to hear with cool indifference, but on leaving the house, he addressed a
note to Martin, and a meeting in Hyde Park was the consequence, in which
the former was dangerously wounded. It was reported the next day that
he was delirious, and crowds of people surrounded his house, hooting
and shouting at his murderers: had he died, the populace would have
considered him a martyr in the cause of liberty; but he recovered.

The question of privilege came on in the house of commons on the 23rd of
November, and it lasted two whole days. Wilkes was defended by Pitt, who
came to the house again enveloped in flannel, and this time supported by
crutches. While Pitt defended him, however, he was careful to maintain
his own character. He condemned the whole series of "North Britons,"
as illiberal, unmanly, and detestable; declaimed against all national
reflections, as having a tendency to promote disloyal feelings and
disunity: asserted that his majesty's complaint was well founded, just,
and necessary; and declared that the author did not deserve to rank
among the human species, as he was the blasphemer of his God, and the
libeller of his sovereign. He was not connected with Wilkes, he said,
nor had he any connexion with writers of his stamp. At the same time, he
reprobated the facility with which parliament was surrendering its own
privileges, carefully impressing on the house, that in so doing, he
was simply delivering a constitutional opinion, and not vindicating the
character of John Wilkes. The speech of Pitt was characterised by great
eloquence and acuteness, but the measure was warmly defended by other
members, and at the conclusion, a resolution was carried by a large
majority, to the effect, "That the privilege of parliament does not
extend to the case of writing and publishing seditious libels, nor ought
to be allowed to obstruct the ordinary course of the laws in the speedy
and effectual prosecution of so heinous and dangerous an offence."
The concurrence of the lords was not obtained without considerable
difficulty, and when it was obtained, a spirited protest was signed
by seventeen peers, affirming it to be "incompatible with the dignity,
gravity, and justice of the house, thus to explain away a parliamentary
privilege of such magnitude and importance, founded in the wisdom of
ages, declared with precision in their standing orders, repeatedly
confirmed, and hitherto preserved inviolable by the spirit of their
ancestors