Page:A biographical dictionary of modern rationalists.djvu/483

 WILKES

WILLIAMS

close friendship with the great French Rationalists. He was admitted to the Eoyal Society in 1749, but for some years he made a strange preparation for his strenuous political career by distinguishing himself among the gay idlers of London. Ho was enrolled in the notorious fraternity of Medmenham Abbey. In 1754 he became High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, and in 1757 Member of Parliament for Aylesbury. Wilkes soon took up an attitude of opposi tion, and demanded Parliamentary reform ; and in 1762 he founded the North Briton, and poured fierce criticism on the Govern ment. He was sent to the Tower, but escaped by pleading his parliamentary privilege. In the same year, 1763, he wrote an Essay on Woman, which was burned by the hangman, as much for its free treatment of religion as its indelicacy. Wilkes fled to Paris, where d Holbach and Diderot warmly welcomed him, and was outlawed. In 1768 he was elected M.P. for Middlesex, and he surrendered and got a year and ten months in prison. Ho was expelled from the House of Commons, but Middlesex repeatedly returned him, and, after an unparalleled fight, he won his right to sit. He was the idol of London, as the obelisk in Ludgate Circus still testifies. His personal conduct was no better than his age, and some of his writings could not be reprinted to-day; but he holds so important a place in the history of reform that he is now often claimed to have been a good Christian. Iis latest biographer, Mr. Horace Bleackley, says that there is &quot; no conclusive testimony &quot; that he was an Agnostic, and finds some of his public language &quot;deeply religious&quot; (Life of John Wilkes, 1907). He acknowledges that Wilkes was openly and consistently described at the time as irreligious, that he had no clergyman when he was dying, and that on one occasion he said that religion &quot;^ would be as ridiculous in his mouth as &quot; liberty &quot; in the mouth of Dr. Johnson. He was at least a Deist, probably less. Wilkes, for all his gaiety, was a good scholar. He partly translated Anacreon. 893

In 1774 he was Lord Mayor of London D. Dec. 26, 1797.

WILLE, Bruno, Ph.D., German writer and lecturer. E. Feb. 6, I860. Ed. Bonn and Berlin Universities. Wille was trained in theology, but he devoted himself to letters and philosophy. His degree was awarded him by Kiel University for one of his philosophical works. For a time, in 1885, he was tutor in the home of the Bulgarian poetess, M. Kremnitz. Later he settled at Berlin, where in 1890 he founded the Freie Volksbiihne, and subsequently the Freie Hochschule (a free secondary school). He became the leader of the Berlin &quot;Free Religious Society&quot; (an Ethical Church), but, as he is an Agnostic, the word &quot;religious&quot; will not be mis understood. He edited, in succession, the Freidenker, Freie Jugend, and Kunst des Volks ; and, in addition to very extensive Rationalist lecturing, he has published a large number of drastically critical works (Der Tod, Leben Ohne Gott, Atheistische Sitthchkeit, etc.). Dr. Wille has more than once suffered fines and imprisonment for his work. He is a serious educator of the people, of wide culture and very high aims, and zealous for ethical principles. Since the foundation of the Monist League he has warmly supported it.

WILLIAMS, Sir Charles Hanbury,

writer and diplomatist. E. Dec. 8, 1708. Ed. Eton. Williams made the grand tour of Europe, and was in 1734 elected Member of Parliament for Monmouthshire. From 1739 to 1742 he was Paymaster of the Marine Forces, and from 1742 to 1747 Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire. He was created Knight of the Bath in 1744 From 1754 to 1759 he represented Leo- minster in Parliament. He was not con spicuous in the political world so much as in the lighter world of London society, where he had a high reputation as a wit and lampoonist. Some of his verse is not without distinction ; some (&quot;Old England s Te Deum,&quot; for instance) is more than 894