Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 57.djvu/50

 (State Trials, xx. 687 n.; Parl. Hist. xxxv. 1330, 1380). The failure, according to Stephens, soured and embittered the remainder of his life.

Tooke had now inherited some fortune from his father. He bought a small estate at Witton, near Huntingdon, and tried agricultural experiments. He suffered from ague, and soon sold the estate to the previous owner and returned to London. He lived in Dean Street, Soho, with two girls, Mary and Charlotte Hart, his illegitimate daughters. He was well known in London society, gave suppers which became famous, was eager in political discussions, and frequently spent a month or two with his friend Tooke at Purley. In 1782 he added the name of Tooke to his own, at the request, as it appears, of his friend. The change was naturally supposed to indicate that he was to be Tooke's heir. The friendship was also commemorated by the title of his book, ‘ἜΠEA ΠTEROENTA, or the Diversions of Purley,’ the first volume of which was published in 1786. It was received with considerable favour and established his literary reputation. He did not, however, withdraw from political agitation. When the demand for parliamentary and financial reform was stimulated by the failure of the American contest, Horne took part in the new societies which sprang into activity. He joined the ‘Society for Constitutional Information,’ founded in April 1780 (, Political Papers, ii. 462), of which Major John Cartwright (1740–1824) was called the ‘father.’ This took the place of the old ‘Constitutional Society’ founded by Horne in 1771, which had apparently expired. Horne Tooke supported Pitt's early proposals for parliamentary reform, and in 1782 went at the head of some Westminster delegates to thank Pitt for his first motion on the subject. He was bitterly opposed to the coalition ministry; and in 1788 joined a ‘constitutional club,’ of which Pitt and others were members, formed to support Admiral Hood, the government candidate, during the Westminster election, at which, however, Fox secured the return of Lord John Townshend. (There has been some confusion between Horne Tooke's old ‘Constitutional Club,’ the ‘Society for Constitutional Information,’ and this ‘Constitutional Club.’). On this occasion Horne Tooke published a pamphlet called ‘Two Pair of Portraits,’ contrasting the two Pitts—very much to their advantage—with the two Foxes. Horne Tooke was indifferent in the Warren Hastings impeachment, but in 1790 he came forward himself to oppose Fox in the election for Westminster. He denounced his rival vigorously, and spoke effectively on the hustings. He received 1,679 votes, and spent, it is said, only 28l., but was defeated by a large majority. His petition to the House of Commons on the ground of the riotous conduct of the electors was declared by a vote of the house (7 Feb. 1791) to be ‘frivolous and vexatious.’ By an act passed in 1789 this made him responsible for the costs incurred. Fox accordingly brought an action against him for 198l. 2s. 2d. The case was triend before Kenyon on 30 April 1792, and a verdict found for the plaintiff. Horne Tooke's health was suffering, and he now retired to a house at Wimbledon, where he amused himself with gardening and cowkeeping, and received his friends on Sundays. He continued to attend meetings of the ‘Society for Constitutional Information.’ They sympathised with the French revolution, and Horne attended a meeting in 1790 to commemorate the taking of the Bastille. When, however, a resolution expressing sympathy with the French was proposed by Sheridan, Horne Tooke brought forward and carried an amendment to the effect that the British constitution required no violent measures of reform. In spite of this, Horne Tooke soon became an object of suspicion. He thought that he could make a point against the government by entrapping them into a futile prosecution. He amused himself by the rather dangerous experiment of making sham confessions to a spy. A letter from one of his friends, Jeremiah Joyce [q. v.], was seized, stating that ‘Citizen Hardy’ had been arrested, and asking ‘Is it possible to get ready by Thursday?’ The reference was, as Horne Tooke afterwards proved, to a proposed publication of a list of sinecure places. The authorities, as he had calculated, took it to refer to a rising, and he was at once arrested (16 May 1794).

The government had been alarmed by the rapid growth of the ‘corresponding societies’ founded by Thomas Hardy (1752–1832) [q. v.] These societies had circulated Paine's writings, had been in communication with the French revolutionary leaders, and had organised the ‘convention’ which met in Edinburgh in 1793. Horne Tooke's ‘Society for Constitutional Information’ had co-operated to some extent with them; while the whig society called the ‘Friends of the People’ endeavoured to keep the agitation within safe limits. Joseph Gerrald [q. v.] and others had been most severely punished for their proceedings in Scotland, and Horne Tooke was likely to find that his playing at treason would turn out awkwardly. Other