JOHN WILKES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19174, 3 December 1927, Page 13

JOHN WILKES.

1727-1927. C pEMAGOGUE AND « PATRIOT." «NO. 45." Wrong in the "Observer.") Sunday, October 17th, 1727 (Old n John Wilkes was born. His is a /me for no one denies his services yet no one tries to \Ztui hi 9 character. His ugly face ts from school histories, where his 'T'te life and public exploits arc pnV8 u in trite contrast, and children f'frant 0 f t ho meaning of the word !P , that Wilkes was a libertine who ¥m for freedom, and despite handi«of birth and morals, became a pub- \< hero won all his points, made gene"i warrants illegal, established the •At of newspapers to report Parlia,Bt a"" 1 forcc(l thc H ° USe ° f ° om ' "oils'to admit that it could not seat a \ority candidate for an Opposition toßstituencyBut there is more in the career ot Mites than a simple antithesis between •ood constitutional cause and a blackLrd leader. He was a great demaapt, » heral(l of democracy who Might the electorate to organise long before Cobden, an omen of changes that he, a thorough product of his own tentnry' would have disliked. His tiurage', hjs wit, and his sturdy common jtjie never failed, and brought him ultimate victory and case. Though he bid no sexual continence, and could nefor live within his income, he was lot really a bad man, and had some 0 f (he elements of genuine greatness. Befnsine snuff, he once said, "I have M , ma ll vices"; and he was without lome,big ones, too —cowardice, hypotiisy; meanness of spirit, the passion for revenge. The quality that made til life stormy might have brought him iiecos in a later ago; it was his inactive grasp of and sympathy for SbUc opinion. This mado him support tt in 1757, rond Buto and all things Stottlih in 17C2, and follow Pitt's son iftw 1782'. Ho was never a radical, ad s reformer mainly through accifcst, but with Chatham and George ft he broke the dominance of the jsg families, and he Anally exposed 0 weakness of a Government that Joked only to Parliament and not to to nation.

Man of Fashion. Wilkes returned from student days at l»;d«n to a marriage, arranged by his pt«nts, with a Nonconformist heiress ilj Was pious, iinaffectionate, and over In years his senior. The match gave tin t position in Aylesbury society, but lilt Could not satisfy him long. Ho itokt with a wife who carod no moro («Mm than he for her, and became a mi of fashion. Tho Royal Society and tie "Medmcnham Monks of St. Franrii" (Dashwood's Holl Tire Club) both Acted him, and his reputation as wit nd profligate spread far. Lord Sandvieh predicted his death from venereal SlMie or on tho gallows. "That dejtldi, my Lord," replied Wilkes, ''tMhor I embrace your mistress or ilifprinciples." When a priest cried, "fkere was your religion before LuItet" Wilkes, who in so far as he had llrtei was a Protestant, retorted, "Did Unash your faco this morning?'.' %fo!' "Where was your face be'",ttyou washed it?" Uiking patronage, birth, and wealth, IkHttnot easy for Wilkes to enter Majient, but that was the only chanwUhinee, and the surest defence »piiij jailiffs. In 1754 he stood for Wjfi "I come here uncorrupting, Wljtomiso you I shall ever be unWpV* he said, spent nearly £4OOO, «l m bottom of the poll. Three K later, at a cost of over £7OOO, ji In Aylesbury seat for half a Pttliament's life. Ho admitted and supKrted Ptyt, hoping in return for the Ration o! Constantinople or the GovMnottMn of donquered Canada. But thou Pitt fell, in 1761, it was not only S wml disappointment that angered tikes; he ihared England's dislike of Beotsmon and hatred for Buto's closet *W, ' ; Some time since," ho wrote ■ tt»'"Nwth Briton," "died Mr John Bull, 8 very worthy, plain, honest old ftfltleman of Saxon descent; he was by inadvertently swallowing

"No. 45" and the King. The name and campaign of his famous P»P«r were provoked by an equally scurJiUous organ of Bute's, tho "Briton," "at week by week befouled Pitt, mutes' famous "No. 45" was not, by «j*fle«i standards, seditious; it said defi- » w t . h " r °y al "Frances werc the »•« of Ministors, and proclaimed a •Wood in the King's Speech announc■l "e peaco of Paris. But Goorge , J" « angry at the statement that he *M not responsible for his own words j?« criticism of theße, and the GovLT?U aunched ft Prosecution that ™™«? Wilkes into a national hero. i»l* « 8 mako much of p rntt's conj«ation of general warrants, but it is fc» 11 1 *' anv man slec P s moro easily 3 "« now that we havo a police MM ar f est witnout magisterial apiZhJi y moro important was the itL Parlian >eat, to crush Wilkes, flMttoned ono of its swollen immuniferni, refußed t0 c,aim Privilege for jjww charged with seditious libel. Ct'/?»°i thing much cou,d have boen rttt»«i« had he not P" nt ed part <C.»i 8y on Woman," for private Wttai *° a fcw frieilds ' A fourth !l««" ' ta v nda, ous poem survives: there *iht. Übt that Wilk «, despite his ~ »«» Wrote at least part of it and 4 ""J Sullty of technical publication. Would th/° ? bsccuo and so personal toksbl. . ? tlT>s heavv damages, and ttwll»7 J cm in Prison. Wilkes was C.?" Parliament, fled abroad fcitu " Med itors, and was outlawed BD «nee. So far tho Court had won.

J*' pulsion from Parliament. ktoA*?'* ' tri ™ph began when he re*«ttLl/r !° a countr . v that mi & ht i ttatC » .°' have forgotten him, but SSI,' 6 " on his »«k. He stood 1 *e» bS fu,l 7 for the Citv of London, '«nmphantly-the most popular l'VW 8 \ nd ~ for Middlesex. A Ma£2ni » mno canvassed pressed »»\» I lo * o hiS hai,d ' and When Ut hi. !, he wantc tl his vote, 1»t« bof 7 ney ' r °P lied that he could {*!««• ft»° r neithcr —an unusual ex•""y «W one who had bought AylesSte m" in 1760 :it £ -' « !«»«• Wilt Wauted the Commons to *f hoDtiiK forth wlth, but tho MinisVniitJ L he 'would sink into ob•penainp # roniainin g an M.P., and f *No « Wfinty " two m <>nths in prison f " c «<Tth B - \ nd the " E ssay." Wilkes t*l » vi" hand S he launched from *Hn.» i critic isni of the blood Hat thk », on riot - th ough he knew *M to o n, n T, Onla Coßt him his seat. He S.»nAiVs pel,ed > re-elected three SJedl Si A ? ti] > 176 9, the Commons \ memt tr . ell ' who had 206 votes to T6J2J* 1» his place. 5* «f iZ i ? nab,e act - logical re- - l. on ' Tooted W'lkes firmly UOl heart for some twenty

years, made him a real, champion of "national liberties against a unrepresentative Commons, started the movement for Parliamentary reform, and eased Wilkes's penury. The Bill of Bights Society paid his debts, and admirers sent parcels of food weighing forty-five pounds to his prison. Before he was freed Wilkes became Alderman of the City, later Sheriff and Lord Mayor. He used his magisterial powers to keep printers of debates in Parliament from arrest, and made the Commons' anger a laughing-stock. He also showed a side of his character before ungucsscd, and proved himself both a competent and honest administrator.

The Final Triumph. Wilkes re-entered Parliament in 1774, and won his final triumph there eight years later, when his expulsion was erased from its journals. But there was something of anti-climax in his victory. North's Government, strong in royal favour and a venal majority, but not in brains, statesmanship, or public approval, was steering to national humiliation. Might Wilkes have mobilised the country to eject it, and brought Parliamentary reform half a contury before its time? Probably ho -could not, certainly ho never tried: this might mean robeliion, and Wilkes, as Johnson said, "was always zealous for order and decency." In the Commons he never carried much weight, and tho accepted Whig leaders, fearing his democratic following as much as they disliked the Ministry, deprecated appeals to the public outside the walls of tho House. Wilkes felt that he had borne his share in saving the rights of the English electorate; he condemned tho Government's American policy, but did not feel called to imperil his neck for col-onial-liberties. When the. Gordon riots burst in 17S0 he was foremost in support of the law. An Extinct Volcano. The evening of his life passed quietly in the company of his beloved daughter Johnson met him in 1776 and straightway liked him. "I would do Jack a kindness, rather than not," ho said- the two found a common target iii iokes against Scotland for Boswell's benefit In 1790 Wilkes lost his seat, through his support of Pitt's Excise duties; according to tradition he got the mvstic number of forty-firt> votes. He had mellowed, and did not greatly When he was presented to his archenemy, George 111., he said to him of his former lawver and fellow-member, Glynn "he was a'Wilkite, which I never was. He built a "villakin" in the Isle of Wieht, where he dedicated a pavilion "To Filial Pietv and Mary Wilkes," and there he spent his summers, an extinct volcano. He gave a last proof of undaunted courage by printing Theophrastus without accents or breathings Two acknowledged bastards he started well in life. At some time or other he had broken with most of his friends, but he cherished no resentment, and died on Boxing Day, 1797, in charity with the world. Fittingly enough, though he had held the lucrative office of Chamberlain (or Treasurer) of London for close on twenty years, at his death he i was insolvent.