Opening of Parliament.--Lord Gower and Lord Temple.--Wilkes’s “Essay on Woman” laid before the House of Lords.--Hypocrisy of Lord Sandwich.--Bishop Warburton.--Kidgell.--Persecution of Wilkes.--He complains in the House of Commons of a breach of privilege in the seizure of himself and his papers.--Warm Debate on the question.--Mr. Pitt’s Speech.--Arguments of Lord North and others.--Wilkes wounded in a duel by Martin.--The King’s Speech read to the Commons.--Pitt’s obscure Speech.--Speech of Grenville.--Postponement of the farther hearing on Wilkes.-- Bestowal of the Bishoprick of Osnabrugh. But in the Parliament of England lay the chief seat of the war; and with very extraordinary scenes did the campaign open. The Houses met November 15th, Lord Hilsborough and Lord Suffolk moved the Address of the Peers. Lord Temple censured the Peace; and the Duke of Bedford defended it with temper. Lord Gower attacked Lord Temple for his disrespect to the King. He denied that he had ever shown any disrespect; and said that he and his family had been attached to _this_ royal family _full as long_ as his lordship’s family had (who were very recent converts from Jacobitism). As soon as the Address was voted, Lord Sandwich produced a poem, called an Essay on Woman, with notes pretended to be written by Bishop Warburton. It was a performance bawdy and blasphemous to the last degree, being a parody of _Pope’s Essay on Man_, and of other pieces, adapted to the grossest ideas, or to the most profane. Wilkes and Potter,[378] son of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, had formerly composed this indecent patchwork in some of their bacchanalian hours; and Wilkes, not content with provoking the vengeance of the King, of the Princess, of the Favourite, of twenty subaltern ministers, and of the whole Scottish nation, had, for the amusement of his idle hours, consigned this _innocent_ rhapsody to his own printing-press--a folly unparalleled, though he had intended to restrain the edition to twelve copies. However, as he could not commit a wanton imprudence without giving birth to some villainy or tyranny in others, this very poem was now laid before the House of Lords in consequence of a train of both kinds. One of the copies had been seized among his papers by Philip Carteret Webbe. Still was even that ministry ashamed to accuse Wilkes on evidence which had fallen into their hands by such illegal means--unanswerable proof that they were conscious of their guilt, and knew they could not justify their proceedings. But the blood-hounds having thus fallen on the scent, were not to be turned aside by delicacies. Could they procure another copy the business would be effected--and effected it was. Carteret Webbe set his tools to work, for even hangmen have deputies. There was one Kidgell, a dainty priggish parson, much in vogue among the old ladies for his gossiping and quaint sermons, and chaplain to the Scotch[379] Earl of March. This