height of his popularity, hardly any doubt hung over his real habits and dispositions. About liberty, for which he cared little, and would willingly have sacrificed less, he made a loud and blustering outcry, which was only his way of driving a trade : but to purity of private life, even to its decencies, he certainly made no pretence; and, during the time of the mob's idolatry of his name, there never existed any belief in his good character as a man, however much his partisans might be deceived in their notion that he was unlikely to sell them. He had received a good education-was a fair classical scholar-possessed the agreeable manners of polished society-married an heiress half as old again as himself-obliged her, by his licentious habits and profligate society, to live apart from him-made an attempt, when in want of money, to extort from her the annuity he had allowed for her support-is recorded in the Term Reports of the Court of King's Bench to have been signally defeated in this nefarious scheme-continued to associate with gentlemen of fortune far above his own-passed part of his life as a militia coloneland fell into the embarrassed circumstances which, naturally resulting from such habits, led in their turn to the violent political courses pursued by him in order to relieve his wants. Contempo

* 1 Burr. 452. Easter, 31 Geo. II., Rex v. Mary Mead.

raneous, however, with the commencement of his loud-toned patriotism, and his virulent abuse of the Court, were his attempts to obtain promotion. One of these was his application to Lord Chatham for a seat at the Board of Trade. Soon after that failure, he was defeated in his designs upon the Embassy at Constantinople, which his zeal for the liberties of the English people, and his wish to promote them in the most effectual manner, induced him to desire; and a third time he was frustrated in an attempt to make head against the corruptions of the British Court, by repairing as governor to the remote province of Canada.

Lord Bute and his party had some hand in these disappointments; and to running them down his zealous efforts were now directed.

With such a history, both in public and private, there was a slender chance of figuring to any good purpose as a patriot; but he took the chance of some of those lucky hits, those windfalls, which occasionally betide that trade, in the lucrative shape of ill-judged prosecution. He fared forth upon his voyage in the well-established line of Libel, and he made a more than usually successful venture; for he was not only prosecuted and convicted in the ordinary way, but a blundering Secretary of State issued, as we have seen, a general warrant to seize his papers-was of course resisted-allowed the matter to come into court-sustained an imme

1

diate defeat-and was successfully sued for damages by the victorious party. Add to this, his imprisonment for a libel, with his repeated expulsions from the House of Commons, and his finally defeating that body, and compelling them to erase the resolution from their journals—and his merits were so great, that not even the awkward concomitant of another conviction for a grossly obscene book, printed clandestinely at a private press, could countervail his political virtues. He became the prime favourite of the mob, and was even admitted by more rational patriots to have deserved well of the constitution, from the courage and skill which he had shown in fighting two severe battles, and gaining for it two important victories. The promotion which he had in vain sought in the purlieus of Whitehall awaited him in the city; he became Alderman; he became Lord Mayor; and, having obtained the lucrative civic office of Chamberlain, which placed him for life in affluent circumstances, he retired, while in the prime of life, from a political warfare, of which he had accomplished all the purposes, by reaping its most valued fruits; passed the rest of his days in the support of the government; never raised his voice for reform, or for peace, or to mitigate the hostility of our court towards the country that had afforded him shelter in his banishment; nor ever quitted the standard of the ministry when it marshalled its followers to assaults

VOL. V.

L

on the constitution, compared with which all that he had ever even invented against Lord Bute sank into mere insignificance.

That the folly of the government, concurring with the excited and sulky temper of the times, originally enabled Wilkes to drive so gainful a trade in patriotism, with so small a provision of the capital generally deemed necessary for embarking in it, there can be little doubt. In any ordinary circumstances, his speculation never could have succeeded. In most of the qualities required for it, he was exceedingly deficient. Though of good manners, and even of a winning address, his personal appearance was so revolting as to be hardly human. High birth he could not boast; for his father was a respectable distiller in Clerkenwell. Of fortune he had but a moderate share, and it was all spent before he became a candidate for popular favour; and his circumstances were so notoriously desperate, that he lived for years like a mendicant on patriotic subscriptions. Those more sterling qualities of strict moral conduct, regular religious habits, temperate and prudent behaviour, sober industrious life-qualities which are generally required of public men, even if more superficial accomplishments should be dispensed with-he had absolutely nothing of; and the most flagrant violations of decency on moral as well as religious matters were committed, were known, were be

lieved, and were overlooked by the multitude, in the person of their favourite champion, who yet had the address to turn against one of his antagonists, a clerical gentleman, some of those feelings of the English people in behalf of decorum, all of which his own life was passed in openly outraging. Of the lighter but very important accomplishments which fill so prominent a place in the patriotic character, great eloquence, and a strong and masculine style in writing, he had but little. His compositions are more pointed than powerful; his wit shines far more than his passions glow; and as a speaker, when he did speak, which was but rarely, he showed indeed some address and much presence of mind, but no force, and produced hardly any effect. Horace Walpole constantly describes him as devoid of all power of speaking. Of his readiness, an anecdote is preserved which may be worth relating. Mr. Luttrell and he were standing on the Brentford hustings, when he asked his adversary privately, whether he thought there were more fools or rogues among the multitude of Wilkites spread out before them. "I'll tell them what you say, and put an end to you," said the Colonel; but perceiving the threat gave Wilkes no alarm, he added, "Surely you don't mean to say you could stand here one hour after I did so?"Why," the answer was, "you would not be alive one instant after.". "How so?"-"I should

66