Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/33

Rh respectabilities of social life. Wilkes shocked a great many worthy people when he attacked the King's favourite, the King's mother, and even the King himself, and the shock was the more severe because it was administered by a man who was known to be loose in his moral character; but the same issues could never have been raised by mild speaking and gentle criticism. He has been accused of having taken up politics only as a resource when his fortunes were ruined and his character lost; but niceness of morality and purity of political motives were not universal in the public men of the time, and Wilkes, at all events, sought to serve not the class who were dispensers of wealth and honours, but that great body of the people who were too frequently regarded by placemen and party managers as machines to be used and property to be disposed of. Throughout the term of his active political career, Wilkes, although violent in his language, and affected and histrionic in his proceedings, was yet consistent in the advocacy of a really liberal policy, which should protect popular liberties and extend popular rights.

Throughout this continuous and most important struggle the Whig party was divided, and there was the greatest confusion in the ranks. Burke and some of the Rockingham section were earnest in their defence of constitutional rights and individual liberty, but there was no definite acknowledgment of principles which could bind the whole party. George Grenville, the, and , were in the government which issued the general warrant; and the Duke of Grafton and were amongst the ministers who proposed and carried the resolutions disqualifying Wilkes from serving, and declaring  duly elected. Grenville on the last occasion was in opposition, and strongly resisted the disqualifying proposal; and, indeed, many of the party leaders took different views on the same kind of questions, according as they were in or out of office. Chatham was throughout, on these as on all great constitutional questions, on the side of freedom; but Chatham would not call himself a Whig, and would not act as a member of the