ABSTRACT
John Wilkes’s expulsion of February 17 there had been considerable efforts on the part of what may be called the conservative elements in the nation to rally behind the King and to defy the Wilkes mob. The “loyal” merchants nevertheless persisted with their efforts even after their expulsion from their original rendezvous, and their Address was held available for signature at the “merchant seamen’s office over the Royal Exchange”. The Wilkes leaders, angered, perhaps, by the Address’s continued assumption of speaking for “the merchants, traders, and other principal inhabitants” of London, saw no reason to prevent the great uproar in the streets which finally overtook the Addressers on March 22nd. Possibly the action of the “free and independent citizens of Bristol” in changing from their lavish “humble addressing” of March to the petitioning of July was not wholly uninfluenced from London.
