that I shall wait an hour in order to give you full time to meet me. I am, Sir, your humble servant,

SAMUEL MARTIN.

Mr. Wilkes complied with the appointment, and when he met Mr. Martin at the ring they walked together for a little while to avoid some company who seemed coming up to them. They each brought a pair of pistols. When they were alone the first fire was from Mr. Martin's pistol, which missed, and the pistol in Mr. Wilkes's hand flashed in the pan. The gentlemen then each took one of Mr. Wilkes's pair of pistols, Mr. Wilkes missed, and the ball of Mr. Martin's pistol lodged in Mr. Wilkes's belly. Mr. Wilkes bled immediately very much, Mr. Martin then came up and desired to give him every assistance in his power. Mr. Wilkes replied that Mr. Martin had behaved like a man of honour, that he was killed, and insisted on Mr. Martin's making his immediate escape, that no creature should know from Mr. Wilkes how the affair happened. Upon this they parted, but Mr. Martin came up again in two or three minutes to Mr. Wilkes, offering him a second time his assistance, but Mr. Wilkes again insisted on his going off. Mr. Martin expressed his concern for Mr. Wilkes, said the thing was too well known by several people who came up almost directly, and then went away. Mr. Wilkes, was carried home, but would not tell any circumstance of the case till he found it so much known. He only said to the surgeon that it was an affair of honour.

The day following, Mr. Wilkes, imagining himself in the greatest danger, returned Mr. Martin his letter that no evidence might appear against him, and insisted upon it, with his relations, that in case of his death no trouble should be given Mr. Martin, for he had behaved as a man of honour.

The wound Mr. Wilkes had received prevented his obeying an order made by the House of Commons for his attendance, upon which the time was enlarged for a week, and by a vote of the 16th of December, Dr. Heberden, and Mr. Hawkins the surgeon, were directed to attend Mr. Wilkes to observe the progress of his cure, and report the same to the House. Mr. Wilkes, in a very humourous letter to Dr. Brocklesby, professed himself perfectly satisfied with his at

tentions, and those of Mr. Graves, his own surgeon, and declined the proffered aid of the physicians appointed by the House. As soon as his health would permit, Mr. Wilkes withdrew to Paris, where Mr. Martin also was on a visit; they had a conciliatory interview, and Mr. Martin in a very handsome note, declared his intention not to take any part in the proceedings of the House of Commons against Mr. Wilkes.

Mr. Martin's conduct, in this transaction, appears to have been highly honourable; but the public mind was so exasperated at the danger to which Wilkes had been exposed, that no credit was given to the spirit which his antagonist had displayed.

It was remarked that Mr. Martin took no notice of the objectionable passages in the North Briton, until above eight months after their publication, and that in so public a manner before the House of Commons as almost to invite its interference; he was also charged with having, during that period, every day practised at a target, Sundays not excepted, and with not returning Mr. Wilkes's letter until a month after the duel, with a view, as it was suggested, had Mr. Wilkes speedily recovered, of making use of it in evidence of his being concerned in the North Briton.

We have as briefly as we could, given a summary account of the transaction which gave birth to the following poem, and can only regret that Churchill could bestow such strength of colouring, and power of imagery upon subjects which at the time were too insignificant to create an interest in any but the slaves of prejudice and party, and which, though now obscure, are too unimportant in their consequences to excite curiosity.

In 1772 Mr. Martin declined an Alderman's gown. He was a frequent speaker in Parliament between the years 1782 and 1786, and died in 1788. A good engraving from the last portrait painted by Hogarth for himself, and bequeathed by him in his will to Mr. Martin, will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine for Feb. 1805.

The first book, which is the best of the three, opens with some pretty allegorical imagery, but the poem as a whole has less of that fine poetical colouring and seasoning of wit and

humour which in most of Churchill's other works relieve his rancorous acrimony of party rage, and though it bears evident marks throughout of carelessness and precipitation, yet at the same time many passages sufficiently point out the hand of the master, and will redeem it from that oblivion which has already overwhelmed the subject and its hero.

We are enabled to subjoin the letters above alluded to as having been addressed by Mr. Wilkes to Drs. Heberden and Brocklesby, in consequence of the report required by the House of Commons as to the state of his health.

A CARD FROM MR. WILKES TO DR. HEBERDEN.

Monday, December 19.

Mr. Wilkes presents his compliments to Dr. Heberden, and is duly sensible of the kind care and concern of the House of Commons not only for his health but for his speedy recovery. He is attended by Dr. Brocklesby, of whose integrity and ability he has had the experience of many years, and on whose skill he has the most perfect reliance. Mr. Wilkes cannot but still be of opinion that there is a peculiar propriety in the choice he at first made of Dr. Brocklesby for the cure of what is called a gun-shot wound, from the circumstance of the doctor's having been many years physician to the army; but at the same time entertains a real esteem for Dr. Heberden's great merit, and though he cannot say that he wishes to see the doctor at present, he hopes that when he shall be well enough to beg that honour, the Doctor will eat a bit of mutton with him in Great George Street.

LETTER FROM MR. WILKES to DR. BROCKLESBY.

Great George Street, Monday, Dec. 19, 1763. DEAR SIR-I have the favour of your letter and of the papers inclosed. I think you are rather deficient in politeness that you do not congratulate your friend on the new and singular honour done him by the House of Commons, in appointing a physician and surgeon to attend him. The Lords set them such an example, by ordering the physician and surgeon of a member of the other house to their bar, to be examined concerning his state of health. I had before received other unmerited obligations from their Lordships, and

the old friendships of Lord Sandwich, though I own I was rather put to the blush by their publishing to the world what they pretended was found (perhaps put) among the things stolen from me. If a man writes a private essay on woman, should all the world see it? Is a treatise against the spleen or the tædium vitæ, so dangerous as now to become a state

crime for the cognizance of our present -1 rulers, or rather In-s? Has the nasty gummy, blubbering, overgrown body. of a lord, as barbarous and blustering as the north, has he likewise received his orders to denounce to the Commons a laughable poem, as a horrid crime to make all good Christians shudder? are the most wretched and impious lines to be forged, that a work which idolizes the sex may be brought into judgment before the crafty Scot, who never loved any woman, and who

This last act of the Commons seems almost to perfect the scene, and quite overwhelms me with gratitude. Yet though I am a young member, I cannot but observe and lament, that the ancient established forms of Parliament have in the present case been laid aside, as if order had taken leave of the House with old good Onslow. The course of business has always been, that business of importance should previously go to a Committee. The affair you have mentioned is of so much real consequence, that it should (in my opinion) have been referred to two Committees. First, it should have gone to the Committee of ways and means, to contrive how the state physician and surgeon can get into my house. Secondly, to the Committee of Supply to vote the fees due to the gentlemen for their attendance; but I have public economy so much at heart, (though I make no parade of it) that I will save the nation that expense; for I will not suffer either of them to enter my doors.

The Commons, like true country people, seem to have an overflowing of kindness for me, which is very apt to surfeit; and yet, like the others, sometimes in the same moment, they fail in a point of good breeding, even to one of their own members. The House desires Dr. Heberden and Mr. Hawkins to come to me, but forgot to desire me to receive them, and I most certainly will not.

Surely, my dear Sir, this matter has been too lightly de

termined upon by the honourable House. It is pretty well known that I have already a physician and surgeon, whose characters the foul breath of slander never reached, and whom I confide in and love. Why should I admit any others? Am I to consent to an unjust slur upon gentlemen, with whom I have all the reason in the world to be satisfied? Shall I concur in suffering party madness to fix a vile suspicion, where I know that it ought not to rest? I will never countenance so shameful a proceeding. Honour, justice, gratitude, private friendship, equally forbid it.

My brother members seem quite wild in their rage. They would force a physician and surgeon upon me, when I have one of each already, and they forget that my dear friend and chaplain Churchill has left me for sometime. Would it not therefore have looked better, if these obliging friends had shewn some regard to my spiritual concerns, and had ordered their own Chaplain, the very learned brother of the very conscientious merchant, and of the very acute Secretary to attend me; or they might perhaps have prevailed on the good Mr. Kidgell. He is so ready at every laudable and lucrative work, he would not, I believe, have hesitated. You might in time have had observations on my conversion and apostleship, though I hope not in a way to make you doubt of the whole; at least you would have been sure of a series of letters in the ledger, the profits to be divided between the said Kidgell and his partner Mac-Faden, according to the said Kidgell's former plan. I think the Lords too ought to have considered this important point, chaplainship, and Lord Sandwich or Lord Despencer, or some other pious Lord, should have moved to send me a divine legation of the Bishop of Gloucester. I have been said to have doubts. I really have none. If I had, that orthodox bishop would surely be able to remove them; only I should fear that for every one of mine he carried away, he would leave ten of his own behind with me. I might likewise be treated with quaint persuasives to continence. It could never come more á propos, nor with a greater probability of success, for that cold, frozen virtue of chastity, the virtue of age, not of youth, seems likely to be as much my portion this year as it has been the pedant's through every year of his life. His virtue is fixed as in a frost, beyond all the