Great historic find Coop
i found a little history on the meaning of the number 45 that is on your piece hope this helps Jim
History
1762–63
Issues number 1 (5 June 1762) to number 44 (2 April 1763) were published on consecutive Saturdays.
The newspaper was begun in response to
The Briton, a pro-government paper started by
Tobias Smollett. Only eight days after that newspaper began publication, the first issue of
The North Briton came out. It then came out weekly until the resignation of the
Bute government.
Issue 45
The North Briton issue number 45 (23 April 1763) is the most famous issue of the paper. It criticized a royal speech in which
King George III praised the
Treaty of Paris ending the
Seven Years' War. Wilkes was charged with
libel (accusing the King of lying), and imprisoned for a short time in the
Tower of London. Wilkes challenged the
warrant for his arrest and seizure of his paper, eventually winning the case. His courtroom speeches started the "Wilkes and Liberty!" cry, popular slogan for
freedom of speech and resistance to power. Later that year, Wilkes reprinted the issue, which was again seized by the government. Before it could be burned, assembled crowd rescued the text, and the ensuing events caused Wilkes to flee across the
English Channel to France, and be eventually imprisoned again. In 1764, the
British House of Commons declared Wilkes the author of number 45. Nonetheless, by the time Wilkes was released from prison in 1770, "45" had was still a popular icon not only of Wilkes, but of freedom of speech in general
The North Briton - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
, awesome find with a story , Congrats coop
