had been severe, and remittent, and at last we may conclude that the Cæsarian operation was performed by the knife of Churchill, whose satire made Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other of Johnson's friends, urge him to dispatch; to vindicate his credit from the stain which might, by longer delay, attach to it. The work appeared in 1765, and nobly redeemed the pledge given, were it only by the preface, which is superior to any dissertation of the kind, Dryden's Prefatory Essays excepted. Boswell also admits, that Johnson was nettled by Churchill, and that he felt the sting, or that poet's works would hardly have been left out of the edition; he however adds, "I know Johnson was exceedingly zealous to declare that he abided by the bookseller's list, and had little to do with the selection." Churchill's works, too, might possibly be rejected by him upon a higher principle, the highest indeed, if he was inspired by the more laudable motive which made him reject every authority for a word in his Dictionary, that could only be gleaned from writers hostile to religion or morality. With these qualifications, we do not think Johnson's opinion of Churchill, as recorded by Boswell, can be considered as detracting from the more unprejudiced opinions of Cowper and Campbell. "He talked contemptuously of Churchill's poetry, observing that it had a temporary cr Johnson deigned to take was, that he was one of the many who have made themselves public without making themselves known, and that he did not consider himself bound by Kenrick's rules. Dr. William Kenrick, LL. D. died 10 June, 1779, and only lives in Goldsmith's Retaliation. rency, only from its audacity of abuse, and being filled with living names, and that it would sink into oblivion.' I ventured to hint that he was not quite a fair judge, as Churchill had attacked him. Nay, Sir, I am a fair judge. He did not attack me till he found I did not like his poetry; and his attack on me shall not prevent me from continuing to say what I think of him, from an apprehension that it may be ascribed to resentment. No, Sir, I called the fellow a blockhead at first, and I will call him a blockhead still. However, I will acknowledge that I have a better opinion of him than I once had; for he has shown more fertility than I expected. To be sure, he is a tree that cannot produce good fruit: he only bears crabs. But, Sir, a tree that produces a great many crabs is better than a tree which produces only a few.' In this depreciation of Churchill's poetry I could not agree with him, It is true that the greatest part of it is upon the topics of the day, on which account, as it brought him great fame and profit, it must proportionably slide out of the public attention as other subjects succeed. But Churchill had extraordinary vigour both of thought and expression. His portraits of the players will ever be valuable to the lovers of the drama; and his strong caricatures of several eminent men of his age will not be forgotten by the curious. Let me add, that there are in his works many passages of general interest; and his Prophecy of Famine' is a poem of no ordinary merit. It is, indeed, falsely applied to Scotland; but on that account may be allowed a greater share of invention.” The intimate union, social, literary, and political, which subsisted between Wilkes and Churchill during the whole of the short but brilliant career of the latter, would call here for some more particular notices of circumstances arising out of that intimacy, and of the general proceedings of the civic patriot, during his most active period of agitation, but that the frequent reference to these transactions in the poems, has elicited in the notes most of the material facts connected with them. To those notes we therefore refer the reader; and while we abide by the unqualified censure bestowed in them on the general character and conduct of Wilkes and of most of his associates, we still feel, that, from whatever motives, he was instrumental in rendering service to his country; unlike some of his successors in Parliament, even in a reformed House of Commons, who, equally dissolute in morals, have neither public services nor literary accomplishments to adduce in palliation of their vices. With no disposition to extenuate the misconduct of Wilkes, we could have wished that the noble and learned author of the Historical Sketches of characters during the reign of George III.* had tempered the unmeasured severity of his invective against Wilkes, by some notice of his classical and literary attainments. In those Sketches, not only is the claim of Wilkes to be a gentleman denied, because he was the son of a distiller, but the imputation of vulgarity is attached to him for no other reason than * It has been surmised that the names of Wilkes and Junius have been introduced into these Historical Sketches as the prototypes merely of living individuals, and this sup position will account for many of the omissions and much of the carelessness evident in the Sketches as applicable to the parties named. that when Lord Mayor he sportively offered invitations to a Mansion House entertainment to Junius, and his Junia, "if he had one." To refute both charges it may suffice to state, on the authority of the late Mr. Andrew Strahan, that Lord Mansfield, than whom no one could be a better judge in such matters, was of opinion that "Mr. Wilkes was the pleasantest companion, the politest gentleman, and the best scholar he ever knew." Dr. Johnson also bore testimony to the agreeable qualities of Wilkes, to whom he was at first rather reluctantly introduced at Dilly's table, with, of course, no prepossessions in his favour, as he had been fiercely attacked by him in the North Briton.* But it was one of Wilkes's chief merits never to carry into private society any of his political opinions, except as matter of amusement; this is exemplified by his well known saying, on some allusion to the proceedings of his adherents, that it was true he was Wilkes, but it did not follow that he was a Wilkite. Wilkes maintained through life an epistolary and social intercourse with some of the most distinguished individuals of his time, both in England and in France, and has left, as the fruit of his leisure and retirement, the most splendid and Dr. Johnson afterwards met him frequently, and much enjoyed his society, of which Boswell reports him to have said, "Did we not hear so much of Jack Wilkes, we should think more highly of his conversation. Jack has a great variety of talk; Jack is a scholar; and Jack has the manners of a gentleman. But after hearing his name sounded from pole to pole as the phoenix of convivial felicity, we are disappointed in his company. He has always been at me, but I would do Jack a kindness rather than not. The contest is now over." correct editions we possess of Catullus and of Theophrastus, for which he received letters of thanks from Lord Mansfield, Lord Spencer, Gibbon, Mr. Pitt, Warren Hastings, and other eminent statesmen and scholars. His prose compositions, in which he measured almost equal lances with Junius and Horne Tooke, we shall have frequent occasion to notice; and he was the author of some pleasing occasional verses, consisting chiefly of congratulatory lines addressed to his daughter on her successive birthdays.† We add the following, as the best authenticated of Churchill's juvenile productions, and which was apparently written by him when at Westminster school. ON THE MONUMENTS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. IN famed Cathedral, who'd expect To lift her shield, come to protect * Warren Hastings was ever grateful to Wilkes for having, in the House of Commons, made the best speech of any that was delivered in his defence; and on Wilkes presenting him with a copy of his Theophrastus, wrote thus in answer. DEAR SIR, I return you many thanks for the valuable present of your new edition of Theophrastus; its value to me consists of its being a memorial, and not the first of the kind, of your friendship. As such I shall ever sacredly preserve it, and shall contemplate it with more pleasure than the perusal could afford to many who possess the knowledge which I have unfortunately lost, if I can pretend to have ever attained it, of the language in which it is written. I am, dear Sir, &c. WARREN HASTINGS. We subjoin the shortest and the best: TO MISS WILKES, ON HER BIRTHDAY, 1777. The noblest gift you could receive, |