The young Earl of Suffolk succeeded Lord Halifax as Secretary of State,--a post he had declined a few months before on the want of languages, which he certainly had not acquired in so short an interval. The late Prime Minister, the Duke of Grafton,[193] succeeded Suffolk in the Privy Seal; but, with proud humility, desired not to be called to the Cabinet, where he would only have been subordinate. Lord Hyde was made Chancellor of the Duchy; Dr. Egerton, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, was removed to Durham, and was succeeded by Dr. North,[194] brother of the Minister. On the 21st of April, the young Prince of Wales, and his brother, the Bishop of Osnabrugh, were allowed, under the conduct of their new governor, the Earl of Holderness, to go to Gravesend, and see the men-of-war and Indiamen lying there. There was nothing remarkable in this; but it was so that the King himself, the Sovereign of an island and of a maritime power, had never seen the sea, nor ever been thirty miles from London at the age of thirty-four; so great was his indolence, and the restraint in which his mother had kept him! On the 24th, the poll began for sheriffs of Middlesex. Wilkes from the first had by far the greatest show of hands for him, and Alderman Oliver the fewest,--the consequence of his connection with Shelburne’s faction, whose opposition to Wilkes recoiled on themselves, and who were hissed and ill-treated by the mob. The Livery assembled on that occasion determined to make another remonstrance to the King, and the Lord Mayor offered to present it, which was accepted. One Bull, a devotee of Wilkes, joined him; but Kirkman, a ministerial alderman, gained ground on them, till the indiscretion of the courtiers, who laboured indefatigably to defeat Wilkes, overthrew their own purpose. An imprudent letter from Lord North’s secretary to a voter being made public, it enraged the Livery, and Wilkes and Bull were chosen. Little less offence was taken at a party novel,[195] written by the profligate hireling Smollett, to vindicate the Scots and cry down juries. The remonstrance being ready, the Lord Chamberlain wrote to the Lord Mayor, that his Majesty would not receive more persons with the remonstrance than were allowed by law. This was resented, but complied with.