44 
in the management of public affairs, and 
that the jealoufies which he occafioned be- 
tween king and people, gave rife to many 
if not.a} the misfortunes of the prefent 
reign. Certain it is that chis conduét 
created a moft formidable oppofition, bot- 
tomed on conftitutional motives, and that 
the moft zealous advocates for the houfe 
of Brunfwick, entrenching themfelves in 
the revolution principles of 1688, com- 
bated the doftrines and proceedings of 
the favourite, with the fame zeal that 
that their anceftors had oppofed the ty- 
rainy of the houfe of Stuart. ‘ft was this 
fingular circumftance that gave birth to the 
- political career of the fubject of thefe me- 
moirs ; and not only his own biography, 
but the hiftory of the prefent times, is int1- 
mately conneéted with the foregoing events. 
The father of Mr. Wilkes was an emi- 
n-nt diftiller in Clerkenwell, where John 
is fuppofed to have been born, on the 
28th of Oftober, 1725. The elder fon 
Tfrael, who is ftill alive, followed the fame 
bufinefs, and ultimately failed. ‘The fe- 
cond, 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 mieafure, become unfitted by claf- 
fical purfuits from obraining wealth as a 
tradefman, it is more than probable that 
he would not have fucceeded in his com- 
mercial purfuits. For, 1s it poffible to 
fuppofe, that the enthuftaftic admirer of 
the elegant Tibullus, fhould relifh the 
dull round of bufinefs, in the neighbour- 
hood of St. Sepulchre’s?*that he who 
banifhed care like Anaceron, and daily 
quafted the Falernian of Horace, fhould 
pay fuch a fedulous attention to the pro- 
cefsof fermentation, and be converfaat in 
all the properties of two-penny,porter, and 
brown-ftout ? Difguft, accordingly, foon 
fucceeded, as a necefiary confequence, and 
the golden dreams arifing from the min- 
gled fumes of hops and malt,vanifhed with 
the math-tub and the comprting-houtfe. 
Mr. Wilkes was calculated, by nature, 
education, and habit, for far different pur- 
fuits, and he foon gratified his inclinations. 
Having married a daughter of the celebrar- 
ed Dr, Mead, the author of the Treatife on 
Poifons we find him exchanging the dull and 
foggy atmofphere of the city for the thin- 
ner and politer air of the wet end of the 
town. Poffeffed of a. genteel fortune, cle- 
gant manners, and a {parkling wit, he 
eafily obtained the acquaintance of many 
of the:mof fashionable people of the age. 
Educated in, Whig principles, he was at 
the fame time anardent affertor of Eng- 
3 > 
Original Anecdates.---"Fokn Wilkes, Efq. 
{ eo a 
Jifh liberty. It was the latter circumftance, 
indeed, that gave a colouring tothe future 
purfuits of his life ; to the former, he was 
indevted for a feat in parliament, and a 
regument of militia. aie 
A ftandisg army has always been con- 
fidered as the opprobrium of liberty, and 
a difgrace to a free country. To counter- 
balance this palpable defeét in the fyftem 
(for it is not inherent in eur polity) ‘feme 
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- 
iations, was at length carriéd tnto’ emeét, 
but not without much oppefition, “and 
confiderable diffatisfaCiion on'the fide of 
the people. 
Mr. Wilkes, who was a great ftitkler 
for the meafure, made-an offer of his fer- 
vices in Buckinghamfhire on this occa- 
fion ; and as he lived in great intimacy 
with earl Temple, the then lord lfeutenant, 
he foon became member for Aylefbury, 
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 Houie of Commons, and dif- 
miffed from the other by a mandate from 
‘the firft executive magiftrate. - 
The member for Ayiefbury foon par- 
ticipated in the general refentment againft , 
lord Bute, and, poiletfing a happy talent 
for farire,; contributed not a fittle to ins 
ercafe the hatred which he hadevery where 
excited. But this was nor ails ia the 
bitternefs of his refentment, he accufed 
the nation, among whom that nobleman 
was born, of an hereditary attachment to 
flavery, and, without much ceremony, at- 
tacked certain perfons, who fondly hoped 
that their rank was not only too lefty for 
plebeian animadverfions, but even dif- 
foived all conne&ion between guilt and 
fhame. 
Mr. Wilkes began his career, as an 
author, in 1762, and his firft political 
publication, at prefent known with cer- 
taiity, was intitled, ‘¢ Obfervations on 
the Papers relative to the Rupture -with 
Spain.” On the sth of June, in the fame 
year, he became the editor of a periodt- 
cal paper of much netoriety, called the 
North Briton,” which gave a particular 
turn to, and not only influenced, the fu- 
ture progrefs of his. affairs, but aétually 
decided the tenoyr of his whole life. No 
publication that ever came from the Eng- 
lith preis was read with ‘more intercit, 
or circulatedwith greater avidity than this, 
the 
. ’ « “4 
