the
house and avowed the authorship of the comments on Weymouth's "bloody
scroll," as he called it. On the next day, February 3, 1769, Barrington
proposed his expulsion from the house, and supported his motion by
recapitulating his various misdeeds. Grenville, Burke, and others urged
that it was unfair to go back to past offences and accumulate the
charges against him, and Grenville warned the house that the course on
which it was embarking would probably lead it into a violation of the
rights of the electorate. Nevertheless, the house lent itself to the
wishes of the king and voted the expulsion by 219 to 137. Grenville's
warning was justified. Wilkes was re-elected on the 16th, and the next
day the house annulled the election and declared him incapable of being
elected to serve in the present parliament. That the house, whether
acting justly or not, has a right to expel any member whom it judges
unworthy to sit, is indisputable, but to declare an incapacity unknown
to the law was an unconstitutional and arbitrary proceeding. In spite of
this declaration Wilkes was again returned on March 16. The election was
again annulled. An address in support of the king was prepared by the
court party in the city, and on the 22nd hundreds set out in coaches for
St. James's to deliver it. They were pelted by a vast mob, and only a
third of them reached the palace. Meanwhile another mob gathered at St.
James's and tried to force a hearse bearing a picture of Allen's death
into the court-yard. They were foiled by the courage of Talbot, the
lord-steward, and were dispersed after some scuffling. Throughout the
whole day the king exhibited perfect composure, though the riot was
serious and might easily have become formidable.

[Sidenote: _THE RIGHTS OF ELECTORS VIOLATED._]

A new writ was issued for Middlesex, and Colonel Luttrell, one of the
court party, resigned his Cornish seat in order to oppose Wilkes. In the
previous December at the election of Serjeant Glynn, Wilkes's counsel,
to the other seat for the county, one of his supporters lost his life.
Two men were found guilty of murdering him, and received a royal pardon,
for, though they assaulted him, the man's death was due to natural
causes. Luttrell was believed to be risking his life, and bets were
freely made as to his probable fate. The election, however, passed off
quietly on April 13, when Wilkes polled 1,143 votes and Luttrell 296. On
the 15th, the house, after a hot deb