lli S. 111. AUG., 1917.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
403
on
The Life of John Wilkes. By Horace Bleackley
(John Lane,'16s. net.)
- BAKE, agitator, saver of good things, liberator
f and scholar, John Wilkes is as picturesque anc ! effective a figure as any of his time. Most of the politicians whom he fought or befriended are I forgotten ; his na J\e and fame have survived, anc deserve the excellent chronicler they have at lasl secured. Mr. Bleackley's ' Life ' has been eagerly i expected for some time, and should be a delighl to all competent students and lovers of the !. eighteenth century. The pages of ' N. & Q." f. have shown his untiring research in the period i and now he gives us in apt and easy prose the 1 results of his long and careful inquiries. He has
- ransacked that large and important body oi
I information in the British Museum known briefly as " Add. MSS." ; he has examined a large dossier of records in the Guildhall Library which had ! previously not been used ; and he has had the I patience to go through the annual file of a journal t from 1760 to the death of Wilkes, as well as all the I principal magazines of the day. Wilkes provided I excellent " copy " for the press, and to this | source we doubtless owe many of the little touches | which brighten the biography, and make us think I that Mr. Bleackley knows more about Wilkes than t many a man knows of admired contemporaries f of to-day.
He who abuses Wilkes for being a rake can | accuse many higher-placed contemporaries of I less conscience. ' The Papers of a Critic,' by the I Dilke who made The Athenceum, remarks that " the character of Wilkes which passes current in our literature is the mere daubing of faction on an I outline sketch by hireling pens." Mr. Bleackley [knows this well, and shows that his hero's claims for historical remembrance are authentic, and not [to be lightly put aside. Wilkes did away with | imprisonment without trial, he vindicated the ! tight of the people to select their own Parliamen- tary representatives, and he was a protagonist in the cause of the freedom of the press. No other I agitator that we remember has done so much (for the English people in the way of practical I reform, and these merits certainly outweigh his [political sins. He encouraged the Americans to ! revolt, and it is possible that, much as he loathed Marat in the years of the French Revolution, he i may have implanted in that rascal, when he was .mysteriously resident in England, the seeds of .murder and rapine. " The last mob that he ever [saw, though composed entirely of his fellow- i imperialists, was the first to do him an injury." His beautiful windows were broken, but he refused to prosecute the rioters. " They are only," he said with a smile, "some of my old pupils, now set up for themselves." It was this easy and admirable humour, perhaps, which partly spoiled his career, though it made him a aelightful companion whose ugly face was soon talked down by his wit. There were in the eighteenth century wits who were that and ' nothing else, aristocratic amateurs of thebonmot. On the whole, they are disappointing, though they might cut a good figure to-day. Wilkes, being much else, let off his good things with the naturalness of Sir Andrew Aguecheek. As a
controversialist he was always formidable and
generally effective. He was outshone by Junius,
but he had much more solid matter behind him
than that shadowy ironist. The correspondence
between the two is creditable to both. They
understood each other's merits pretty clearly ;
they were both singularly adroit ; but to take
Wilkes for Junius, as the public did with some
persistence, is to ignore differences in style and
character, as Mr. Bleackley points out. Wilkes
was capable of moral turpitude, of belonging to
the Medmenham Monks, and of the ' Essay on
Woman.' Mr. Bleackley's remarks on that
outrageous performance are an instance of his
careful judgment. We think his conclusion that
Wilkes and Potter collaborated quite the most
reasonable, and he adds .to his foot-notes references
to the information supplied in our columns from
the days of Dilke to Mr. Eric Watson's admirable
work in the Eleventh Series. The way in which
statesmen who had a sneaking enjoyment of such
literature turned against Wilkes when he was
attacked in Parliament about it is not creditable
to them. Moreover, he was encouraged by such
treatment to exaggerate his attitude of insensi-
bility. Against much that is degrading, if
amusing, we can at least balance his sincere
affection for his daughter, of which Mr. Bleackley
gives us a very pleasing picture. It is remarkable
that, coming of a tempestuous family, Wilkes kept
his temper so well. He had, however, good
health, and he loved in his cool way to be mis-
chievous. Mr. Bleackley should satisfy at once
the general reader and the expert, for he has found
room in his text for a capital selection of Wilkes's
good things, without interfering with the claims
of history. The illustrations are a real addition
to the book, and do not make Wilkes so ugly as
might have been expected. Or shall we say that
to-day distinguished ugliness is almost a kind of
beauty, though there is no Hogarth to immortalize
it ? The book-plate with the motto " Arcui meo
non confido " is not the least of Wilkes's humorous
achievements, for he certainly believed in his
own long bow, and could draw it. His religion
seems as indifferent as his verse, and equally
occasional. But at least in the conduct of
political life he was superior to many of the
idmired and over-pensioned creatures of his day.
The worst has been so frequently said of him that
it was time for Mr. Bleackley to establish a fairer
estimate. Apart from his achievements, we like
- he rogue, and, since Dr. Johnson did the same,
\ye see no reason to apologize for it. In political ife men of his stamp are decidedly useful, but low few of them have been favoured by Providence with a strong sense of humour ! That faculty was often in Wilkes's way, and the real paradox of his ife is his distinction both as wit and reformer. We can think of no person of the present day sufficiently distinguished in both ways to earn a chronicler like Mr. Bleackley.
'alend-ar of the Liberate Rolls preserved in the Public. Record Office. Henry III.: Vol. I. A.D. 1226-1240. (Stationery Office, 15s.) THE series of Liberate Bolls of the Chancery, we are told in the Preface, extends from the second ear of John to the fourteenth of Henry VI. The irst four Bolls, however, belong rightly to the se' Bolls ; and that under the title ' Liberate ' vhich belongs to the eleventh year of Henry III. s properly the first of the series.
