Two days after, being the last day for receiving petitions, and the session on the point of concluding, Sir George Saville, in a very thin house, presented a petition, signed by a few freeholders, against Lutterell, and desired to have the consideration postponed to the next session, or to have a call of the House, with orders sent to the sheriffs of counties to inform the members of the intended business; but that proposal was rejected, and the petition was allotted a hearing on the following Monday, by 94 of the Court party to 49. It was accordingly heard on May the 8th. Serjeant Whitaker, one of the late candidates,[220] and Graham, an esteemed Scotch lawyer,[221] were counsel for Lutterell; Serjeant Adair[222] and Mr. Lee[223] for the petitioners. Dr. Blackstone, who argued for the incapacity and expulsion of Wilkes, was severely confuted out of his own Commentaries on the Law;[224] and George Grenville as roughly handled by Norton. Charles Fox, not yet twenty-one, answered Burke with great quickness and parts, but with confidence equally premature. The House sat till half an hour past two in the morning, when Lutterell’s seat was confirmed by 221 against 152.
As the House was now to rise, and Captain Allen would, of course, be discharged, it was apprehended that he would challenge Meredith and Walsingham; to prevent which, the House enjoined them both to accept no challenge from him, but to lay before a justice of peace the information that had been given to the House of his conduct, that he might be bound over to his good behaviour. Captain Walsingham said, he would certainly obey their commands, but hoped they did not expect, if Allen should attack him in the street, that he would not defend himself. Allen was discharged; abused Walsingham the next day in the papers, and then sank into obscurity.
Wedderburne, who had been brought into Parliament by Sir Laurence Dundas, the rich commissary, but, on being disappointed of a bargain with the Court, had voted on the opposite side, now vacated his seat, to leave Sir Laurence at liberty to choose a more compliant, or less interested member.
The turbulent aspect of the times, and the perilous position into which the Court had brought itself by the violent intrusion of Lutterell, naturally pointed out coalition to their several enemies. Accordingly, the Marquis of Rockingham and George Grenville, at the head of their respective factions, dined together at the Thatched House Tavern, St. James’s-street, and agreed to support the cause of Opposition in their several counties during the summer; but the tempers of the leaders were too dissimilar, their object too much the same, and the resentment of Grenville for past offences too implacable, to admit of cordial union.