John Wilkes was an 18th-century radical
British journalist and politician whose activities paved the way for reform of
the political system. He also played a small part in the events that led to
American independence.
He was born in London
on 17th October 1725, the second son of a distiller. He soon showed
academic promise and was sent to the University
of Leiden (in the Netherlands ) in
1744. However, he was called back in 1747 to undertake an arranged marriage
with a woman who was ten years older but came with a substantial dowry, namely
the manor of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.
The marriage was not a success, due to John Wilkes
having picked up some bad habits in Leiden that were at odds with the strait-laced
character of his wife, but it did produce a daughter, Polly, who was born in
1750 and to whom Wilkes was devoted throughout his life. However, when the
marriage eventually broke up, in 1757, Wilkes was allowed to retain his estate
and property in Buckinghamshire.
John Wilkes was clearly a man who enjoyed life to
the full, despite being a local magistrate, and one product of this period was
an obscene parody of Alexander Pope’s poem “An Essay on Man” entitled “An Essay
on Woman”. This was either written by Wilkes or his friend Thomas Potter, or
both, but it was to play an important role in Wilkes’s later life.
Being addicted to women and wine as he was, Wilkes
needed little encouragement to behave badly, but Potter appears to have provided
plenty. He also suggested that the two of them should stand for the
parliamentary seats of Aylesbury at the 1754 general election, but Potter
cheated Wilkes out of his seat and the latter had to wait until 1757 for his
chance to enter the House of Commons.
When he did so, Wilkes made little impression as a
speaker and failed to gain any advancement with a government post. Indeed, at
the next election, in 1761, he only retained his seat by offering large bribes
to a majority of the Aylesbury voters.
However, what he lacked as an orator he more than
made up for as a writer. In May 1762 King George III appointed his former
tutor, the Earl of Bute, as Prime Minister and promulgated policies that were
far from Wilkes’s liking. Soon after the appointment, Wilkes founded a weekly
newspaper, the “North Briton” as a vehicle to attack and satirise Lord Bute and
his government. The title was itself satirical, Bute
being the first Scot since the Act of Union of 1707 to lead the British
government.
The government could find no way to stop Wilkes
publishing his newspaper, and he continued to do so until Bute
resigned in April 1763, to be replaced by George Grenville. Wilkes briefly suspended
the North Briton until Grenville revealed his hand as supporting policies (concerning
Britain ’s relationship with France ) that
were little different from those of Lord Bute. Wilkes then published issue 45
that strongly condemned Grenville’s stance, and a charge of seditious libel was
then made against him.
The government made a mistake by issuing an arrest
warrant that was phrased in general terms against the “authors, printers and
publishers” of the North Briton without specifying anyone by name. Wilkes was
in any case able to avoid arrest by claiming parliamentary privilege, and when
he walked free from Westminster Hall the crowd outside chanted “Wilkes and Liberty ”, a cry that was to become familiar on London ’s street in the
years to follow.
However, Wilkes had also made a mistake by printing a
few copies of his earlier “Essay on Woman”, one of which was read out in the
House of Lords on 15th November. This turned many parliamentarians
against him and did not help his cause on the matter of the seditious libel
charge. The House of Commons ruled that the North Briton issue 45 was indeed a
seditious libel, and moreover that parliamentary privilege did not apply in
such cases.
To make matters worse for Wilkes, a member of
parliament, Samuel Martin, challenged him to a duel in Hyde
Park which resulted in Wilkes receiving a serious bullet wound.
However, this did at least give him a good excuse for not attending court, and
he was later able to slip out of the country and away from British
jurisdiction. He lived in France
for the next four years.
Meanwhile, back in London , Wilkes was “tried” in his absence by
the House of Commons and expelled. He was also declared an outlaw by the Court
of King’s Bench. However, he did win one significant victory in that the use of
general warrants for searching buildings or arresting individuals was ruled to
be illegal.
John Wilkes had quite a pleasant time in France and Italy
until his money ran out and he sought a means of returning to England . His
applications for a pardon got him nowhere, but he returned anyway in February
1768 and lived quietly for a time under an assumed name although no efforts
were made to arrest him.
He now planned to return to Parliament. He stood for
a Middlesex seat in March 1768 and won convincingly. He had strong backing from
the “Wilkites”, these being ordinary Londoners who followed him everywhere and
cheered his every move, including freeing him from prison when he tried to give
himself up as part of the process of clearing his name. He then had to enter
the prison in disguise, in a somewhat farcical episode.
Although his outlawry was set aside, in June 1768
John Wilkes was sentenced to two years in prison on the original charges,
although he was not expelled from Parliament until 3rd February
1769. Despite this, and while still in prison, he was returned unopposed at a
by-election on 16th February but again declared to be incapable of
election. The process was repeated at two further by-elections, even when the
government put up a rival candidate whom Wilkes defeated with ease but who was
declared as having won.
On his release from prison in April 1770, Wilkes
sought a new power base in the City of London ,
where he and his supporters became aldermen and he eventually became Lord Mayor
(in 1774).
Wilkes fought a campaign to overturn the ban on
parliamentary proceedings being reported by the press. To do this he made use
of the ancient privilege of the City of London
that meant that only city officials could make arrests within the City
boundaries. When printers were accused of breaking the no-reporting rule they
were encouraged to seek sanctuary within the City, and this policy eventually
led to the government having to back down. The reporting of parliamentary
debates has ever since been regarded as a fundamental freedom and an important
democratic safeguard.
Soon after becoming Lord Mayor, Wilkes also returned
to Parliament, this time with no bar to him taking his seat. His parliamentary
performances were much stronger than his previous efforts had been, as he now
knew that his speeches would be reported by an unfettered press. He therefore
spoke in favour of radical reforms that would eventually come to pass, such as
abolition of the rotten boroughs. His greatest triumph was to overturn the
motion that had barred him from election in 1769, thus establishing the right
of voters to elect whom they wish.
Wilkes is often regarded as having been a strong
advocate of American independence, but this view is not entirely accurate.
Although he supported the colonists over many of their grievances, and
condemned the use of force to suppress them, he did not, at first, want them to
leave the Empire. His hope was that, if their complaints were dealt with in a
sensible way, the Americans would not seek independence because they would
realise that staying loyal was in their best interests.
However, as the crisis escalated Wilkes changed his
mind and appreciated that independence was the only feasible outcome. He was
essentially pragmatic in his attitude and knew that governments cannot keep
people loyal at the point of a bayonet.
As he grew older, John Wilkes became less radical in
his behaviour, and the constant cries of “Wilkes and Liberty ” became tiresome to him. He became
much less active as a politician and eventually lost his House of Commons seat
at the 1790 general election. He died on 26th December 1797, aged
72.
John Wilkes remains a fascinating character from 18th
century politics, being such a contrast to the aristocracy that ran things at
the time. Further radical voices would be heard in later years, and fundamental
changes would follow, but John Wilkes laid the foundations for what was to
come.
© John Welford
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