Note 317 — Chapter I · (continued 3)

Sabin, xv. nos. 65,444, etc.; P. O. Hutchinson, ii. 38. John Wilkes, who had been Lord Mayor of London since 1774, brought the influence of its government against the ministry, and Price was offered the freedom of the city. Wilkes's speech of Feb. 6, 1775, is in Niles (ed. 1776, p. 425). In April, 1775, Wilkes and the aldermen had appealed to the king against the ministry (Bancroft, orig. ed., vii. 282), and there is a broadside copy of an appeal, July 5, 1775, by the city to the king, in the Mass. Hist. Soc. library. In Aug., 1775, when the king issued his proclamation for the suppression of the rebellion, Wilkes paid it studied affront.