It was whilst keeping his terms that Dunning made acquaintance with Horne Tooke, who addressed to him in 1778 his _Letter on the English Particle_, which was later expanded into _The Diversions of Purley_. After four years of study Dunning was called to the bar, and for five weary years after that his prospects remained in a most unpromising condition. He was a very ugly man, stunted in growth, his limbs misshapen, and his features mean. Horne Tooke used to tell a story illustrative of his personal appearance. On one occasion Thurlow wished to see him privately, and going to the coffee-house he frequented, asked the waiter if Mr. Dunning were there. The waiter, who was new to the place, said he did not know him. "Not know him!" exclaimed Thurlow with his usual volley of oaths. "Go into the room upstairs, and if you see a gentleman like the knave of clubs, call him down." The waiter departed, and returned with Dunning. On one occasion he was retained in an assault case, and his object was to disprove the identity of the person named by an old woman as the aggressor. Abandoning his usual overbearing demeanour towards witnesses, he commenced his cross-examination thus, mildly:-- "Pray, my good woman, what sized man was he?" "Short and stumpy, sir; almost as small as your honour." "Humph! What sort of a nose had he?" "Well now, what I should ca' a snubby nose, like your own, sir, only not quite so cocked up like." "Humph! His eyes?" "He'd gotten a bit o' a cast in 'em, sir, like your honour's squint." "Go down, woman. That will do." Presently affairs took a turn. Dunning worked his way into notice by adopting violent radical or democratical views, and became the friend of the notorious Wilkes, who also had a squint, and he acted as junior counsel in the famous prosecution of the publishers of No. 45 of the _North Briton_, which contained strictures on the speech from the throne, at the close of the session of 1763. It was in this case that Dunning firmly established his reputation as a close and subtle reasoner, and he could ever calculate on being employed by his party. From this date no member of the bar obtained a larger number of briefs. I have already told, in my _Old Country Life_, a story illustrative of the way in which he managed the defence of a man on trial for murder. In 1766 he won the recordership of Bristol, he was appointed Solicitor-General in 1767, and in the general election of 1768 he was elected member for Caine.