YALE UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Gift of

CHAUNCEY BREWSTER TINKERJOHN WILKES.

PATRIOT.

A n

Unfinished

Autobiography.

We should regard Wilkes
from the point of view he
presented between 1761
and 1764. He was then
the patriot untried, the
chamberlain unbought;
befriended by Temple,
countenanced by Pitt,
persecuted by Bute, and
in two great questions
which affefled the vital
interests of his country-
men, he was the success-
ful asserter of English
liberty.

John Forster.

HARROW :

WILLIAM F. TAYLOR.

MncccLxxxvm.LIFE OF JOHN WILKES.Of this edition, there have been printed for the
subscribers

125 ordinary copies on hand-made paper.

25 large paper copies on hand-made paper.

10 copies on thick Japanese paper.

6 copies on thin Japanese paper, printed on
one side only.

166

This is No... J.'p.. .At*r+l Jj*'315. Wilkes (John). Patriot. An Un-
finished Autobiography. 12mo, wrap-
pers. Harrow, 1888.	$2.00

*One of 166 copies printed.PREFACE.

BjgnjfllHE tenth volume of the second series of
MgS) “ Notes and Queries/' in the number
for August 4, i860, contains the follow-
ing query by Mr. C. Ferrand Carew :—

“Wilkes and Junius.—Where now are the
autobiographical MSS. of John Wilkes ? At the
commencement of the present century they were
in pofsefsion, I believe, of his sister.”

This query was never answered. In the
eighth volume of the fourth series of the same
valuable periodical, in the number for July 29,
1871, under the heading “Lost Books,” Mr. C.
Elliot Brown inserted a similar note :—

“ John Wilkes's ‘ Autobiography.’—At the
death of Wilkes, it was stated in many of the
journals (and not contradicted) that a manuscript
autobiography was in the pofsefsion of his
daughter. Is this still in existence ? ”

I am unable to say whether the fragments
printed in the present volume are those which
produced the rumour of Wilkes having written
an autobiography.iv.

Should this be so, I think that there can be
little or no doubt as to the date to be afsigned to
its composition. At the end of the Life prefixed
to the 1805 edition of Wilkes’ Letters to his
Daughter the following pafsage occurs:—

“ The rumour that Mr. Wilkes was engaged
in the composition of his own life had a foun-
dation. I am not able to say if the life be
now existing or not.”

A reference is also given in a foot-note to
vol. ii., letter Ixxxiii., p. 200. The detter itself,
dated South Parade, Bath, Monday, Jan. 31,
1780, supplies this information

“ I have endeavoured to get the letter about
Mrs. M. supprefsed, but the Doctor is as
violent as either of the B—nn—rs, and I have
no chance of succeeding. I read him, on
Sunday night, chosen parts of the Memoirs of
my Life, with which he appeared to be much
charmed.”

This evidence, which the critical reader will
understand is purely presumptive, should be
taken merely for what it is worth.

Wilkes may have commenced to write his life,
gnd then have desisted from reasons which heV-.

alone could explain; perhaps death may have
overtaken him whilst writing the work. I con-
clude that it is not a diary itself, but a compilation
from tolerably complete memoranda, jotted down
somewhat hastily during the time treated
of, and re-written at leisure, with additions,
at a later period of Wilkes’ life. I hope at a
future time that I may be able to announce the
find, in some library hitherto unexplored, of the
proof of my theory. Be this as it may, what
there is no doubt about is that there exist in the
library of the British Museum two small thick
volumes of Wilkes’ autograph MS., which bear
oft their title-pages “The Life of John Wilkes”
(additional MSS., 30,865). They are both in-
complete, the first one even ending with a
comma. After this abrupt break off, the first
volume contains a number of blank pages,
evidently intended for a continuation up to the
date at which the second volume begins. At
the end of the MS., in the second volume, a
similar gap exists, intended, in all probability,
for the author’s life in the years subsequent to
1765.

The contents of these two volumes make the
foundation of the present work. I have addedvi.

to them the present preface and an introduftion,
which, I hope, will not be unacceptable, even to
those who are fairly conversant with the life of
Wilkes.

The portrait of Wilkes, used as frontispiece,
is, as stated elsewhere, taken from the caricature
of Hogarth, which was sketched by him during
Wilkes’ trial in the Court of Common Pleas on
the matter of the general warrant. What cannot
be sufficiently deplored is that Hogarth, incom-
parably the finest caricaturist, and certainly one
of the finest wits of the century, should in this
case have used his talent against the liberty of
the press and of the subject.

I have appended to the volume a quantity of
evidence in support of the truth of Wilkes’
afsertions made in his autobiography.

R. des Habits.

London, 1888.

INTRODUCTION.

[OME introduction of an historical nature
is undoubtedly required by a book like
the present. John Wilkes, patriot,
sometime editor of the North Briton, member
for Aylesbury, Lord Mayor of London, sheriff of
and three times member for Middlesex, has so
far pafsed out of knowledge, that although
his name lingers on, yet some sketch of his
character and history cannot fail to be necefsary
as a preface to those fragments of autobiography
which it may be hoped that this, the first printed
edition of them, will rescue from oblivion. His
features, immortalised by Hogarth, in the carica-
ture portrait which has been reproduced as an
illustration to this volume, are still well known
to the collectors of such scarce prints.

Whatever may have been the faults of Lord
Macaulay as an historian, no one will ever deny
his merit as a writer of the most brilliant prose,
and the painter of the most perfeCt word pictures
that England has ever seen, and probably will
ever see. In his efsay upon the Earl of Chatham,
first published in October, 1844, is a sketch ofviii.

Wilkes’ history, which will favourably compare
with any similar short digest of a man’s career—
and there are many of them—contained else-
where in the writings of the great efsayist.

Where Macaulay has gone before, who shall
hope to tread without paying due respedtand
deference to his opinions. I shall quote, then,
those pasfages from the Efsay on Lord Chatham,
which bear diredtly upon the subject of Wilkes,
before daring to afsert what may be my own
ideas concerning his aims, character and ambi-
tion :—

“ We are inclined to think, on the whole, that
the worst administration which has governed
England since the Revolution was that of George
Grenville. His public adts may be clafsed under
two heads, outrages on the liberty of the people,
and outrages on the dignity of the crown.

“ He began by making war on the prefs.
John Wilkes, member of Parliament for Ayles-
bury, was singled out for persecution. Wilkes
had, till very lately, been known chiefly as one
of the most profane, licentious, and agreeable
rakes about town. He was a man of taste,
reading, and engaging manners. His sprightly
conversation was the delight of green rooms andix.

taverns, and pleased even grave hearers, when
he was sufficiently under restraint to abstain from
detailing the particulars of his amours, and from
breaking jests on the New Testament. His
expensive debaucheries forced him to have
recourse to the Jews. He was soon a ruined
man, and determined to try his chance as a
political adventurer. In parliament he did not
succeed. His speaking, though pert, was feeble,
and by no means interested his hearers so much
as to make them forget his face, which was so
hideous that the caricaturists were forced, in
their own despite, to flatter him. As a writer, he
made a better figure. He set up a weekly paper,
called the North Briton. This journal, written
with some pleasantry, and great audacity and
impudence, had a considerable number of
readers. Forty-four numbers had been published
when Bute resigned; and, though almost every
number had contained matter grofsly libellous,
no prosecution had been instituted. The forty-
fifth number was innocent when compared with
the majority of those which had preceded it, and
indeed contained nothing so strong as may in
our time be found daily in the leading articles of
the Times and. Morning Chronicle. But GrenvilleX.

was now at the head of affairs. A new spirit had
been infused into the administration. Authority
was to be upheld. The government was no
longer to be braved with impunity. Wilkes was
arrested under a general warrant, conveyed to
the Tower, and confined there with circumstances
of unusual severity. His papers were seized, and
carried to the Secretary of State. These harsh
and illegal measures produced a violent outbreak
of popular rage, which was soon changed to
delight and exultation. The arrest was pro-
nounced unlawful by the Court of Common
Pleas, in which Chief Justice Pratt presided, and
the prisoner was discharged. This viftory over
the government was celebrated with enthusiasm
both in London and in the cider counties. .	.

............The persecution of Wilkes was

eagerly prefsed. He had written a parody on
Pope’s Efsay on Man, entitled the Efsay on
Woman, and had appended to it notes, in ridicule
of Warburton’s famous Commentary. This
composition was exceedingly profligate, but not
more so, we think, than some of Pope’s own
works, the imitation of the second satire of the
first book of Horace, for example; and, to do
Wilkes justice, he had not, like Pope, given hisxi.

ribaldry to the world. He had merely printed
at a private prefs a very small number of copies,
which he meant to present to some of his boon
companions, whose morals were in no more
danger of being corrupted by a loose book than
a negro of being tanned by a warm sun. A tool
of the government, by giving a bribe to the
printer, procured a copy of this trash, and placed
it in the hands of the ministers. The ministers
resolved to visit Wilkes’s offence against decorum
with the utmost rigour of the law. What share
piety and respeft for morals had in dictating this
resolution, our readers may judge from the fatt
that no person was more eager for bringing the
libertine poet to punishment than Lord March,
afterwards Duke of Queensberry. On the first
day of the sefsion of Parliament, the book, thus
disgracefully obtained, was laid on the table of the
Lords by the Earl of Sandwich, whom the Duke
of Bedford's interest had made Secretary of State.
The unfortunate author had not the slightest
suspicion that his licentious poem had ever
been seen, except by his printer and a few of his
difsipated companions, till it was produced in
full Parliament. Though he was a man of
easy temper, averse from danger, and not very
bxii.

susceptible of shame, the surprise, the disgrace,
the prospeft of utter ruin, put him beside himself.
He picked a quarrel with one of Lord Bute’s
dependents, fought a duel, was seriously wounded,
and, when half recovered, fled to France. His
enemies had now their own way, both in the
Parliament and in the King’s Bench. He was
censured, expelled from the House of Commons,
outlawed. His works were ordered to be burned
by the common hangman. Yet was the multi-
tude still true to him. In the minds even of
many moral and religious men, his crime seemed
light when compared with the crime of his
accusers. The condutt of Sandwich, in parti-
cular, excited universal disgust. His own vices
were notorious ; and, only a fortnight before he
laid the Efsay on Woman before the House of
Lords, he had been drinking and singing loose
catches with Wilkes at one of the most difsolute
clubs in London. Shortly after the meeting of
Parliament, the Beggar's Opera was atted at
Covent Garden theatre. When Macheath uttered
the words,—‘That Jemmy Twitcher should peach
me I own surprised me,’—pit, boxes, and galle-
ries, burst into a roar which seemed likely to bring
the roof down. From that day Sandwich wasxiii.

universally known by the nickname of Jemmy
Twitcher. The ceremony of burning the North
Briton was interrupted by a riot. The constables
were beaten; the paper was rescued ; and, instead
of it, a jackboot and a petticoat were committed
to the flames. Wilkes had instituted an aCtion
for the seizure of his papers against the Under-
secretary of State. The jury gave a thousand
pounds damages. But neither these nor any
other indications of public feeling had power to
move Grenville. He had the Parliament with
him : and, according to his political creed, the
sense of the nation was to be collected from the
Parliament alone.”

Thus far is it my intention to trace the career
of John Wilkes, and the remainder of this life-
sketch shall be spent in elucidating and, I hope,
—be it spoken in all reverence—correcting some
of the statements of Lord Macaulay. It cannot
be within the province of the present introduction
to travel beyond the date at which the second
part of “ The Life of John Wilkes ” commences.
It is not, therefore, my purpose to narrate how he
became three times member for Middlesex, nor
how he was twice prevented from sitting in the
House of Commons. A violent and despoticxiv.

government, upon his second election, superseded
him by a majority of the House, in favour of
Colonel Luttrell, the ministerial nominee, who
at the election only obtained 296 votes against
Wilkes' 1143, on no lefs disgraceful a motion
than this, moved by Mr. Onslow on April 15,
1769,—“ That Henry Lawes Luttrell, Esq., ought
to have been returned a knight of the shire to
serve in this present parliament for the county of
Middlesex,”—which was actually carried by a ma-
jority of 197 to 143. Wilkes had the satisfaction,
however, of being allowed to take his seat after
his third election, in 1774 ; and, in 1782, subse-
quent to Lord North’s downfall, saw, at last, all
the proceedings concerning the former elections
for Middlesex, and his expulsion from the House,
expunged from the minutes of the Commons.

Now to return to Macaulay's description of
Wilkes. The North Briton, the origin of Wilkes'
detestation on the one hand, and of his popu-
larity on the other, was started in opposition to a
paper named the Briton, which had been set up
by Bute at the instigation of Bubb Dodington as
a counterblast to the Pitt party, who had complete
control of the public prefs. Wilkes had as
collaborateurs in the North Briton Lord TempleXV.

and Charles Churchill, the latter of whom became
Wilkes’ most intimate friend. The celebrated
No. 45 can scarcely be said to have “ contained
nothing so strong as may in our time be found
daily in the Times” since in it (see Appendix),
published about a fortnight after Bute’s resigna-
tion, he accused the King of uttering a lie in his
speech of prorogation. During the imprisonment
in the Tower, which took place upon a general
warrant to apprehend “ the authors, printers, and
publishers ” of the seditious and treasonable
paper called the North Briton, Wilkes was
allowed the afsistance of no legal advice. After
his discharge, on the ground of the warrant’s
illegality, the attorney-general instituted against
him a charge of libel, having as ground the 45th
number of the North Briton. Wilkes was, at the
same time, deprived of his commifsion in the
militia. Lord Temple, his afsistant in editing
the paper, was struck off the roll of privy coun-
cillors, and dismifsed from his post of Lord
Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire. On the 15th
of November, 1763, the libel was laid, by George
Grenville, on the table of the House; and it was
resolved, by a majority of more than two to one,
that “ the North Briton, No. 45,” was a false,.xvi.

scandalous, and seditious libel, and was ordered
to be burnt by the common hangman. Wilkes
pleaded privilege, and the motion of privilege
was adjourned for a week. But, on the same
day, the 15th of November, Sandwich produced
in the Lords the “ Efsay on Woman,” and
commenced to read it aloud. Lord Lyttelton
hoped that the House might be spared such
blasphemy and indecency. Warburton, who
had been ridiculed in the Efsay, fairly foamed
at the mouth, and afserted that “ the blackest
fiends in hell would not keep company with
Wilkes when he should arrive there.” It was
resolved that Wilkes should be brought to the
bar of the Lords, to answer the charges of
authorship, and a day was fixed.

In the Commons, however, Mr. Samuel Martin,
who had been gibbeted in the 40th North Briton
as “ the most treacherous, base, selfish, mean,
abjeft, low-lived, and dirty fellow that ever
wriggled himself into a secretaryship,” had
afsailed the publication in no measured terms,
and denounced its author as a “ cowardly,
malignant, and scandalous scoundrel,” who had
stabbed him in the dark. Wilkes addrefsed to
him the following letter:—xvii.

“ Great George Street,

Westminster, Nov. 16.

Sir,

You complained yesterday, before five
hundred gentlemen, that you had been stabbed
in the dark by the North Briton ; but I have
reason to believe you was not so much in the
dark as you affefted and chose to be. Was the
complaint made before so many gentlemen on
purpose that they might interpose ? To cut off
every pretence of ignorance as to the author, I
whisper in your ear, that every pafsage in the
North Briton, in which you have been named,
or even alluded to, was written by

Your humble servant,

John Wilkes."

To this epistle, answer was exprefsed thus:—
“ Abingdon Street,

Nov. 16, 1763.

Sir,

As I said in the House of Commons,
yesterday, that the writer of the North Briton,
who had stabbed me in the dark, was a cowardly,
as well as a malignant and infamous scoundrel;
and your letter of this morning’s date acknow-xviii.

ledges that every pafsage of the North Briton,
in which I have been named, or even alluded to,
was written by yourself, I must take the liberty
to repeat, that you are a malignant and infamous
scoundrel, and that I desire to give you an
opportunity of shewing me whether the epithet
of cowardly was rightly applied or not.

I desire that you may meet me in Hyde Park
immediately, with a brace of pistols each, to
determine our difference.

I shall go to the Ring in Hyde Park with my
pistols so concealed that nobody may see them ;
and I will wait in expeftation of you one hour.
As I shall call in my way at your house to
deliver this letter, I propose to go from thence
direftly to the Ring in Hyde Park, from whence
we may proceed, if it be necefsary, to any more
private place; and I mention that I shall wait
an hour in order to give you full time to meet
me.

I am, Sir, your humble servant,

Sam. Martin.”

Martin probably intended to kill Wilkes and
chose his weapons accordingly; by the laws of
the duel- the person challenged has the choice ofxix.

weapons, but the way in which Martin’s letter
was exprefsed put out of the question any pofsi-
bility of Wilkes being able to use his right
without further suspicion of cowardice. The
encounter took place, and at the second fire,
Martin’s bullet struck his adversary in the abdo-
men, inflifting a serious wound, the importance
of which however was very much exaggerated.
When he was sufficiently recovered Wilkes fled
to France. During his absence the question of
privilege was decided against him, and on the
19th of January, 1764, it was carried by a large
majority: “That John Wilkes, esq; a member
of this house, having been required, by the
repeated orders of this house, to attend in his
place, to answer the charge of being the author
and publisher of the printed paper, intituled, ‘The
North Briton, No. 45,' and having been from
time to time excused from his attendance upon
the days appointed, on the representations made
to this house of his utter inability to attend in
respeft of his health, and after refusing to admit
the physician and surgeon appointed by this
house, to observe and report the state of
his health, having withdrawn himself into a
foreign country, without afsigning a sufficient
cXX.

cause, is guilty of a contempt of the authority
of this house; and that this house will there-
fore now proceed to hear the evidence upon
the matter of the said charge.” It was therefore
resolved: “ That it appears to this house, that
the said John Wilkes, esq; is guilty of writing
and publishing the paper, intituled, 1 The North
Briton, No. 45,’ which this house has voted to
be a false, scandalous, and seditious libel, con-
taining exprefsions of the most unexampled
insolence, and contumely towards his majesty,
the grofsest aspersions upon both houses of
parliament, and the most audacious defiance of
the authority of the whole legislature, and most
manifestly tending to alienate the affections of
the people from his majesty, to withdraw them
from their obedience to the laws of the realm,
and to excite them to traitorous insurrections
against his majesty’s government;” and it was
also resolved “That the said John Wilkes, esq;
be for his said offence, expelled this house.”
These two resolutions were made in the small
hours of the 20th January 1764, the House
having sat up all night. Wilkes had in the
meanwhile obtained a judgment from Mr. Justice
Pratt for ^1000 for the detention of his papers atxxi.

the time of his arrest under the general warrant,
which was therefore ipso facto pronounced illegal.
I must now return to his sentence of outlawry.
There existed at Medmenham Abbey in Buck-
inghamshire a club of profligate plutocrats of
which Wilkes, owing to his wit and licentiousnefs,
was a member. I shall borrow a description of
it from the life of Wilkes prefixed to his Letters
published by his daughter in 1804. “His
expulsion from the House of Commons was
resolved upon the 19th of January 1764. On
the 21 st of February he was convi&ed in the
Court of King's Bench, for republishing No. 45
of the North Briton, and also, upon a second
indiftment, for printing and publishing an ‘Efsay
on Woman.' This Efsay (in its printed state at
least) was the produce of the hours wasted in
the society of Medmenham Abbey; the fruit of
the habits perfected, if not acquired, in that
admirable academy. Never having read the
poem, I am unable to pafs any judgment either
upon its folly or enormity; but there can be no
doubt as to the judgment which ought to be
pafsed upon its being, at this juncture, dragged
into light. Mr. Wilkes, it has already been
hinted, was one of a party which amused itselfxxii.

by the celebration of mad orgies at Medmenham
Abbey, a large mansion (formerly a convent of
Cistertian monks) situated on the banks of the
Thames, near Marlow, in Buckinghamshire.
Sir Francis Dashwood, afterwards Lord Le
Despencer, was an a&ive brother of the order,
which after him was denominated Franciscan.
A sketch of the mental drunkennefses of the
place is to be found in Chrysal, as well as in
‘The Collection of Letters' of Mr. W. of 1769.
Mr. Wilkes, having set up a printing prefs, was
induced to have twelve copies of this poem
struck off, perhaps to be presented to the mem-
bers of the Abbey, who amounted to that number.
Not a single imprefsion however was in fad given
to any one friend, nor was more than a fourth
part of an intended volume ever worked off.
Even this too had for months been discontinued.
Wilkes, however, was now a character of much
popular importance, and it was resolved at all
hazards to crush him. The counsels of anger

are rarely wise............A domestic of

Mr. Wilkes's was encouraged to steal one of the
copies, it was put into the hands of Lord
Sandwich, the Secretary of State; ” with what
effeft I have already described. The biographerxxiii.

continues further on :—“ The people of England
were however wise enough to perceive that this
charge was wholly unconnected with the public
contest then waging between Administration and
Mr. W. They could not but know, that of the
two accusations (that of republishing the North
Briton, and of publishing the Efsay), if the first
had not been made, the second would never
have existed..................................

. Mr. Wilkes being found guilty on
both informations, and neglecting to make any
personal appearance, when called upon to receive
the judgment of the Court of King’s Bench, was
towards the close of the year, outlawed."

Whilst these affairs were being settled Wilkes
was already in France and the actions recorded
in the second volume of his “ Life " were already
taking place.

Wilkes was a character of considerable power.
Witty to a degree in conversation; perhaps in
succefsful inveCtive only inferior to “Junius,”
on account of the mystery which surrounded
that character, Wilkes is a good example of a
popular idol. He had a popularity akin to that
of Charles James Fox, of George IV, and ofxxiv.

Charles II; his very failings attracted the multi-
tude. Far from being a deep thinker he had so
far been infeCted by the brilliant sarcasm of
of Voltaire on matters of religion, that as an
atheist he almost outstripped his teacher. Ex-
cefsively ambitious, his ambition seems to have
been much like a bottle of soda water resisting
the opposition of a cork, but once released, soon
relapsing into vapid quiescence. Whilst he was
opprefsed by a ministry he posed as a martyr,
no longer abused he relapsed into obscurity
(see Appendix II.) He was one of those men
who have the ill fortune to survive the day of
their popularity and he lived to know himself
forgotten save through the memory of a hideous
caricature.THE LIFE OF JOHN WILKES.THE LIFE

OF

JOHN WILKES

Sic vita erat.

Ter.

Uol. 1.Mb AalT is the certain fate of all men, who have
eminently distinguished themselves on
E&sS the great theatre of the world, that their
private aftions will likewise become the subjects
of enquiry, and the little anecdotes of their lives
be eagerly sought after, and nicely scrutiniz’d.
This proceeding, tho’ it has its’ rise in idle
curiosity, may be attended with real benefit, and
solid inslru&ion. This will most probably hap-
pen, when the persons, who become the subjects
of this enquiry, are not too far rais’d above our
own rank in life.

There is a dignity and mild majesty in the
independency of private life, which is not indeed
so dazzling, yet affords more pure and unalloy’d
pleasure than all the glare of titles, power and
pomp. I am in reality more interested in scenes
of this kind, than in the cruel and sudden re-
verses of fortune in kings and princes, because
the other is brought home to my own case, as a
private gentleman, or even one of inferior but
independent condition. I know that there is no
probability of my being ever a Sovereign. The
propriety therefore of conduft in a prince in-
terests me very little, but all the aftions of a4

private gentleman, and every event of his life,
may be similar to my own state and condition.
I shall never command my own armies, lose an
important battle, be taken prisoner, and have to
deliberate what sacrifices I am to make for the
recovery of my liberty. I may however be
oppressed by a despotic minister, thrown into
prison by a wicked favourite, and, tho’ by the
vigour of the laws, and the integrity of the
judges, I regain my freedom, I may be to spend
the remainder of my life in unavailing struggles
against a prevailing faftion. Such a case will
come home to every man, who feels the ines-
timable value of liberty, and is dispos’d to risk
all, when he sees the rights of his country invaded.

It is a misfortune, that the best writers have
consider’d history as only calculated to record
the brillant actions of heroes and conquerors.
Those who have faithfully serv’d their country,
or carried the most usefull arts and sciences to
lengths unknown to their ancestors, are often
forgot by the historian. They are consign’d
over to the biographer, as if it were not more
interesting to have the history of the nation, than
of its’ king. Virgil gives us the true list of
those, who are alone entitled to be gratefully
remembered by posterity.5

Hie manus, ob patriam pugnando vulnera passi,
Quique sacerdotes casti, dum vita manebat,

Quique pii vates, et Phoebo digna locuti,

Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere perartes,

Quique sui memores alios fecere merendo.

Patriots, who perished for their country’s light,
Or nobly triumph.’d in the field of fight:

There, holy priests, and sacred poets stood,

"Who sung with all the raptures of a God :
Worthies, who life by usefull arts refin’d,

With those, who leave a deathless name behind,
Friends of the world, and fathers of mankind.

Christopher Pitt.

Here Patriots live, who for their countries good,
In fighting fields, were prodigal of blood :

Priests of unblemish’d lives here make abode,
And Poets worthy their inspiring God :

And searching Wits, of more mechanick parts,
Who grac’d their age with new invented arts :
Those who to worth their bounty did extend,

And those who knew that bounty to commend.

Dryden.

After the satisfa&ion, which the mind feels
in consequence of a virtuous aftion, I believe
that the thought of being gratefully remember’d
by posterity has been the fairest spur to those
worthies of our own country, as well as of
Greece and Rome, whom most of the moderns
chuse rather to admire than to imitate. Plutarch6

has done infinite service to mankind by recording
all the great and spirited actions and sayings of
those true patriots, in whom the ruling pafsion
was the love of their country, and we love the
men as much in the private, as we venerate
them in the publicwalk of life. He and Homer
are the heralds of antient virtue.

I wish my countrymen had a Plutarch.
The English literature seems in nothing more
deficient. How little do we know of Hampden,
of Lord Rufsell, of Sydney ? Such a work
ought to be undertaken, while the memory of
the events recorded is fresh in the minds of
men. There is then a kind of appeal to the
age,, for the truth of the various fafts, and every
circumstance of importance may be known to
almost any degree of accuracy.

I prefer Plutarch to Suetonius. He brings
me better and more intimately acquainted, with
his characters, and never descends to the trifling
minutiae of the Roman biographer. Every reader
is disgusted, when he is told of Domitian, that
he had digitos {pedum.) restriftiores. To consign
to posterity so insignificant a particular demon-
strate a total want of judgment as well as taste.
I will take warning from such an example.7

In my time a private person has stood forth,
who by the fond voice of his countrymen, and
the panegyrick of their poets, has been equall’d
to the patriots of former ages. He has likewise
experienc’d the same fate. He was hated, per-
secuted, and driven out of his country by a
court faction and a despotic ministry, yet all
the while beloved by the nation to a degree of
enthusiasm, and honoured with repeated marks
of popular favour. This person is Mr. Wilkes,
whose life I now undertake to write, because no
other man can have had equal opportunities
with myself of knowing every part of his conduCt
both in publick and private, nor of being so
well acquainted with the real and secret motives
of all his aCtions. I have been intimately con-
nected with him, and I ever made a part of, his
family, several months before his birth, nor have
I quitted him since so that I must of necefsity
know every minute circumstance, and the most
secret transactions. I may with truth aver that
every state intrigue, every private amour, in
which he has been concern’d, is as well known
to me as to himself.

I will not however profanely rend the veil of
.the sanCtuary of love, so as to lead to a discovery8

which might wound the honour, the peace, or
the domestick happiness of a single individual.

I undertake only to be the biographer of
Mr. Wilkes, not his panegyrist, altho’ I bear
him a very singular regard and affettion. I
shall relate every circumstance with fidelity, nor
scruple to give his life with the same liberty he
seems to have pafs'd it. His character has
certainly been highly distinguished. The great
political writer, Junius, said that he was the
favourite of his country, and that the destruction
of one man (Mr. Wilkes) has been now, for many
years, the sole objeCt of the King s government.
He will appear in a variety of different lights,
and tho’ he will be shewn to be consistent, ever
a&ing up to one great rule he had laid down,
the love of his country, yet we shall see that the
syren of pleasure seems to have lulled him for a
while in her lap, and to all appearance at times
triumph’d over the vigour of his soul. The
scene will best open of itself, and be clearly
understood from the previous occurrences which
were various and important. He is to be con-
sider’d not always as a patriot, but too frequently
as a man of pleasure, who lov’d to sacrifice to
the graces, to the nymphs, and to the muses, as9

well as on every great occasion to the genius of
English liberty. He trod the ways of glory, and
sounded all the depths and shoals of honour.

He was born in the year 1727. His father
was in trade, and had acquir’d a very con-
siderable fortune with great credit and reputation.
Mr. John Wilkes was his second son, and
considered by the world as the favourite of the
old gentleman, who treated him on every oc-
casion with tendernefs and indulgence. He
was sent early to a considerable school at
Hertford, kept by Mr. John Worsley, where he
remained with his two brothers near five years,
and made the usual progrefs in the Greek and
Roman languages. Mr. Worsley's was a very
celebrated school among the presbyterians, of
which sett his mother was a zealous favourer,
but the father follow’d the establishment of the
country in which he liv'd.

Mr. Wilkes was then put under the care of
Mr. Matthew Leeson, a presbyterian teacher at
Thame in Oxfordshire, where he continued
about a year. Mr. Leeson was one .of those
teachers who are fond of every paradox and
heresy. He was persecuted even by his own
little seft, because he did not hold the received

2IO

opinion of the trinity, original sin, redemption,
&c. He did not only attack the faith of the
zealots in points of this importance, but he was
continually poaching in the dull volumes of the
Fratres Poloni for some new heresy to broach.
His pains were attended with wondrous succefs.
At last the difsenting congregation at Thame
created him so much uneasinefs, that he was
obliged to quit the ministry, and he likewise left
the town soon after.

Mr. Leeson then came to Aylesbury in
Buckinghamshire, and the pupil attended him.
He lived there in a house belonging to a widow
lady whose name was Mead, related to the
famous physician of this century. The family
were new converts to presbyterianism, and
actuated by the warmth so frequent after a
change, Mr. Leeson continued there near two
years, and no rent was ever ask’d. He seem’d
to be under the protection of sd opulent a
family, and they were vain of the patronage,
and of the credit it gave them among the
sectaries at the capital.

The Mother of Mr. Wilkes frequented the
same meeting in Carter Lane as the family of
Mrs. Mead. The pastor Mr. Newman, enjoy’dan unbounded credit and authority in both
families, and he had establish’d a very friendly
intercourse between them. Mr. Wilkes was
always in his favour, so that when Mr. Leeson
came to Aylesbury, the pupil found that the
whole family had every prepofsefsion he cou’d
wish.

Mrs. Mead was about sixty. She had a
brother rather younger than herself, and a
daughter about ten years older than Mr. Wilkes.
Such was the family. Her own brother, Mr.
Richard Sherbrooke,

[The remaining 178 ff. of the first volume are blank.—
Ed.]THE LIFE

OF

JOHN WILKES

uncat et vagus exulet, erret ex lex.

Lueilius,

U 0 I . 2 .IR. WILKES pafs'd the year 1764 entirely
in France, and the greatest part of it
with an Italian Courtesan, whose name
was Gertrude Corradini. She was the Aurelia
Orestilla of antiquity, cujus, prater formam, nihil
unquam bonus laudavit. She was a perfeft
Grecian figure, cast in the mould of the Florentine
Venus, excepting that she was rather taller, and
more flat about the breasts. Her whole form
was the most perfedt symmetry. Extremely
delicate in her person, she continued constantly
attentive to every circumstance, which cou’d
give herself, or a lover, pleasure. She pofsefs’d
the divine gift of lewdnefs, but nature had not
given her strength adequate to the force of her
desires. Temperate and regular, she by great
care preserv’d in health a very tender constitution,
but now and then a tempest of pafsion shook
her fine frame, and for many hours left her
languid, and indeed almost lifelefs. Impartial
heaven had not bestow'd on her a common
share of understanding or wit, and of consequence
her whole life had been sacrific’d to the interests
of others. In conversation she was childish and
weak but in bed she cou’d not be called fatui
puella cunni. All her sensibility seem’d to havea reference to one favourite spot. Her two
prevailing pafsions were jealousy, and afondnefs
of being admir’d. By these she tormented her-
self, and all about her.

Boulogna was her native place. Mr. Wilkes
declar’d that of all the pleasures he enjoy’d in
France he took most delight in the frequent
excursions he made to the Bois de Boulogne,
where he spent much of his time. Venice gave
her education, and the only education fitt for a
courtesan, born with little or no wit, the art of
adorning gracefully her person, and a flexibility
of the limbs worthy the wanton nymphs so
celebrated of Ionia. She had danc’d very young
on the stage at Venice, and had been for some
time the favourite of the British Consul there,
Mr. Udney. Soon after he became certain of a
bankruptcy, by his advice she left Italy, and
made a tour to Paris, on the pretext of perfecting
herself in dancing. Mr. Wilkes first saw her at
Mr. Hope’s and was struck with so noble, grace-
full a figure, as well as with an air of modesty,
diffidence, and timidity, which contrasted so
admirably with the forwardnefs and insolence of
the generality of the French females.

Her beauteous cheeks the blush of Venus wear,

Chastened with coy Diana's pensive air,17

As Homer has so incomparably described1

, and

modesty in a more dextrous manner. He desir’d
her permifsion to pay a visit the next day. He
went in the afternoon, but she was from home.
The following day he return’d, and found her
alone with her mother, not the Italian or French
mother of a petit 6cu par jour, but the female,
who gave her birth. He made her many offers
of service, which were not accepted. He en-
quir’d much about his countrymen at Venice,
without however naming Mr. Udny. Her
answers were short and modest, but she declar’d
that she had not known any of his country in
particular. When he became better acquainted,
and had got a little confefsion of what it became
uselefs to deny, Mr. Wilkes laugh’d that so
explicit a declaration was made about Mr. Udny.
The answer was excellent, “ Wou’d you have
had me own it the second time I saw you ? ”

The frequent visits Mr. Wilkes made only
served to feed his pafsion, and the coynefs she
affefted increas’d his ardour. She declar’d how-
ever that she had no kind of attachment. Mr.
Wilkes ask'd, if she thought she could be happy

3

Penelope in the 17th book of the Odyssey.
It was impofsible to counterfeit virtuei8

with him, and that his fondest wishes were
gratified, wrhen he cou'd be afsur’d of pleasing
her. These declarations were receiv’d very
favourably on her part, but she wou'd not come
to any conclusion, for she said that she expetted
letters from London about her dancing on the
stage, and that she shou’d see the conduft of Mr.
Wilkes. She declar’d a fix’d resolution of never
running any risk, if she cou’d be sure of Mr.
Wilkes’s constancy, she might be dispos’d to
attach herself to him, but he was said to be
volage,.and she wou’d never entertain the idea
of a man, whom she was not certain of pofsefsing
solely, and who cou’d make her truly happy.
She avow’d an inclination to give herself to Mr.
Wilkes, and said her heart pleaded warmly for
him, but painted at the same time in lively

continued for
some days. He approach’d the shrine of this
modem divinity in the same manner the antient
deities were worship’d, but his offerings were
refus’d, and the heart of the sacrificer was alone
demanded. Tho’ he did not however find her
the Danae, yielding to a shower of gold, yet the
generosity of his nature won upon the mother,

colours her fears and jealousies
Conversations of this kind wi9

and he was allow’d from time to time to leave in
her lap a few louis in silver to save the trouble
of sending for change in housekeeping accounts,
when the daughter refused a hundred louis in
gold.

At length an accident decided favourably for
him in a few hours. It happen’d that one after-
noon she mention’d with great regret a lofs she
had sustain’d between Milan and Turin. It
was a silver crucifix which she describ’d very
minutely. Mr. Wilkes employ’d all the next
morning in searching the Quai des Orfevres, and
most luckily found a crucifix exactly answering
the description. He made the purchase for
only forty livres, and was impatient till he cou’d
present it to her. She was so struck with this
mark of attention that the same afternoon she
ceas’d to be cruel. The three following weeks
he pafs’d in her arms, giving and receiving the
most exquisite pleasures, of which our frame is
capable, for Corradini was endow’d with singular
perfections, femore facili, clune agili, et manu
procace.

It was impofsible that so perfect happinefs
cou’d long continue here below. She had been
too happy, and too often so. A weaknefs20

brought on the flower of the pale primrose, after
she had for some days droop’d and hung
her beauteous head. By the order of her
physician, she had a widow’d bed the two fol-

was really cruel, but our two
lovers were very inconsiderate, for they had for-
got the fine texture of her frame, and the extreme
delicacy of her constitution, both lost in the
gratification of those pleasures, which they gave
each other, and love alone cou’d furnish out in
such a soul-trilling rapture to either. Besides
this accident, she was in nature too tender an
exotic, and incapable of bearing the rude in-
clement sky of Paris during a churlish winter.

The scene now began to change, and the
more perfeft the enjoyment had been, the
reverse was felt more severely. Mr. Wilkes had
given her elegant lodgings in the Rue Neuve
des bons Enfans, which commanded the garden
of the Palais Royal. He had furnish’d them in
the gayest taste of the Parisians, and enjoy’d
there a little menage in great taste and tran-
quillity. The family consisted of his favourite,
the mother, a ragged footboy brought from Italy,
and a spruce Frenchman recommended by Mr.

lowing months.
This accidentWilkes, and who serv’d as footman. They din’d
from the traiteur. Mr. Wilkes generally din’d
at home with his daughter, or at some friend’s,
and in the evening sup’d with the fair Italian.
Nothing cou’d be more luxurious than this life
was to him. He had the happinefs of remarking
all day the openings of a sensible and elegant
mind in his daughter, and of experiencing every
agreable return of tendemefs for all his parental
fondnefs. In the evening other pafsions were
gratified, and the keennefs of their relish was not
allay’d by the least fear or even suspicion. This
latter scene however was not to last. Sicknefs,
and its’ common attendants, peevishnefs and ill
humour, chang’d the whole, and blacken’d all
the prospeft.

As soon as Mr. Wilkes was excluded from her
bed, she immediately began to suspe&his fidelity.
The force of jealousy sometimes carried her to
the most ridiculous excefs. He left her one
evening ill in bed. Soon after he was gone, she
got up, drefs’d herself, hir’d a hackney coach,
and followed him to a French house, where her
Italian servant had seen him enter. She con-
tinued in the coach near the door till morning,
when Mr. Wilkes left the company, and return'd22

to his own house in the rue St. Nicaise, about
two. She then made many minute enquiries
how he had pafs’d the preceding evening.
Knowing the jealousy of her nature, he chose
only to give general and evasive answers. Upon
this she broke out into the most violent rage,
then difsolv’d in tears, and afterwards fell into
convulsions for two or three hours. Mr. Wilkes
in vain protested the most spotlefs innocence,
and constant fidelity to her. Every soothing
effort he made use of prov’d ineffectual, for the
prescription of that great love-physician, Ovid,

Oscula da flenti, Veneris da gaudia flenti,

cou’d only be in part administer’d. The state of
her health forbid the latter part of that happy
prescription taking place. As no violence can
last, the storm at length pafs’d, her pafsion
subsided in a flood of tears, and a sullen calm
succeeded. Her ill humour continued however
for several days, and she regularly employ’d
spies, who gave her a most exaft detail of every
place Mr. Wilkes frequented, and of every house
he enter’d. There the intelligence finish’d. He
was often wearied with idle questions and
frivolous complaints, but the opinion he had of23

her fidelity, and the fad of never finding any
one of his own sex at her lodging, made him
bear her peevishnefs, and preserve his own good
humour.

He took the advice of the best physicians in
her case, but she was so irregular in following
their orders, that her health remain’d in a very
feeble state, and the same weaknefs continued.
She then took the resolution of returning to the
warmer climate of Italy, and display’d all her
rhetoric to persuade Mr. Wilkes to accompany
her. Her tongue was employ’d in vain on this
occasion and her tears flow’d unregarded. As
art only bad them flow, they were not now
kifs’d, nor even tenderly wip’d by the officious
hand of a fond lover. He had promis’d Mr.
Churchill to meet him at Boulogne sur mer the
beginning of November, and his heart was set
on the interview with his friend after near a
year’s absence. He suffer’d Corradini to set out
on her return to Italy in October, and told her of
his intention to visit that country in a short time.
He gave her a travelling coach, sixty louis in
specie, a draft on Lyons for a thousand 1 ivies,
with silver enough to pay the posts thro’ Fiance.
She had besides the permifsion of drawing on24

him as soon as she arrived at Boulogna.. She
was accompanied in the tour by her mother, a
pretended uncle, lately come to Paris for that
purpose, and the Italian footboy.

Mr. Churchill was at that time on the happiest
terms with Mifs Carr, and she had consented to
a tour in the South of France and Italy, which
Mr. Wilkes had proje&ed with his friend. They
had fix’d their imaginations with the ideas of the
fine blue skies of Italy, the luxuriant elegance of
nature in that charming climate, and the peculiar
felicity of partaking those raptures with two
females, so dear to them. All these enchanting
views were destroy’d at once by the most dreadful
event of Mr. Churchill’s death, a lofs never to be
repair’d to Mr. Wilkes who had always found
him the sincerest friend, the warmest advocate,
the most pleasing companion, and
tov fjLovo-cus <f>tXov avSpa, rov ov w/Mpcuaiv
airedr}.

Musis dilectum virum, neque nymphis ingratum.

Theocritus. Idyl. i. v. 141.

The two friends met at Boulogne sur mer the
end of October. A putrid fever seiz'd Mr.
Churchill the beginning of November, which, in25

five days put a period to his life. Mr. Wilkes
never left him, and he expir'd in the arms of his
friend.

No event had ever struck Mr. Wilkes so deep
to the heart. He had never before suffer’d the
lofs of any friend, to whom he had been greatly
attach’d. He was long in the deepest melan-
choly. On his return to Paris he pafs’d the day
and night alone in tears and agonies of despair.
At last the three great remedies, mention’d by
Cicero, came to his aid, necefsitas ipsa, dies
longa, et satietas doloris. Several friends con-
curr’d in forcing him again into the world.
A variety of company by degrees engag’d his
attention, and his grief at length mellow’d into
pleasing reflettions on the numberlefs virtues,
and wondrous abilities of the manly genius he
had so much admired in life.

The thought he had always entertain’d began
to return upon him with new. force, that we
ought to endeavour the rendering our own being
as happy to all around us, and to ourselves, as it
is in our power.

Corradini did not fail almost every post writing
in the most love-sick strains, and prefsing his
tour in Italy. His daughter was too young to

42 6

receive much pleasure or improvement by accom-
panying Mr. Wilkes. Two years had nearly
elaps’d since she had paid a visit to her friends
in England. Her father therefore judg’d this no
unfavourable opportunity, and he conducted her
himself to Calais in the beginning of december.
His out-lawry had taken place a little before,
and the same despotic administration, which had
violated every right of the subjeft to opprefs
him, continued still in power. He therefore
judg’d it imprudent at that time to proceed to
London. He sup'd with his daughter on board
the packet, and then return'd to Paris.

He remain'd in France but a short time after
this, for he seem’d desirous to make the most of
the interval of inaftion which the affairs of
England at that time indicated, and an Italian
tour requir'd an absence of several months at a
great distance from his country.

In the oftober of this year Mr. Wilkes
printed at Paris a full justification of his conduft
in a letter to the electors of Aylesbury, where he
had been twice chosen into Parliament without
opposition.

He left Paris on Christmas day, and took the
Bourbonnois road to Lyons, and from thenceMISS WILKES.27

went direftly to Turin, where he continued but
three days, merely to see the pictures in the
King of Sardinia’s palace, which are almost all
in high preservation, tho' few of the very capital
masters. The savage rocks of Savoy and Pied-
mont, with the variety of noble cascades, were
highly entertaining, and contrasted with the
immense level of the fruitfull Lombardy, divided
by ten thousand strait canals. Not a chearfull
hill rises quite from Turin to Bologna, at the foot
of the Apennine, where nature does not sit on so
craggy a throne as that of the Alps. Lombardy
seem’d a Holland in a happy climate. The
traveller has no entertainment from nature in the
road thro' Milan and Parma to Bologna, but
much from art. The number of antient and
modem wonders in sculpture and painting is
incredible. He staid a very short time at either
of these cities, for Corradini, who had promis’d
to come to Turin, was fallen ill of the rheumatism.
He therefore hasten’d to Bologna and was soon
where he most wish’d to be, for he follow’d the
precept of Horace to an epick poet, he rush’d
in medias res, non secus ac notas. He was receiv’d
with all the tendernefs he could wish, and he had
those proofs from nature that he was a Wellcome28

guest, which alone Italian artifice cannot counter-
feit. His happy return was celebrated by the
free-will offering of those tributes pleasure pays
down to her true votaries.

Absence seem'd only to have encreas’d their
mutual pafsion. They both appear’d eager to
acquit the long arrear of illnefs and separation.
He continued thus happy at Bologna about a
fortnight, dividing his time between the St.
Cecilia of Raphael, which is in the church of
San Gio. in Monte, one of the most divine
produ&ions of that great master, and his own
Corradini, who always recall’d to his mind the
gracefull Madonna of the Italians, and she still
preserv’d that air de vierge, which is found above
all so captivating. He din’d and sup’d regularly
at her lodgings, which were in a stile quite
opposite to what she had at Paris. They were
large and lofty, without any ornament, and with
very little furniture. On the bare walls for
devotion afsuredly, not elegance, were two
wretched daubings of the Virgin Mary and of
St. Catherine of Sienna. The virgin appear’d
again at the head of the bed with the bambino,
and had a little green silk curtain drawn before
her from the time Corradini yielded those29

matchlefs charms, those heavenly beauties, to
the view, to the touch, to the embrace of a
mortal lover, till she arose in the morning.
This was the more amusing, because there were
no curtains, either to the bed, or the windows ;
a circumstance in so temperate a climate, most
agreable to Mr. Wilkes, because every sense
was feasted in the most exquisite degree, and
the visual ray had sometimes in contemplation
the two noblest objetts of the creation, the glory
of the rising sun, and the perfeft form of naked
beauty.

Such were the raptures he enjoy’d at Bologna.
As for the more peacefull pleasures, the morning
he pass'd with Raphael, the afternoon he
attended Corradini to the promenade, or to see
the curiosities of the town. He avoided the
intercourse of the Italians, and there were none
of his countrymen there at that time. He saw
only Corradini, her mother, and brother, for a
little before his arrival the father had purposely
retir’d into the country. It was said that he had
been a hair-drefser, and that he was in all
respetts a low, despicable fellow. Mr. Wilkes
was never suffer’d to see him.

The plan, which Mr. Wilkes had form’d, was30

to take the fair Italian with him to Naples, and
to have waited there the change which he fore-
saw in the administration of his own country,
in the mean time pursuing his two favourite
amusements, the history of England from the
Revolution, and a large commentary on the
works of Mr. Churchill. He told Corradini of
his intentions. She profefs'd the most entire
attachment to him, but as she quitted the stage,
she insisted that he shou’d make her a settle-
ment of two thousand pounds, and permit her
brother, as well as her mother, to live with them.
She pretended to be the more satisfied of the
reasonablenefs of this demand, because the
public prints had inform'd her of a Henry
Walton, who by will left Mr. Wilkes five
thousand pounds. He told her, that it was the
custom of the English, after they had for some
years liv’d happily with a lady, then to make a
settlement upon her for life, but that it was not
usual after a cohabitation of only a few months,
unlefs indeed on the surrender of virgin charms,
which was not pretended to be now the case,
and that the affair of Henry Walton was the
most absolute fiftion. For the brother, he
wou’d-never suffer any man to live in the house3i

v/ith him, but as a visitor. The proposition of
the mother was afsented to, and an offer made
of any number of servants, male or female.

It was at length agreed that Corradini and
her mother shou’d come to Florence, where Mr.
Wilkes was to go three or four days before, that
her father should be told it was a tour of pleasure
to a city she had not seen, and that after-
wards they should proceed together to Naples.
In pursuance of this plan he went to Florence,
and the end of the same week she arrived with
her mother at the Locanda di Carolo, where Mr.
Wilkes lodg'd.

He had letters from Paris to Count Lorenzi,
the French Ambafsador to the then Regency of
Tuscany, who carried him eve^-night to
the most wretched of all entertainments, the
conversatione of the Italians. As he did not love
play, the gravity and reserve, as well as the
profound ignorance, of the Florentins, left him
without resource, and imprefsed on his mind so
unfavourable ideas of the talents of the Italians
in general for easy and elegant intercourse with
each other, as well as with strangers, that during
the rest of his stay on the other side of the Alps
he seldom went among them. He admir’d32

exceedingly the neatnefs and exquisite taste of
all the public works, which are truly as wonderfull
in an humble stile, as the proud beauties of
Rome itself, and Florence only yields to her in
the number and excellence of the remains of
antiquity. He staid about ten days after the
arrival of Corradini, and then with little regret
left this beautifull, elegant, inhospitable city.
The Florentins never dine or sup at each other’s
houses, except on family occasions, a wedding,
a christening, &c., nor are strangers invited but
to a formal conversatione, so that a goat of their
own Apennine wou’d be as good company as
any of them to a foreigner, and in the opinion
of a native preferable, for they sedulously keep
up the reputation of their ancestors. It must be
allow’d that they do not affeft the society of men
so much as the rest of the Italians, but their
motive shou’d be attended to, they are civilizing
and training to the use of man the wild inhabi-
tants of their mountains. Goats no more roam
wild and savage since they have been thesubjefts
of a Grand Duke, and more than one sovereign
of Tuscany might claim the praise Virgil gives
Saturn as to the inhabitants of old Latium,

Is genus indocile ac dispersum montibus altis

Composuit, legesque dedit.33

The road from Florence to Rome is very
pittoresque, and furnishes the finest landscapes
imaginable. Besides every step being on clafsic
ground, and recalling to the imagination so
many great scenes in the history of the first
people of the universe, nothing can be conceiv’d
more beautifull in every way, nor more frequently
varied. Claude Lorrain cou'd scarcely compose
a more perfect scene of elegant nature than is to
be met with in this tratt of country, hill and
vale, rocks and plains, are so happily blended,
and so well mix’d with lakes and rivers. The
city of Sienna offers one thing remarkable, a
Gothic cathedral finish’d, and perfett in all its'
parts of an execution superior to every other
extant. Even the pavement, which is now
covered with boards, is in a bold, manly stile,
and many historical subjects present a variety of
figures as big as the life, and of correft design,
as well as good exprefsion. Nothing can be
imagin’d more horrid than a considerable part
of this road. It is almost as much to be dreaded
and avoided, as the Appian way, on which a
traveller is shook almost to the dislocation of
every bone. In the more virtuous times of the
republic so noble a work gave the old blind
5	'34

consul the blefsings of his fellow citizens; in
the luxurious times of Augustus, the effeminate
Horace seems to have had his memory in
execration. The Romans are ridiculously extolled
for their high ways, which are narrow and
inconvenient. They ill suit the majesty and
beauty of their other public works. The French
alone of all nations, antient or modern, have
understood in this what becomes the dignity
of a great empire. Their roads have generally
in the middle a pavd, four times as wide as
the Appian, on each side a summer way on the
sod, and then a footpath between two rows of
high trees. No barrier, nor turnpike stops the
traveller; these public works are made and
maintained by the public.

The entrance into Rome imprefses an awe
and veneration on a stranger. This imprefsion
however soon goes off by the converse of its’
modern inhabitants. The Scipios and the Catos
at first fill the mind, but they soon yield to
Harlequin and Polichinelle. The ideas of heroic
courage, and love of our country, are continually
recurring to the mind; but they are as per-
petually vanishing at the view of a modern
Roman. A mean, crouching servility, low35

buffoonery, and an unmanly submifsion in every
the merest trifle, which are direftly discover’d in
them, soon put to flight all the favourable
prejudices their ancestry inspire. One enormous
vice has been transmitted down to them in all
its' pristine vigour. Every virtue has been lost.
The most deprav'd appetite, to which I allude,
formerly shar’d the man with the most natural
of all our pafsions. In the holy city it swallows
up all the rest. The gay Horace puts them
upon a par,

timent tibi cum inguina, num, si
Ancilla, aut vema est prsesto puer, impetus in quem
Continuo fiat, malis tentigine rumpi ?

A modern Italian takes the verna puer, and
leaves the ancilla to a stranger. Cou’d a Pro-
methean fire animate the Venus of Medicis, she
might walk in all security from Turin to Naples.
So far from a rudenefs being offered to her, she
would be treated with the most cruel negleft.
Shou’d the same thing happen to the Antinous,
the whole orbis Romanus wou’d rise in arms,
and a million of drawn weapons would dispute
the glorious prize.

No temple antient or modern, can be put in
parallel with St. Peter’s church, not only from3*>

the magnitude of the building, but likewise
the number and excellence of paintings and
sculptures. Two things seem to me above all
extraordinary. The one is that altho’ different
men of the greatest genius have been employ’d
in several ages about this stupendous work,
without any original plan being at first laid down,
yet there seems an unity of design, and every
part adapted to the rest, as well as to form a
whole. The other particular to be remark’d is,
that there is the utmost chastity of design and
execution observ’d in this temple, tho’ the richest
ever rais’d by man. Nothing is overcharg’d
with gilding, or false ornament, as every where
at Naples, but the eye finds its’ resting places,
and seeing every thing distinft, is less con-
founded with so great a variety of objefts.
There is nothing tawdiy or glaring. The whole
is plain, modest, and sublime, a taste, which
the French are yet to learn.

Mr. Wilkes had the happinefs of first seeing
Lord Abingdon at Rome, and of pafsing several
days in his company. To superior manly sense,
he joins the most easy wit, and a gaiety
of temper, which inspires chearfullnefs all
around him. He has true honour, and is37

besides the most x amiable companion in the
world. It is impossible to be with him and not
to be charm’d with the prodigality of nature in
his favour, yet he alone seems carelefsly insen-
sible of what other people admire every hour.
Mr. Wilkes found these sentiments afterwards
confirm’d at Geneva, at Lausanne, at Paris, in
every place where his lucky star gave him to see
Lord Abingdon.

The Abb6 Winckelman, secretary to the
Vatican, and superintendent of all the antiquities
of Rome, a gentleman of exquisite taste as well
as well as sound learning, favour'd Mr. Wilkes
frequently with his company, and attended him
to the wonders of Roma antica et moderna. He
saw besides the most ridiculous of all sights to
an Englishman, a horse race on a pavement,
without riders and between thousands of people
of both sexes, and all ages. At the opera, as
in the rest of Italy, he observ’d that the parts
of women were perform’d by men, Florence
always excepted.

Corradini was of most of his parties. Abb6
Winckelman had not the gaiety or gallantry of
a lively French Abb£, but he had ease and good
breeding with a sufficient knowledge of theworld. He was therefore inattentive to the little
eclipses the fair Italian made from time to time,
altho’ Mr. Wilkes soon after follow’d her into
another apartment.

Kai rayy ^pa)9 em 'xpcon ireTrcuvero,
kcu irpotTwra

Gepfiorep’ 179 77 irpode: /cat-------

Eirpa^dij ra yevisa.

Et mox corpore corpus calefiebat, ora vero calidiora
erant quam prius et—res maxima peracta est.

Theocritus Idyl. 2. v. 140.

This was the more obliging, because he must
necefsarily pafs such an interval very ill with the
mother of Corradini, who had as little conver-
sation as beauty, so that he had no other
entertainment but the luxuriant ideas of a
brilliant imagination. There is one circumstance
altogether extraordinary relative to this gentle-
man, undoubtedly the first antiquarian of our
times. He was born a subject of the tyrant of
Prufsia, and has pafs’d the greatest part of his
life under the despotism of the Roman Pontifs;
yet he has a heart glowing with the love of
liberty, and sentiments worthy the freest repub-
licks of antiquity, for, if I do not mistake, most
of the modern republicks are degenerated into
corrupt aristocraties.39

The morning of his departure from Rome
was clouded by the pafsion of Corradini against
the valet de chambre of Mr. Wilkes. There is
nothing in life so difficult as to make any kind
of servant preserve a due respeft, or almost
decency, to his master's female favourite. The
valet de chambre was a little affefted by too
often taking leave of his English acquaintance
in Rome in the English manner. In adjusting
the bagage, he tofs’d aside for a little while a
superb dejeuner, which his master had given
Corradini. She saw it from the window, and
was fir'd with indignation. He was absent, but
on his return she became frantic with rage, and
utter'd a thousand extravagancies, at which he
only smil’d. The servant had before secur'd
the dinner among the bagage very carefully, but
the offended goddefs cou’d not be appeas’d. The
violence of the storm continued all that day, and
fair weather scarcely return’d before they arriv'd
at Naples.

The country thro’ the Ecclesiastic state to the
entrance into the kingdom of Naples is not very
beautifull, altho’ there are a few very pittoresque
situations. Soon after you are struck with every
kind of beauty. It was now the beginning of40

February, yet the air was silky soft, the genial
zephyrs of May wanton’d among the orange
groves of Mola, and the whole face of the
country had the gaiety of an Italian spring.
Nature is nowhere more rich and elegant,
not even in the environs of Naples, and the
neighbourhood of the bay gives it a situation
very similar. The modern inhabitants necefsarily
remind a traveller of the antient, the savage
Laestrigons, altho’ they do not litterally choose
man for their favourite food and wou’d pofsibly
be content with only stripping a stranger, if
their cowardice wou’d permit them to .attempt it.

From Mola almost the whole way to Capua is
between groves of orange trees, or fine woods
of the ever-green oak, the cork tree, the arbutus,
the laurel, laurus-tinus, and several plants pecu-
liar to that happy climate. The ver perpetuum
and alienis mensibus cEstas, are peculiarly true of
this country. Notwithstanding the season, the
orange trees had the fruit, flower, and leaf, in
the highest perfection, and the lilly, as well as
the narcyfsus, myrtle, and iris, were frequent in
the hedges. But the glory of this country is
certainly the orange tree; miscens autumni et
veris honores. The golden fruit it bears, still4i

preserving the delicate white of the flower, and
the beautifull green of the leaf, form a variety
and contrast of colours quite singular in nature,
and an inhabitant of the north might imagine a
poetical imagination only had created for the
gardens of the Hesperides. The next beauty of
the orange is the arbutus. It flourishes no
where more, and it bears a surprising quantity
of fruit, but nature has denied the gratefull
odour of the orange, which perfumes the entire
atmosphere of the neighbourhood. There are
many little shrubs in the fields and hedges, as
well as in the woods of ever green oak and cork,
which are odoriferous. The fragrance of all
these is happily blended with the oranges, and
instead of gratifying the sense of smelling by the
bauble of a nosegay, the whole air comes to you
a rich and refreshing, not a faint perfume. All
this is indeed necefsary to comfort a traveller
under the dreadfull jolting of the Appian way,
which you must necefsarily traverse to Capua,
and the badnefs of the inns, in which you are
almost devour’d by vermin. This is the case
almost thro’ Italy, but in a superior degree
between Rome and Naples. In some other
countries hospitality is cultivated so much, that
642

there cannot be good inns. Italy is, I believe
the only country, where hospitality is dead, and
yet not a tolerable inn can be found for the
weary or sick stranger. I mean to except the
great cities, where luxury has built many superb
hotels. I speak only of all the towns and
villages between their great cities, and Radicofani,
on the confines of Tuscany, furnishes the only
exception to this. That building erefted by a
Grand Duke, has vast apartments, without the
common necefsaiy furniture.

From Capua to Naples the road is very good.
The fertility of this country has pafs’d into a
proverb. It is call’d by way of excellence terre
de labeur, and still keeps up the reputation it
had in the time of Virgil, dives arat Capua,
lie always speak of Italy with a noble enthusiasm,
as the great parent of everything good and great,
the nurse of heroes. The better half of this
praise is now lost. We may indeed hail Italy,
Salve, magna parens frugrim, Satumia tellus !
but if we add magna virfim, even the modern
inhabitants wou’d think we were turning them
into ridicule.

Naples is well built, tho' the rules of archi-
tecture are no where so grofsly violated. The43

houses are generally large, airy, and solid. The
Neapolitans seem to have an aversion to strait
lines, and every thing by this seems broken and
disjointed. They have a kind of building
peculiar to themselves, call’d needles, from the
long slender form, and the sharp point. Every
kind of false ornament is lavish’d upon them.
Nothing can have a worse effedt, yet the
expence of several of them is prodigious. The
churches are the most magnificent of all Italy,
after those of Rome. The Neapolitans are more
superstitious than the people of any other part
of Italy. At the elevation of the host they beat
their breasts in a surprizing manner, and have
ceremonies at burials peculiar to themselves.

The liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius
is a very dextrous charlatannerie, not a bungling
trick, as Addison says; and it is all he says of
it. As he is patron of the kingdom of Naples,
his festivals are kept with the greatest pomp.
This pretended miracle of the liquefaction is
performed twice a year, and those two days
are more celebrated than the name-day of the
Sovereign, or even any of the festivals of the
Virgin Mary, for whom the Italian devotion
seems a kind of gallantry, and it is the single
gallantry observ’d in the whole country.44

Mr. Wilkes had the pleasure of afsisting at
this festival on Saturday the of May. All
the nobility and the people were afsembled.
A triumphal arch was erefted, and a very large
square building, surrounded by a colonnade.
The whole was of wood, but painted like
beautiful variegated marble, and on several parts
in fresco the head of St. Januarius, and the
glafs case, which enclosed the two phials. It
was made to join the church. A very fine
concert was perform’d in the church, where the
miracle was to be exhibited, and afterwards a
sacred oratorio, compos’d by one of the first
nobles. There were three persons introduc'd,
to each of whom different parts were given.
They were God Almighty, Religion, and the
City of Naples. The first and second person-
ages chaunted very high the praises of the
faithfull City of Naples, and Naples pro-
fefs’d inviolable attachment to the other two.
After the oratorio, all the busts of other saints
from the various churches and convents were
brought in procefsion, and plac’d for two or
three minutes before the head of St. Januarius.
Many of them were of silver gilt, and adorn’d
with a variety of jewells and precious stones.45

The head of St. Januarius is of brafs, but it has
on a large mitre, entirely cover’d with diamonds,
rubies, emeralds, &c. The procefsion of the
various priests and religious orders being finish’d,
a cardinal came in great pomp, drefs’d in his
scarlet robes. Soon after a glafs case was
brought containing two christal phials, join’d
together at the neck, which in both was very
narrow. They were immediately held up to the
view of the people. Mr. Wilkes was on the
steps of the altar, very near the cardinal, and
had a distinct view of the glafs case. In the
large phial was a thick cake of reddish sub-
stance, more resembling a lump of Spanish
snuff than coagulated blood : in the smaller was
a whitish liquor. After the glafs case had been
several times held up to the people, it was
plac’d before the head of St. Januarius. The
cardinal then repeated several prayers in Latin,
and afterwards took the glafs case in his hand,
shaking it violently but only from the right to
the left. He gave it no other motion, as if the
design were to force all the liquor thro’ the
narrow neck of the smaller phial into the equally
strait neck of the larger, which may probably be
of a nature to difsolve the substance I mention’d.46

Supposing the glafs case lying on the table, the
small, phial was to the right, and the violent
agitation given to it by the Cardinal was con-
stantly from right to left. The cheat is really
very dextrous, tho’ not half so ingenious, or
deserving the name of miracle, as most of the
performances of Comus on the boulevards at
Paris. The prayers and the shaking continued
23 minutes. The last ten minutes the people
grew quite outrageous. The women shriek’d
hideously, beat their breasts, and tore their hair.
The men seem’d equally frantic, they began the
most frightfull yellings, and several were cutting
themselves with knives, when the Cardinal at last
ciy’d out, miraculo e fatto, and held up the glafs
case to the people. In an instant their shouts
seemed to rend the arch of heaven, and the
church really seem din danger. Mr. Wilkes was
one of the first to kifs on his knees the glafs
case, and he clearly saw the large phial nearly
full of a thick red liquor, and the smaller phial
quite empty. It is difficult to imagine any use
of the smaller phial, except what I have sup-
pos’d. It is allow’d not to contain any blood
of the Saint, as the larger is said to do.

There is a short form of prayer printed on47

this occasion, and distributed among the people,
in which God Almighty is supplicated to pray
St. Januarius to liquefie his own blood.

This cheat was formerly carried on solely by
the priests; now the government join with them
to dupe the people. Ever since the accefsion
of a Prince of the House of Bourbon to the
throne of Naples, there is suppos’d to be an
agreement between the Sovereign and the priests,
that the miracle shall never fail, nor be retarded
beyond the half hour, from the fear of tumults.

The pretended relique of the liquefied blood
was afterwards carried to the cathedral, where
the people flock’d in crowds to kifs it all the
following week, when it continued liquid. Mr.
Wilkes had frequent opportunities of examining
it, and of admiring the impudent fraud of the
priests, as well as the ignorance and superstitious
credulity of the populace, for the people of
fashion there ridicule the cheat in private as
much as even heretical strangers can do.

The situation of Naples is beautifull beyond
imagination, but it is a scite for a town of fifty
thousand inhabitants, not a capital of at least
four hundred thousand, who are almost stifled,
without any public walks, squares, or gardens.48

Mr. Wilkes lodg’d first at Stephano’s, a large
hotel near the sea, beyond the King’s Palace.
He continued there about six weeks, and then
hir’d a country house about a mile from Naples,
on a hill call’d Vomero, which was very large
and convenient. The most poetical fancy cou’d
scarcely form a view more truly pittoresque. In
the front to the garden was a mafseria, the town
of Naples then under your eye, next the sea, and
in the middle of the gulf the bold island of
Caprea. A mafseria is a vine-yard, an orchard,
a corn-field, and a garden ground, all together
on the same spot. The vines do not in Italy
creep on the ground, as in France, but hang in
proud festoons from tree to tree. Horace is
happy in his description of them,

Adult a vitium propagine,

Altas maritat populos.

But our Milton is still happier, for altho’ he
caught the first idea from Horace, he has
wonderfully enrich’d the image,

They led the vine
To wed her elm ; she spous’d about him twines
Her marriageable arms, and with her brings
Her dow’r, th’adopted clusters, to adorn
His barren leaves.49

I have only mention’d the view from the garden
front of the house. It was very beautifull on
every side. Mount Vesuvius at the distance of
seven miles terminated the prospect to the left.
The Solfaterra Pozzuolo, the bay of Baiae, with
its’ several islands, were to the right, and in
front beautifull mountains defended the house
from the cold winds.

The trees shade the corn and garden stuff
from the scorching sun, at the same time that
they preserve the necefsary moisture. The
house was not furnish’d, but Mr. Wilkes bought
furniture at Naples of no very great expence,
and made the inside tolerably chearfull, for no
hangings are us’d, nor carpets, from the fear of
harbouring insects, which swarm in every hott
climate. The floors are generally of stucco,
or earth bak’d, and the very beds are not allow’d
to touch the walls, that no vermin may creep up
into them. Nets too are thrown over the bed to
keep off the flies, and musquittos, that give the
appearance of two lovers being caught, like
Mars and Venus, in the nett-work of the jealous
black-smith.

So sweet a situation, and so beautiful a
woman, engrofsed the mind of a man naturally
750

too susceptible of pleasure, and tho' his faculties
were not enervated, yet his schemes of ambition
and public life were as much neglefted as his
own private concerns;

dum Galatea tenebat,

Nee spes libertatis erat, nee cura peculi.

At last the enchantment broke, and the charm
was difsolv’d. Mr. Wilkes burst the silken
chains of Corradini, when he was thought to be
the most enthrall’d. A selfish regard to interest,
and the persuasions of her family, induc’d her
to prefs for the settlement of the two thousand
pounds upon which she had formerly so much
insisted. She pretended likewise that she was
with child, the air of Naples was prejudicial to
her, and the climate of Bologna, her native
place, wou’d be more favourable. There was
besides in that town a certain Dr. Galli, who had
persuaded her, as she pretended, that he was
the only safe man mid-wife in the world. Mr.
Wilkes was apt to believe that in so great a
capital as Naples very proper afsistance might
be had in the most natural of all cases; but
every argument seem’d ineffectual, altho’ she
acquiesc’d for the present, revolving in her mind,
with true Italian artifice, the future plan of her5i

condufr. He had given leave for an Uncle to
come on a visit to her, and to continue till after
her lying in, which was expefted in about two
months. The Uncle was now at Naples, living
under Mr. Wilkes’s roof, and making a part of
his family.

The plan of Corradini was settled with the
Mother and Uncle. While Mr. Wilkes was
absent on a little tour to the island of Ischia, on
a visit to a sick friend of infinite merit, to Major
Ridley, Corradini left his house with the Mother
and Uncle. She went dire&ly to Bologna, and
took with her a pair of silver candlesticks, salts,
spoons, &c., leaving a letter on his table, and
intending to force him to follow her to Bologna.
She knew the power she had over him, and
vainly hop’d to oblige him to submit to her
terms. She had reflected likewise that if he
quitted Italy, he wou’d probably pafs by
Bologna, and that instinft, and the memory of
past joys, wou’d force his lingering and un-
willing steps to her well-known threshold. In
this expectation she was however totally disap-
pointed.

In the very first evening of his absence a
friend sent a servant to advertise Mr. Wilkes of52

the intended flight, that the fair Italian was
packing up all her things, and stealing his, that
her departure wou’d be immediate, unlefs pre-
vented. Mr. Wilkes answer’d that Corradini
had always been perfectly free, he never form’d
a wish to restrain her, that she was incapable of
stealing anything but hearts, and that he wish’d
her a good journey. This answer prevented all
proceedings against her, which a friend of Mr.
Wilkes in the regency of Naples was beginning.
She continued her journey Without any kind of
opposition.

A few days after his return to Vomero, he
wrote her an answer in the mildest, and most
obliging terms, neither complaining of the
treachery, nor upbraiding her with the meannefs
of the manner of leaving him, and he sent her
^200, half for herself, the other half for the
child, to be laid out in some public security, and
in case of death the whole to revert to the
mother. She soon replied to this letter, and an
accommodation seem'd likely to take place, and
that she wou'd return to Naples. Mr. Wilkes
found that the pafsion of love had suffer’d
greatly, but a much deeper wound was given to
his pride. He shou’d at that time have been53

pleas’d at a public sacrifice to it by the return of
his fair fugitive. All these ideas however soon
vanish’d, and gave place to motives of a general,
and national concern. A change in the Ministry
of his coutry had at length been effected. The
enemies of liberty and Mr. Wilkes were no
longer suffer’d to abuse the powers of govern-
ment, and a whig administration, at the head of
which was the Marquis of Rockingham, suc-
ceeded, with the general good will of the people.
The friends of Mr. Wilkes wrote to him in the
most prefsing manner, that he wou’d now draw
nearer to the great scene of a&ion, and prove
that he had not deserted, nor despair’d of, his
country, nor preferr’d the luxuries of Italy to
his duty, and that he might now expeft more
than an indemnity for all his sufferings, a
reward for his services, and to pafs the rest of
his life in an honourable manner at home
among his friends. Nothing cou’d so much
sooth an uneasy mind, nor fill it with so many
gay ideas as this flattering prospeft. How
deceitfull it prov’d, we shall see hereafter.

In consequence of this advice, Mr. Wilkes
determin’d to leave Italy, and as the wound
Corradini had given him was not yet heal’d but54

he seem’d still magno animum labe/actus amove,
he determin’d not to venture near Bologna, lest
the dear enchantrefs shou’d again draw him
within her powerfull circle, and melt down all
his manhood to the god of love, while his soul
seem’d wholly bent to sacrifice to honour, fame,
and ambition. These stern deities had now
again full pofsefsion of him, and he was so
entirely their votary, that he determin’d im-
mediately to quit the otiosa Neapolis. An
opportunity soon presented, altho’ in a manner
extremely disagreable to him. A wretched
French Tartan, loaded with laths, was to sail
from Naples to Marseille. There was scarcely
room left in this small vefsel for a single
pafsenger, and no cabbin, but two large holes
for beds. All these inconveniences however, and
his hatred of the sea, he was amply made
amends for, by having the company of Major
Ridley. No society cou’d be more agreable to
him. The Major had from nature true
sterling sense, which was cultivated and polish’d
by the commerce of the world, which he had
seen as a gentleman, as a soldier, and as a
traveller. His heart had felt the power of love,
and the finest of our feelings had formerly en-55

grofs’d his whole soul. He was now in the
middle age of life, when the pafsions become
more governable, and a happier composition of
honour, courage, sense and manly tendemefs,
cou'd no where be found. With this gentleman
Mr. Wilkes left Italy, where his eye had en-
joy’d the most luxurious feast of every kind, but
the ear had only the harmony of a concert or opera
for its’ sole gratification. Something has been
already said of the low state of the conversations
among the Italians, and another singular obser-
vation ought not to be forgot. The ear is
scarcely any where charm’d with the melody of
birds, nor did he once hear the nightingale or
lark

Avia non resonant avibus virgulta canoris.

Virg. Georg. 1. 2.

So particular a circumstance struck him very
much, especially in the fine climate of Naples.
He enquir’d the reason, and was told that all
the small birds were destroy’d from the great
mischief they were known to do the vines. The
want of these sweet songsters makes even the
orange groves seem dull and unanimated, and
deprives an humane mind of the charming
sensation of seeing many other beings enjoying56

so much pleasure themselves, while they are
contributing to the enjoyment of man. But tho’
the air is not peopled with the feather’d race at
Naples, it is crowded in the spring with the
luminous bodies of myriads of small flies, who
dart from leaf to leaf in a singular manner, and
almost cover the trees during the night. The
appearance is very singular, and a beautifull
mafserie lighted up by these winged aerial inse&s,
who are perpetually darting from place to place,
seems a kind of fairy enchantment, which sur-
prises, pleases, and amuses, no lefs from the
beauty than the novelty and oddity of the
spe&acle.

Mr. Wilkes left Naples the 27th of June,
1765. His sole entertainment during the whole
voyage was the conversation of Major Ridley,
and the natural humour of the French captain.
In the first he found a rich and inexhaustible
mine of treasure, in the second a fund of
drollery, which gave an amusing turn to the
dull common events of a sea voyage, in
which nothing remarkable occurr’d, except a
water-spout, which continued four hours, and
occasion’d the most surprizing agitation both in
the air and the sea. It seem’d to him exaftly57

analogous to a whirl-wind on land, but more
terrible from the nature of the element, lefs
capable of resistance, on which its’ fury is
exercis’d.

After a pafsage of ten days Mr. Wilkes
arriv’d at Toulon, not being able to make the
port of Marseille. He went there from Toulon
by land thro’ a very wild and savage country,
and continued in that city for several days with
his amiable companion, Major Ridley. The
idea of Corradini still pursued him, and he
found frOm time to time the veteris vestigia
flamma. The ten days at sea were a relief to
him, for he was permitted to open to his
generous friend and to trust to the bosom of a
man of honour, all the frailties and weaknefses
of his nature, too susceptible of the soft im-
prefsions of love, too deeply likewise piercing a
tender heart. The pleasures of Marseille now
began to operate on the gaiety of his temper,
and a life of difsipation succeeded a too close
attention to one objeft. The women there are
more beautiful than in any other part of France,
and are not to be reproach’d with cruelty. He
was introduc’d to the governor of the Province,
the Duke de Villars, a nobleman who bore one
85«

of the most respectable names and titles in
France, with the worst character. He openly
indulg’d in the most unnatural of all crimes, and
was a low sharper, but liv’d with splendour and
hospitality. His hotel became of consequence
the resort of all the people of fashion of both
sexes in the City of Marseille and the whole of
Provence. He only ask’d Mr. Wilkes if he- was
acquainted with the Earl of Tilney. Mr. Wilkes
was provok’d to be ask’d in a foreign country
no question but about a person who was a dis-
grace to his own country, and tho' he had seen
the Earl several times, answer’d the governor,
Monseigneur, je n ai point ce deshonmeur-la.

The environs of Marseille are exceedingly
beautiful!, and rich in all kinds of trees and
shrubs, which delight in a warm air, and mild
climate. The south of France is in general
very dreary, except near some considerable
towns; very many barren heaths, and the face
of the country embrown’d with the dark olive,
no chearfull green refreshing the eye any where.

Mr. Wilkes travell’d with the Major from
Marseille to Grenoble, from whence he return’d
direCtly to England. Mr. Wilkes made an ex-
cursion from Grenoble to the Grande Chartreuse,59

the most wild and romantic of all mountainous
scenes. The horror of the woods, and the
stupendous height of the craggy hills, which
surround it, give a serious and solemn im-
prefsion to a mind even the most naturally gay.
The hospitality of the good fathers is very great,
but what much more surprizes in such a retreat
is the great politenefs and ease of their behaviour.
They are not allow’d to speak but on particular
occasions, and by the permifsion of the supe-
riour. The Pere Coadjuteur has an exemption
from this rule, because he is to do the honours
to strangers, and a private monk asks the per-
mifsion, when any of his particular friends
arrive, which is done by letter. The monks
were generally of the most noble families in
France and Germany. The number of buildings
belonging to this convent is prodigious, and all
kinds of mechanics are on the spot in separate
houses and sheds, carpenters, joyners, smiths,
masons, &c.

From Grenoble Mr. Wilkes pafs’d thro’
Savoye to Geneva. He had seen Chambery,,
the capital, before in his way to Turin, and there
is nothing remarkable in that town, but the
situation of Annecy, ^vhich is very pleasing on6o

the banks of a fine lake. Geneva however is
superior to it in all respe&s, both from the
greatnefs of the lake, and the beauty of its’
environs. The soil too is extremely fruitfull,
and the air very temperate, altho’ so near the
Alps. The Glaciers dazzle the sight, when the
sun gives its’ direft beams on them. With
every pofsible advantage from nature Geneva is
the most melancholy and disagreable city in
the world. The plodding severe genius of the
inhabitants, and the narrownefs of their ideas,
which are all commercial, make it quite dis-
gusting to any liberal stranger. The tomb of
John Calvin is in a church yard without the
walls. There is neither stone nor marble,
neither epitaph, nor inscription. On the bare
sod grow nettles, briars, and thistles. There is
no trace of a cowslip, violet, or prim-rose.

Pro molli viola, pro purpureo narcisso,

Carduus, et spinis surgit paliurus acutis.

Virgil.

But what adorns the neighbourhood of Geneva
beyond the rest of the world is that it pofsefses
a divine old man, born for the advancement of
true philosophy and the public arts, I mean
Voltaire, who has done more to free mankind6i

from the gloomy terrors of superstition and to
persuade the praftise of humanity and benevo-
lence, then all the philosophers of antiquity.
He pofsefses a fund of gaiety and humour,
which wou’d be remark’d in a young man, and
he joins to it such immense stores of litterature
as age only can acquire. In his happy society
Mr. Wilkes pafs’d some weeks, and the laugh
of Voltaire banish’d all the serious ideas the
Englishman nourish’d of love and the fair
Italian. He had written twice to Corradini on
his journey and found very warm and prefsing
letters from her at Geneva. The only answer
however he made was the beautiful verses on
love from Nanine, which finish’d that corres-
pondence on his part, for he did not reply to
any of her letters after this.

AMOUR.

L’Amour a deux carquois :
o L’un est rempli de ces traits tout de flame,

25 Dont la douceur porte la paix dans l’ame,

< Qui rend plus purs nos gouts, nos sentimens,

^ Nos soins plus vifs, nos plaisirs plus touchans ;

£ L’autre n’est plein que de fleches cruelles,

K Qui, repandant les soupfons, les querelles,

^ Rebutent l’ame, y portent la tigdeur,
h Font succeder les degouts a l’ardeur;

Voila les traits, que vous prenez vous meme
Contre nous deux ; et vous voulez qu’on aime ?6 2

He made several excursions from Geneva to
Lausanne, and other places on the lake, which
afford the most rich and pleasing views. The
lake has on one side the groves of Savoy, on
the other the vineyards of the Pays de Vaux.
Softnefs and grace are join’d with majesty and
a degree of horror in the view, for the Alps are
generally a part of the prospeft.

[The remaining 140 ff. of the second volume are blank.
—Ed.]APPENDIX.

i.

Extract from the “North Briton, No. 45/’

44 Genus' orationis atrox, et vehemens, cui opponitur
lenitatis et mansuetudinis.

Cicero.

x The King’s Speech has always been con-
sidered by the legislature, and by the public
at large, as the speech of the Minister. It has
regularly, at the beginning of eveiy sefsion of
parliament, been referred by both houses to
the consideration of a committee, and has
been generally canvafsed with the utmost
freedom, when the minister of the crown has
been obnoxious to the nation. The ministers
of this free country, conscious of the undoubted
privileges of so spirited a people, and with the
terrors of parliament before their eyes, have
ever been cautious, no lefs with regard to the
matter, than to the exprefsions of speeches-,which they have advised the sovereign to
make from the throne at the opening of each
sefsion. They well knew that an honest
house of parliament, true to their trust, could
not fail to deteft the fallacious arts, or to remon-
strate against the daring atts of violence,
committed by any minister. The speech at
the close of the sefsion has ever been consi-
dered as the most secure method, of promul-
gating the favourite court creed among the
vulgar; because the parliament, which is the
constitutional guardian of the liberties of the
people, has in this case no opportunity of
remonstrating, or of impeaching any wicked
servant of the crown.

This week has given to the public the most
abandoned instance of ministerial effrontery
ever attempted to be imposed on mankind.
The minister's speech of last Tuesday is not
to be paralleled in the annals of this country.
I am in doubt, whether the imposition is greater
on the sovereign or on the nation. Every
friend of his country must lament that a prince
of so many great and amiable qualities, whom
England truly reveres, can be brought to give
the sanftion of his sacred name to the most
odious measures, and to the most unjustifiablepublic declarations, from a throne ever re-
nowned for truth, honour, and unsullied
virtue, x I am sure, all foreigners, especially
the King of Prufsia, will hold the ministers in
contempt and abhorrence. He has made our
sovereign declare, My expectations have been
fully answered by the happy effeCls which the
several allies of my crown have derived from
this salutary measure of the Definitive Treaty.
The powers at war with my good brother the
King of Prufsia, have been induced to agree to
such terms of accommodation, as that great
prince has approved; and the succefs which
has attended my negociation has necefsarily
and immediately diffused the blefsings of peace
through every phrt of Europe. The infamous
fallacy of this whole sentence is apparent to
all mankind : for it is known that the King of
Prufsia did not barely approve but absolutely
dictated, as conqueror every article of the
terms of peace.”

Note.—The passages included by the two marks X X were the
onlv passages to which any objection was made in the information
tiled in the King’s Bench by the Attorney-General, against the
publisher, Mr. George Kearsly.

9Two Extracts from “ Junius ” relating to
Wilkes.

letter 50.

“ The only letter I ever addrefsed to the
king was so unkindly received that I believe
I shall never presume to trouble his Majesty
in that way again. But my zeal for his ser-
vice is superior to negleft, and like Mr. Wilkes’s
patriotism thrives by persecution.”

letter 52.

[ Written upon Horne's accusing
Wilkes of taking bribes.]

“ To the Rev. Mr. Horne.

The mode of your attack upon Wilkes
(though I am far from thinking meanly of your
abilities) convinces me that you either want
judgment extremely, or that you are blinded by
your resentment. You ought to have foreseen
that the charges you urged against Wilkes could
never do him any mischief. After all, when we
expetted discoveries highly interesting to the
community, what a pitiful detail did it all endin !—some old clothes,—a Welch pony—a
French footman—and a hamper of claret. In-
deed, Mr. Horne, the public should and will
forgive him his claret and his footman, and even
the ambition of making his brother chamberlain
of London, as long as he stands forth against a
ministry and parliament who are doing every
thing they can to enslave the country, and as
long as he is a thorn in the King’s side. You
will not suspeft me of setting up Wilkes for a
perfeft charafter. The question to the purpose
is, where shall we find a man who, with purer
principles, will go the lengths, and run the
hazards, that he has done ? The reason calls
for such a man, and he ought to be supported.
What would have been the triumph of that
odious hypocrite and his minions if Wilkes had
been defeated! it was not your fault, reverend
sir, that he did not enjoy it completely. But
now I promise you, you have so little power to do
mischief, that I much question whether the
ministry will adhere to the promise they have
made. It will be in vain to say that I am a
partizan of Mr. Wilkes or personally your
enemy, you will convince no man for you do
not believe it yourself.”MS. poem, in the British Museum, addressed
to Wilkes during his stay in Parts.

1 Dans votre fibre Republique
Ou chaque citoyen vit a l’abri des loix,

Vous avez eprouvb le pouvoir tyrannique
Et des favoris et des rois.

Peu touchb de votre heroisme,

A servir la patrie, a defendre ses droits,

Un ministre hautain fait taire votre voix
Et vous punit de l’ostracisme.

De l’univers tel est le sort:

L’injustice partout opprime Tinnocence.

Le faible mortel sans defence
Est la victime du plus fort.

Sur ce globe couvert de crimes et de devices,
On trouve cet usage btabli dbs longtemps ;
Consultez les fastes des temps
La premiere des injustices
Date de nos premiers parents.

A Monsieur,

Monsieur Wilkes.”Demand note and receipts for taxes, which
Wilkes incurred whilst at Paris, pre-
served in the British Museum.

C1) Capitation.	Quartier de Louvre.

Annee 1764.

Extrait du Role de la Capitation
de la Ville de Paris arrete par
Messieurs les Prevot des Mar-
chands et Echevins.

Rue St. Nicaise,	12 Dne No. 37.

Maison a MUe De Rollinde.

M. Wikt anglois..........90

MUe sa fille ............45

Une fem. De chbre........ 4	,, 10 ,, o

2 laquais ............... 3	,,

Pour les quatre sols pour^) 142 — 10
livreordonn^s paries Arrets
du conseil des 18 D£cem-
bre 1747 & 27 Septembre .

1757, au lieu des deux f 28 — 10
sols pour livre qui se per-
cevoient en consequence
des precedens Arrets ...^

Total 171(2)	Je soufsigne, Receveur prepos6 par Mefsieurs
le Prev6t des Marchands & Echevins de la
ville de Paris, au recouvrement de la Capitation
ordonn^e etre pay6e par les Bourgeois &
Habitans de ladite Ville, en execution des
Declarations du Roi des 12 Mars 1701,
9 Juillet 1715, & Arrets du Conseil rendus
en consequence: Confefse avoir reCu de
M. Wik

Cent soxte onze Livres

pour sa Capitation celle de MUe sa fille, et
domestiques, de l’annee mil soixante quatre.

Morebrun.

(3)	Je soufsigne, Commifsaire au Grand
Bureau des Pauvres, confefse avoir re$u de
M. J. Vik demeurant en la Paroifse de
Sl Germain l’auxerois la somme de cinquante
deux sols pour son aumdne et cottisation pour
lesdits Pauvres, pour l’annee mil sept cent
soixante quatre de laquelle somme je le
quitte.

Fait a Paris le 17 jour d’Aoust mil sept
cent soixante quatre.

Boursier.*

Note.—The initials of the clerk are indecipherable.p. 38. 1. 8, “ fjivnut ” should read “ /xtyir*.nERRATA.

p. vii., 1. 20, “of” should read “of.”

p. viii., 1. 8, “pasfages” should read “pafsages.”

p. xxiv. 11. 3, 4, “ sarcasm of of Voltaire” should read
“ sarcasm of Voltaire.”FINIS.

Printed by II'. J. Overhead, High Street, Harrovj.d

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1888