THE LIFE OF JOHN WILKES,
Esq
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THE LIFE OF JOHN WILKES,
Esq
In the Manner of PLUTARCH. BEING A SPECIMEN of a larger Work.
THE SECOND EDITION, Revised and Corrected.
LONDON: Printed for J. WILKIE, at No. 71. in St. Paul's Church-yard.
M.DCC.LXXIII.
THE LIFE OF JOHN WILKES,
Esq
MOST ages have produced some shining models of undaunted virtue and unabating patriotism.—It is the part of the Biographer to select characters from the mass of mankind, and to hold those only up to view who have been most distinguished on the vast theatre of human life. Were men to be promiscuously described, little advantage would be derived from reviewing the annals of past or present times, and the eye, after a glance, would turn away with weariness, as from an unbounded plain, or a mirror, where all objects were presented indiscriminately.—But if others have laboured under the disadvantage of describing characters equally mixed with right and wrong, the Author here has little reason to complain of such blended materials.—He gives one, bold, enterprizing, and the same, ever possessing uniform principles, without deviation and without ambiguity.
A man, says
Plutarch,
to be completely great, must be born in some famous city.—
London
boasts the birth of Mr.
Wilkes
— His mother, it is reported, was delivered without pain or labour; and a spectre appeared to the nurse, which foretold that the child she then suckled, should prove the ornament and support of the
British
Empire: circumstances which to many would have appeared trifling and enthusiastic, had not his future conduct evinced the truth of the prediction.
Of his Family nothing is reported but in extreams; for whilst some would have him to be the son of a distiller, and bred up to the cask, others trace him up to a most illustrious origin: but when some of his friends judged that he should change his name before he engaged in state affairs, he prettily enough replied, that he would make the name of
Wilkes
more glorious than that of a
Catiline
or a
Cade
; and when having served the high and important office of Sheriff of
London,
and the citizens were desirous of making an oblation of silver plate to him, so far from renouncing his origin, that he desired his figure with a dagger in his hand to destroy a monarch, should be engraved on the side of a large Drinking Cup.
Now he being, as
Plato
says a scholar ought to be, disposed to all manner of learning, and neglectful of no arts, cultivated, besides his other studies, an early taste for poetry, and with such wonderful success that, in
In this poem, entitled the
Essay on Woman,
it has been thought that the author of the
Divine Legation
has been spoken of too freely; but Mr.
Voltaire,
who is certainly as good a Christian as Mr.
Wilkes,
has lately treated the Bishop in much the same manner.
one production at least in point of sentiment he is supposed to have equalled, if not excelled, both a
Rochester
and an
The Author here means only to refer to a poem,
commonly
imputed to
Aristotle,
which, from its superiority, is entitled his
Masterpiece.
Aristotle.
In progress of time he applied himself to more important studies, and became not only a most excellent
And yet some one was base enough to apply the following character to him.
Thersites only clamour'd in the throng,
Loquacious, loud, and turbulent of tongue▪
Aw'd by no shame, by no respect controul'd,
In scandal busy, in reproaches bold:
But chief he gloried with licentious style,
To lash the Great, and Monarchs to revile.
His figure such as might his soul proclaim;
One eye was blinking —
Spleen to mankind his envious heart possest,
For much he hated all, but most the Best.
POPE's Iliad.
orator, but likewise took in subscriptions for publishing
The Introduction is published.
the history of his own country; an amazing work this, when one considers all his other occupations, that he was at that time under innumerable difficulties, nay was absolutely engaged to furnish out two-and-thirty paragraphs a day in each news-paper, besides letters, advertisements, epigrams, and intelligence extraordinary.
But the never-to-be-forgotten work was the
North Briton,
or rather the No 45
All numbers that have proved fortunate to this country from that time, have always terminated in
Forty-five
; and it is very remarkable, that the Number
Nine,
which consists of a
Four
and a
Five,
should emphatically be stiled the Curse of
Scotland.
of that celebrated paper, written by the late Reverend Mr.
Churchill,
and containing many spirited attacks against government, which not being well received, a process was preferred against the author. Mr.
Wilkes
being never likely to have a more fair or honourable introduction to glory, generously declared the paper to be his own, —defied all government, and has been admired and rewarded for it. In short, in all his writings, whether he arraigned the opinions of others, or established any doctrines of his own, there were always found both the harmony of order, and the decency of religion. —His reasons were solid and convincing, his inductions pleasing and agreeable; he was master of every subject of which he treated, and treated none but what were amply for the benefit of mankind.
But
Mr.
Wilkes
at that time had not the pleasure of Mr.
Bull
's acquaintance.
fearing some Creditors, and having suffered in a Duel, he travelled into
France
with many other great men, for the recovery of his health and fortune. There he lived in ease and affluence, supplied with money from the disinterested in
England,
as well as with large sums arising from the sale of Jewels, and other articles which his skill and address procured him abroad.—His body daily gaining strength, he was soon most earnestly sollicited to return to
England,
where he again furbished up his Rhetoric, and re-excited all his political faculties. For some time he wished to have retired to his estate at
Aylesbury,
but thinking it wrong to give the trouble of long journies to those who made suit to him, he gave up his estate there to be divided amongst his friends, and then resided altogether in town, for the convenience of public business; and indeed there were not fewer attending at his door, than formerly on
Croesus
for his wealth, or
Pompey
for his power.
And now being full of expectation, and solely bent on the welfare of the public, he consulted an oracle how he should soonest arrive at the Summit of all Political Glory.—The
Pythian
replied, — that he must renounce his constituents at
Aylesbury,
and make the opinion of the
Londoners,
the rule and guide of his life.—The decrees of fate are irresistible.—Indeed he would have submitted to have represented the city of
London
; but his friends most prudently prevented him, and compelled him to blaze out at once as the Member for
Middlesex,
amidst the united acclamations of a grateful kingdom
Twelve men, from a spirit of patriotism, drew Mr.
Wilkes
through the city; and, as appeared from one of his agents books, agreed only for the small sum of twelve pound twelve, as a gratuity for their services.
.—From this happy event every
Englishman
might justly have expected to have dated the aera of his felicity. — A Legislator representing (what is called) the first County, burning with a religious zeal to execute his important charge, and fully qualified to regulate with an eye of intuition every the minutest deviation from the just equilibre of church and state: but such, alas! is the fate of all human things, that the people were no sooner put in possession of their greatest blessing, than they were deprived of it. — The Parliament spoke sparingly of his merits, and as he had been imprisoned for treason and blasphemy, were willing to vindicate one bad action by committing another. — They asserted, that as
no felon was eligible into any important office, a man so like a felon, that he could not be distinguished, ought certainly to be expelled:
but let me remind these gentlemen, that the contrary was justified by many of the most experienced lawyers at that time, and has since been well explained by the
Though Mr.
Wilkes
neither takes his seat in parliament, nor resides at the Mansion-House, he had undoubtedly a Majority of Voices for both.
Majority
of the city of
London,
who are now fully convinced that felony, though punishable in a private man, is by no means a disqualification for a Lord Mayor. —The Head, say the best Logicians, is no Member.
He was now not only deprived of his legal seat, but shut up from day-light within the melancholy confines of a gloomy prison: — but these hardships he could well have borne himself, but his Humanity was alarmed for the welfare of others.—"All honest Freeholders (as Lord
Chatham
beautifully expressed it) were most dreadfully aggrieved, from the Banks of the
Tweed
to the Lands-end in
Cornwall
; they slept not in their beds from horrid dreams and midnight apprehensions: but it was not in dreams, alas! they had in vain implored the just assistance of a relentless Monarch:" — tender and pathetic as this lamentation was, there yet was found a Peer hardy enough to say, "that the County in which he lived, as well as five or six more adjoining, had not only not petitioned, but he believed felt no grievances, and he was sorry the Noble Lord would not allow him one honest Freeholder in his neighbourhood."—This appeared to many but as ill-timed raillery, and so far from invalidating the truth of the Great Orator's assertion, that it only afforded a melancholy proof of Lord
Sandwich
's apostacy. — I will not dwell on the many dreadful consequences attending Mr.
Wilkes
's expulsion, — the reader, the generous reader, feels the weight of them too forcibly, and I see him with tears in his eyes lamenting that luckless hour, when virtue was strip'd of its ornament, honesty of its robe, and a fatal, an everlasting blow was given to the very vitals of the Constitution.
The Ministerial Hirelings now daily echoed reproaches against him; — they insinuated that he had defrauded the Foundling Hospital, and burnt Mr.
Sylva
's Notes.—The latter was the only circumstance that seemed to endanger his credit in the city;— it was a bad precedent, and they feared it might prove dangerous to trade:— weak minds cannot always weigh the comparative merits of actions,—bad measures must frequently be applied to good ends, and private honesty is oft-times absolutely incompatible with publick patriotism; — by many it was called, at least, an act of inattention: —but would it not have been deemed as the height of absurdity that a
Cicero
or a
Maecenas
should have stopped to have regulated a Grocer's bill, when the welfare of millions depended on their public counsels? —
Pericles,
one of the most admired heroes of antiquity, when his accounts were confused, and could not well be given up, not only destroyed the Notes (if I may so express it) but to drown the remembrance, involved his country in the
Peloponnesian
war.— But I will place the matter in its true light.— The Notes were given to a
Jew
—he was importunate, — Mr.
Wilkes
was obliged to turn him out of his house in his own defence; for, is not a
Jew
bound, whenever it is in his power, to destroy that man who is known to be a strenuous assertor of the laws of Christianity?—As to the Foundling Hospital, Mr.
Wilkes
considered it as a base Institution from the beginning,— it encouraged Bastardy;—however, he submitted the whole transaction to the
Taylor White.
Treasurer, whose private virtues might be said to go hand in hand with his own, and from whose representation of the case, the city seemed so well satisfied of their equal integrity, that they gave an entire credit to the one, and by choosing the other Alderman, not only made him the Guardian of public trust, but of course Governor to almost all other Hospitals.
The Honour of being Alderman likewise entitled him to the high and important office of Sheriff, which afforded him many favourable opportunities of displaying his Humanity; — he felt most tenderly for those who partook of one common nature with himself, and in his Zeal for Liberty, not only ordered their chains to be struck off during their trials, but insisted on their removal from
Newgate,
to be more immediately under his own inspection, that he might occasionally instruct them in their several duties, and let them out at proper times to practise their different occupations, in order to discharge the jailors fees.— Nor was this glorious plan of Liberty confined to one set of men only — all ranks, all orders, in some degree felt the weight of his influence.— The messengers and officers who before had used to take up any man whom the Parliament deemed highly criminal, now tremble least the Lord Mayor should order them to be imprisoned, and their criminal released, and the Magistrate who before looked formidable on the Bench, and intimidated the prisoner beneath him, now shrinks back from a commitment, least the Patriots being displeased, his house should be burnt down, or his family destroyed; — nay, should the Clergy presume to restrain the people with the shackles of religion, or my Lord Chief Justice himself to bend their necks beneath the galling load of Power, Mr.
Wilkes
has explained that all Authority is Tyranny, and Dr.
Wilson
and Mr.
Horne
that Religion is Imposture. — Nor is this the system of a day only, but the education of our youth is calculated to inculcate these generous principles:—the poor Apprentice, who before had used to read his Bible in the evening, or play at Cribbage with his Mistress, now leaves the house, and discourses like a
Lacedaemonian,
Vid. Life of
Lycurgus.
not on the price of Pepper, but passes his judgment on some action worth considering,
— openly ridicules the religion of his country at the
Robinhood,
or regulates the measures of Government in a more private Assembly.
Not even the Military could repress Mr.
Wilkes
's ardour: — at his instigation those splendid Hirelings were restrained from carrying arms through the city, — their very drum was silenced, and they were taught, that though they were kept at a vast expence to parade in
Hyde-Park,
and now and then to be reviewed, yet they were to be considered as the ornament, not as the security of the State, and it was unconstitutional for them to interfere, though the Life of their Sovereign was attacked in his Palace.
Nor were those learned Gentlemen of the Long Robe more secure in their dignities. — Mr.
Wilkes
could explain to a
Middlesex
Jury, that the King had no right to the Land-tax, — that his power and that of the Parliament was not equal to that of a Petty Constable's; and it was illegal for him in any instance to extend his mercy when the people clamoured for blood: — nay, when the late Judge
Yates
presumed only, in passing sentence on Mr.
Wilkes,
to glance at his poem, by speaking of the reverence due to Christianity — the people (such was the Patriot's popularity) laughed him openly to scorn, though Mr.
Wilkes
himself with great politeness and candour said, that
now and then it was not amiss to hear a musty sermon.
He might even be said to be out of the power of Medicine; for on the Parliament desiring a Physician to inspect him, whilst in danger from a duel, he dismissed
Hebberden
for being illiterate, and ordered no one to interfere, unless they would send nurse
Grenv—e
herself to administer a glister.
By extending the liberty of the Press, all public and private characters are now fully delineated: —from this great prerogative, the birth-right of all
Englishmen,
we are enabled to speak truth with impunity — to say, that
Vid.
Junius
and others.
a "
Mansfield
has no integrity, a
Grafton
no abilities, and that the Duke of
Bedford
rejoiced at the death of his only son, — that the person of our Sovereign is ungracious, — his manners depraved, his private character immoral, and his public one unjust, — that he is the worst orator that ever spoke to a parliament, — a parent unconcerned in the welfare of his family, — has no care for the State, but, like
Nero,
"fiddles whilst
Rome
is burning."
The Fine Arts live not but in a state of Liberty, but now they flourish'd in all their branches;— Music was united with Poetry, and Mr.
Wilkes,
their
Apollo,
struck the master lyre: — his poetry was a mixed species of the Lyric and Didactic, but managed with such amazing skill, that it was echoed not only from the
Tower
to
Tyburn,
but
balladed
about through every Fair and Market-town in the kingdom:— but, as
Tacitus
observes,
Homines plus oculis quam auribus credunt, longum iter per praecepta, per exempla breve et efficax. TACITUS.
"Men sooner believe their eyes than their ears;" so he gave great encouragement likewise to all Artists to line their shops with Prints, Emblems, Sketches, and Aenigmatic Characters, — such as should not merely show the Delicacy of their Art, but convey either a Fable, Moral, or History; and he had the pleasing satisfaction to find that a
Fox hanging,
a
Load of Straw,
or a
suspended Boot,
had more effect, not only on the multitude, but even on the City of
London,
than all the accumulated labours of a University Library.
It was Mr.
Wilkes
's peculiar happiness to be always connected with characters similar to his own, as they say the Magnet attracts only those fragments that are of kindred qualities: but now and then these fragments were at enmity amongst themselves:— when altercations arose about the disposal of Places, or the distribution of Public Money, they harrangued so freely on their comparative merits, that though I have no doubt but they all spoke Truth of one another, yet I think it was sometimes rather impolitic so fully to unveil to the common eye the deeper mysteries of Patriotic Duty.
Every period of History affords some striking instances of the triumphs of Virtue over Power; — a
Cromwell
at one time, and a
Tyler
at another, have been equally the Idols of the Many:— the very Children of one
Henry II.
Prince not only revolted against, but destroy'd their Father: —from Mr.
Wilkes
then, who is a glorious Compound of all these illustrious Characters, what may not be expected? for, unhappily for this nation, it is governed by a King, who holds Principles DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSITE; he has been justly reviled by his People,
and the Voice of the People isthe Voice of GOD.
FINIS.