Through  once  more  a  member  of  Parliament,  Wilkes  was  none
the  less  an  outlaw;  and,  to  the  disgrace  of  our  system,  the  tribu-
nal which  had  outlawed  him,  now  that  it  had  him  in  its  power,
could  not  make  up  its  mind  what  to  do  with  him.  Among  a  popu-
lation so  contentious  in  its  instincts  that  it  will  always  take  sides
on  every  question,  from  d  European  war  to  a  trumped  up  claim
for  an  estate,  the  number  of  those  who  espouse  the  cause  of  a
litigant  or  a  prisoner  is  determined,  not  so  much  by  the  strength
of  his  case,  as  by  the  length  of  time  during  which  it  has  been  be-
fore the  public ;  but,  forgetting  this  marked  trait  in  the  character
of  their  fellow  countrymen.  Lord  Mansfield  and  his  colleagues
wasted  two  livelong  months,  of  which  every  day  gave  Wilkes
thousands  of  partisans,  andevery  week  brought  with  it  an  outbreak
more  formidable  than  the  last.  He  surrendered  himself  on  the
twentieth  of  April ;  but,  though  he  had  given  the  Solicitor  of  the
Treasury  long  notice  of  his  intention,  the  Judges  of  the  King's
Bench  took  till  the  twenty-seventh  before  they  would  even  decide
to  refuse  him  bail;  and  meanwhile  the  feeling  in  his  favour  had
risen  to  such  a  point  that  nothing  but  his  own  personal  influence,
strenuously  exerted,  secured  a  quiet  Court  in  which  to  commit
him.  After  having  been  drawn  in  triumph  from  Westminster  to
Bishopsgate,  he  stole  away  from  his  admirers  in  disguise,  and
got  into  jail  with  almost  as  much  trouble  as  Grotius  or  Lord
Nithisdale  got  out  of  it.  The  prison  was  blockaded  all  day  and
every  day  by  a  throng  which  patiently  waited  for  the  chance  of
his  showing  himself  at  the  window.  On  the  morning  of  the
meeting  of  Parliament  the  crowd,  which  had  assembled  in  larger
numbers  than  usual  in  the  expectation  that  Wilkes  would  be
allowed  to  take  his  seat,  found  itself  confronted  by  a  detachment
of  the  Guards,  who  had  been  marched  down  to  keep  order,
and  whom  the  opposition  writers  accused  of  having  wilfully


i68  THE  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  CH.  v.
