“to receive into your custody the body of John Wilkes, Esq., herewith sent you, for being the author and publisher of a most infamous and seditious libel, entitled the _North Briton_, No. XLV., tending to inflame the minds and alienate the affections of the people from His Majesty, and to excite them to traitorous insurrections against the Government.” The small engraving which exhibits Wilkes in the Tower, forms one portion of a series, entitled “The Places” (being a sequel to “The Posts”), a political pasquinade, dedicated to Bamber Gasoign, Esq., a Trading Lord for the time being. [Illustration: A SAFE PLACE. WILKES IN THE TOWER, 1763.] “Satire’s a harmless, quiet thing-- ’Tis application makes the sting.” No. 3 is styled a Safe Place; the title is “Moderation, Moderation, this was Wonderful Moderation, an old song.” The prisoner is simultaneously attacked by curs, and by one of the historical lions of the Tower, which cannot do much harm, being chained to the secure post Magna Charta. Wilkes is threatening his assailants with a whip; he has on a spear the cap of liberty--this emblem is inscribed “Habeas Corpus.” A yeoman of the guard is in charge of the hero of the XLV. _North Briton_. “There’s a scene for an Englishman! Patriots ill-us’d, Magna Charta despised, and poor Freedom abus’d; Once the love of our country brought profit and pow’r, But it now, tho’ with glory, sends WILKES to the Tow’r.” In the version of “Daniel cast into the Den of Lions; or, _True Blue_ will never stain” (April 29, 1763), Wilkes is shown the centre of a highly elaborate allegorical combination, which deals with the incidents of his arrest, associated with the _North Briton_, and his obnoxious writings. One of the scenes exhibits the king’s messengers violently breaking into Wilkes’s house, Great George Street, Westminster, and ransacking his receptacles for papers. On the other side, the messengers are shown conducting Wilkes to the Tower, the title “Den of Lions” not being wide of the mark, since it, at that time, was the abiding place of the royal menagerie. Wilkes is made to declare: “Corruption I detest, and Persecution I despise,”--sentiments befitting the patriotic martyr, as he was then believed to be, a “goodly repute” with which he was only too desirous of parting in exchange for such bribes as were weighty enough for his acceptance. In the symbolic view of this new “Daniel,” the goddess Fame hovers over her whilom favourite, with a wreath to crown his brow; she is publishing, through her trumpet, “Magnus est Veritas;” the door of the den which confines the lions is a prominent feature. Below appears the Lieutenant of the Tower; he has a written “counsel’s opinion” in his hand, and is replying to a demand for admittance made by Wilkes’s brother, “Consider, sir, my Lord Temple was not suffered to see him.” When Wilkes was committed to the Tower, both his brother and Earl