Qriginal Poetry.

Oh fpare me, fpare me! ceafe to wound my
breaft,

Be thou content, and we shall both be bleft.
What are to me the idle's gay reforts,

The buz of cities and the pomp of courts?
Without one vain regret to call a tear,
To wake one with, I feel contented here;
And we shall yet be happy: yonder ray,
The mild effulgence of departing day,
As gayly gilds this humble dwelling o'er,
As the proud domes on England's distant shore;
As brightly beams in morning's op'ning light,
As faintly fading finks in fhadowy night.

Sink, glorious fun! and never may
Thy bleffed radiance rise again on me!
There was a time, when cheerfully thy light
Wak'd me at morn,and peace was mine at night,
Till I had lavished all! till mad with play,
I turn'd a villain, from the villain's prey;
Till known and branded-Oh that heaven
would hear

My heart's deep with, my laft and only prayer!

1798.]

43

ORIGINAL ANECDOTES AND REMAINS

OF

EMINENT PERSONS.

[This Article is devoted to the Reception of Biographical Anecdotes, Papers, Letters, &c. and we requeft the Communications of fuch of our Readers as can affift us in these objects.]

SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE LATE

JOHN WILKES, ESQ.

HIS prefent majefty afcended the throne of thefe realms amidst the plaudits of his fubjects. His elevation was accompanied by a series of aufpicious occurrences, and every appearance augured a fortunate and happy reign. A change in the dynasty had taken place in favour of his family, and the doctrine of popular election, by a practical and memo❤ rable exemplification, was justly preferred to a pretended hereditary right. But George I was unacquainted with our laws, and even with our language. Thefe circumstances, added to his partiality for Hanover, and the enaction of the Septennial Bill (the first infringement on public liberty during the reign of a houfe exprefsly called in for its protection) rendered him at times unpopular. The latter part of the reign of George II was uncommonly brilliant; but he alfo was accufed of an over-weening fondness for his electoral dominions, and confidered, even on the throne, as a foreigner.

A happier fate attended his grandfon, who, in his first speech, gloried in being "born a Briton." His youth, his graceful perfon, the memory of a father dear to the nation, and, above all, the early promife of a government founded on the practical bleffings of liberty, endeared the new king to his people. Indeed, there is not a fingle inftance in all our hiftory, of a prince, who attained the throne of thefe kingdoms with brighter prospects; it was accordingly predicted, in the fervour of enthufiafm, that the fway of a Trajan, or an Alfred, was to be renewed in the perfon of George III *.

* One of the first acts of his majesty's reign was uncommonly gracious. By the demise of a king, the patents of the judges were confidered as having expired; but this grofs defect was remedied by the generous interpofition of the young prince. A fincere regard to truth obliges the writer to acknowledge, that in this inftance, one good, wholesome, conflitutional advice, has been attributed to the late W. Murray, earl of Macclesfield, Chief Juftice of the King's Bench, &c.; and the merit would have been fill greater, had it been entirely

His majefty found the country engaged in a juft and fortunate conteft with the houfe of Bourbon. The war was conducted by a ftatefiman who proved uncommonly fuccefsful in fubduing the armies and navies of France; for we pointed the thunders of an united nation, with terrible and irrefiftible effect on its humbled monarchy. A change of men and councils, indeed, faved the enemy from utter ruin; but this very circumftance gave a decided turn to the current of popularity, which had hitherto flowed around, and afforded a facred barrier to the throne.

On the retirement of William Pitt, 1761, majefty feemed fhorn of its rays; and its luftre being intercepted by the fudden interpofition of a malignant planet, it appeared to experience almoft a total cclipfe! The fecret views that led to the peace of Paris are still inveloped in obfcurity, and the particular motives which fuperinduced fo many facrifices are, at beft, but equivocal. It was, indeed, in fome measure, fanctioned by a majority, obtained by means not difficult to be gueffed at in a venal age; but it proved the most finifter treaty in our annals, and, from a variety of circumftances, became peculiarly odious to the nation.

The adminiftration of the earl of Bute gave general difguft. Close, infinuating, cunning, rapacious, and revengeful, he was faid to have enjoyed the unlimited confidence of his royal mafter, and the people affected to confider him as the minion of the crown, rather than the minifter of England. His enemies, however, could not deny that he was amiable in private life; the moft zealous of his friends, on the other hand, muft confefs, that, if not criminal, he was at least unfortunate,

was

difinterested. Some perfons are fo little acquainted with our hiftory, as to imagine that before this period, the commiflions of the judges depended on the will of the crown. The fact is otherwife; nothing more gained than has been ftated above. The parliament that brought Charles I to punishment introduced the maxim followed at this day, refpecting the patents of the bench, which are to endure aut vita, aut culpa.

G 2

in

44

Original Anecdotes.---John Wilkes, Efq.

in the management of public affairs, and that the jealoufies which he occafioned between king and people, gave rife to many if not all the misfortunes of the prefent reign. Certain it is that his conduct created a moft formidable oppofition, bttomed on conftitutional motives, and that the most zealous advocates for the houfe of Brunswick, entrenching themfelves in the revolution principles of 1688, combated the doctrines and proceedings of the favourite, with the fame zeal that that their ancestors had oppofed the tyranny of the house of Stuart. It was this fingular circumftance that gave birth to the political career of the fubject of thefe memoirs; and not only his own biography, but the hiftory of the prefent times, is intimately connected with the foregoing events.

The father of Mr. Wilkes was an eminent diftiller in Clerkenwell, where John is fuppofed to have been born, on the 28th of October, 1725. The elder fon Ifrael, who is fill alive, followed the fame bufinefs, and ultimately failed. The fecond, of whom we now treat, and who had received a liberal education early in life, was a brewer; but as he had, in a great measure, become unfitted by claffical purfuits from obtaining wealth as a tradelman, it is more than probable that he would not have fucceeded in his commercial pursuits. For, is it poffible to fuppofe, that the enthufiaftic admirer of the elegant Tibullus, fhould relish the dull round of bufinefs, in the neighbour, hood of St. Sepulchre's that he who banifhed care like Anaceron, and daily quaffed the Falernian of Horace, thould pay fuch a fedulous attention to the procefs of fermentation, and be converfant in all the properties of two-penny,porter, and brown-out? Difguft, accordingly, foon fucceeded, as a neceffary confequence, and the golden dreams arifing from the mingled fumes-of hops and malt, vanifhed with the math-tub and the compting-toufe.

Mr. Wilkes was calculated, by nature, education, and habit, for far different purfuits, and he foon gratified his inclinations. Having married a daughter of the celebrated Dr. Mead, the author of the Treatife on Poifons we find him exchanging the dull and foggy atmosphere of the city for the thinner and politer air of the weft end of the town. Poffeffed of a genteel fortune, clegant manners, and a fparkling wit, he cafily obtained the acquaintance of many of the most fashionable people of the age. Educated in Whig principles, he was at the fame time an ardent affertor of Eng

[Jan.

lifh liberty. It was the latter circumstance,
indeed, that gave a colouring to the future
purfuits of his life; to the former, he was
indebted for a feat in parliament, and a
regiment of militia.

A ftanding army has always been con-
fidered as the opprobrium of liberty, and
a difgrace to a free country. To counter-
balance this palpable defect in the fyftem
(for it is not inherent in our polity) fome
generous fpirits conceived the idea of a
national and conftitutional defence. This
plan, fo long fcouted, and fince, in a great
meafure, emafculated by fubfequent regu
lations, was at length carried into effect,
but not without much oppofition, and
confiderable diffatisfaction on the fide of
the people.

Mr. Wilkes, who was a great stickler for the meafure, made an offer of his fervices in Buckinghamshire on this occafion; and as he lived in great intimacy with earl Temple, the then lord lieutenant, he foon became member for Aylesbury, and colonel of the county regiment. It is to be recorded among the other fingular anecdotes of his life, that nearly at the fame time, he was expelled from the one office by the Houfe of Commons, and dif miffed from the other by a mandate from the fift executive magiftrate.

The member for Aylesbury foon participated in the general refentment against lord Bute, and, poffeffing a happy talent for fatire, contributed not a little to incrcafe the hatred which he had every where excited. But this was not all; in the bitterness of his refentment, he accufed the nation, among whom that nobleman was born, of an hereditary attachment to flavery, and, without much ceremony, attacked certain perfons, who fondly hoped that their rank was not only too lofty for plebeian animadverfions, but even diffolved all connection between guilt and fhame.

Mr. Wilkes began his career, as an author, in 1762, and his firft political publication, at prefent known with certainty, was intitled, Obfervations on the Papers relative to the Rupture with Spain." On the 5th of June, in the fame year, he became the editor of a periodi cl paper of much notoriety, called the "North Biton," which gave a particular turn to, and not only influenced, the future progrefs of his affairs, but actually decided the tenour of his whole life. No publication that ever came from the EngIf prefs was read with more intereft, or circulated with greater avidity than this,

1798.]

Original Anecdotes.-John Wilkes, Efq.

the Letters of Junius, and the works
of Paine, alone excepted. Nor were the
effects difproportionate either to the end
with which it was launched on the ocean
of popular opinion, or the high expec-
tations that were conceived of its fuccefs.
It was in vain that the minifters attempted
to oppofe its progrefs, by means of the
Briton" and the "Auditor;" the lat-
ter of which was conducted by Mr. Mur-
phy, a man of confiderable parts, who,
in the courfe of his variegated life, has
defended the arbitary principles inculcated
by a Tory adminiftration, and prefented
us with a Whig verfion of Tacitus. His
pen,
however, on this occafion, was made
to drop from his hand, by the mere force
of ridicule alone, and his journal itself
expired in the flames of his own Florida-
turf t. He, however, did not fall alone,
for his patron foon lay proftrate by his
fide; and although he was fufpected of
regulating the motions of the minifterial
puppets long after he left the ftage, yet,
fo obnoxious had he rendered himself,
that, from this moment, he was forced to
bid adieu, at least, to the oftenfible 'ex-
ercife of power.

The
Thane was fucceeded by Mr.
Grenville, the father of the prefent lord
Grenville and the marquis of Bucking-
ham; who, partly from hatred to the au-
thor, and partly from animofity to his
own brother, with whom he had quar-
relled (he is alfo faid to have been infti-
gated by another motive) determined, if
he could not fupprefs the publication,
that he fhould, at least, punifh the editor.

* Smollet was the editor.

+Such as wish to be better acquainted with this inftance of literary jockeyship, are referred to a note in p. 52, vol. 1, of Bell's fecond edition of Churchill's works, or to the North Briton. Here follows the epitaph occafioned by the discomfiture of the "Auditor;" and it may be neceffary to premise that this event was produced by a waggith letter figned "Viator," in which the advantages derived from the poffeffion of Florida (obtained by the peace of Paris) are ironically pointed out, particularly the peats and turf, that were to warm the poor American planters in the winter feafon!

SISTE, VIATOR.

"Deep in this bog, the Auditor lies ftill,
His labours finish'd, and worn-out his quill;
His fires extinguish'd, and his works unread,
In peace he fleeps with the forfaken dead!
With heath and fedge, oh may his tomb

be dreft,

And his own turf lie light upon his breaft." Et quocunque colunt animum Auditorisagunto. THOR,

45

The crown lawyers were accordingly on the watch, and fome unguarded, perhaps, improper expreffions in No. 45 for I write not an eulogium-afforded ample opportunity for a profecution.

It has luckily been always the fortune of arbitrary councils, not only to render the means difproportionate to the end, but to have recourfe to odious measures for the attainment of their object. It was this very circumftance, that, in one age, bereaved Charles of his life, James of his crown; and, in another, endeared Mr. Wilkes to the nation.

Had a common action taken place against the editor of the North Briton, and, after due conviction, a moderate fentence been inflicted, Mr. Wilkes would have been branded as a recorded libeller. It was the illegal proceedings which occafioned that gentleman to be confidered as a fuffering patriot, through whose fides the liberties of a whole nation were wounded. His, therefore, from that moment, ceased to be a private cause-it was the cause of the people.

On the 50th of April, 1763, he was arrested in the street, by a king's meffenger, in confequence of a general warrant*, against the authors, printers, and publishers of the North Briton, No. 45, and carried to his own houfe. The publicity of the act having occafioned much noise, he was instantly vifited by a number of his friends, and, among others, by Charles Churchill, a fellow-labourer in the political vineyard, whom he faved from imprifonment, by that prefence of mind which never deferted him on trying occafions. In the mean time, he defired two other gentlemen to repair to the court of Common Pleas, and fue out a writ of Habeas Corpus, in confequence of his being detained a prifoner in his own houfe, by an illegal arrest.

As lord Halifax did not choose to pro

* (Copy)

L. S. "George Mountague Dunk, Earl of "Halifax, Viscount Sunbury, &c. rife and require you (taking a conftable to your "These are in his majesty's name to authoaffiftance) to make strict and diligent fearch after the authors, printers, and publishers of a feditious and treasonable paper, entitled the North Briton, Number 45, Saturday April 23d, 1763, printed for George Kearsley, Ludgate-ftreet, London, and them or any of them having found, to apprehend and feize, together with their papers, and to bring in fafe cuftody before me,

&c.

Directed to Nathan Carrington, &c.
(Signed) “Dunk Halifax.”

ceed

46

Original Anecdotes.-John Wilkes, Efq.

ceed directly to extremities, he fent fe veral polite meffages to Mr. W. requefting his company; but the latter refolutely rerufed, and could not be prevailed upon to repair to his lordship's houfe, until he was threatened with perfonal violence, ·and given to understand, that a regiment of guards would, if neceffary, be called in. On this, he proceeded in a chair, attended by the messengers and their followers; he, however, refufed to answer any questions whatever, and treated lord Egremont, the other fecretary of state, who exhibited too much of the infolence of office, in his demeanour, with great Spirit.

On his being committed to the Tower, he was preffed to offer bail; but he ftrenuously refufed, as it would have looked like an acquiefcence in the injuftice of the proceedings against him, although two noblemen offered to become fureties to the amount of 100,000l. each. In confequence of strict orders for that purpose, he was kept a chofe prifoner; and earl Tem, ple, and the reft of his friends, denied accefs to him, until two habeafes were •iffued, the first having been evaded by chicanery. At length, on Tuesday, the 3d of May, he was brought up to the bar of the Common Pleas, where, in an appofite fpeech, he complained of the violation of the laws, and afferted, that he had been treated worse "than if he had been a Scotch rebel."

The court having taken time to deliberate, he was remanded, and brought up once more, on the 6th, when the lord chief juftice. fir Charles Pratt, afterwards lord Camden, ordered him to be difcharged. Flushed with this victory, in the course of that very night, he wrote a bitter and farcastic letter to the two fecretaries of state, in which, after recapitulating the circumstances relative to the feizure of his papers, he demanded the reftitution of them, under the title of ❝ftolen goods," and actually applied to Bow-ftreet, for a warrant to fearch their houfes, in order to recover poffeffion of his property, which had been felonio fly taken away. It may be eafily fuppofed, that a magiftrate, under the immediate influence of the miniftry, refufed his this proceeding; but recourfe was foon had to a higher authority, and ample fatisfaction received.

Countenance

to

While Mr. Wilkes was yet in the Tower, unlawfully imprisoned, and unconvicted, therefore, in the eye of the law, fuppofed to be at once innocent and poreffed, he was doomed to experience

[Jan.

all the rigour of royal vengeance, having been actually difmiffed from his fituation of colonel of the Buck's Militia, by a mandate, with which the lord lieutenant reluctantly complied. But this was not all; an attempt to difgrace, was foon followed by another, calculated to ruin him: it proved, however, contrary to all human calculation, to be the basis on which he erected the edifice of his future fortune.

In the course of next term, an information was filed against him, in the King's Bench, as author of the North Briton, No. 45; and, on the meeting of parliament, being voted "a falfe, fcandalous, and feditious libel," it was ordered to be burned by the hands of the common hangman; a fentence which was carried into execution,with much difficulty,in the city; when Mr. Sheriff Harley, who difplayed great zeal on the occafion, was inal-treated and even wounded by the populace.

Mr. Wilkes having, in his turn, complained to the houfe of a breach of privilege, was not only refufed redrefs, but a refolution paffed, "that the privilege of parliament does not extend to the cafe of writing and publishing feditious libels, nor ought to be allowed to obftruct the ordinary courfe of the laws, in the steady and effectual profecution of fo heinous and dangerous an offence.”

Some words that paffed on this occafion, in conjunction with a paffage in the North Briton, occafioned a duel between Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Martin, member for Camelford, and late fecretary to the Treafury, which took place in Hyde Park, the 16th of December. The reprefentative of Aylesbury behaved with great galanty on this occafion, and the wound he received in the groin greatly encreased the number of his partifans, who were pleafed with his fpirit, and confidered him as a martyr in the public cause.

Soon after he found it neceffary to retire to France; but this did not in the leaft tend to abate the vindictive spirit of

"My lord, Whitehall, May 4, 1763"The king having judged it improper, that John Wilkes, Efq. fhould any longer continue to be colonel of the militia for the county of Buckingham, I am commanded to fignify his majefty's pleasure to your lordship, that you do forthwith give the neceffary orders for difplacing Mr. Wilkes as an officer for the militia, for the county of Buckingham.”

"I am, &c.
"EGREMONT. ·