He fell, less from disapproval of his policy, than from rude prejudice against his country.

The flow of angry emotion had not subsided before the whisper of strife in the American colonies began to trouble the air; and before that had waxed loud, the Middlesex election had blown into a portentous hurricane.

This was the first great constitutional case after Burke came into the House of Commons.

As, moreover, it became a leading element in the crisis which was the occasion of Burke's first remarkable essay in the literature of politics, it is as well to go over the facts.
The Parliament to which he had first been returned, now approaching the expiry of its legal term, was dissolved in the spring of 1768.
Wilkes, then an outlaw in Paris, returned to England, and announced himself as a candidate for the city.

When the election was over, his name stood last on the poll.