Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/255

 redeeming traits in his character. His freethinking was only skin-deep; and when to Thurlow's asseveration, ‘May God forget me when I forget my sovereign,’ he muttered the retort, ‘God forget you: He'll see you damned first,’ there was just a suspicion of sincerity in the grim pleasantry. His part in public life he played with courage and consistency; but there was a deeper sense than appeared on the surface in his arch denial that he was ever a Wilkite. By nature unquestionably he was no demagogue, but a man of fashion and a dilettante; nor did he possess the ready eloquence which is characteristic of the born leader of the masses. His speeches were always carefully prepared, and smelt too much of the oil for popular effect. He retained his dilettantism, and especially his interest in French and Italian literature and painting, to the last. Towards the close of his life he conferred a boon on bibliophiles by two éditions de luxe: (1) ‘C. V. Catullus. Recensuit Johannes Wilkes, Anglus, Londini, 1788. Typis Johannis Nichols’ (three hundred copies on vellum, one hundred on fine paper, 4to); (2) ‘Theophrastov charaktēres ēthikoi, Johannes Wilkes, Anglus, recensuit. Londini, 1790. Typis Johannis Nichols’ (three copies on vellum, one hundred on fine paper, 4to). He made some way with a translation of Anacreon, which was admired by Joseph Warton, but remained unpublished. Some trifles in verse are included in ‘Letters from the year 1774 to the year 1796 of John Wilkes, esq., addressed to his daughter,’ published with prefatory memoir at London in 1804, 2 vols. 12mo. He was probably author of the English version of Boulanger's posthumous ‘Recherches sur l'Origine du Despotisme Oriental,’ published at Amsterdam under the title ‘The Origin and Progress of Despotism in the Oriental and other Empires of Africa, Europe, and America,’ in 1764, 8vo. The French original had been printed in the previous year at his private press. His prose is uniformly nervous, idiomatic, and lucid. A collection of ‘Epigrams and Miscellaneous Poems’ was added to a private reprint of the ‘Essay on Woman’ (London, 1871, 4to).

Besides the two Monitors mentioned above, Wilkes appears to have written Nos. 340, 358, 373, and 376–80. The following are the principal collective editions of the ‘North Briton:’ ‘Nos. 1–45,’ London, 1763, 2 vols. 12mo; ‘Nos. 1–46, with explanatory notes and index,’ London, 1763, 8vo; ‘Nos. 1–45, revised and corrected by the author,’ Dublin, 1766, 2 vols. 12mo; ‘Forty-six numbers complete with explanatory notes, and a collection of all the proceedings in the House of Commons and courts of Westminster,’ London, 1772, 4 vols. 12mo. With the continuation by Bingley, Wilkes had nothing to do.

Collective editions of Wilkes's ‘Speeches in the House of Commons’ appeared at London in 1777 and 1786, 8vo. His ‘Speech in the House of Commons, 9 May 1787, respecting the Impeachment of Warren Hastings,’ appeared in pamphlet form at London in 1787, 8vo. The speeches in which as city chamberlain he presented the freedom of the city to distinguished persons are printed in ‘Correspondence of the late John Wilkes with his Friends, in which are introduced Memoirs of his Life by John Almon,’ London, 1805, 4 vols. 8vo. The same compilation contains the ‘Introduction to the History of England from the Revolution to the Accession of the Brunswick Line,’ and ‘A Supplement to the Miscellaneous Works of Mr. Gibbon’ (reflections on the acceptance by Gibbon of office under Lord North).

Wilkes himself edited ‘Letters between the Duke of Grafton, the Earls of Halifax and Egremont, Chatham, Temple, Talbot, Baron Botetourt, Right Hon. Henry Bilson Legge, Right Hon. Sir John Cust, bart., Mr. Charles Churchill, Monsieur Voltaire, the Abbé Winckelmann, and John Wilkes, Esq. With Explanatory Notes,’ 1769, 12mo; also ‘A Letter to the Right Hon. George Grenville occasioned by the publication of the speech he made in the House of Commons on the motion for expelling Mr. Wilkes, Friday, Feb. 3, 1769, to which is added A Letter on the Public Conduct of Mr. Wilkes first published Nov. 1, 1768. With an Appendix,’ London, 1769, 8vo. ‘The Controversial Letters of John Wilkes, Esq., the Rev. John Horne, and their principal adherents: with a supplement containing material anonymous pieces,’ appeared at London in 1771, 12mo (cf. the Letters of Junius, Nos. l–liv and the private correspondence). Wilkes's diaries, with fragments of autobiography and much inedited correspondence and other papers, are in Additional MSS. 30865–88; other miscellaneous remains are scattered through Additional MSS. 12114, 27777–8, 27925, 29176–7, 29194; cf. Additional MSS. 32948 ff. 161 et seq., 33053 f. 317; Egerton MS. 2136, ff. 29, 49; and Stowe MS. 372; also Hist. MSS. Comm. 2nd Rep. App. p. 63, 3rd Rep. App. pp. 124, 223, 415, 4th Rep. App. pp. 397 et seq., 5th Rep. App. p. 257, 10th Rep. App. pp. 357, 413–18, 14th Rep. App. i.; also Cal. Belvoir Castle MSS. iii. 3, 36; 15th Rep. App. ii. 359–60. From Additional MS. 30865 Mr. W. F.