was followed by a resolution moved by Sir William Meredith, in which they were not so successful, namely, “That a general warrant for apprehending and securing the authors, printers, and publishers of a seditious libel, together with their papers, is not warranted by law.” An adjournment was proposed, but Pitt and others made speeches upon the subject, and when the house divided, ministers had only the small majority of fourteen upon the question of adjournment. This was virtually a defeat, and the illegality of general warrants was so effectually established by the numbers who voted on the side of the opposition, and by the sentiments of the orators, that henceforth the use of them was wholly discontinued. If, therefore, this prosecution of Wilkes was impolitic, it had at least the effect of settling a great constitutional principle; nor was it long before the measures taken against him effected other alterations in the constitution equally important.
Wilkes having entered an appearance in Westminster Hall, was at length tried and convicted on two indictments, for publishing the 45th Number of the North Briton, and the “Essay on Woman.” He was afterwards outlawed for not appearing in court to receive his sentence, whence the suit he had instituted against Lord Halifax fell to the ground. The cause of Wilkes, however, being identified with that of the constitution, his popularity remained undiminished, and the spirit excited by the proceedings against him was still as rife with bitterness as ever.
PROPOSITION TO TAX THE AMERICAN COLONIES.
It was at this troubled season that George Grenville brought forward a motion for extracting a direct revenue from the colonies. The idea was not altogether new, for such a scheme had been hinted at during Sir Robert Walpole’s administration. At this time it seems to have been revived, by the general complaint heard among the people of England, of the burden of taxation which they were called upon to bear. His majesty proposed such a step, as a just, as well as advantageous measure for relieving the country from the financial difficulties which had been occasioned by a war undertaken for the protection and security of the colonies themselves. Accordingly, a series of resolutions, respecting new duties to be laid on goods imported by the Americans, was brought into the House by Grenville on the 10th of March. These resolutions passed with little notice; General Conway, it is said, being the only member who protested against them; and they received the royal assent on the 5th of April. The minister, also, proposed raising a direct revenue from the colonies in the shape of a stamp-tax, but this was objected to by the opposition, and it was postponed to another session. Certain restrictions, however, were at the same time laid upon the profitable contraband trade carried on by the Americans with the Spanish colonies; a trade alike advantageous to England and the North American colonists, but of which the Spanish government was constantly and bitterly complaining to the court of Great Britain.