DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 25) voting was taken possession of by the mob; no one was allowed to pass who did not wear a blue cockade with the name of Wilkes and the ‘Number 45.’ On every door along the roads far beyond the precincts of the City the popular number was inscribed in chalk. It was noticed that there was hardly a house within fifteen miles of London unmarked, and the inscription might be seen from time to time the whole way from London to Winchester. At the election, which took place at Brentford, he was returned by an overwhelming majority, to the intense delight of the mob, who cheered him with the shout of ‘ Wilkes and Liberty,’ and com- pelled illuminations in the town. The windows of the Mansion House were de- molished, and the houses of the Duke of Northumber- land and of Lords Bute and Egmont were attacked. The house of the Duchess of Hamilton was be- sieged for three hours because she refused to burn a pint of oil in honour of the assailant of her husband’s countrymen. The pompous and stately Austrian Ambassador was taken out of his coach, and ‘Num- ber 45’ chalked on his shoes. Peers caught on their way were ordered to huzzah for ‘ Wilkes and Liberty,’ but not till the glass of their chariots was broken, and the famous ‘Number 45’ scratched on their panels. The Duke of Northumberland had to regale the populace with beer, and swallow some of it him-