and assume the chief command; but he gave a decisive proof of his discretion by refusing to take the field with less than 30,000 men. No Englishman was better acquainted with the colonies and the disposition and genius of their inhabitants. While serving on that station he had conceived the idea of an American peerage, or order of aristocracy, to continue during life only; and he himself, had this taken place, was to have been created a peer of that description, with precedence of all others. Several other schemes of internal regulation were also suggest. ed by him, but not adopted. As commander-in-chief in Great Britain, he was accused of sacrificing the army to patronage; and during his continuance in office it was jocularly observed, that there were many of his colonels still at school. As a legislator he generally voted with the minister of the day; and notwithstanding he had been brought forward by the popular interest, he constantly sided, during the latter period of his life, with the party who affected to denominate themselves the king's friends.' In private life his character stood high. He lived within his income, detested ostentation, dressed in a plain garb, and was free and affable in his communication with society.

John Wilkes.

BORN A. D. 1727.-DIED A. D. 1797.

JOHN WILKES was born in St John's-street, Clerkenwell, London, October 28th, 1727. He received the rudiments of his education in the town of Hertford. After some stay there he was removed into Buckinghamshire, where he was placed under a private tutor of dissenting principles, who afterwards accompanied him to the continent. Having attained considerable eminence in classical literature—to which he was devoted during the whole course of his life-young Wilkes was sent to Leyden, where it was intended that he should finish his studies. While in Holland he formed an acquaintance with the ingenious Andrew Baxter; and such was Mr Baxter's esteem for his young friend, that he dedicated one of his publications to him, and carried on a friendly intercourse by letter until his death, which occurred in 1750.

After residing a considerable time abroad, and visiting several parts of Germany, Wilkes returned to his native country, and married Miss Mead, heiress to the Meads of Buckinghamshire, with whom he got a considerable fortune, which, like that of his own family, had been acquired in trade. He now settled at Aylesbury, and being, in consequence of the whig principles in which he was educated, a warm advocate for the establishment of a militia, as a constitutional balance to a standing army, he accepted of a commission in the regiment raised in the county of Bucks. After serving some time in the capacity of lieutenant-colonel, he became colonel on the resignation of Sir Thomas Dashwood, afterwards Lord de Despencer, who observed in his farewell letter to the officers, "If the succession goes in the regiment—as I hope it will, and think it ought-then I must add, my successor is a

Author of a work entitled 'An Enquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul, wherein its Immateriality is evinced from the Principles of Reason and Philosophy; and also of Matho; sive Cosmotheoria puerilis, Dialogus.'

man of spirit, good sense, parts, and civil deportment, who has shown resolution and industry in putting this salutary measure into execution. Wilkes commenced his political career at the general election in 1754. On the 16th of April that year, we find him offering himself for the representation of Berwick. In his address to the electors he emphatically observed: "I come here uncorrupting, and I promise you I shall ever be uncorrupted. As I never will take a bribe, so I never will offer one. I should think myself totally unworthy," adds he, "of the great and important trust I am now soliciting, if I sought to obtain it by the violation of the laws of my country, which I hold sacred." On this occasion he polled 192 votes, but proved unsuccessful.* He was soon after, however, elected for Aylesbury, in the room of Mr Potter; and on the dissolution of that parliament in 1761, was once more returned for the same place.

During Pitt's administration the nation was united at home and formidable abroad; but no sooner did that great commoner retire, than a formidable party arose in opposition to the measures of Lord Bute, who soon became equally obnoxious to the nobility and the people. Wilkes, who had given his most strenuous support to all the measures of the former minister, attacked his successor with uncommon zeal. The nobleman in question, aware that the nation was jealous of his authority and suspicious of his designs, employed a number of writers to support his own cause, and blacken the principles, characters, and conduct of his opponents. The member for Aylesbury had already publicly displayed his hostility to 'the thane,' in 'Observations on the papers relative to a rupture with Spain;' but he now prepared to inflict more severe and lasting marks of his enmity. On June 5th, 1762, he published the first number of The North Briton;' and, whether from the odium already attached to the minister, or the keen satire and happy wit of the author, or the lucky union of both, certain it is, that no periodical work, antecedent to that period, was ever in such request. Its effect on the public mind, and the future fortune of the writer, were alike conspicuous; for it is supposed to have been one of the efficient causes of the overthrow of the Bute administration, and it involved Wilkes not only in many public prosecutions, but also in many private disputes. On the appearance of No. 45 of that paper, a general warrant was issued, under the hand and seal of the earl of Halifax, one of his majesty's secretaries of state, for the apprehension of the printers and publishers. Accordingly, on the evening of the 29th of April, 1763, several messengers arrested the person and entered the house of Mr

2 This contest cost him between 3 and £4000; and, with the larger expenses of his Aylesbury election, plunged him in difficulties from which he never completely extricated himself.

3 The following is a copy of this celebrated instrument :

L. S.

"George Montague Dunk, earl of Halifax, Viscount Sunbury, &c.

"These are in his majesty's name, to authorize and require you taking a constable to your assistance-to make strict and diligent search after the AUTHORS, PRINTERS, and PUBLISHERS, of a seditious and treasonable paper, entitled The North Briton, No. 45, Saturday, April 23d, 1763,' printed for George Kearsley, Ludgate St. London, and them or any of them having found, to apprehend and seize, together with their papers, and to bring in safe custody before me, &c.

"To NATHAN CARRINGTON, &c.

(Signed,)

DUNK HALIFAX."

Wilkes, in Great George-street, Westminster; but he objected to the equivocal terms in which their authority was drawn up, and refused compliance. On this they departed, but returned next morning; and, on intimation of force being about to be recurred to, he at length proceeded in a chair to the secretary of state's office, where he underwent an examination, during which he denied the authority of general warrants, and was soon afterwards conducted close prisoner to the Tower, all his papers having been previously seized and rifled, and his will broken open and read. In the mean time, application being made by the prisoner's friends to the court of common pleas, an habeas corpus was issued to the constable of the Tower, in consequence of which Mr Wilkes was brought up next day to Westminster-hall, and remanded until Friday, May 6th, that the judges might have leisure to form their opinion. On that day he accordingly appeared once more at the bar, and addressed the judges in the following speech :-" My lords, far be it from me to regret that I have passed so many more days in captivity, as it will have afforded you an opportunity of doing, upon mature reflection and repeated examination, the more signal justice to my country. The liberty of all peers and gentlemen, and what touches me more sensibly, that of all the middling and inferior class of people, who stand most in need of protection, is in my case this day to be finally decided upon;—a question of such importance as to determine at once whether English liberty be a reality or a shadow. Your own free-born hearts will feel with indignation and compassion all that load of oppression under which I have so long laboured. Close imprisonment, the effect of premeditated malice, all access for more than two days denied to me, my house ransacked and plundered, my most private and secret concerns divulged, every vile and malignant insinuation, even of high treason itself, no less industriously than falsely circulated by my cruel and implacable enemies, together with all the various insolence of office, form but a part of my unexampled ill-treatment. Such inhuman principles of star-chamber tyranny will, I trust, by this court, upon this solemn occasion, be finally extirpated; and henceforth every innocent man, however poor and unsupported, may hope to sleep in peace and security in his own house, unviolated by king's messengers and the arbitrary mandates of an overbearing secretary of state. I will no longer delay your justice. The nation is impatient to hear, nor can be safe or happy till that is obtained. If the same persecution is, after all, to carry me before another court, I hope I shall find that the genuine spirit of magna charta, that glorious inheritance, that distinguishing characteristic of Englishmen, is as religiously revered there, as I know it is here, by the great personages before whom I have now the happiness to stand; and as in the ever-memorable case of the imprisoned bishops that an independent jury of free-born Englishmen will persist to determine my fate, as in conscience bound, upon constitutional principles, by a verdict of guilty or not guilty. I ask no more at the hands of my countrymen." Chief-justice Pratt, after descanting on the powers of a secretary of state, and observing that his warrant was not of superior force to that of a justice of peace, pronounced that the privilege of parliament had been violated in the person of Mr Wilkes, as it could only be forfeited by treason, felony, or breach of the peace. The pris oner was accordingly discharged amidst the plaudits of a crowded court,

On this occasion the member for Aylesbury displayed uncommon firmness; but his triumph was of short duration, for the attorney-general immediately commenced a prosecution against him in the court of king's bench.

Wilkes now prepared to lay his complaint before parliament, the franchise of which had been so grossly violated in his person; but he was anticipated by a royal message, delivered by Mr Grenville, accom panied by a copy of the North Briton, and a recital of the steps taken in consequence of it. On this, after a long debate, the house, without either the examination of witnesses on oath, or the intervention of a jury, on the motion of Lord North, by a majority of 273 to 111, declared the paper in question 66 a false, scandalous, and seditious libel," and ordered it to be burnt at the royal exchange by the common hangman, which, however, was not effected without considerable difficulty, on account of the opposition of the populace. Soon after this the house resolved, though not by so large a majority, "that privilege of parliament does not extend to the case of libels," and thus, merely with a view to punish one of its members, relinquished a franchise, sanctioned not only by its own records, but also by the recent decision of a court of justice. Pitt, who had voted with the majority on the former division respecting Wilkes, was found in the minority on this occasion. He represented the surrender of privilege as "highly dangerous to the freedom of parliament, and an infringement on the rights of the people. No man," he said, "could condemn the paper or libel more than he did; but he would come at the author fairly,-not by an open breach of the constitution, and a contempt of all restraint. This proposed sacrifice of privilege was putting every member of parliament, who did not vote with the minister, under a perpetual terror of imprisonment. To talk of an abuse of privilege was to talk against the constitution, against the very being and life of parliament. It was an arraignment of the justice and honour of parliament, to suppose that they would protect any criminal whatever. Whenever a complaint was made against any member, the house could give him up. This privilege had never been abused: it had been reposed in parliament for ages. But take away this privilege, and the whole parliament is laid at the mercy of the crown. Why," continued he, " is a privilege, which has never been abused, to be voted away? Parliament has no right to vote away its privileges. They are the inherent right of the succeeding members of this house, as well as of the present members; and I very much doubt whether a sacrifice made by this house is valid and conclusive against the claim of a future parliament." With respect to the paper itself, or the libel which had given pretence for this request to surrender the privileges of parliament, he observed that the house had already voted it a libel; he joined in that vote. He condemned the whole series of North Britons: he called them illiberal, unmanly, and detestable. He abhorred all national reflections. "The king's subjects," he said, were one people. Whoever divided them was guilty of sedition. His majesty's complaint was well-founded: it was just: it was necessary. The author did not deserve to be ranked among the human species,he was the blasphemer of his God, and the libeller of his king. He had no connection with him; he had no connection with any such writer: he neither associated nor communicated with any such. It was

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true that he had friendships, and warm ones: he had obligations, and great ones: but no friendships, no obligations could induce him to approve what he firmly condemned. It might be supposed that he alluded to his noble relation Lord Temple. He was proud to call him his relation he was his friend, his bosom friend, whose fidelity was as unshaken as his virtue. They went into office together, and they came out together they had lived together, and would die together. He knew nothing of any connection with the writer of the libel. If there subsisted any, he was totally unacquainted with it. The dignity, the honour of parliament had been called upon to support and protect the purity of his majesty's character; and this they had done by a strong and decisive condemnation of the libel which his majesty had submitted to the consideration of the house. But having done this, it was neither consistent with the honour and safety of parliament, nor with the rights and interests of the people, to go one step farther. The rest belonged to the courts below." Soon after this, and while Wilkes was in France, the commons voted him guilty of contempt, and on the 29th of Janu ary, 1764, expelled him from his seat in parliament. This, however, was not effected until after a long and violent debate, in which the injustice of such a measure was ably enforced by the members in opposition.

On the very same day a charge of a more malignant nature was exhibited against him in the house of peers. A parody had been written on the Essay on Man,' of which Mr Wilkes printed part of twelve copies only at a private press in his own house; all of these he carefully locked up in his bureau, never having distributed any of them. This circumstance having transpired, a minister of that day did not blush to recur to the foulest means to obtain an incomplete copy. No sooner was this in his possession, than he determined to make the most effectual use of it; accordingly, on the very afternoon that the commons voted the expulsion of Mr Wilkes, the earl of Sandwich, his former friend, rose in his place, and asserted "that Mr Wilkes had violated the most sacred ties of religion, as well as of decency, by printing in his own house a book or pamphlet entitled An Essay on Woman,' with notes or remarks, to which the name of a right reverend prelate, Warburton, bishop of Gloucester, had been scurrilously affixed." In consequence of this accusation, and under pretence that the privileges of the house were violated in the person of the prelate just mentioned, an address was voted to his majesty, requesting him to order a prosecution to be immediately instituted against the author, Mr Wilkes ; and the attorney-general received instructions accordingly for that purpose. He was soon after outlawed for not appearing to the indictment by the crown-officer.

After an exile of two years, during which he visited Italy, the vindictive administration that had exhibited so much personal animosity against Mr Wilkes, and the unpopular parliament that had sacrificed its own privileges in his case, were both dissolved, and toward the latter end of 1776, he returned once more to England. He was induced to this step in consequence of the recent changes, by which his old and inti

"The fact is," says Wilkes himself, "that after the affair of the North Briton, the government bribed one of my servants to steal a part of The Essay on Woman,' and the other pieces out of my house.”