"The new minister had been attacked in a variety of political papers. _The North Briton_ in particular, which commenced the week after _The Briton_, waged open war with him. Some of the numbers had been ascribed to Mr. _Wilkes_, others to Mr. _Churchill_, and Mr. _Lloyd_. Mr. _Hogarth_ had for several years lived on terms of friendship and intimacy with Mr. _Churchill_ and Mr. _Wilkes_. As the _Buckinghamshire_ militia, which this gentleman had the honour of commanding, had been for some months at _Winchester_ guarding the _French_ prisoners, the Colonel was there on that duty. A friend wrote to him, that Mr. _Hogarth_ intended soon to publish a political print of _The Times_, in which Mr. _Pitt_, Lord _Temple_, Mr. _Churchill_, and himself, were held out to the public as objects of ridicule. Mr. _Wilkes_, on this notice, remonstrated by two of their common friends to Mr. _Hogarth_, that such a proceeding would not only be unfriendly in the highest degree, but extremely injudicious; for such a pencil ought to be universal and moral, to speak to all ages, and to all nations, not to be dipt in the dirt of the faction of a day, of an insignificant part of the country, when it might command the admiration of the whole. An answer was sent, that neither Mr. _Wilkes_ nor Mr. _Churchill_ were attacked in _The Times_, though Lord _Temple_ and Mr. _Pitt_ were, and that the print should soon appear. A second message soon after told Mr. _Hogarth_, that Mr. _Wilkes_ should never believe it worth his while to take notice of any reflections on himself; but if his friends were attacked, he should then think he was wounded in the most sensible part, and would, as well as he was able, revenge their cause; adding, that if he thought the _North Briton_ would insert what he sent, he would make an appeal to the public on the very _Saturday_ following the publication of the print. _The Times_ soon after appeared, and on the _Saturday_ following [_Sept._ 25, 1762,] N° 17, of the _North Briton_, which is a direct attack on the king's _serjeant-painter_.[65] If Mr. _Wilkes_ did write that paper, he kept his word better with Mr. _Hogarth_, than the painter had done with him. "It is perhaps worth remarking, that the painter proposed to give a series of political prints, and that _The Times_ were marked Plate I. No farther progress was however made in that design. The public beheld the first feeble efforts with execrations, and it is said that the caricaturist was too much hurt by the general opinion of mankind, to possess himself afterwards sufficiently for the execution of such a work.