Governor Bernard's Interference: Wilkes and Middlesex

The Circular sent to the colonies was wrung from the reluctant ministry by fear of a revolt at home. The capital of the kingdom was then fearfully shaken by a violent political excitement that filled thoughtful minds with dread. John Wilkes, the irrepressible political writer already mentioned, had suddenly returned from exile, and was elected a representative in Parliament by the voters of Middlesex. The king desired to keep him out of Parliament, and the pliant House of Commons refused to give him a seat. The people were aroused by great indignation because of this interference with their rights. Wilkes was chosen to be a magistrate of London, by a large majority; and again the voters of Middlesex elected him to represent them in Parliament. Again the Commons kept him from his seat by voting the returns null and void, without the shadow of a fact to warrant the action. A third and fourth time he was elected by overwhelming majorities, and each time, the Commons, under the influence of the king, and in violation of the seminal principle of representative government, denied him a seat in the House, and gave it to his opponent at the hustings. Their plea was that Wilkes was an outlaw.

This deadly blow, as the people regarded it, at one of the dearest rights of the British subject, moved the public mind of the kingdom most powerfully, and added thousands of intelligent men to the list of friends of the Americans, the vital principle of whose resistance to the government was the sacred right of representation as an equivalent for taxation. Mobs appeared in London and various parts of the kingdom, vehemently protesting by great violence against the outrage upon popular liberty. In these demonstrations many lives were lost. The houses of crown-officers were attacked, and even the palace of Whitchall, the residence of the king, was seriously menaced by a vast concourse of people, shouting, "Wilkes and Liberty." The populace were restrained from violence, and possibly from the murder of the king, by the interference of the Royal Guards. To this political agitation was added that which was caused by the distress, real and prospective, of the merchants and manufacturers of England, created by the non-importation leagues in operation in America. These causes combined pressed the English people, at that time, to the verge of revolution. They were taught by current events to regard their king as a foe to popular liberty, and a willing usurper of the rights of the people; and attachment to the crown was greatly weakened.

Hillsborough's Circular had not the least effect upon the Americans except to stimulate them to more determined resistance. The repeal of some of the obnoxious acts would be a partial relief from taxation; but so long as the duty on tea was retained, the principle involved remained the same. While a tax for revenue in the smallest degree was imposed upon the Americans, their real grievance was not redressed, and they stood firm in their attitude of resistance. They worked the engine of non-importation with great vigor. The exports from England to America which, in 1768, had amounted to almost $12,000,000 (of which amount tea represented $660,000), in 1769 amounted to only a little over $8,000,000, the tea being only $220,000. Pownal, the immediate predecessor of Bernard as governor of Massachusetts, showed, in a speech in Parliament, that the total produce of the new taxes for the first year had been less than $80,000, and that the expenses of the new custom-house arrangements had reduced the net profits of the crown revenue in the colonies to $1,475, while the extraordinary military expenses in America amounted, for the same time, to $850,000. Yet the stubborn king and his pliant minister insisted upon retaining the duty on tea, to save the royal prerogative, and keeping up an expensive military establishment to enforce its collection! Samuel Adams was doubtless right when he publicly declared, on the arrival of the repeal of the stamp act: "The conduct of England is permitted and ordained by the unsearchable wisdom of the Almighty for hastening the independence of these colonies."