697 



WILKES, JOHN. 



WILKIE, SIR DAVID. 



corpus, before the Court of Common Pleas, and discharged out of 

 custody ou account of his privilege as a member of the House of 

 Commons. An information however was immediately exhibited 

 against him by the attorney-general, to which he declined to appear. 

 He was, at the same time, dismissed from his command in the militia, 

 and his friend, Lord Temple, was deprived of his office of lord- 

 lieutenant of Buckinghamshire. 



On the meeting of parliament in November (1763), the House of 

 Commons were acquainted, by a message from the king, with the 

 proceedings that had been taken against their member, and a copy of 

 the obnoxious number of the ' North Briton ' was laid before them. 

 They immediately resolved that the paper " was a false, scandalous, 

 and seditious libel," and ordered it to be burnt by the hands of 

 the common hangman. When the. sheriffs of London proceeded 

 to execute this sentence at the Royal Exchange they were insulted 

 by the mob, and a riot ensued, the first of many tumults in the 

 cause of Mr. Wilkes. That which had been intended as a disgrace 

 and punishment to Mr. Wilkea was the commencement of a series 

 of triumphs over the ministers and the parliament. The people 

 had regarded his imprisonment by a general warrant as illegal and 

 oppressive, and his paper, though adjudged libellous in higher quarters, 

 was read by them with enthusiasm, and its author greeted every- 

 where with the loudest applause. On his liberation from the Tower, 

 Wilkes had brought an action against the under-secretary of state for 

 the seizure of his papers ; and the cause now coming on for trial, he 

 obtained a warrant in his favour, with 1000?. damages. On this occa- 

 sion Chief Justice Pratt, afterwards Lord Camden, declared general 

 warrants to be " unconstitutional, illegal, and absolutely void." 



Meanwhile Wilkes had been called upon by the House of Commons 

 to answer the charge of being the author of the libel, but excused 

 himself on account of a wound which he had received in a duel. He 

 shortly afterwards withdrew into France, whence he forwarded to the 

 Speaker a certificate of his ill-health and inability to attend. The 

 House disregarded his excuse, proceeded in his absence to inquire into 

 the authorship of the ' North Briton,' and having proved Mr. Wilkes 

 to be the author, expelled him the House, on the 19th of January 

 1764. On the 21st of February he was convicted in the Court of 

 King's Bench of re-publishing No. 45 of the 'North Briton,' and of 

 printing and publishing an ' Essay on Woman.' The latter was an 

 obscene poem of which he had printed only 12 copies, and one of 

 them had been surreptitiously obtained through a printer who had 

 been employed at his private press. By convicting him of immorality 

 the ministers hoped to lower the enthusiasm of the people in his 

 favour; but the means to which they had resorted in obtaining 

 possession of the book, increased the indignation against the govern- 

 ment, and the sympathy for the victim of ministerial persecution. 



Wilkes remained abroad, and not^ppeariug to receive the judgment 

 of the court, he was outlawed. He travelled on the continent for 

 some years, but did not lose sight of his interests at home. He 

 solicited pardon for the past, and employment or a pension for the 

 future, and it is said that he obtained a pension of 1040?. a year from 

 the llockiugharn administration, paid out of -their own salaries, viz., 

 from the first lord of the treasury 300?., from the lords of the treasury 

 60?. each, from the lords of trade 401. each, &c. ('Letter of Mr. 

 Home,' in 'Junius,' ii. 204). He also published at Paris, in 1767, 'A 

 Collection of the genuine Papers, Letters, &c., in the case of J. Wilkes, 

 late Member for Aylesbury,' by which he hoped to keep alive the 

 public interest in his favour. In 1768 he returned to England, and 

 in March of that year offered himself as a candidate for the repre- 

 sentation of the City of London. He succeeded in polling 1247 

 votes, but in spite of the violent attachment of the populace, he failed 

 in obtaining a majority. Pie then declared himself a candidate for 

 the county of Middlesex, and on the 28th was returned by a large 

 majority. Serious riots occurred at both these elections, and the 

 court party declared that the city, and even the king's palace, were 

 in danger. Although an outlawry was hanging over his head, 

 Wilkes was imprudently allowed to be at liberty all this time, and 

 to appear on the hustings, and harangue immense mobs in London, 

 Westminster, and Brentford. After his election he surrendered him- 

 self before the Court of King's Bench, but the court refused to com- 

 mit him upon his outlawry, as moved by the attorney-general, and 

 he was accordingly discharged. He was arrested immediately after- 

 wards on a writ of ' capias utlagatum." A tumult arose, and as the 

 officers were conveying him to the King's Bench prison, he was rescued 

 by the mob. Not thinking it prudent however to take advantage of 

 the popular zeal, he went privately to prison after the dispersion of 

 the mob. He was still under confinement at the meeting of parlia- 

 ment on the 10th of May, and a mob assembled before his prison to 

 convey him in triumph to the House of Commons. A riot ensued 

 the military were ordered to fire, and killed and wounded several of 

 the rioters. The death of one person was brought in murder by the 

 coroner's jury, and the magistrate who had given the order to fire was 

 tried for that crime, but acquitted. This riot was distinguished 

 by the popular party as the massacre in St. George's Fields, and 

 formed the subject of angry complaints against the government. Mr. 

 Wilkes's outlawry was afterwards reversed by Lord Mansfield, but judg- 

 ment was pronounced upon him for his two libels, and he was sentenced 

 to two fines of 500Z. each, and to imprisonment for the two terms often 



and twelve months. Not contented with his imprisonment, the minis- 

 ters devised fresh means of persecution against Mr. Wilkes, which, like 

 their previous measures, increased his popularity and diminished their 

 own. He had contrived to obtain a copy of a letter addressed by 

 Lord Weymouth to the chairman of the quarter-sessions at Lambeth, 

 before the riot in St. George's Fields ; in which that nobleman 

 recommended the early and effectual employment of the military to 

 suppress disturbances. This letter was published by Mr. Wilkes 

 with a preface, in which he charged the secretary of state with having 

 " planned and determined upon the horrid massacre in St. George's 

 Fields " three weeks before its execution. Lord Weymouth com- 

 plained of this publication in the House of Lords as a breach of 

 privilege. A complaint was addressed by the Lords to the Commons, 

 *nd a conference held upon the subject. When Mr. Wilkes was 

 brought to the bar to be heard upon a petition which he had pre- 

 sented, he avowed himself the publisher of Lord Weymouth's letter, 

 and the author of the prefatory remarks; upon which the House 

 resolved that his remarks were a scandalous and seditious libel, and, 

 for the second time, expelled him. 



Anew writ was issued for Middlesex, and Mr. Wilkes was re-elected 

 without opposition and without expense. The House resolved that 

 this election was void by reason of the expulsion, and issued another 

 writ. Mr. Wilkes was again chosen without a contest, when the House 

 declared him incapable of being elected into that parliament. Not- 

 withstanding this declaration of incapacity, he stood once more, when 

 Mr. Dingley, his opponent, could not even obtain a nomination, and 

 Wilkes was returned a third time without opposition. This election 

 was likewise declared to be void, and this time a new expedient was 

 resorted to ; the government persuaded Colonel Luttrell to vacate his 

 seat in parliament, and to oppose Mr. Wilkes in the approaching elec- 

 tion. Mr. Wilkes was returned by an overwhelming majority, and 

 his opponent mustered less than 300 votes, yet the House of Com- 

 mons declared that Mr. Wilkes had been incapable of being elected, 

 and that Col. Luttrell, being next on the poll, and qualified to sit in 

 parliament, was duly elected as member for the county. This violation 

 of the rights of election was resented not .only by the freeholders of 

 Middlesex, but by the whole country. The battle was no longer 

 between Mr. Wilkes and the ministers, but between the whole 

 electoral body and the parliament. In the midst of petitions, 

 addresses, and remonstrances, the letters of Junius inflamed the people 

 and confounded the ministers. Truly did he say to the latter; " You 

 have united this country against you on one grand constitutional 

 point, on the decision of which our existence, as a free people, abso- 

 lutely depends.' (Letter XI. to the Duke of Grafton.) Meanwhile 

 the popular champion, through whose sides the constitution had 

 been assailed, though still immured in the King's Bench prison, was 

 receiving substantial marks of public favour. Subscriptions were 

 opened for the payment of his fines and personal debts, and upwards 

 of 20,000?. were raised for that purpose in the course of a few weeks. 

 Presents of all kinds were also heaped upon him ; plate, jewels, wine, 

 furniture, and embroidered purses of gold. His portrait was in uni- 

 versal request, and was reproduced in every form of art, from the 

 marble bust to the village sign-board. 



Another legal triumph soon followed. On the reversal of his out- 

 lawry, Mr. Wilkes had proceeded with an action against Lord Halifax 

 for false imprisonment and the seizure of his papers. In November 

 1769, the cause was tried in the Common Pleas, when he obtained a 

 verdict, with 4000?. damages, which were defrayed by the crown. 



In the following April, Mr. Wilkes was discharged from his confine- 

 ment, on giving a bond for his good behaviour during seven years. 

 He was shortly afterwards admitted to the office of alderman for the 

 ward of Farringdon Without, and aspired to other civic honour?. He 

 served as sheriff in 1771. In the two following years he was elected 

 by the livery as one of the persons to be chosen lord mayor ; and on 

 his third nomination, in 1774, was chosen by the court of aldermen. 

 On the 10th of October he was again elected for the county of Middle- 

 sex, and continued in the House of Commons for many years. But his 

 popularity had declined : to use his own words, he was " a fire burned 

 out ; " but the comforts of the lucrative office of chamberlain of the 

 City of London, which he obtained in 1779, were an ample compensa- 

 tion for the loss of popular favour. 



One political triumph however was still reserved for him. In the 

 parliaments of 1774 and 1780 he had made many unsuccessful 

 attempts to expunge from the journals, the resolutions of the House 

 of Commons in regard to the Middlesex elections ; but at length, on 

 the dissolution of Lord North's administration in 1782, he accom- 

 plished his object. On the 3rd May, the House voted that the resolu- 

 tion of the 17th February 1769, by which he had been declared 

 incapable of re-election, should be expunged from their journals, "it 

 being subversive of the rights of the whole body of the electors of 

 the kingdom." All the other resolutions and orders of the House 

 concerning the Middlesex elections were also ordered to be expunged. 

 In 1784 he was elected for the last time by the county of Middlesex ; 

 he did not offer himself again at the dissolution in 1760, but retired 

 into private life. In retirement he lived to be forgotten, and died 

 December 27, 1797, at the age of 70. 



WILKIE, SIR DAVID, was born at the manse of the parish of 

 Cults, on the banks of Eden- water, in Fifeshire, on the 18th of 



