Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/490

464 the country, and his party gradually became more and more restricted to the City alone. The violent scenes which had accompanied the election of Townshend were repeated in 1773, when the Court of Aldermen again rejected Wilkes, though only by the casting vote of Townshend himself, nor was it till 1774 that Wilkes obtained the object of his ambition.

While, however, this struggle was being carried on events had happened on the other side of the Atlantic which threw the quarrels of the City factions, and the jealousies of the Whigs, into comparative obscurity.