A selection of the best quotes from Wilkes’ scandalous weekly paper The North Briton, now for the first time ever sorted into categories for the edification of our readers.

ON CIVIL LIBERTIES

The liberty of the press is the birth-right of Britons, and is justly esteemed the firmest bulwark of the liberties of this country. It has been the terror of all bad ministers; for their dark and dangerous designs, or their weakness, inability and duplicity, have thus been detected and shown to the public, generally in too strong and just colours for them long to bear up against the odium of mankind. Can we then be surpriz’d, that so various and infinite arts have been employed at one time entirely to set aside, at another to take off the force, and blunt the edge, of this most sacred weapon, given for the defence of truth and liberty? A wicked and corrupt administration must naturally dread this appeal to the world; and will be for keeping all the means of information equally from the prince, parliament and the people. Every method will then by try’d, and all arts put into practice to check the spirit of knowledge and inquiry. Even the courts of justice have in the most dangerous way, because under sanction of law, been drawn into the dark views of an arbitrary ministry, and to stifle in the birth all infant virtue.

The North Briton, No. 1, June 5 1762.

The liberty of the press, that bulwark of the liberties of the people, is so deservedly esteemed, that every attack made on it is productive of danger. Punishments inflicted even on the licentiousness of it are unpopular, and have been attended with disagreeable consequences.

The North Briton, No. 27, December 4 1762.

The laws, I am certain, are of no party.

The North Briton, No. 27, December 4 1762.

To take any man into custody, and deprive him of his liberty, without having some seeming foundation at least, on which to justify such a step, is inconsistent with wisdom and sound policy. If, upon examination (which, surely, the common feelings of humanity would suggest ought to be as speedy as possible), that foundation proves weak, then to detain those persons, or to oblige them to give in bail, in order to obtain a discharge, which, under such circumstances, they have a right to in the most free and absolute manner, is inconsistent with justice.

The North Briton, No. 27, December 4 1762.

The most eminent lawyers have been fee’d, to find mistakes and flaws in patents, granted for the security of the liberties of the subject, and which for ages have been esteemed not only valid but even sacred.

The North Briton, No. 37, February 12 1763.

The most favourite law of our constitution, which has ever been considered as the birth-right of every Englishman, and the sacred palladium of liberty; I mean the trial by jury.

The North Briton, No. 43, March 26 1763.

I can answer for myself, and I hope I may for others, that the liberty of communicating our sentiments to the public freely and honestly, shall not be tamely given up, nor, I trust, forced out of their hands.

The North Briton, No. 44, April 2 1763.

ON THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE PEOPLE

But in running on counsels contrary to the general humour and spirit of the people, the king indeed may make his ministers great subjects, but they can never make him a great prince.

The North Briton, No. 1, June 5 1762.

Government is a just execution of the laws, which were instituted by the people for their preservation: but if the people’s implements, to whom they have trusted the execution of those laws, or any power for their preservation, should convert such execution to their destruction, have they not a right to intermeddle? nay, have they not a right to resume the power they once delegated, and to punish their servants who have abused it?

The North Briton, No. 19, October 19 1762.

This wretch preaches up the doctrine, that some part of mankind, nay, the most, are born slaves, who ought implicitly to be submissive to the caprices of a few, who by accident, knavery, or cunning, shall wriggle themselves into power.

The North Briton, No. 19, October 19 1762.

We are plainly told, that though we are passengers in the state-vessel, and see the pilot going to run her on the rocks, and make a wreck of her, and a boat provided for his own escape, yet we must blindly submit, and, without a murmur, suffer the villain to execute his hellish purpose; nor dare to intermeddle with the helm, tho’ we know we shall go to the bottom, unless we tip him overboard, tack, and steer another way.

The North Briton, No. 19, October 19 1762.

On whom then are we to depend? On those old enemies of liberty, those abettors of arbitrary power, those sworn enemies of our constitution, the Tories? Forbid it, heaven! Consider them as bred up in the rudiments of treason, as continuing fast to the same tenets, even after they came to maturity, and were capable of judging for themselves, as holding their midnight assemblies, and secretly sacrificing at the altars of rebellion.

The North Briton, No. 23, November 6 1762.

Opposition, therefore, to measures evidently calculated…to depress the noble spirit of freedom, by inculcating mean doctrines of uncontrollable power, and independency of any single part of the British legislature, becomes the duty of every honest man, and every sincere lover of his country.

The North Briton, No. 30, December 25 1762.

The infinite number of writings you formerly published to recommend passive obedience, non-resistance and indefeasible right, were a disgrace to the free government under which you lived; and your slavish maxims led a former unhappy prince, James the Second, to attempt the reducing into practice what you had for some years inculcated through the nation, as the clear right of the Crown… They were talked, written and preached into vogue by venal, prostitute priests. The judgment and decree of the university of Oxford, passed in the Convocation, July 21 1683, is full of maxims which overturn the first principles of all free governments, and of civil liberty… I appeal to the common sense of mankind, whether the English government is not entirely overturned by these maxims, which only the professed slaves of a Turkish emperor could surely without blushing offer to the Grand Seignor.

The North Briton, No. 32, January 8 1763.

One consolation, however, is still left to us, that so severe an exercise of the extreme right of the prerogative can not fail of recoiling soon upon the heads of those impetuous and rash ministers who first advised it. The chariot of the sun, which they have borrowed, will be theirs for but a day. They may for a short time endanger our little world; but their own ruin will be the certain consequence. Their fall will be unpitied; their memories ever detested.

The North Briton, No. 37, February 12 1763.

A minister is the servant of the public, and accountable to them.

The North Briton, No. 44, April 2 1763.

In vain will such a minister, or the foul dregs of his power, the tools of corruption and despotism, preach up in the speech that spirit of concord, and that obedience to the laws, which is essential to good order. They have sent the spirit of discord through the land, and I will prophesy, that it will never be extinguished, but by the extinction of their power.

The North Briton, No. 45, April 23 1763.

The spirit of concord hath not gone forth among them; but the spirit of liberty has, and a noble opposition has been given to the wicked instruments of oppression. A nation as sensible as the English, will see that a spirit of concord, when they are oppressed, means a tame submission to injury, and that a spirit of liberty ought then to arise, and I am sure every will, in proportion to the weight of the grievance they feel.

The North Briton, No. 45, April 23 1763.

The King of England is only the first magistrate of this country; but is invested by law with the whole executive power. He is, however, responsible to his people for the due execution of the royal functions…The people too have their prerogative, and, I hope, the fine words of Dryden will be engraven upon our hearts: Freedom is the English subject’s prerogative.

The North Briton, No. 45, April 23 1763.

ON POLITICIANS

Mr Pitt [the elder]… was determined to come into no ministerial jobs; he spoke his mind freely on every occasion; when convinced, he was always ready to change his opinion and alter his measures, but had the impudence to expect conviction before he did it; he never was afraid to bring the voice of the people to the ear of the Sovereign; he was always ready and forward to lay his own measures before the public; he was of such unshaken secrecy, that during the whole course of his ministry he gave no opportunity to the most willing of discovering our designs to the enemy; he was of such unpardonable attention to business, that the most minute occurrences in his department passed not without examination; he was such a bigot to the interests of the public, that no private connexions whatever could induce him to prefer an undeserving person; he was of such unbounded ambition, that he raised the honour of the English name to a much greater height than any of his predecessors…

The North Briton, No 8, July 24 1762.

But we find that weak and feeble efforts command success against a weak and feeble ministry; and our ancient enemy, when expiring, can do more, matched with a pitiful opponent, than when in full vigour, with one wise and spirited.

The North Briton, No 11, August 14 1762.

I do not know in any controversy so sure a method of coming at truth, which is always the pretence, thought seldom the real object of modern enquiries, as a just and strict definition of all the words and phrases of any importance, which are afterwards to be in use. This practice is universal, excepting only in theological and political controversy. If I take up a book of mathematics, the writer defines in the very first page, what a triangle, a circle, or a trapezium is; and then argues closely from the precise and accurate ideas of each, which the author and reader have previously settled… I have read much religious controversy; for unhappily there is as little agreement between the ministers of the gospel, as between the ministers of state. I do not however remember to have found in any of our divines a satisfactory definition of faith, free-will, or predestination…The same remark will hold through in political controversy. Who has with any precision defined the words faction or patriot?

The North Briton, No 12, August 22 1762.

I should not hesitate a moment to prefer pledging patriot toasts with a set of sensible and spirited friends of their country, in Surrey, Sussex, or Buckinghamshire, to the drinking of chocolate with a weak, passionate and insolent secretary of state.

The North Briton, No 15, September 11 1762.

When a man of parts dedicates his talents to the service of his country, he deserves the highest rewards: when he makes them subservient to base purposes, he merits execration and punishment.

The North Briton, No. 17, September 25 1762.

It is not sufficient to say that he has done no good, unless they can prove that he has done no harm. Happy would it often have been for this kingdom, if her ministers had been of such a complexion, as to do neither the one nor the other!

The North Briton, No. 18, October 2 1762.

Whatever the pride of presumption and the swell of vanity may induce some persons to think, the merchants of London, in their collective capacity, possess more honest, useful political knowledge, and understand more of the true interest of their country, than all the ministers of state ever discovered, or were masters of, who have appeared in Britain since the invasion of Julius Caesar.

The North Briton, No. 19, October 19 1762.

But surely the public has very little to do with the private life and morals of the minister: let him discharge the duty he owes to the state with fidelity and integrity (with capacity he cannot) and I will not follow him in his private hours of retirement.

The North Briton, No. 20, October 16 1762.

His very enemies allow him great abilities; but will his warmest friends say that he ever employed them to any good purpose? The greatness of his understanding serves only to make the badness of his heart more formidable, and to render our apprehensions of him more terrible.

The North Briton, No. 23, November 6 1762.

The world has at all times been cursed with some evil and malignant spirits, who, instead of being fired with noble emulation at the great actions even of their own countrymen, have repined at their glories, and wept in the midst of the grateful acclamations of a whole people…Their next step is an attempt to ruin the prosperity, which they envy; or effectually to destroy all the noble fruits which would have accrued from any divine successes in which they had no share. In some instances…every mean art has been employed, and every dishonourable and reproachful method made use of, not only to disgrace and ruin the nation at that time, but to prevent posterity from blessing the memory of a great patriot, who wished to have entailed on his country dignity, wealth and empire.

The North Briton, No. 25, November 20 1762.

You politicians of the town are so totally engaged in the transactions of the great world, that I suppose you will hardly think it worth while to take notice of any occurrences, however important, that happen amongst the obscure folks of the country.

The North Briton, No. 29, December 18 1762.

The nation itself is but a larger family, and the servants of that family are as apt to be corrupt as those of any other.

The North Briton, No. 29, December 18 1762.

The doctrine of rewards and punishments has always operated in a very powerful manner on the passions of the weak and selfish part of mankind. It is a question which would require a nice discussion, whether the divine or politician has more frequently been obliged to have recourse to it, or has made the most converts by this efficacious application to our hopes and fears. I own that I am rather inclined to the politician, because he brings all his artillery in view, to begin an immediate attack…The divine allures us with the most pleasing hopes, or alarms us with a prospect of much terror, but then it is believed to be so distant, that the danger seems to diminish…

The North Briton, No. 31, January 1 1763.

It is become the fashion to ask, ‘What have you to say against the present minister; what ill hath he done?’ I would answer this question, and, I think, not improperly, by asking another, ‘What have you to say for the present minister? What good hath he done?’ My notion hath ever been, that services should precede rewards, and that places of so high and interesting a nature, should be conferred on those only who had previously given some unquestionable proofs of integrity and ability.

The North Briton, No. 34, January 22 1763.

[Some] think all objections to his having the direction of public affairs sufficiently answered by telling us, that he is a man of excellent character in private life. Whether this be truth or not, I neither know nor care; but certain I am, that it is nothing at all to the present point. Private virtues are very often to be found where the qualifications of a public character are wanting. A good man may be a very bad minister.

The North Briton, No. 34, January 22 1763.

Must not [we] be in raptures, on account of the strict harmony subsisting between the whiggified Tories, and the torified Whigs… The conjunction of Pomey, Caesar and Crassus, proved much more fatal to the Commonwealth, than even their opposition would have been… The wise and honest were driven from all participation in government. Cato was sent away for being too virtuous, by that tool of power the profligate Clodius, and Cicero, for being too able was forced into banishment.

The North Briton, No. 37, February 12 1763.

The ministers, who club their wisdom and their power in this chef d’oeuvre of politics, appear in general to the nation in the odious light of Cossacks, exercising a domestic Dragonade, and looking out for plunder for their creatures and dependants.

The North Briton, No. 37, February 12 1763.

But what we can not help admiring is the modesty and veracity of those tools of power who would persuade us that the body of the people are perfectly satisfied, and that all reports of public discontent are made and spread abroad by the venal emissaries of a disappointed faction.

The North Briton, No. 44, April 2 1763.

When the opposition to the minister is the subject of conversation, it is remarkable to observe how men, who are in their hearts well-wishers to it, but have not spirit to speak out, retire back into themselves, how cautiously they hint their love of their country, as if it was a fault, and how sparingly they praise those who openly avow themselves the defenders of it. These men may love their country much, but they love themselves more…They wish England well, but that it is all – they will not advance one step, nor run the least risk to promote her welfare…Whatever consequence such fluctuating spirits maintain in troubled times, sure I am, that in a quiet and settled state, they ought to be treated with the utmost contempt…an honest man may through mistake, take the worst side; but he can not be an honest man who refuses to take any.

The North Briton, No. 44, April 2 1763.

The ministry are not ashamed of doing the thing in private; they are only afraid of the publication.

The North Briton, No. 45, April 23 1763.

I am in doubt, whether the imposition is greater on the sovereign, or on the nation. Every friend of his country must lament that a prince of so many great and amiable qualities, whom England truly reveres, can be brought to give the sanction of his sacred name to the most odious measures, and to the most unjustifiable, public declarations, from a throne ever renowned for truth.

The North Briton, No. 45, April 23 1763.

ON TORY POLITICIANS

The friends of liberty and the revolution have now no countenance but from the nation. The Tory faction is triumphant, and the most slavish doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance is preached up by every pamphleteer, and to its full extent insisted upon by an all grasping minister.

The North Briton, No. 30, December 25 1762.

However great the advantages of union amongst ourselves may really be, and however they may be magnified beyond their true extent, by the venal instruments of power, I should think them much too dearly purchased, if they could be purchased that way, by throwing all places of trust, honour and profit into the hands of the Tories, whom no true lover of his country can behold without suspicion in any place of trust… [T]heir heads are as bad as their hearts.

The North Briton, No. 33, January 15 1763.

A Tory, in the true and original meaning of the word, not to gloss it over with vain and artificial interpretations, was a maintainer of the infernal doctrine of arbitrary power, and the indefeasible right on the part of the sovereign, and of passive obedience and non-resistance on the part of the subject… The Tory maintained, that the king held his crown of none but God; that he could not by the most flagrant violation of the laws, by the most tyrannical exercise of his power, forfeit his right; that the people were made entirely for him, and that he had a right to dispose of their fortunes, lives and liberties, in defiance of his coronation oath, and the eternal laws of reason, without the subject having any right to demand redress of their grievances, or if their demand was denied, to seek it in themselves. Doth not the Jacobite hold these very tenets?

The North Briton, No. 33, January 15 1763.

Why do they not tell us the reasons on which they have changed their faith, and assign some fair methods by which they have satisfied the doubts of conscience? Till they do this, we certainly have an undoubted right to consider their pretended change as a mere piece of finesse, calculated to advance the worst of purposes, or to regard them as men of inconstancy and levity, acting from caprice and not reason; consequently in either of these respects unfit to take part in the direction of affairs.

The North Briton, No. 33, January 15 1763.

ON CORRUPTION

O may Britain never see such a day again! When power acquired by profligacy may lord it over this realm; when the feeble pretentions of mere minion may require the prostitution of royalty for their support; if, which heaven avert! such a day should come, may a Prince truly jealous of the honour of his House, and armed with the intrepidity of Edward the Third, crush the wretch who mounts to power by such ignoble means.

The North Briton, No 5, July 3 1762.

Blush, Briton, blush, but let your patrons too share the infamy of prompting and abetting to the world such known prostitution of truth and justice.

The North Briton, No 9, July 31 1762.

In England [a pension] is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country…a slave of state hired by a stipend to obey his master.

The North Briton, No 12, August 22 1762.

Every obsolete useless place has been revived, and every occasion of increasing salaries has been seized with eagerness.

Ibid.

ON TAXES & THE ŒCONOMY

We frequently meet with persons who are careful to the last degree of their own money, and lavish beyond precedent of what is entrusted to them by others.

The North Briton, No. 34, January 22 1763.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, who by the confession of his own board, as well as the rest of mankind, now stands forth the most confused, most incapable, and most ignorant of all, who ever accepted the seals of that high office…He remains a little while an object of pity, and is then consigned over to eternal oblivion.

The North Briton, No. 41, March 12 1763.

We hear nothing but economy, though we can not, in any one business of national concern, discern the least trace of it…The word he never forgets: the application of it to any public business we have never yet experienced from him. At no period of the English history has the nation been so much amused with words, and so grossly abused with glaring facts of extortion on the people…It is an old observation, that he that first cries out Stop Thief, is often he that stole the treasure. We have heard nothing but economy, and we have seen nothing but profusion and extravagance.

The North Briton, No. 42, March 19 1763.

In this manner is the national insulted by the falsest pretences to economy, and her wealth squandered among the tools of an insolent, all-grasping minister.

The North Briton, No. 42, March 19 1763.

Excise[:] The very word is hateful to an English ear.

The North Briton, No. 43, March 26 1763.

Every tongue loudly proclaims the universal contempt, in which these empty professions [of thrift] are held by this nation. Let the public be informed of a single instance of economy.

The North Briton, No. 45, April 23 1763.

Many unnecessary expenses have been incurred, only to increase the power of the crown, that it, to create more lucrative jobs for the creatures of the minister.

The North Briton, No. 45, April 23 1763.

ON EUROPE

The nation was unanimous in opinion, that an open and spirited war was a state of greater security than an injudicious, inglorious and uncertain peace.

The North Briton, No 15, September 11 1762.

England in her wars with France should never sheath the sword till peace is absolutely concluded. The wicked policy of that nation, their superior address in negotiation, their total disregard of faith, and their known arts of spinning out treaties merely to gain time to recover strength, without any real intention of bringing them to a conclusion, have taught us this lesson, altho’ we have seldom been prudent enough to put it into practice.

The North Briton, No. 18, October 2 1762.

But to let our fleets lie rotting in port, to suffer our men to be enervated with sloth, and to dissolve in inactivity, to squander away our treasures, and to send out, merely by way of amusement and to take the air, our bravest admirals and our strongest fleets, at a time when we are engaged in war with France and Spain, these are instances of such a confident well-grounded superiority, as must strike terror into our enemies…

The North Briton, No. 18, October 2 1762.

The French king, by a stroke of his pen, has regained what all the power of that nation, and her allies, could never have recovered; and England, once more the dupe of a subtle negotiation, has consented to give up very nearly all her conquests…What right have we to expect that an indulgent Providence will again in so distinguished a manner stand forth our friend, when we have thus wantonly given away to the enemy of our religion and liberty, the fruits of all the signal blessings heaven has poured down upon us?

The North Briton, No. 28, December 11 1762.

This nation has ever been renowned for the bravest warriors, France for the ablest negotiators…in almost all battles with the French [the British] have had the honour and victory, but in all treaties, the loss and damage.

The North Briton, No. 28, December 11 1762.

Pride and bigotry have marked the imperial house of Austria, equally with the coarse, big lip.

The North Briton, No. 36, February 5 1763.

ON BRITAIN

I might add that whole empires where the Roman Eagle never flew, have revered the name of England, and crouched to our lion.

The North Briton, No. 16, September 18 1762.

However the name of England may be lost, the spirit still remains…the English are a people who will not suffer their rights to be trampled on for any length of time, and whose just resentments have ever been successful against favourites and aliens. They will no more suffer the person who hath injured and oppressed them to skulk out of power without calling him to account, than they will tamely bear his oppressions whilst in authority.

The North Briton, No. 44, April 2 1763.

ON RELIGIOUS TYPES

The ecclesiastics are an artful, subtle, and powerful body in all countries; their eyes, however dim to other things, are remarkably quick to every thing which concerns their own interests: they are generally proud, revengeful, and implacable; and yet most of them have the art to throw a veil over their evil qualities, and establish an interest in the opinions of the people.

The North Briton, No 10, August 7 1762.

Where religion prevails in its true and genuine spirit, forms are looked on with an eye of indifference; but in a nation where the true spirit of religion is lost, and nothing but forms remain, there they are considered with the greatest respect, and assume an effectuality which in themselves they have not.

The North Briton, No 10, August 7 1762.

ON ACADEMICS

Fellows! who have soaked away their knowledge,

In sleepy residence at College,

Whose lives are like a stagnant pool,

Muddy and placid, dull and cool;

Mere drinking, eating; eating, drinking;

With no impertinence of thinking.

The North Briton, No. 22, October 30 1762.

Yet must these sons of Gowned ease,

Proud of the Plumage of Degrees,

Forsake their Apathy a while,

To figure in the Roman style…

And all around are Portraits hung;

Of Heroes in the Latin Tongue;

Italian, English, German, French,

Who most laboriously entrench

In deep parade of Language dead,

What would not in their own be read…

The North Briton, No. 26, November 27 1762.

ON HISTORY

Worse than the infamous Capadocians of old, [they] not only refused the liberty they might enjoy themselves, but endeavoured to entail their vassalage and slavery on the whole island.

The North Briton, No. 2, June 12 1762.

Tacitus informs us, all such wretches were driven from the court and the city, under those good emperors, as the most pernicious vermin, and the pests of the human race.

The North Briton, No. 19, October 19 1762.

The house of Stuart, have been ever stigmatised as tyrants and cowards. The country, which gave them birth, has always regarded them in the true light; and the history of Scotland shews how little that nation is disposed to submit to any oppressions at home…[O]f 105 kings who reigned in Scotland, before Mary Stuart, there had been three deposed, five expelled, and thirty-two murdered.

The North Briton, No. 36, February 5 1763.

There is no study more entertaining or instructive than history.

The North Briton, No. 37, February 12 1763.

When Pyrrhus attempted to corrupt the senate, not a single Roman, in those days of public virtue and national honour, would take the vile wages of prostitution. The more subtle alien, Jugurtha, found means to melt their stubborn virtue, and by the dint of secret service money gained, over a flagitious party to espouse his shameful cause.

The North Briton, No. 37, February 12 1763.

There is a great resemblance between the histories of most nations, whose forms of government are nearly similar. All the free states of Greece experienced the same kind of internal convulsions, and their final destiny was the same… Oliver Cromwell plays the same poor farce (and acts it as ill) in his refusal of the crown from a committee of parliament, as Julius Caesar had before done on a like offer from Mark Antony.

The North Briton, No. 39, February 26 1763.

Westminster Abbey…that Mausoleum of great men, great scoundrels, great scholars, and great fools…those piles of marble, erected to the memory of great generals who were never heard of, or ought ever to be forgot and illustrious statesmen, who had no other chance to be remembered at all.

The North Briton, No. 41, March 12 1763.

JUST BEING REBARBATIVE…

By attention to words, [he] endeavours to make amends for want of sense.

The North Briton, No. 1, June 5 1762.

His intense zeal (a symptom frequent among apostates and renegadoes) has been demonstrated on many late occasions;…if he has failed to persuade, he has never failed to weary out the adversary, and to sink him into a deadly lassitude, perhaps a lethargy.

The North Briton, No 6, July 10 1762.

The gift of second sight…is to be found among us in the highest perfection, where there are no traces of common sense, nor the first principles of any science.

The North Briton, No 7, July 17 1762.

…that caution which always implies a consciousness of guilt…

The North Briton, No 8, July 24 1762.

There is scarcely any circumstance in life more provoking than to be broke in upon when a man is deeply engaged in an affair of real moment and of a serious nature, by some stupid fellow, and interrupted with his insipid raillery on a trifling subject.

The North Briton, No 15, September 11 1762.

The darting passion of Mr Hogarth is to shew the faulty and dark side of every object. He never gives us in perfection a fair face of nature, but admirably well holds out her deformities to ridicule. The reason is plain. All objects are painted on his retina in a grotesque manner, and he has never felt the force of what the French call la belle nature. He ever caught a single idea of beauty, grace, or elegance, but on the other hand he never missed the least flaw in almost any production of nature or of art… I am grieved to see the genius of Mr Hogarth, which should take in all ages and countries, sunk to a level with the miserable tribe of party etchers, and now, in his rapid decline, entering into the poor politics of the faction of the day.

The North Briton, No. 17, September 25 1762.

Could any poor creature write such stuff, unless one lately eloped from Bedlam?

The North Briton, No. 19, October 19 1762.

…the most treacherous, base, selfish, mean, abject, low-lived and dirty fellow, that ever wriggled himself into a secretaryship.

The North Briton, No. 40, March 5 1763.

…a divine of the Church of England, remarkable only for reading lectures which no one went to hear…

The North Briton, No. 44, April 2 1763.