Challenges to Established Authority 413

chants and small manufacturers wealthy enough to be eligible to vote,
Wilkes was reelected to Parliament. Four times he was elected, and four
times Parliament refused to seat him because of his previous conviction.
Cloaking himself in a patriot’s garb, he became a rallying symbol for the
campaign for the rights of the unrepresented in a time of economic hard­
ship, grain riots, and work stoppages.
The phrase “Wilkes and Liberty” echoed in speeches, conversation, and
song. In 1769, the Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights invoked
the name of Wilkes as it called for the government to “restore the constitu­
tion.” The number 45—the libelous issue of the North Briton—became a

rallying cry. Wilkes’s rather misshapen face appeared on posters, hand­
bills, verses, cartoons, tea mugs, and dinner plates. He was elected sheriff
of London in 1771 and even lord mayor three years later, though he was
not allowed to occupy either position.
More “respectable” reformers now began to demand greater freedom of
the press, specifically a redefinition of libel laws, so that the government
could be criticized, and the right to publish parliamentary debates. They
further demanded that Parliament meet each year and that MPs be
required to live in the districts they represented. However, most Whigs now

(Left) John Wilkes, in an etching by William Hogarth. (Right) Wilkes’s supporters

take to the streets.