ouse of Commons. Burke, Beckford, and many others either
defended Wilkes or urged that the matter was not for the House of
Commons, but for the law courts to deal with. In the division the
Government was triumphant by a majority of 219 against 137, and Wilkes
was formally expelled from the House of Commons on the ground, not
merely of his comments on the letter of Lord Weymouth, but on account
of the Number Forty-five of the _North Briton_ and the "Essay on Woman."

A new writ was issued for the county of Middlesex. The county of
Middlesex promptly re-elected Wilkes without opposition on February 16.
On February 17 the House of Commons again voted the expulsion of
Wilkes. This time the House of Commons exceeded its powers and its
privileges in adding that the expelled man was incapable of sitting in
the existing Parliament. Every blow that the royal party had struck at
Wilkes had only aroused stronger sympathy for him; and this illegal
act, this usurpation {126} by one House of powers that only belonged to
Parliament, caused the liveliest indignation. It was resolved by the
friends of Wilkes, and by all who were the friends of the principles
with which Wilkes had come to be identified, to fight to the utmost in
defence of their constitutional rights, that were now so gravely, so
wantonly jeopardized. On March 16 there was a new polling at
Brentford, and, as before, Wilkes was returned unopposed. There was,
indeed, an effort made by an obscure merchant named Dingley to oppose
him, but he could find no freeholder to second him, and he was chivied
ignominiously from the scene of the election. On March 17 the House of
Commons, for the third time, played what Burke called the tragi-comedy
of declaring the election void. A new writ was again issued, and this
time the Ministry were resolved that, come what come might, Wilkes
should have an opponent. It was not the easiest of tasks to find a man
willing to oppose Wilkes's candidature on the hustings at Brentford.
Dingley, the merchant, had experienced the violence of the mob; it was
confidently assumed that any other antagonist would fare very much
worse. But the Ministry found their champion in a young officer,
Colonel Luttrell, of the Guards, a son of Lord Irnham. Luttrell was a
gallant young soldier, a man of that temper which regards all popular
agitations with supreme disdain, and of that courage that would face
any danger, not merely with composure, but with p