Wilkes having made the most of his patriotism, after being elected lord mayor, and subsequently obtaining the lucrative and permanent office of city chamberlain, now exhibited himself in his true colours—a remarkable instance of tergiversation, disclaiming his own acts, and making no scruple of expressing his contempt for the opinions of his former supporters. On his return for Middlesex in 1784, as one of “the king’s friends,” the democrats represented the king and Wilkes hanged on one tree, with the inscription, “Give justice her claims.” The reconciliation of the “two kings of Brentford” was by no means popular, and the wits were severe on the fresh departure. One of these caricatures, May 1, 1784, is entitled, “The New Coalition.” It represents the King and the ex-archdemagogue fraternally embracing; Wilkes’s cap of liberty is cast to the ground; he declares to his Sovereign, “I now find you are the best of princes.” While great George discovers the erst agitator, his late aversion, “Sure! the worthiest of subjects and most virtuous of men!”
THE NEW COALITION - THE RECONCILIATION OF “THE TWO KINGS OF BRENTFORD.” 1784.
Charles James Fox, the most popular Whig statesman of history, was returned for Midhurst in May, 1769. He was then only nineteen years and four months old; notwithstanding this, he took his seat the November following, thus becoming a member of parliament before he reached the age of twenty. Curiously enough, his first speech, March, 9, 1770, was on a point of order, arising out of the Wilkes case and the disputes of the Middlesex election. In spite of his affected patriotism, Wilkes made a jest of his insincerity: standing on the hustings at Brentford, his opponent said to him, “I will take the sense of the meeting;” to which the pseudo “champion of liberty” responded, “And I will take the nonsense, and we shall see who has the best of it.” In the same way he coolly disavowed his friend and advocate Serjeant Glynn, his colleague for Middlesex, who had fought all his battles through the courts to the hustings, and vice versâ. Some years later, as related by Earl Russell, when the “two kings of Brentford” were excellent friends, and Wilkes, by the irony of fate, became a ministerial candidate, he was received at a levée, when George III., with his habitual practice of asking awkward questions, inquired after Wilkes’s friend, Glynn. “Sire,” said Wilkes, “he is not a friend of mine; he was a Wilkite, which I never was.”
One of the most animated pictures which can be found of the humours of canvassing is that drawn from life by William Cowper, at the time the poet’s mind was influenced to cheerfulness by the company of the lively Lady Austen, who, with the more gravely solicitous Mrs. Unwin, made Olney an halcyon abode. The year the “Task” was published, and while Cowper was touching up his spirited ballad of “John Gilpin,” he has set down the visit of an aspiring young senator, no less than Pitt’s cousin, Mr. W. W. Grenville, who, with a retinue of zealous supporters at his tail, quite “without your leave,” bursts upon the poet’s retirement in pursuit of suffrages; this was at the general election of 1784:—
“As, when the sea is uncommonly agitated, the water finds its way into creeks and holes of rocks, which, in its calmer state, it never reaches; in like manner, the effect of these turbulent times is felt even at Orchard Side, where in general we live as undisturbed by the political element as shrimps or cockles that have been accidentally deposited in some hollow beyond the water-mark by the usual dashing of the waves. We were sitting yesterday after dinner, the two ladies and myself, very composedly, and without the least apprehension of any such intrusion, in our snug parlour; one lady knitting, the other netting, and the gentleman winding worsted, when, to our unspeakable surprise, a mob appeared before the window, a smart rap was heard at the door, the boys halloed, and the maid announced Mr. Grenville. ‘Puss’ [Cowper’s tame hare] was unfortunately let out of her box, so that the candidate, with all his good friends at his heels, was refused admission at the grand entry, and referred to the back door as the only possible way of approach. Candidates are not creatures to be very susceptible of affronts, and would rather, I suppose, climb in at the window than be absolutely excluded. In a minute, the yard, the kitchen, and the parlour were filled. Mr. Grenville, advancing towards me, shook me by the hand with a degree of cordiality that was extremely seducing. As soon as he, and as many more as could find chairs, were seated, he began to open the intent of his visit. I told him I had no vote, for which he readily gave me credit. I assured him I had no influence, which he was not equally inclined to believe, and the less, no doubt, because Mr. Ashburner, the draper, addressing himself to me at this moment, informed me that I had a great deal. Supposing that I could not be possessed of such a treasure without knowing it, I ventured my first assertion by saying that, if I had any, I was utterly at a loss to imagine where it could be, or wherein it consisted. Thus ended the conference. Mr. Grenville squeezed me by the hand again, kissed the ladies and withdrew. He kissed likewise the maid in the kitchen, and seemed, upon the whole, a most loving, kissing, kind-hearted gentleman. He is very young, genteel, and handsome. He has a pair of very good eyes in his head, which not being sufficient, as it should seem, for the many nice and difficult purposes of a senator, he has a third also, which he wore suspended by a riband from his button-hole. The boys hallooed, the dogs barked, ‘Puss’ scampered, the hero with his long train of obsequious followers withdrew. We made ourselves very merry with the adventure, and, in a short time, settled into our former tranquillity, never probably to be thus interrupted more.”
It may be added that this persuasive young politician, W. W. Grenville, succeeded in securing his return at the top of the poll for the county of Buckinghamshire in 1784, as Pitt wrote to James Grenville (Lord Glastonbury)—“William was safe.”
A MOB-REFORMER. 1780.