charge in favor of the liberation of Wilkes, and ever nobly defended
constitutional liberty. He is better known as Lord Camden, the able
lord chancellor and statesman during a succeeding administration, and
one of the greatest lawyers England has produced, ranking with Lord
Hardwicke, Lord Ellenborough, and Lord Eldon.

[Sidenote: Prosecution of Wilkes.]

After the discharge of Wilkes, the attorney-general was then ordered
to commence a state prosecution, and he was arraigned at the bar of
the House of Commons. It was voted, by a great majority, that the
forty-fifth number of the North Briton was a scandalous and seditious
libel, and tending to excite traitorous insurrections. It was further
voted that the paper should be burned by the common hangman. Wilkes
then complained to the House of a breach of privilege, which
complaint, being regular, was considered. But the Commons decided that
the privilege of parliament does not extend to a libel, which
resolution was against the decision of the Court of Common Pleas, and
the precedents upon record in their own journals. However scandalous
and vulgar the vituperation of Wilkes, and especially disgraceful in a
member of parliament, still his prosecution was an attack on the
constitution. Wilkes was arrested on what is called a _general
warrant_, which, if often resorted to, would be fatal to the liberties
of the people. Many, who strongly disliked the libeller, still
defended him in this instance, among whom were Pitt, Beckford, Legge,
Yorke, and Sir George Saville. But party spirit and detestation of
Wilkes triumphed over the constitution, and the liberties of members
of parliament were abridged even by themselves. But Wilkes was not
discouraged, and immediately brought an action, in Westminster Hall,
against the Earl of Halifax, the secretary of state, for seizing his
papers, and, after a hearing of fifteen hours, before Lord Chief
Justice Pratt and a special jury, obtained a verdict in his favor of
one thousand pounds damages and costs.

While the Commons were prosecuting Wilkes for a libel, the Lords also
continued the prosecution. Wilkes, in conjunction with Potter, a
dissipated son of Archbishop Potter, during some of their bacchanalian
revels, had written a blasphemous and obscene poem, after the model of
Pope's Essay on Man, called _An Essay on Woman_. The satire was not
published, but a few copies of it were printed privately for the
authors. Lord Sandwich had c