And then John Wilkes went into the attack.

John Wilkes was the son of a malt distiller of Clerkenwell, who had started a paper, in conjunction with a friend named Charles Churchill, in which he determined to attack the anomalies of the day. He had a seat in Parliament and was an ardent supporter of Pitt. As a man who must be in the thick of any controversy, the conflict between Pitt and the Government, under Fox's leadership, was irresistible to him.

Wilkes was an extremely ugly man; his features were irregular and his squint diabolical; to counterbalance this he had developed a very keen wit and courtly manners, and with these he endeavoured to bring down what he called the unworthy mighty from their seats. The first of these was of course Lord Bute.

As a young man Wilkes had been sent on the Grand Tour; on his return his parents had wished him to marry Mary Mead, the daughter of a London grocer, a very rich one and he had obliged.

The marriage was a failure. Poor Mary could not keep pace with her husband's wit and brilliance.

Wilkes came well out of the affair for he acquired not only a large slice of his wife's fortune but the custody of his daughter, Mary, who was the one person in his life for whom he cared.

His great energy had had to find an outlet and he joined societies of ill repute such as the Hell Fire Club and Sir Francis Dashwood's club, the latter known as the Order of St. Francis. The motive of these clubs was profligacy and obscenity, all to be conducted in the most witty manner. The members of the Order of St. Francis met in a ruined Cistercian Abbey at Medmenham and there indulged in practices with which they tried to shock each other, by mocking the Church, and they were said on one occasion to have given the sacrament to a monkey.

Membership of this society had brought Wilkes influential friends, among whom were Pitt's supporters, Sir Francis Dashwood and Lord Sandwich, and through them Wilkes became the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire; and after an unsuccessful attempt to enter Parliament for Berwick- on-Tweed he was elected for Aylesbury.

He was not a great success in Parliament, lacking the necessary eloquence; but his wit and humour secured him many friends; he was a most entertaining companion; he even made fun of his ugliness. He had never, he said, like Narcissus, hung over a stream and admired his countenance; one would not find him stealing sly glances at a mirror, a habit he had noticed among those to whom Nature had been a little more kind when dealing out good features. He made a cult of his ugliness. He was extremely virile; he had a deep need of sexual satisfaction; and in a short time he had gone through his fortune and his wife's and was looking for a means of making money.

He discovered a talent for journalism; it was an exciting profession. To express one's views in print, to hear them quoted, to be a power in the land that was exactly what Wilkes wanted. If there was one man in the country whom Wilkes wished to send toppling from his pedestal, that man was Lord Bute. Bute was all that he was not: handsome, pompous and a lover to whom the Dowager Princess of Wales had been faithful for years; Wilkes was envious; he was cleverer than Bute, but Bute was a rich man and he a poor one. Bute had become head of the Government and he, brilliant Wilkes, was a failure in Parliament. And now Bute was forcing his desires on the country and he had done it through bribes. Here was a subject for a journalist.

One of the papers, The Monitor, was criticizing the Government, but it was a scrappy little sheet, hardly worthy to be called a newspaper; and in retaliation Lord Bute had founded two papers, The Briton and The Auditor, and had set up the novelist Tobias Smollett as editor of the former. Under brilliant editorship The Briton was attracting some attention and was helping to put the case for Bute, who was becoming less unpopular as a result. This was something which Wilkes could not endure. He went to his crony Charles Churchill, a man who lived as disreputably as Wilkes himself, had separated from his wife as Wilkes had, and had made some reputation as a poet.

"We should found a rival paper to The Briton," he suggested. "In it we could keep the country informed on Mr. Bute.”

"What could we tell them that they don't already know?”

That made Wilkes laugh. "We'll find plenty, never fear. Bribes! And what a gallant gentleman! I'll swear the people would like to know how very well he performs in the Princess's bed.”

"Wilkes, you're a devil," cried Churchill.

"And doing you the honour of accepting you as the same, my friend. Now to business.”

In a very short time they were ready to bring out their paper.

"What shall we call it?" Churchill wanted to know.

Wilkes was thoughtful; then a lewd smile spread across his ugly face.

"Why not The North Briton? After all it is going to be dedicated to the destruction of a gentleman from across the Border. Yes, that is it. The North Briton.”

And so The North Briton came into existence. From its first number it was a success. There was nothing the people liked better than to see the great ridiculed, and when it was done with wit and humour it appealed more than ever.

Wilkes saw that it was presented, and people were buying it in their thousands. Fox was represented as Bute's faithful henchman. They had brought about their measures and how? Wilkes was hiding nothing. He had the information at his fingertips. He knew how the peace treaty had been brought safely through the Commons and Lords. Bribery! Bribery and Corruption was something which Wilkes and Churchill in The North Briton were going to expose to public view.

Wilkes and Churchill were for Liberty. Freedom of action; freedom of speech. That was what they stood for; and they were no respecters of persons either. No one was going to be considered if he offended against the laws of decency laid down by Wilkes and Churchill. And Bribery was an offence which made them cry out Shame.

But the chief butt was the Scotsman. Very, very handsome, he was. He had a wife and numerous children. But he still had time and energy to serve the Princess Dowager. Did the people realize they had a boudoir genius in their midst?

Another method of attack was a more serious one. George III was likened to Edward III, the Dowager Princess of Wales to Queen Isabella. And Bute had to have a part in this drama so he was of course Roger Mortimer.

Together Wilkes and Churchill concocted a parody of Mountfort's Fall of Mortimer which they published with a dedication to that brilliant bedchamber performer, Lord Bute. The sales of The North Briton shot up; and Wilkes realized that this was the most amusing, the most exciting and the quickest way to change his financial position. It had been a stroke of genius to start the paper.

All he had to remember was that they must stop at nothing; no one should be safe from their vitriolic pens. The simple fact was that the people loved scurrilous gossip; and the more shocking and the higher placed the people involved, the more the public liked it.

"They shall have what they want," sang out Wilkes; and proceeded to give it to them. Henry Fox, seeing the way trends were going and by allying himself with Bute, he was naturally catching some of the odium which was showered on that nobleman, saw no reason why he should continue in office.

Caroline was urging him to get out. He had promised, had he not, that as soon as he could do so, he would. He had told her that this last little fling was too important to be ignored. Well, he had done what was asked of him; he had shown them how to carry through the terms which Pitt had so violently rejected, so what further purpose could be served by remaining in office?

Walking in the grounds of Holland House, his arm through that of his wife, revelling in the signs of spring all around them, Henry Fox told her that she was right. He agreed with her. Now that that odious man Wilkes had come out with his scandal sheet, no one was spared certainly not those in high places. The Government was going to sway to the attack of ridicule. If he were going to get out in that blaze of glory, then he should do so now, and the price of past services would be a title.

"What do you think of Lord Holland, my dear?" he asked, smiling complacently about the park.

"I think it would be ideal," Caroline told him; 'but only if you leave the Government and come into retirement so that we can spend more time together which would give me great pleasure and enable you to escape from the mudslinging of that hideous Wilkes, the general scorn with which the Government is beginning to be regarded, and the growing unpopularity of my Lord Bute.”

"Wise woman," commented Fox. "Tomorrow I go to see my lord and with him to the King. I doubt not soon that your husband will be a noble lord.”

"The sooner the better since it means your escape from the Government.”

Mr. Fox presented himself to Lord Bute. Poor Bute! He was certainly losing his youthful looks.

Being head of a government most definitely did not suit him. Fox laughed inwardly with grim satisfaction. These ambitious men who saw themselves as they were not! Let Bute go back to cosseting the Princess Dowager; he was very good at that. But countries needed more than cosseting.

"My lord, I have come to tell you that my health is failing, and as I have done that which I gave my word to do, I can see no point in remaining longer in the Government.”

Bute was alarmed. While he had had Fox's support he had felt secure. Crafty as his name, this man was a brilliant politician, who could be called a worthy rival to Pitt. Bute had clung to high office fervently, knowing that this man was supporting him; but now the sly fellow was withdrawing that support. He had had enough.