prising, ever possessing uniform principles, without deviation and without ambiguity.

A man, says Plutarch, to be completely great, must be born in some famous city. London boasts the birth of Mr. Wilkes. His mother, it is reported, was delivered without pain or labour; and a spectre appeared to the nurse, which foretold that the child she then suckled should prove the ornament and support of the British empire; circumstances which, to many, would have appeared trifling and enthusiastic, had not his future conduct evinced the truth of the prediction.

Of his family nothing is reported but in extremes; for whilst some would have him to be the son of a distiller, and bred up to the cask, others trace him up to a most illustrious origin : but when some of his friends judged that he should change his name before he engaged in state affairs, he prettily enough replied, that he would make the name of Wilkes more glorious than that of a Catiline or a Cade; and when, having served the high and important office of Sheriff of London, and the citizens were desirous of making an oblation of silver plate to him, so far from renouncing his origin, that he desired his figure, with a dagger in his hand to destroy a monarch, should be engraved on the side of a large drinking cup.

Now he being, as Plato says a scholar ought to

be, disposed to all manner of learning, and neglectful of no arts, cultivated, besides his other studies, an early taste for poetry, and with such wonderful success that, in one production * at least, in point of sentiment, he is supposed to have equalled, if not excelled, both a Rochester and an Aristotle. In progress of time he applied himself to more important studies, and became not only a most excellent orator, but likewise took in subscriptions for publishing § the history of his

* In this poem, entitled the " Essay on Woman," it has been thought that the author of the "Divine Legation" has been spoken of too freely; but M. Voltaire, who is certainly as good a Christian as Mr. Wilkes, has lately treated the Bishop in much the same manner.

†The author here means only to refer to a poem commonly imputed to Aristotle, which, from its superiority, is entitled his master-piece.

And yet some one was base enough to apply the following character to him;

Thersites only clamour'd in the throng,
Loquacious, loud, and turbulent of tongue :
Aw'd by no shame, by no respect controul'd,
In scandal busy, in reproaches bold:
But chief he gloried with licentious style,
To lash the great, and monarchs to revile.
His figure such as might his soul proclaim;
One eye was blinking-

Spleen to mankind his envious heart possest,

For much he hated all, but most the best.
POPE'S ILIAD.

The Introduction is published.

own country; an amazing work this, when one considers all his other occupations; that he was at that time under innumerable difficulties, nay, was absolutely engaged to furnish out thirty-two paragraphs a day in each newspaper, besides letters, advertisements, epigrams, and intelligence extraordinary.

But the never-to-be-forgotten work was the "North-Briton," or rather the No. 45,* of that celebrated paper, written by the late Reverend Mr. Churchill, and containing many spirited attacks against Government, which, not being well received, a process was preferred against the author. Mr. Wilkes being never likely to have a more fair or honourable introduction to glory, generously declared the paper to be his own; defied all Government, and has been admired and rewarded for it. In short, in all his writings, whether he arraigned the opinions of others, or established any doctrines of his own, there were always found both the harmony of order, and the decency of religion. His reasons were solid and convincing; his inductions pleasing and agreeable; he was master of every subject of which he treated, and treated none but what were amply for the benefit of mankind.

* All numbers that have proved fortunate to this country from that time, have always terminated in forty-five; and it is very remarkable, that the number nine, which consists of a four and a five, should emphatically be styled the curse of Scotland.

But fearing some creditors, and having suffered in a duel, he travelled into France with many other great men, for the recovery of his health and fortune. There he lived in ease and affluence, supplied with money from the disinterested in England, as well as with large sums arising from the sale of jewels, and other articles, which his skill and address procured him abroad. His body daily gaining strength, he was soon most earnestly solicited to return to England, where he again furbished up his rhetoric, and re-excited all his political faculties. For some time he wished to have retired to his estate at Aylesbury, but thinking it wrong to give the trouble of long journeys to those who made suit to him, he gave up his estate there to be divided amongst his friends, and then resided altogether in town, for the convenience of public business; and indeed there were not fewer attending at his door, than formerly on Croesus for his wealth, or Pompey for his power.

Being now full of expectation, and solely bent on the welfare of the public, he consulted an oracle how he should soonest arrive at the summit of all political glory. The Pythian replied, that he must renounce his constituents at Aylesbury, and make the opinion of the Londoners

* Mr. Wilkes at that time had not the pleasure of Mr. Bull's acquaintance,

the rule and guide of his life. The decrees of fate are irresistible. Indeed he would have submitted to have represented the City of London; but his friends most prudently prevented him, and compelled him to blaze out at once as the Member for Middlesex, amidst the united acclamations of a grateful kingdom. * From this happy event every Englishman might justly have expected to have dated the era of his felicity. A legislator representing (what is called) the first county, burning with a religious zeal to execute his important charge, and fully qualified to regulate with an eye of intuition every the minutest deviation from the just equilibrium of Church and State; but such, alas! is the fate of all human things, that the people were no sooner put in possession of their greatest blessing, than they were deprived of it. The Parliament spoke sparingly of his merits, and, as he had been imprisoned for treason and blasphemy, were willing to vindicate one bad action by committing another. They asserted, that as "no felon was eligible into any important office, a man so like a felon that he could not be distinguished, ought certainly to be expelled:" but let me remind

* Twelve men, from a spirit of patriotism, drew Mr. Wilkes through the City; and, as appeared from one of his agents' books, agreed only for the small sum of twelve pound twelve, as a gratuity for their services !