Note 26 — Chapter I

Wilkes had attacked me in the North Briton, for a panegyric on the sense of the Scots, in my catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors: a censure I regarded so little, that when Lord Holland was engaged in his bitter persecution of the Whigs under Lord Bute, I sent an anonymous letter to Wilkes, pointing out a very advantageous character of Lord Holland that I had formerly written in the paper called The World, and inciting the North Briton to take notice both of the author and the subject of the character. Wilkes caught at the notice, said but little of me, and fell severely on Lord Holland, as I had foreseen he would.