g, declaring that "a secret and
malign influence" deprived the people of their dearest rights, and
desiring the dissolution of parliament and the removal of evil
ministers. In accordance with a prescriptive right, this remonstrance
was received by the king in person on March 14. George replied to it
with a severe rebuke; the remonstrance was, he said, disrespectful to
himself, injurious to his parliament, and irreconcilable with the
principles of the constitution. The court party was much excited, and at
the Cocoa-tree Tavern, the meeting-place or club of the supporters of
the ministry, talked loudly of impeachments. North wisely held them
back.[85] The house of commons could not allow the insult to itself to
pass unnoticed, and a copy of the remonstrance was moved for. Beckford
and his friends in the house defended it, and Burke passionately urged
the folly and injustice of quarrelling with the city for exercising the
right of petition and remonstrance. North calmed down the heat of the
debate, and pointed out the unconstitutional character of the
remonstrance, which virtually denied the authority of the existing
parliament. The motion was carried, and further debates took place. The
whigs, though firm in asserting the right of petition, disliked the tone
that had been adopted by the city, and an address to the king condemning
the remonstrance was carried by 248 to 94. Chatham was furious. With his
warm approval a remonstrance to the king was sent from Westminster, and
Middlesex and Kent followed suit; but Rockingham's refusal to support
his motion in favour of a dissolution plainly showed him that he could
not force the whigs to adopt violent measures.

[Sidenote: _THE KING AND THE CITY OF LONDON._]

The city would not endure the king's rebuke in silence, and another
remonstrance was adopted to the same effect as the former, though it
addressed the king in more dutiful language. George received it on May
23, and replied that his sentiments on the subject of the first address
were unchanged. As soon as he ceased speaking, Beckford made a harangue
to which the king returned no answer. The words attributed to Beckford,
and afterwards inscribed in gilt letters in the Guildhall, were that
whoever alienated the king's mind from his people in general and the
city of London in particular was his majesty's enemy and "a betrayer of
our happy constitution as it was established at the glorious and
necessary revolution". Brave wo