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Letters between Mr. Wilkes, and the Rev. Mr. Horne.

ded, Mr. Horne, I am not intimate with Mr. Townfend, you are, I fhall be much obliged to you if you will fpeak to him. This was all that pas fed. In this, as on many other oc cafions, Mr. Horne has thought fit to change his opinion, and to charge me with a conduct, I should be as much afhamed of, as of the part he is now acting.

Mr. Horne's declaration, that I can

vassed some months before I was a freeman, and have continued it to this time, is a shameful falfhood. After I mentioned it to my brother, I told my intentions to many of my friends. I declare, on my honour, I have not to this hour asked any one liveryman for his vote. From my friends I met with a general approbation of my intentions; and when our worthy and able Chamberlain quits the poft, I can claim many unasked promifes.

Gentlemen, though from Mr. Horne's lying accufations, my brother, from the delicate fenfe he has of his public fituation, may not chuse I should claim any merit from our connexion, I hope near relationship will not be imputed to me as a demerit; and I am fatisfied the only reafon why my brother difapproves of my intention, is the report he was to have a share.

I defire to appeal to Mr. Oliver for the truth of the following converfation, which paffed at his houfe at Putney, on which Mr. Horne has grounded his charge of my brother intending to have a fhare.

Mr. Oliver told me, that as he and his brother had fubfcribed fo very largely, Mr. Wilkes's family, and particularly myfelf, ought to have contributed more. I told him I had at first subscribed one hundred guineas towards the payment of my brother's debts, and he knew feveral fums I had paid fince; that I had not been in a profitable trade, and my fortune was very far from large; that fhould I fucceed, by the generosity of the Livery, I fhould then have it in my power, and it had always been my wifh, to be able to affift my brother more liberally.

Long may our prefent upright Chamberlain hold the office; and give me leave to declare, with all due refpect,

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that whenever a vacancy shall happen, I fhall take the earliest opportunity of offering my fervices. I am, Sirs,

Your most obedient fervant,

St. John's-Square,

31 May, 1771, HEATON WILKES.

To the Rev. Mr. H OR NE.
LETTER VI.

SIR, Princes-Court, May 31.
YOUR eighth letter refects Mr.

Cotes and Mr. Reynolds more than Mr. Wilkes. Whether either of those gentlemen will think it worth their while to answer a man, whofe character for veracity has long been forfeited, I cannot fay: my own ftrictures fhall be few.

You declare, "Some months, be fore forty gentlemen at the London Tavern, I was driven to mention these fcandalous views upon the TownClerk's and Chamberlain's Offices." At the meeting on the 11th of last December, after I was gone, you. abused me for near two hours, and was frequently called to order. You threw out many dark and suspicious infinuations, but did not mention, as I am told, a fingle word of the Town-Clerk's or Chamberlain's Office. I complained of the bafene fs of your conduct to feveral of my friends, to Mr. Sawbridge in particular. I told him, that from motives of delicacy, as my own private affairs were frequently the fubject of the fociety's deliberations, I had hitherto always retired early, but that at the next meeting I meant to defire their permiflion to continue the whole time, to answer any questions, either of a public or private nature, and to give the fulleft explanation poffible of every thing. The next meeting was on the 22d of January. It was very full. I then took notice to the fociety, "that many oblique invectives had been thrown out against me at the former meeting after my departure; that I had hitherto made it a rule to retire before any private bufinefs, relative to myself, became the fubject of their deliberations, left my prefence should be thought to influence any gentleman; that the most unfair advantage had been taken of this, to calumniate me in my Abfence; but that, with the per

miffion

246
miffion of the fociety, I fhould conti-
Due among them that whole evening;
and I defired any gentleman who had
the leaft doubt about any part of my
conduct, public or private, to ftate the
doubt, and the most explicit anfwer
should directly be given to every par-
ticular; that I had no reserves of any
kind for that fociéty, that I fhould be
unworthy of their protection, if I did
not fully explain to them the whole of
my conduct, all my paft actions, all fu-
ture Views for myfelf, relations, or
friends, of which I was fufpected, and
that I knew them to be fair and ho-
nourable, able to stand the test of the
moft rigid enquiry." What was your
reply? You only faid, that you thought
I meant to attack you, and that I had
not been named by you. I answered,
"I ftand in the memory of the fociety,
if for near two hours together you had
not, at the laft meeting, made a conti-
nued invective against me, and been up-
on that account feveral times called to
order." You did not venture to deny
it. I called upon you again, to bring
any one charge against me, and to ftate
your objections to any part of my con-
duct. I added, that I wished for the
fullest enquiry; that I defpifed the idea
of fecrets or fubterfuges before gentle-
men of known. honour, and that the
manly way was for you then to ftand
forth, and to bring the accufation face
to face. You fhrunk back, covered
with confufion and rage. The fociety,
on the fame day, notwithstanding the
oppofition you made, gave the world
their fentiments of me in the refolu-
tion, "That the public conduct of
Mr. Alderman Wilkes, fince his en-
Jargement from the King's-Bench Pri-
fon, has been fuch as merits the appro-
bation of this fociety." From that
moment you have inceffantly laboured
the diffolution of that noble and pa-
triotic fociety, against which neither
your open attacks, nor your fecret
frauds, will prevail. You afk, "if
Mr. Reynolds will deny these circum-
ftances, which you have mentioned,
as what paffed in private converfation
ar the London Tavern relative to him-
felf. He has already declared to the
public," that he never at any time

Letters between Mr. Wilkes, and the Rev. Mr. Horne.

had any conversation with you about being Town-Clerk.”

Your answer to Mr. Cotes is evasive. You faid, that he was nearly concerned in the fraudulent business of D'Eon's policies. He has dared you to the proof. Have you advanced one word to bring that charge home to him? Have you difproved any article of the charges he made against you for your public conduct in the bufinefs of the Middlefex and Surrey petitions? Among your wonderful qualifications, you polfefs the fingular ingenuity of reconciling" friends, who both tell you that they never quarrelled. The man in the world, who has the leaft milk of human kindness, whofe whole compofition is rancour and malevolence, who has carried the torch of difcord from friend to friend, now pretends to fet up for the amiable character of being fond to spread friendships, and to cover heats.

In my former letter, I called upon Mr. Alderman Oliver "to fate to the public every thing which has paffed between us, relative to the Chamberlinship." You did not mention any converfation between Mr. Oliver and me: You confined yourself to what passed between the alderman and my brother. In his anfwer of this day, Mr. Oliver fays, " It is likewife true that Mr. Wilkes did, after Mr. Horne's letter to his brother, deny to me that he approved his brother's attempt." I again, Sir, call for the whole of every converfation between the two aldermen on the subject. He has confirmed one particular: He ought to confirm the reft.

Mr. Oliver fays, "I never did refufe to do Mr. Wilkes juftice: I was called upon in the Public Advertiser, Jan. 18, anonymously, but did not obey that anonymous call:"-" Mr. Wilkes afterwards told me I ought to answer that call: I was of a different opinion: I should have answered it if Mr. Wilkes had put his name to it; but I must have answered it contrary to his wishes, the fact not being at all ftated by him." The paffage alluded to in the Public Advertise of Jan. 18, is as follows.

"Quere to Mr. Alderman Oliver.

Letters between Mr. Wilkes, and the Rev. Mr. Horné.

: Did not Alderman Wilkes tell you at Guildhall, the day after the first appearance of the letter figned Scourge, that he was not the author, nor was he concerned in it directly or indirectly, nor did he know of the publication; and did you not communicate this intelligence to Mr. Horne?" Mr. Oliver's name had appeared in the papers the day before, in a controverfy between Mr. Horne and an anonymous author, to fave Mr. Horne, as he thought, but he had refufed Mr. Wilkes juftice. I now repeat the quere, and defire that it may be answered, and whether I did not mention to him, in confidence, the real author, and how I came by my information. Will the alderman please likewife to explain, in what our political aims differ?

You pretend to appeal to the clear teftimony of fome of the most refpectable men in the world," and you give us a lift of names, as of your friends, and of perfons ready to confirm your affertions. How came you to omit the honoured name of your bofom friend, Samuel Vaughan, Esquire, whom you have always defended? He might poffibly be made more ufeful than the whole lift you have given. I defire you to bring the teftimony of Mr. Sawbridge, or Mr. Glynn, to any one fact which has been difputed. Do you now dare to mention Mr. Glynn in the lift of your friends, when you know what character you gave of my worthy colleague, that great and upright lawyer, to feveral gentlemen, whofe attestations are ready, when called upon, concluding with these remarkable words. "I do not know which is moft contemptible, his head or his heart." Will you deny this, or that you wrote the letter to the Freeholders of Middlefex, figned A Freeholder of Stanwell, printed in the Public Advertifer, in which you fay, "I know Mr. Glynn's principles to be as firm, and his heart as incor. ruptible as his conduct is modeft and moderate, and his abilities uncontradi&. ed?" That letter concludes, "Complete your work, and place by the fide of your glorious, perfecuted Patriot Wilkes, his ftrenuous and difinterested defender, Glynn." No man has ever fo grossly contradicted himself, and

247

fo much profaned the facred name of friend, as Mr. Horne. Mr. Morris's letter proves, that you declared to him, 66 you had always the fame opinion of Mr. Wilkes." and your letter from Montpellier demonftrates that you were guilty of a falfhood when you made that declaration.

You have examined the original letters, which I left at the Printer's. I am fure you found my quotations exact. I repeat that I expect the like opportunity of examining the quotations you have made.

The first paragraph of your eighth
letter is the laft on which I fhall re-
mark. You say, " Mr. Cotes and
Mr. Reynolds feem to declare upon their
honour with as little fcruple as Jews
fwear on the New Teftament." Pray,
Sir, where do Jews fwear on the NEW
Teftament? Is it in the country of un-
faithful echoes? In England, and every
other country, I know Jews fwear on
the OLD Tefiament. There is a Pen-
tateuch provided on purpose for the
oaths to be administered to Jews in all
our courts of justice and public offices.
You are as unlucky now in your ac-
count of the oaths to be taken by the
Jews, as you were a few weeks ago
about the Sheriff's oath, which you fal-
fified. I wish to know what oath, on
what book, old or new, is likely to
bind an Atheist parfon. The honour of
Mr. Cotes and Mr. Reynolds will, I
dare fay, remain unfpotted till Jews
are fworn on the NEW Teftament.
I am, SIR,

Your humble fervant,
JOHN WILKES.

To the PUBLISHER.
SIR,

AS Mr. Horne in his eighth letter

to Mr. Wilkes has thought fit to continue the fory about my being Town Clerk, I fhall fubmit the following facts to the public: they will beft determine on which fide truth lies.

The beginning of June last I accompanied Mr. Horne to feveral gentlemen's houfes in Westminster for fubscriptions for the widow Bigby. Upon our return into the city, Mr. Horne told me, that Mr. Wilkes and he had

becn

248

Letters between Mr. Wilkes, and the Rev. Mr. Horne.

been talking about me; that Mr. Wilkes had propofed to him that I fhould ftand for the office of Bailiff of the Borough in cafe of a vacancy, as I had as good a claim to public favour as Mr. Beardmore. I inftantly replied, that I had no intention of being a candidate for that, or any other city office; and that I would affift Mr. Beardmore in his election. Not a word passed then, or at any other time, about the office of Town Clerk.

On the sth of February laft, Mr. Crossley, late one of the common council of Bishopfgate ward, came to my house between feven and eight in the evening, and defired to speak with me; but being informed that I was not at home, but in the neighbourhood, he told Mr. Baunton (who was then my clerk) that the Bailiff of the Borough was exceedingly ill, and likely to die, and that many friends to the cause wished that I might fucceed him; Mr. Beardmore being dead. Mr. Baunton came to me at a gentleman's houfe in the neighbourhood, and reported Mr. Crossley's meffage; when I immediately defired Mr. Baunton to thank Mr. Crossley and the other friends; that I was exceedingly obliged to him and them for their kind offers; but that I fhould not be a candidate for that or any other city office at prefent. I faw Mr. Crosley a day or two after, and repeated the declaration to him.

On the 23d of March laft Mr. Bellas, and Mr. Rix, of the Town Clerk's office, dined with me at my houfe at Lime-street. After dinner, I asked Mr. Bellas why he ftayed fo long in the country from public bufinefs; when he answered he came at haft very reluctantly, and was very unhappy to find a divifion amongst our friends; that he understood that Mr. Wilkes would hurt the public caufe by jebbing the city; for that Mr. Horne and Mr. Aldermen Townfend had been down with him lately at his houfe at Farnham, and told him that Mr. Heaton Wilkes was to be Chamberlain of London; that I was to be Town

Clerk, and had advanced Mr. Wilkes 2001. in confideration of his fervices in the election. I immediately informed Mr. Bellas that the whole was a fiction; that I never had directly or indirectly converfed with Mr. Wilkes about that or any other city office. Mr. Bellas then faid, I was talking with fome friends yesterday, and we all agreed you might properly ftand for Bailiff of the Borough; Mr. Beardmore being dead, you are the proper perfon. I thanked him and my friends for their good wishes, and declared that I was determined not to ftand at present for that or any other city office.

Mr. Crossley will atteft that I have told the truth as far as I have used his

name.

Mr. Bellas, and I trust Mr. Rix, will alfo atteft that I have told the truth of what paffed on the 23d of March.

I have fhewn this account to Mr. Bellas, and Mr. Crossley, so far as it concerns them.

I call upon the gentlemen to whom Mr. Horne alludes, to declare all that they know of any declarations of mine, either at the London Tavern, or any other place relative to this fubject; and whenever the truth of my affertion fhall be doubted by any one, except the minifter of New Brentford, I will not appeal to acqaintances of yesterday, but to gentlemen who have known me upwards of twenty years last paft, and that are no ways interested in the prefent difpute.

Mr. Horne, in his former letter, fpeaks of private favours, and his in. clination to ferve me. On a fair ftating of accounts, be will be obliged to admit that the balance is in my favour.

If I should hereafter stand a candidate for any honorary or lucrative city office, all the affiftance I fhall with from Mr. Horne is, that he will take a part against me, as the beft recom mendation to my fellow-citizens.

Lime-freet, Saturday,
June 1, 1771.

JOHN REYNOLDS.

The

The First Elements of the ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. By JAMES MACPHERSON, Esq;

T

HE want of information, which induced the writers of Rome to remove the northern limits of ancient Germany to the Pole, was a fource of error to the learned of modern times. The latter have extended the general character of the Celtic Nations between the Rhine and the Elbe, to the inhabitants of Scandinavia and the fhores of the Baltic. In vain have the wild Nations of the North advanced into the Southern Europe with pofitive proofs of their own Sarmatic origin: Men of letters have chofen to make then Celta; and Celta, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, they must remain. To differ from the learned, in this point, is neither precipitate nor prefumptuous. The Ancients give no countenance to their opinion; and the unmixed pofterity of thofe Nations, who overwhelmed the Empire of the Weft, argue against them with all the force of language, manners, and government. To the origin of the latter we shall at prefent confine our inquiries.

The Scandinavians in the days of Tacitus, were fubject to abfolute Monarchy. They were a commercial People. Eftablished property had attached them to fixed abodes. Wealth was honoured among them, and they acquiefced under the unlimited defpotifm of one. Secured by their fituation from foreign enemies, their domeftic fpirit declined. They fuffered themfelves to be difarmed by their Princes; and thus the tyranny of Afia, in the abfence of its luxury, prevailed under the Pole. The Sitones of Norway were even more abject than their Brethren to the Eaft of the mountains of Sevo. They not only degenerated from Liberty, but even from Slavery Itfelf: They fubmitted to the Government of Women, and added difgrace to fervitude. This attachment to hereditary fucceffion continued among the Colonies which Scandinavia eftablished to the South of the Baltic. Rugij, the Lemovij, all the Vandals from the Ife of Rugen to the German Ocein, as well as their Brethren the VOL. VI.

The

Sarmatic Gothones on the Vistula, were diftinguished by their obedience to Kings.

It is however certain, that the Monarchs of the Scandinavian Sarniatæ loft their influence in the progreffive migrations of their Subjects towards the South. The Goths and Vandals, the undoubted Ancestors of the modern English, were remarkable for their attachment to civil Liberty. Tho' the Crown was hereditary in certain families, though their Princes vaunted their defcent from Odin, the first of the Gods, their power, and even the poffeffion of their dignity, depended upon the general affembly of the People, whole refolutions they were always obliged to carry into execution. In expedition and war the King was refpected; but deftitute of the power of inflicting any punishment upon the difobedient, his authority was nugatory. With war the reverence of his perfon was at an end. Indignity was added to his want of confequence and power; the meaneft of his Subjects fat with him at table, joined in his converfation, ufed him with contempt, and difgraced him with fcurrility. The Kings of the Goths, a nation defcended from the fame stock with the Saxons, enjoyed no honour, and met with no refpect. The rabble being by the ftrength of established custom, admitted to the entertainments of the Prince, the unhappy man, instead of being treated with the reverence due to his rank, was often obliged to purchafe with prefents a decency of behaviour from his barbarous guests.

This fpecious of rude liberty degenerated fometimes into licence in the extreme. Barbarians who ufed fuch freedoms with their Prince, muft naturally have a contempt for his character and authority. They fometimes perfecuted him to death itself, for no other caufe but that they were deter mined to fubmit to the commands of none. He was expelled from his throne upon every frivolous and unjuk pretence.--Should they happen to be unfuccefsful in war; should the inli

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