Jemmy Twitcher.  The ceremony of burning the North Briton was interrupted by a riot.  The constables were beaten; the paper was rescued; and, instead of it, a jack-boot and a petticoat were committed to the flames.  Wilkes had instituted an action for the seizure of his papers against the Under-secretary of State.  The jury gave a thousand pounds damages.  But neither these nor any other indications of public feeling had power to move Grenville.  He had the Parliament with him:  and, according to his political creed, the sense of the nation was to be collected from the Parliament alone.

Soon, however, he found reason to fear that even the Parliament might fail him.  On the question of the legality of general warrants, the Opposition, having on its side all sound principles, all constitutional authorities, and the voice of the whole nation, mustered in great force, and was joined by many who did not ordinarily vote against the Government.  On one occasion the ministry, in a very full House, had a majority of only fourteen votes.  The storm, however, blew over.  The spirit of the Opposition, from whatever cause, began to flag at the moment when success seemed almost certain.  The session ended without any change.  Pitt, whose eloquence had shone with its usual lustre in all the principal debates, and whose popularity was greater than ever, was still a private man.  Grenville, detested alike by the Court and by the people, was still minister.

As soon as the Houses had risen, Grenville took a step which proved, even more signally than any of his past acts, how despotic, how acrimonious, and how fearless his nature was.  Among the gentlemen not ordinarily opposed to the Government, who, on the great constitutional question of general warrants, had voted with the minority, was Henry Conway, brother of the Earl of Hertford, a brave soldier, a tolerable speaker, and a well-meaning, though not a wise or vigorous politician.  He was now deprived of his regiment, the merited reward of faithful and gallant service in two wars.  It was confidently asserted that in this violent measure the King heartily concurred.

But whatever pleasure the persecution of Wilkes, or the dismissal of Conway, may have given to the royal mind, it is certain that his Majesty’s aversion to his ministers increased day by day.  Grenville was as frugal of the public money as of his own, and morosely refused to accede to the King’s request, that a few thousand pounds might be expended in buying some open fields to the west of the gardens of Buckingham House.  In consequence of this refusal, the fields were soon covered with buildings, and the King and Queen were overlooked in their most private walks by the upper windows of a hundred houses.  Nor was this the worst.  Grenville was as liberal of words as he was sparing of guineas.  Instead of explaining himself in that clear, concise, and lively manner, which alone could win the attention of a young mind