On the 8th, the Duke of Bolton moved to see the instructions that had been given to Captain Hunt when he was sent to the Falkland Islands; but that demand was likewise rejected by 50 odd to 22. Those instructions had been so hostile, that Lord Chatham owned he had hoped, if a Parliamentary inspection of them could have been obtained, and consequently publicity, that they would have provoked Spain to break the new convention. On this and the former debate Lord Chatham spoke with infinite wit and much temper, and said, smiling at the youth of Lord North and Lord Suffolk, that old England was grown very old and decayed indeed under so many young men! This pacification cut up by the roots Lord Chatham’s hopes, which had revived on the prospect of war; but though the nation might have called for the vigour of his spirited councils had war been declared, nobody was desirous of making war only to make him necessary,--especially when we had obtained reparation of an insult to which we had given the provocation. Wilkes did not wish Lord Chatham’s exaltation, by whom he had ever been discountenanced personally; and the Earl’s connection with Lord Shelburne set him at still greater distance from Wilkes, who, in truth, could but ill maintain his ground at all, and had no support but from the Common Council and the very mob. He had, indeed, lately obtained an approbation of his conduct from a majority of the Bill of Rights, but composed of the least substantial members. Macleane, one of his most noisy abettors in the House of Commons, and who had lent him money, had been bought off by the Court; on which Wilkes abused him in the newspapers. Macleane obliged the printer to discover the author, on which Macleane challenged Wilkes, and he making no reply, Macleane printed his challenge. Wilkes disavowed the libels, and affirmed that he had declared as much to a relation of Macleane, who had brought him the latter’s defiance, which Wilkes waived as not being the author of the abuse. Nor did the public think well enough of Macleane to interest themselves in his quarrel. Courage Wilkes thought he had displayed sufficiently; and blemishes in his private character, though set forth in the most odious colours by his adversaries, he had found could not wean the affections of the people. Yet his confidence in that particular proved soon afterwards more detrimental to his credit than all his former errors. Nor did he take any pains to disguise what he thought of his cause and his partisans; but with an ebriety of indiscretion he would joke on his own situation and adherents, even with men averse to his faction, the Scotch excepted, whom he never spared.