Note 107 — Chapter VI · EXECUTIONS.
Reading edition
No. 45 of the ‘North Briton’ charged the king with falsehood, and was the basis of the prosecutions; 45 became in consequence a popular number with the patriots. Tradesmen called their goods “forty-five”; and snuff so styled was still sold in Fleet Street only a few years ago. Horne Tooke declares that the Prince of Wales aggravated his august father, when the latter was flogging him, by shouting “Wilkes and 45 for ever!”