nzy. Alexander Cruden, of the
"Concordance," {135} showed his devotion to his King and his dislike of
Wilkes by carrying a large sponge with him whenever he walked abroad in
order that he might wipe out the ominous number, forty-five, whenever
he saw it chalked up. As the number was chalked up everywhere by the
Wilkites, Cruden soon found the task beyond his powers. It was lucky
for him that he got no harm in his zeal, lucky for him that he did not
come across that militant clergyman who pulled the nose of a Scotch
naval officer for attacking Wilkes and then met his man in Hyde Park
and wounded him.

[Sidenote: 1770--A fight for the liberty of the Press]

On April 17, 1770, Wilkes's term of imprisonment came to an end.
Wilkes immediately started for Bath to avoid a demonstration in London;
but London was illuminated in his honor, and in a great number of
provincial towns his release was celebrated with all the signs of a
national holiday. If he had been a hero in prison, he was no less a
hero out of it. He moved from triumph to triumph. While alderman he
won a victory over the Court and the Commons which did much to
establish the liberty of the press in England. The House of Commons,
in a foolish attempt to suppress reports of the debates in Parliament,
tried to arrest certain printers. Wilkes and the Lord Mayor took the
printers' part; advised them to conceal themselves; and in their turn
arrested those who, in obedience to a royal proclamation and the orders
of the House, arrested the printers.

The House of Commons committed the Lord Mayor and Alderman Oliver to
the Tower, and summoned Wilkes to appear at the bar. Wilkes coolly
replied that as he was a member of Parliament, and as he was not
addressed as a member of Parliament should be, and ordered to attend in
his place according to custom, he should ignore the summons. The House
made a second and yet a third order for his appearance, each of which
Wilkes treated with disdain. It is a significant proof of the power of
Wilkes's popularity that the House did not take any steps to punish his
contumacy. While it affected to find a consolation in the assurances
of the King that Wilkes was "below the {136} notice of the House," it
had to endure as best it might an affront resentment of which would
only have added to Wilkes's popularity. The honors paid to the Lord
Mayor and the alderman during their imprisonment showed only too
plainly that hostility to t