ae 
370 ANNUAL REGIS'TER, 17975 
people affected fo 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, the was at leaft un- 
fortunate in the management of 
public affairs, and. that the jealou- 
fies. which -he occafioned between 
king and people, gave rife to ma- 
ny, if not all the misfortunes of the 
popiens reign. Certain it is that 
is conduét created a moft formida- 
ble oppofition, bottomed on con- 
ftitutional motives, and that the 
moft zealous advocates for the 
houfe of Brunfwick, entrenching 
themfelves’ in the revolution prin- 
ciples of 1688, combated the doc- 
trines and proceedings of the fa- 
vourite, with the fame zeal that 
their anceftors had oppofed the ty-° 
ranny of the houfe of Stuart. H 
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 conneéted with the fore: 
going events. 
_ The father of Mr. Wilkes: was 
an eminent diffiller in Clerkenwell, 
where John is fuppofed to have 
been born, onthe 28th of O&ober; 
1725. The elder fon Hrael, who 
is ftill alive, followed the fame bufi- 
ucfs, and ultimately failed. The 
fecond, of whom we now treat; and 
who had received a liberal education 
early in life, wasa brewer; but as 
he had, in a greaé meafure, become 
unfitted by claffical purfuits from 
obtaining wealth as a tradefman, 
it is’more than probable that he 
would not have fucceeded in his 
commercial purfuits. For, is it 
poffible to fuppofe that the entha> | 
fiaftic admirer of the elegant Ti- 
bullus, fhould relifh the dullround | 
of bufinefs in the neighbourhood 
of St. Sepulchre?—that he who 
banifhed care like Anacreon, ané 
daily quaffed the Falernian of Ho- 
race, fhould pay fuch a fedulous at- 
tention to the procefs of fermenta- 
tion, and be converfant.in all the 
properties of two-penny, portery. 
and brown-ftout? Difguft, accord - 
ingly, foon fucceeded, as a necef- 
fary confequence; and the golden 
dreams arifing from the mingled: 
fumes of hops and malt, vanifhed' © 
with the mafh-tab and the compt- 
ing-houfe. 
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 Trea~ 
tife on Poifons, we find him ex~ 
changing the dull and foggy atmof- 
phere of the city, for the thinner 
and politer air of the weft end of 
the town. Poffefled of a genteel 
fortune, elegant manners, and @ 
fparkling wit, he eafily obtained 
the acquaintance of many of the 
moft fafhionable people of the age. 
Educated in whig principles, he was: 
at the fame time an ardent afferter 
of Englifh liberty. -It was the lat+ 
ter circumftance, 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 confidered as the opprobriun= 
ef liberty, and a difgrace to a free 
country. Tocounterbalance _ this 
palpable defe& in the fyftem (for it 
is not inherent in our policy) fome 
genercus fpixits conceived the ep 
Dy) 
