The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-09

vented him from uelenulnB hmBen
in the face. Of Parliament, the Government
party which body suspected that he was de-
iuding them, Wilkes declined to receive the
physician sent officially to visit him, but re-
quested the attendance of the Kings physi-
clan and the Sergeant-surgeon on the ground
that IL he was to be watched, q couple of
Scotchmen were the most proper fellows
to act as spies. This is rude wit, but all
Scotchmen were not irreconcilably Of
Tended by it. It was nothing that Dr.
johnson should say of him Jack
is q gentleman and a scholar, but it was
much that Lord Mansfield, Scotchman who
had (as it was said drunk the Chevalier's
health on his knees, should testify that
Wilkes was ''the pleasantest companion, the
politest gentleman, and the ablest scholar he
ever knew" After this evidence from an
enemy, the tattle of Mrs. Boscawen and the
fine gentleman's malice of Walpole signify
little. The lady affected-when Wilkes
was made Chamberlain of London-to fear
for the orphans whose funds would pass
through his hands. Walpole described one
of the pictures at the Exhibition of 1879,
containing portraits of Miss Wilkes and
her father-two beings who loved each
other above everything else on earth,
as Wilkes looking squirting ten
derly at his daughter" He further
called the group caricature of the
Devil acknowledging Miss Sin, in Milton"
In face of these witnesses, it need only be
said that Wilkes died in straitened circum-
stances. No farthing of public or official
money was ever unlawfully touched by him.
If he had been careful of his own, he would,
no doubt, have been more deserving of the
abiding love of his only child; but she in
herited the fruit of his better action. "When
the great proconsul, says Mr.. Rogers, allud-
ing to Warren Hastings, 'was under impeach-
ment, Wilkes faithfully supported him; and
Hastings was not forgetful of benefits, least
of all of benefits conferred at that crisis"
Nor was his wife. Mrs. Hastings offered
Miss Wilkes home at Daylesford; and the
offer could be accepted without humiliation.
The whole story of the mutual love between
Wilkes and his child will remind the reader
of the affection which existed between After
bury and his daughter.
In reading Wilkes letters to his daughter
it is as necessary to remember the manners
and outspokenness of the times as it is, when
Judging of him in other respects, to Judge
from contemporary point of view. Undoubt-
edly subjects are mentioned in that CORE
spondence which no father would now bring
to the notice of child; but. this objection
apart, the letters display the wit, the scholar,
the thinker, and the experienced politician
Here is one remark about which there can
not be two opinions: Amongst the regular
and the thinking the superiority of parts
is neither felt on the one side nor acknow-
lodged on the other in the same extreme
that it is among the dissolute. This is
undeniable; and it reminds US of the with
ering contempt with which Wilkes spoke
of his companions at Medmenham Abbey,
with the exception of Eastwood, in whom he
recognized q certain imaginative power. He
made as full recognition of the conscience
within, and of the necessity of its being
needed. "Any strong presentiment is found
ed, whence arisen l know not, but always
attended to, as Socrates did to the whispers
of his good genius. With all these ideas, I
am certainly the least superstitious of men;
but never did neglect any such inward warn
ings of futurity." 1t is well known that in
what are called the Riots of London Wilkes
acted SO firmly and promptly as a magistrate
that he received the thanks of the Privy
Council. The retired ''demagogue" wrote
to his aughter:-''The raging of the
seas puts me as well as the Psalm
ist in mind of the madness of the multi
tude." Later, when the Wings proposed
that the Prince of Wales should be Regent,
with kingly power, as his inherent right, but
failed, the Irish Parliament hastened to adopt
the proposal and to place Ireland, at least,
under the rule of an irresponsible Regent.
Irish legislature in this wise:-"The Irish
Parliament justify Swifts remarks that they
are to an English Parliament what monkey
is to a man-but now they have the mischie-
vous qualities of the monkey without his imi-
tative qualities" To return to an illustration
of his love for his daughter: here is pretty
idea prettily expressed:-'T cut off all the
rose-buds of the trees in our little garden
(Which is a secret) to make them blow at the
end of the season, when hope to enjoy your
company there after our trees"
We conclude with observing that the popu-
lar gratitude towards Wilkes has not died
out, at least in one particular sense. There
was a time when publicans suspended his
attract customers. E'The fellow" said an
everywhere but where he should be swing
ing" Those signs of the popular regard have
not entirely disappeared. Wilkes Head
squints invitation to the thirsty over q
Staffordshire public house at Leak-with.
Lowe. Another does the same Office in
Bridges street, st. Ives. Not very long
ago, Wilkes figured as one of ''The Three
Johns"-a tavern sign in Westminster,
Bloomsbury, and Pentonville. The
personages were John Wilkes, John Horne
Tooke, and Sir John Glyn, Serjeant-at-Law-
the last of whom enjoyed his little day as
Wilkes counsel, and his nominee for Middle
sex when Wilkes himself was in prison. The
prisoner triumphed when the House erased
from their journals the censures they haG
flung at him; and he must have thoroughly
enjoyed the opportunity of which he once
availed himself of assuring the King, whom
he had SO often exasperated, that he wilkes
was less of Wilkite than any other Of tina
rartv throuohout the KINGDOM