"Wilkes and Liberty!" 10 May

"Wilkes and Liberty!" is not a cry heard on the streets of London, or indeed anywhere else, nowadays but on May 10 1768 when John Wilkes, a radical and journalist, was imprisoned there was rioting in London with people running around shouting "Wilkes and Liberty!" as if their lives depended on it. Wilkes was a supporter of William Pitt the Elder (a Whig). When John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (a Tory) came to power in 1762, Wilkes started a weekly publication, the ‘North Briton’, in which both Bute and the Dowager Princess of Wales (with whom Bute may have been a smidgen over-chummy) were savagely satirised. Bute resigned in 1763 but Wilkes was equally opposed to his successor, George Grenville. Wilkes was later charged with seditious libel over attacks on the King’s speech at the opening of Parliament in issue Number 45 of April 23, 1763 which eventually led to his imprisonment. In addition to being a bit of a scallywag, Wilkes was a noted wit and when Lord Sandwich shouted to him "You Sir, will either die of the pox or the gallows!". Wilkes responded "That would depend on whether I embrace your lordship’s principles or your mistresses." Whilst all that is jolly interesting in itself, the best part of the tale started off as a bit of a side-show. In addition to Wilkes, there were about 40 other ‘North Briton’ supporters and contributors that the Government attempted to suppress. Secretary of State for the Northern Department George Montague-Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax had his agents, led by Nathan Carrington, break into the home of Wilkes’ supporter John Entick and seize his private papers. Entick took Carrington and his colleagues to court and the trial took place in Westminster Hall presided over by Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden. Camden held that Halifax had no right under statute or under precedent to issue such a warrant. The judgement established the limits of executive power in English law that an officer of the state could only act lawfully in a manner prescribed by statute or common law - which is why a Home Secretary will seldom cry "Wilkes and Liberty!".