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Man of Contradictions George Iii Referred to Him As 'That Devil Wilkes

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Man of Contradictions George Iii Referred to Him As 'That Devil Wilkes REVIEWS national interests. These points example – about which it would precedents that ensued, to are discussed in passing but be good to know more, Tor- the culmination of his pub- they are submerged in a welter rance’s accounts do not provide lic career as Alderman, Lord of personal detail. Although much additional detail or inter- Mayor and Chamberlain of the Torrance has read quite widely est and readers wishing to know City of London. Cash argues in fairly well-thumbed second- more would be better advised to that ‘John Wilkes had estab- ary sources and has ploughed turn to the Oxford Dictionary of lished for Great Britain and through a good deal of manu- National Biography. subsequently the United States script material and diary com- two closely related principles: ment, he seems unaware of Ewen A. Cameron is Senior Lec- within the simple limits of much recent research on mod- turer in Scottish History at the Uni- constitutional law, the people ern Scottish history. While versity of Edinburgh and co-editor of can elect as their representative there are some cases – those of the Scottish Historical Review. whomever they please regard- Walter Elliot or Willie Ross, for less of the approval or disap- proval of the legislature … [and] the first ten amendments to the American Constitution, the Bill of Rights, were written Man of contradictions by men to whom Wilkes was a household word’ (p. 3). The Arthur H. Cash, John Wilkes, The Scandalous Father of Civil book then sets about the narra- Liberty (Yale University Press, 2006) tive of the man’s life and deeds with a careful analysis of the Reviewed by Nancy LoPatin Lummis significance, in legal and politi- cal terms, of his bold actions, which prove the success of his e was a mass of contra- French philosophes. George III fight for the primacy of law and dictions. John Wilkes referred to him as ‘that devil show his stamp on the develop- Hwas gentleman, jour- Wilkes’, a characterisation ment of the modern constitu- nalist, a captain in the King’s echoed by Lord Mansfield, George III tional state. army and a carousing liber- William Hogarth and numer- Beginning with his family tine. He was a landowner who ous judges and politicians, as referred to background, formal education continually over-borrowed well as the cuckolded husbands and ill-conceived arranged and depended on others to of his many lovers. Then there him as ‘that marriage, the biography moves get him out of debt. He was were those, like Horace Wal- on to Wilkes’s early forays a careless student but a lov- pole, who hated the man but devil Wilkes’, into sexual experimentation, ing father, committed to his admired his belief in liberty a characteri- his local charitable and politi- daughters’ education. He was and electoral freedom. All, cal causes, and the birth of his also a flamboyant rabble-rouser however, would agree that sation ech- political career. Wilkes entered and trouble-maker who stood John Wilkes was a formidable Parliament as a Pittite MP for before courts, jubilant crowds force, whether ally or enemy. oed by Lord Aylesbury in 1757. The ensuing and Parliament, attacked gov- This superb new biography political battle between his fac- ernment abuses, sat in prison to of John Wilkes by Arthur H. Mansfield, tion and the followers of Lord dramatise injustice, and fought Cash gives an entire picture of William Bute, following the accession tirelessly to sit in the parlia- this amazing historical figure. of George III, rapidly became mentary seat to which electors A politician, fugitive and ren- Hogarth and more than simply a battle for had, by popular vote, returned egade legal reformer, Wilkes’s attaining and securing political him. He was a fugitive in exile, life is revealed as one filled numerous position. The infamous role of negotiating for a safe return to with principle and immorality, the North Briton, originally a England, while a national hero self-interest and tremendous judges and response to court papers such seeking political power. James generosity and, above all else, politicians, as the Briton and the Auditor, Boswell adored him, as did joy. Cash traces the life of this and part of the larger propa- his daughter Polly, seeing him rogue and sometime dema- as well as the ganda war for public opinion, as a caring man, committed gogue from his early marriage changed rapidly because of the to strong principles. Voltaire and parliamentary career sit- cuckolded suppressive tactics adopted by found him charming. He was ting for Aylesbury, through the King’s ministers. While an impetuous country squire the enormously important husbands Wilkes’s original intention who identified with the work- publication of issue no. 45 of of his many was to have Bute removed ing man, an outlaw defended his North Briton and the legal from government office, his by the eighteenth-century and parliamentary battles and lovers. political arguments progressed Journal of Liberal History 58 Spring 2008 43 REVIEWS Cash, ‘Wilkes’s history lay respect and abide by the laws of behind the guarantees of a free the ancient English constitu- press, the right to privacy, the tion – a perception not lost on freedom from unreasonable the North American colonists searches and seizures, and the making their own case for lib- prohibition of non-specific erty and finding a sympathetic arrest warrants’ (p.3). advocate in Wilkes. Wilkes’s conviction in The admiration and success absentia for libel (he fled to the Wilkes experienced upon his Continent) only confirmed release from prison in 1770 and government abuse and cor- his election as a High Sheriff ruption to the masses. He in the City of London the fol- became a hero, even as an lowing year were a response outlaw exiled in France, when to the firm belief that justice Lord Chief Justice Mansfield had triumphed – thanks to its improperly (and quite politi- champion John Wilkes – over cally) instructed the jurors so the forces of corruption and as to secure a guilty verdict on abuse. The man himself did Wilkes, seemingly confirming not maintain unquestioned that all the King’s men were admiration and loyalty, how- corrupt as could be. Whether ever. While he was elected or not the reading public Lord Mayor of London and believed that Wilkes’s An Essay in 1774, returned as the MP on Women (produced at around for the County of Middle- the same time as issue 45 of sex, other forces were taking the North Briton) was indecent charge on the issues of liberty and libellous, as the Bishop of and government abuses. The Gloucester accused it of being, Americans, parliamentary to making the case that the he was seen as the stoutest reformers, and followers of King’s government continu- defender of a free press and of Charles James Fox took the ally and wilfully violated the civil liberty in general. Ten- reins in the political, legal and very rule of British law every sions only mounted when the military struggles for English time it searched and seized electors of Middlesex returned liberty and the rule of law. property it believed had been him as MP in 1768 upon his Wilkes barely kept his seat in acquired without payment of return to England as an outlaw. the House in 1784 and retired excise taxes. His more per- Political manoeuvring, an from politics soon after. sonal attacks, in issue 45, had eleventh-hour redefinition of His remaining years were further-reaching consequences what arrest warrants encom- spent socialising in London than his arrest for libel against passed and the declaration as and Bath, going to the Royal the King. The open war- illegitimate of warrants that Society, spending holidays with rants issued by Lord Halifax failed to name specific indi- his daughters Polly and Har- on behalf of the government viduals, changed the law, but riet at Sandown Cottage on (which resulted in the arrest of did little to change Wilkes’s the Isle of Wight, and talking forty-nine people, when only position. His imprisonment in with friends like Boswell and three were named on the war- 1768 only emboldened both Sir Joshua Reynolds. He died rant), and the confiscation of the man and the public which in 1797, believing himself an personal property that ensued had returned him to Parlia- advocate for ‘everyman’ to the produced a public outcry so ment. No longer an outlaw, but end. His will directed that ‘six great that general warrants a prisoner and an MP unable to of the poorest men of the par- would be outlawed by the be sworn in to office, Wilkes ish’ carry his coffin, for which courts. Wilkes countered with attacked the Commons as the they would receive clothes and a civil suit against the govern- agency of repression. New legal a shilling (p. 391). ment for false arrest, violation precedents were established. Throughout his life, John of privacy and destruction of When the House received writs Wilkes was a friend of the peo- private property; he opened declaring Wilkes the winner of ple and a man who loved and new legal arguments and his by-elections and opted to ignore fiercely defended the rights and trials served to educate the them in favour of illegally liberties he believed all English- public regarding the uses declaring the election void, the men were entitled to through and abuses of government people attacked the Commons. their ancient constitution and power before the courts. For No institution now seemed to the rule of law. His clever, often 44 Journal of Liberal History 58 Spring 2008 REVIEWS histrionic, plans to protect those With this wonderful new been made of the revealing rights created the right balance biography, light is shone on his letters from Lloyd George to of public drama and litigious amazingly rich and interesting his younger brother William embarrassment to expose a wide character, accomplished and over several decades (though array of government officials influential far beyond tradi- it would seem that these were who had grown to believe that tional teaching.
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