Letters between Mr. Wilkes, and the Rev. Mr. Horne. and fent it to Calais. This was the fingle tranfaction of my own with your brother-in-law at that time. I gave him two or three trifling commiffions from Monf. Sainte Foy, for arıack, &c. which were to be forwarded to Paris. I believe they were fent, but they never paffed through my hands, nor do I know whether Mr. Wildman has yet been paid for these trifles, the whole of which amounted only as he told me, to about thirty pounds. Your endeavours to create a coolnefs between Mr. Cotes and me, are clearly feen through, and will prove ineffectual. You made the fame attempt on the late Mr. Sterne and me with the fame fuccefs. In your letter to me at Paris, dated Jan. 3, 1766, you fay, "I paffed a week with Sterne "at Lyons, and am to meet him again "at Sienna in the fummer. Forgive "my question, and do not answer it, "if it is impertinent. Is there any cause of coldnefs between you and "Sterne? He speaks very handfomely "of you, when it is abfolutely ne"ceffary to speak at all; but not with "that warmth and enthufiafm, that I "expect from every one that knows "you. Do not let me caufe a cold"nefs between you, if there is none. "I am fenfible my question is at least imprudent, and my jealoufy blamea"ble." In your second letter you fay," the "nature of our intercourse, for it "cannot be called a connexion," and afterwards, in my return from Italy "to England in the year 1767, I faw "reafon fufficient never more to truft ..you with a fingle line;" and in your third letter, you pretend that you had even in 1767,"infinite contempt for the very name of Mr. Wilkes." However, on the 17th of May, you wrote me another letter on my going to Fulham, while my houfe here was repairing, to recommend fix tradefmen to me, to tell me how moft fincerely you were mine, &c. You add, "I could not forbear fhewing my "friendship to you by letting you "know your friends." You will find, Sir, that it requires more memory as well as wit than falls to one man's hare to fupport a long chain of falfe - You affert. "I found that all the "private letters of your friends were "regularly posted in a book, and read "over indifcriminately, not only to your friends and acquaintance, but "to every vifitor." I glory, Sir, in having four large volumes of manufcript letters, many of them written, by the firft men of this age. 1 efteem them my moft valuable poffeffion. Why is the pleasure of an elegant and intructive epiftle to perifh with the hour it is received? To the care and attention of Cicero's friends in preferving that great Roman's letters we owe the best hiftory of Rome for a moft interefting period of about forty years. You mistake when you talk of all the private Letters of your friends. My care has extended only to letters of particular friends on particular occafions, or to letters of bufinefs, tafte, or literature. The origi nals of fuch I have preferved; never any copies of my own letters, unless when I wrote to a Secretary of State, to a Talbot, a Martin, or a Horne. When you add, "that they are read "over indifcriminately, not only to your friends, and acquaintance, but "to every vifitor," you knowingly advance a falfhood. So much of your time has paffed with me, that you are fenfible very few of my friends have ever heard of the volumes I mentioned. The prefervation of a letter is furely a compliment to the writer. But although I approve the prefervation, in general I highly difapprove the publication of any private letters. However there are cafes which justly call them forth to light. Mr. Onflow's first letter was, after great importunity from you, printed by me, to justify what you had faid at Epfom. The fecond you printed, without any confent, from a copy I fuffered you to take. The Pamphlet you mention has not yet been published. I have now before me the copy; corrected with your own hand, which you gave me at Paris. The following paffage I am sure you will read at this time with particular fatisfaction, 168 Letters between Mr. Wilkes, and the Rev. Mr. Horne. "We have ften, by Mr. Wilkes's treatment, that no man who is not, and who has not always been, absolutely perfect himself, muft dare to arraign the meafures of a Minister. "It is not fufficient that he pay an inviolable regard to the laws; that he be a man of the strictest and most unimpeached honour; that he be endowed with fuperior abilities and qualifications; that he be bleffed with a benevolent, generous, noble free foul; that he be inflexible, incorruptible, and brave; that he prefer infinitely the public welfare to his own intereft, peace, and fafety; that his life be ever his hand, ready to be laid down chearfully for the liberties of his country; and that he be dauntlefs and unwearied in her fervice.-All this avails him aothing. "If it can be proved (though by the base means of treachery and theft) that in fome unguarded, wanton hour, he has uttered an indecent word, or penned a loofe expreffion-Away with fuch a fellow from the earth;-it is Pot. At that he should live." I am, Sir, Your humble fervant, To Mr. JOHN WILKES. SIR, D URING the city-election many worthy merchants having geneouily come forward to your affiftance, and fome of thers being men of the moft rigid morality, you thought it proper to adopt the language of a Penitent: To the one you talked of Saul transformed into St. Paul;" to another you were more poetical, and told him that "hitherto your life must be confidered as only bearing the Joms, and that the public might now expect from you the fruits." And you talked of the follies of your youth, as if you had not been at that time between forty and fifty, and as if folly was all that could be alledged againft you. I believe you did not impofe upon many; the greateft part defpifed the hyprocrite, who before abhorred the rogue: But however fome might be deceived, your conduct did not fuffer me even for a few days to fuppofe you a Changeling. On Tuesday morning, March 22, 1768, I paid you the first vifit in London. On Wednesday I inferted two advertisements levelled at the old Members for Middiefex: For one of which the imprudent haftinefs of Sir J. Gibbons made that gentleman afterwards publish my name. On Thursday you fet out with me to canvass the western parts of the country: Returning in the evening to Brentford, I found there Mr. Tn, whofe name I did not then know: He had been appointed by your Committee of the city to fecure fome houfes at Brentford for the day of the election: He could get none, because he was totally unknown: He applied to me, and appointed me to meet him on Saturday evening at the King's Arms, where the Committee would fettle every thing with me relative to the houfes. On Friday I procured two inns for the purpose; and engaged myfelf to them to pay the expences which should be incurred; and this was neceffary, because if you had loft your election the people could eafily forefee you would again have fled the country, and they would have loft their money. On Saturday in the evening I waited on the Committee: Mr. Tn was abfent: I told them my bufinefs, and defired only that the rifque of the uncertain expences at Brentford on the day of election might be understood to be equal between us, becaufe I was not fufficient to bear the whole, and fuch a lofs might undo me. They were perfect ftrangers to me; the Committee was distracted with a variety of bufinefs; all was confufion; and they treated me very cavalierly, as they would have done a fharper who was come to impofe upon them by false pretences: The Chairman, Mr. J. J, a gentlemen of character and a man of bufinefs, not having (as he has fince informed me) been acquainted with the circumftances, and knowing that Mr. Tn had been appointed to look after the houses, very properly, though abruptly, bad me quit the room; faying, fince houses are Letters between Mr. Wilkes, and the Rev. Mr. Horne. are procured that is fufficient for us, and we have nothing to do with you or your engagements. I quitted the room, firft telling them that they were mi? taken in fuppofing they had the houfes fafe, and therefore might leave me to bear the burthen; that I was not quite fo foolish as they feemed to imagine; if they would not make it a joint rifque. I was ftill able to fave myself, for that I very well knew Sir William Beauchamp Proctor and Mr. Cooke would be very glad to take the houses off my hands, and to acknowledge the obligation. You had hitherto fat filent; but being alarmed at my laft words, which I threw out to alarm them, and to join with me in the rifque, you followed me, and led me together with Mr. into ano ther room; you caught me by the hand, and fupplicated me moft earneftly not to be offended at fuch "creatures" as your Committee; you fwore I fhould run no hazard; that you had more than money enough at your banker's, and would that moment give me a draught for fifteen Hundred pounds. I replied "Sir, I was not at all offended before, but I am now; I fee you think me a dupe because it is Saturday evening, and your election comes on on Monday morning; you offer me a draught on your banker for fifteen hundred pounds, when I know you have not fifteen-pence in the world. It is you that treat me ill, not they. I am not duped, Sir, and I defire I may at least have the honour of doing what I do with my eyes open. Go back and look after them; give yourfelf no concern about me: I fhall act in the fame manner as if they had engaged with me. 169. To the Rev. Mr. H OR NE. printed in the Public Advertiser, on As I am called upon by you, in the I had not thought that all was at ftake The fuccefs of the election is known; the gentlemen afterwards excufed themselves to me for a behaviour for which their good intention, intirely juftified them, and the Committee paid the expences. Vol. VI. JOHN HORNE. Y wards 170 Letters between Mr. Wilkes, and the Rev. Mr. Horne. wards engaged, a printer, and I believe you gave him your name by way of indemnification, and you foon after left England. I know of no other ftipulation. After your departure, I thought the honeft inan would run too great a rifque by publishing in your abfence; I therefore took the whole impreffion from him, and paid him for the printing. I do not recollect you have repaid me, nor do I defire it: But the pamphlet was never published. I certainly was the first perfon that introduced you to Mr. Wilkes's acquaintance; and I have lately lamented, and declared my concern in many public companies, that I had fo done; but when I contider your fmall fervices in the Middiefex election, and the very great ones you have done him by your late attacks in the public papers, I begin to alter my opinion. As you have made free with my name, you must give me leave to make fome remarks upon your public conduct, of which I formerly had a tolerable good opinion. I found no alteration in you refpecting Mr. Wilkes until he was elected Alderman. From that period (for reafons you best know) you friendship cooled, and every fuc cefs of his afterwards was apparently received by you with diflike; and I found that the great public cause was to fuffer by your private pique to him in the business of the Middlefex petition; for after that meafure was determined upon at the Mile-End affembly room, Mr. Wilkes gave you a draft of a petition, the fubject-matter of which was confined merely to the violated rights of the Electors of England in general, and to thofe of the county of Middlesex in particular; his opinion being, that general invectives against the King's government and Minifters, paft and prefent, would only furnish a pretext to avoid the decifion of the grand queftion-the right of election And I firmly believe if that mode of petitioning had been adopted, not one county, or frarcely one borough in England, would have been backward in fupport of the cause; but you acted upon very different grounds; for, after pretending to prepare a petition more to the purpofe, you amufed your friends for more than three weeks without producing one line. At length I was fo much harraffed by many Freeholders of my acquaintance, that I determined to apply to Mr. Wilkes, then in the King's Bench prifon. I found Mr. Bellas with him, who then cenfured your conduct in the ftrongest terms. We went from thence to Mr. Samuel Vaughan, who, we understood, had a petition of yours in his poffeffion def tined for the city of London. We found him at the Jamaica CoffeeHoufe. Mr. Vaughan refufed Mr. Bellas a fight of that petition, which occafioned very high words between them. I then waited upon Mr. Walpole Eyre, the chairman of the Committee appointed at the Mile End meeting, to defire his permiffion, with the confent of Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Bellas, to call the Freeholders together at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand to confider of the petition. This I published immediately in the papers. Sickness preventing my attendance, the company then present can belt account for your behaviour at that meeting.. You may recollect that you afterwards expreffed yourfelf highly diffatisfied with me for that mealue; which I did not regard, being determined to keep a watch over you, as your conduct had made me very fufpicious. Another meeting was afterwards had, as I am informed, at the Three Tuns in Spitalfields, when the petition was agreed to by the Committee; and in confequence a meeting of the Freeholders convened at the Mile End Affembly Room at eleven o'clock to hear, approve, and fign it. Mr. Martin has informed me that you did not bring the petition to him at his houfe near Leicester-fields until twelve o'clock that very day; and it was paft two before you and Mr. Martin arrived at the Affembly Room at Mile End. Many of the Freeholders were gone away much difgufted at your conduct. You best know whether it was your defign to defeat the petition, and to ftop the fpirit of petitioning in it's rife or not; the public will make their own reflexions." Again, Letters between Mr. Wilkes, and the Rev, Mr. Horne Again, when the petition of the County of Surry was in agitation, a gentleman of the Committee applied to you for a draft, which you gave him. He fhewed it to me; and I cannot conceive, that if you intended the bufinefs fhould have fucceeded at the general meeting of the county, you would ever have given him fuch a draft. When I read it, I own I was aftonished, because I then thought you did not want abilities to do better. I then told the gentleman that I was certain no man of confequence in the County would even hear of fuch an abfurd compofition. This I repeated to you at Vauxhall previous to our going to Eplom, and afterwards in the Coffee-room there. You may recollect that I told you before feveral gentlemen that you "wanted to injure the great caufe, but that it was above your match.' Notwithstand ing all which, you read this very extraordinary performance on the Bowling Green as your own, though you had previously given it to the gentlemen; and you had the mortification to find it totally rejected. I leave the impartial public to judge of your conduct in this bufinefs; for my own part it explained your real intentions fo clearly, that I have not fince had the least doubt of your true character. As you, Sir, have made the tour of Europe twice, you must, doubtless, have formed your opinion on the dif-ference between free and defpotic governments. I, from a frequent intercourte with a neighbouring nation, have been taught the value of that ineftimable jewel, LIBERTY. Thofe now unhappy people were once as free as us; but by the treachery and profligacy of the great, and the wiles and arts of wicked men and minifters, are now reduced to a wretched state of flavery. In fome, indeed, the fpirit of freedom still remains, and many noble and meritorious efforts have lately been made to recover what their anceftors have fo fhamefully lost; but in vain; they can only rattle and bite their chains in anguish. If ever that fhould be the fate (in an evil hour) of this dear country, it needs not the fpirit of prophecy to divine, that though our vallies ihould be filled with plenty, they will cease to laugh or fing. 171 Mr. Wilkes's public conduct has given me the most convincing proof of his love for this country; and that he is the ture watchman of conftitutional liberty. His late attention to the ancient and undoubted right and franchises of the people in general, and of the city of London in parti cular, both with refpect to Prefs Warrants and the Seizure of the Printers, will do him immortal honour, as they will reflect the highest difgrace on thole who bafely withdrew themselves when thefe moff effential points were agitated. Thefe, added to his former merit, will place him above the reach of envy, and convince every honeft, independent Englishman, that thofe little fhafts which are aimed at him arife either from low jealoufy, or mean felf-intereft; the latter has, to the difgrace of it, been the characteristic of this country for a long time. Thank Heaven, however, there are fome few exceptions. I fincerely wish I could with propriety rank you amongst them. It has given me great concern to find fuch a defection amongst thofe who call themselves the friends of liberty. God knows they are too many; but I trust there still remains in this country a great majority of honeft men, who will fcorn to follow fuch unworthy examples; and that you and all will find in the end, that Vox Populi Vox Dei, is an unerring rule in England. May 18. Your humble Servant, HUMPHRY COTES. P. S. Since the foregoing I have read your third letter to Mr. Wilkes, in which you fay: "My first employment on my return to England was to reconcile you with Mr. Cotes." I never had a quarrel with Mr. Wilkes-I never accufed him of Ingratitude. |