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George Selwyn: His Letters and His Life by Unknown
page 151 of 404 (37%)

Anthony Storer to Lord Carlisle.

(1775,) Dec. 29, Bath.--I broke off very abruptly in my last, telling
you that Oliver's Motion came into Parliament in so strange a form,
that it met with very little encouragement; Wilkes counted twelve
who divided with him on the main Question, and he dignified them by
calling them his twelve Apostles.

Sawbridge had attacked the present Administration for their intended
folly of taking up four other persons besides Mr. Eyre upon
the news of that plot, that made so much noise for a day or
two at the opening of Parliament; and said that some person in
Administration had very wisely objected to it, because instead
of having the Wilkes, there would immediately be five.

To which Lord North answered by saying, though he might believe a
Buckingham House Junto might do a great deal, yet he had so much
respect for Mr. Wilkes, as not to imagine that they could easily
make another person at (all?) similar to him; that he had seen the
difficulty of such an undertaking by observing, that gentlemen who
made it the whole object and study of their lives to resemble him,
had failed in the attempt. He ended by quoting--Non cuivis homini
contingit, etc.; some of the Treasury prompted him--Ex quovis ligno
non fit Mercurius.

We divided twice that day, besides having a third Question. The
order of the day was first put, then the previous Question, and the
main one. So that Wilkes and his party divided with us upon the
previous Question. Lord North upon this desired, while the minority
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