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 on the Case of Wilkes (1767), p. 174). He was present, however, at the hearing of the case before Pratt in the following week. Hogarth was also present, drawing a caricature of Wilkes. He had been known both to Wilkes and Churchill. In September 1762 he had caricatured Pitt and Temple in a print called 'The Times.' Hogarth was attacked for it in the 'North Briton,' and Churchill already contemplated an 'epistle' (see letter in Essays, ii. 262). His 'Epistle to Hogarth' appeared in answer to Hogarth's new provocation in July 1763. Hogarth retaliated by a caricature of Churchill as a bear in clerical bands, and with a pot of porter and a club marked 'Lies and North Britons.' Churchill's abuse is vigorous enough, but it is needless to refute the statement insinuated by his friends that it shortened Hogarth's days.

On 15 Nov. 1763 parliament met, and Wilkes was assailed in the House of Lords for the 'Essay on Woman.' On the 16th he was wounded in the duel with Samuel Martin. Churchill took his friend's part by publishing the 'Duellist' (for which he received 450l.), containing satire of excessive bitterness upon Sandwich, Warburton, and Mansfield, the most conspicuous assailants of Wilkes in the upper house. This poem and the 'Ghost,' in which Johnson is ridiculed on occasion of the Cock Lane story, are in octo-syllabic metre. Churchill when following Butler is less happy than when following Dryden. His rhetoric is cramped by the shorter measure. But the satire upon Warburton at least is pungent, though too indiscriminate for the highest efficiency. Johnson had pronounced Churchill to be a 'shallow fellow,' and the knowledge of this prompted the portrait of 'Don Pomposo.'

Churchill had meanwhile published other poems. The 'Conference' had appeared in November 1763, and the 'Author'—which was met with critical approval at the time—in the following month. Both of them are spirited treatments of the old theme of satirists, their own independence and love of virtue. The 'Conference,' however, contains a remarkable confession of remorse for a private sin. Churchill had seduced the daughter of a tradesman (a 'stone-cutter' according to Horace Walpole). She had repented, but the reproaches of an elder sister drove her back to Churchill, who protected her till his death. He was with her in Wales during the summer of 1763, and was also present at the Oxford commemoration of that year (, Anecd. viii. 236). Churchill's immorality was not incompatible with much generosity and manliness. A story is told in 'Chrysal' (by Charles Johnson) of his generous rescue of a girl in distress and her family, which seems to rest upon some foundation of fact (Chrysal, vol. iv. bk. i. ch. xzi. and following), and which at any rate gives the contemporary view of his character. Robert Lloyd fell into difficulties in the autumn of 1763. Churchill allowed a guinea a week to support Lloyd in the Fleet prison, and promoted a subscription for his permanent release. Wilkes was driven to Paris by the prosecutions. Churchill's fame had reached France. Horace Walpole tells us (letter to Mann, 16 Nov. 1764) that a Frenchman asked Churchill (husband of Lady Maria, Walpole's half-sister) whether he was 'Le fameux poete.—Non.—Ma foi, monsieur, tant pis pour vous.' Churchill, however, stayed in England for the present. He resided for a time at Richmond, and afterwards took a house on Acton Common, furnished (according to the Genuine Memoirs with elegance and provided with horses and carriages. In 1764 he published 'Gotham,' his most carefully elaborated performance, and greatly admired by Cowper. It is an exposition of his political philosophy, compared by Forster to Bolingbroke's 'Idea of a Patriot King.' The absence of personal satire prevented its attaining popularity, or having much permanent value; for Churchill is at his best in satire. In the 'Candidate' he again attacked Sandwich, who was now standing for the high-stewardship of Cambridge, and presenting an irresistibly tempting mark for a satirist. Grey tried his hand at satire on the same occasion in the 'Candidate, or the Cambridge Courtship.' 'The Farewell,' 'The Times' (upon a revolting subject), and 'Independence' (remarkable for a vivid portrait of his own appearance, recalling Hogarth's caricature) followed rapidly. Two other poems, the unfinished 'Journey,' which contains a curious anticipation of his approaching end, and a satirical dedication of his sermons to Warburton, appeared posthumously. The last seems to suggest some private cause of quarrel, though Churchill's antipathy may be sufficiently explained by Warburton's attack upon Wilkes. Churchill, it may be added, had, as appears in his letters to Wilkes, a special antipathy to Warburton's friend. Pope, partly perhaps because he was Warburton's friend. Churchill went to meet Wilkes at Boulogne in October. He was seized by a fever on the 29th. He dictated a note, leaving annuities of 60l. to his wife, and of 50l. to his mistress. It seems, however, that he left no property to supply these annuities, a fact which he may have been too ill to remember. Cole gives a rumour, obviously exaggerated, that his copyrights were worth 3,000l. He left all