Professor Yang Jing of the School of Foreign Chinese of Nanjing Normal University
John Wilkes caricature
At the end of March 1768, a riot broke out in London. Franklin, the representative of the American colonies in London, described in a letter to friends: "The mob ... Shouting in every street, the gentlemen and ladies in the carriages shouting 'Wilkes and Freedom'... Even the doors and windows of almost every house within fifteen miles of the city are painted with No.45 (The North Briton, No. 45). ”
The riot was caused by the fact that John Wilkes (1725-1797), the "star" of British politics, returned to the capital after his exile and insisted on signing up for that year's parliamentary elections, but the result was "injustice" - not only was the fruits of victory robbed by others, but he himself was arrested for repeated "contempt of court". In April, The King's Bench sentenced him to two years in prison. On May 10, tens of thousands of people gathered to demand Wilkes' release. The government ordered the firing of the gun, which caused the "Massacre of St. George's Square" that shocked the whole country.
This isn't the first "hard bar" for Wilkes and the law. Five years earlier, the famous newspaperman had been sent to the Tower of London for publicly slandering government leaders Earl of Bute and earl of Sandwich. Earl Bit's original identity was "Imperial Master", and George III was appointed to form a cabinet shortly after his ascension to the throne. In order to strengthen public opinion, he hired the famous Scottish writer Smolet (1721-1771) as the editor-in-chief of The Briton. The Earl of Bit followed King George III's wishes and was committed to restoring the throne, while Wilkes clung to the Whig belief that the king would rule like his two predecessors, or "reign without rule". The positions of the two sides were very different, and the controversy soon entered a white-hot state.
Before Earl Bit could issue an order to seize the throne, Wilkes dedicated a recently reprinted play, The Fall of Mortimer (1731), to the Prime Minister, whose protagonist, Roger Mortimer, was the mistress of Queen Edward II, who was once in charge of the state before being murdered in public by the wise and mighty Edward III. The scandal between Count Bit and the Queen Had already spread inside and outside the court, and Wilkes's move was tantamount to adding fuel to the fire, making Count Bit furious. However, suffering from the fact that the other side only used historical events to insinuate, did not testify by real name, and proceeded from maintaining the stability of the overall situation, the prime minister who had recently been in power chose to be patient.
But not everyone has such a belly, such as The Navy Secretary Sandwich. As a young man, Wilkes and Sandwich were members of the infamous Hellfire Club, spending their time drinking and acting recklessly, and later parting ways due to their lack of interests. Wilkes once criticized Sandwich in the newspaper by name for selling the official, which made the latter lose face and vowed to avenge the shame. Wilkes didn't care about the news, and then published a collection of poems, "An Essay on Woman", which attacked Sandwich's style problems. The collection of poems parodies Pope's famous work An Essay on Man — one of Pope's original poems reads: "Wake up, my St. John!" Wilkes muted it to: "Wake up, my Sandwich!" When it came to publication, Wilkes felt that it was not too addictive, and changed it to "Wake up, my little Fanny!" Fanny Murray was the most famous prostitute in London at the time, and was said to have had an affair with Sandwich. In retaliation, Sandwich first secretly instructed his subordinates to duel with him, and later personally put on a battle, claiming that "he (Wilkes) will not stop until he (Wilkes) is sent to prison."
Wilkes delivered it himself. The 45th issue of The North Britain of 1763 (alluding to the 1745 rebellion of the Jacobites) contained Wilkes' comments on the King's recent speech—the King's speech at the appointment ceremony of the new councillors was meant to be a formality, and according to Wilkes, it was "the most hollow and contrived invention in the English political system": the King read the script (the speech was drafted by the ministers), and the new and old parliamentarians applauded. Perhaps because the Treaty of Paris, which had ended the Seven Years' War, had just been signed, the king was so angry that he could not help but boast a few words (in fact, the king had always been humble and serious, and once said to his court priest, "I came to church to listen to praise God, not to praise myself"), but it caused fierce criticism. Wilkes bluntly stated that "England had engaged in undignified and improper negotiations with France on the terms of the peace treaty, and the king was one of the parties", declared that the king, as a symbol of national sovereignty, must be accountable to the people in the execution of the monarch's power (such as the signing of treaties), and even warned the king not to imitate the Stuart absolut monarch and deviate from the people. At the end of the commentary, Wilkes reiterates that "freedom is the prerogative of the English people" and not the patent of the Maharajah's minister.
At the king's behest, Sandwich accused Wilkes of "misconduct", "slander of the monarch" and "blasphemy" to the upper house of Parliament, and read aloud some of the explicit "pornographic" depictions of the Treatise on Women as evidence, with which the House of Lords passed a resolution declaring the 45th issue of The North Britain to be "an unprecedented insult and insult to His Majesty the King, and the most serious slander against Parliament... and unscrupulously attempts to alienate the feelings of the people towards His Majesty the King, to incite the people to disobey the laws of the Kingdom and to wage a rebellion against His Majesty's government".
After the "characterization" of the House of Lords, the difficult question of how to deal with the highly regarded Wilkes was transferred to the House of Commons. As a member of the House of Commons (Wilkes was successfully elected as early as 1757 by bribing voters for three thousand pounds), he gave a speech in Parliament declaring that "freedom of the press is the birthright of the Englishman", which together with political freedom, personal and property freedom, and freedom of religion and belief constitute the most basic civil rights. And in the aforementioned freedom, "the freedom of the press is the strongest fortress of all freedom ... It is the sacred duty of every newspaperman to criticize the government... And the extent to which Freedom england will go is exactly what I am trying to find." At the same time, he filed a complaint strongly condemning the "illegal" search of his residence and printing factory (nearly fifty printers implicated and detained for no reason) because, according to British legal tradition, "his house is his castle". Finally, he also reaffirmed his status as a member of parliament and requested judicial immunity.
The House of Commons was sympathetic to Wilkes' plight, as they were concerned about the king's attempts to restore the monarchy and the destruction of the British constitutional monarchy since the Glorious Revolution. By vote, the house of commons' initial ruling found that the search and detention of Wilkes was "unlawful" and should be immediately remedied, and the parties were "compensated with a thousand pounds". The result greatly angered the king, and several councillors were "invited" into Hampton's Palace to be disciplined in person. Subsequently, the King used the usual methods of coercion and bribery to divide and disintegrate the parliamentary opposition, forcing the Lower House to make a decision "consistent" with the Upper House against his will. Wilkes was convicted and ordered to publicly destroy his work.
Wilkes, who was well versed in the law and studied law at Leiden University in the Netherlands, again defended that civil litigation (defamation) should not be ruled by Parliament, demanding that the case be heard instead by the Court of Common Pleas. Before the trial began, Wilkes addressed the judges and the crowd of solidarity: "I think that of all freedoms, the freedom of the middle and lower classes needs the most protection; today in my case the final verdict will be reached: the question of what is about to be decided is so important – whether British freedom is a reality or an illusion." Judge Baron Ashburton sympathized with Wilkes' plight, particularly opposing the government's violation of citizens' personal rights through a "general warrant": "To obtain evidence, to break into the residence of others with an anonymous arrest warrant is worse than the Spanish Inquisition ... This is a blatant mutilation of people's freedom and undermines Article 29 of the Magna Carta, which is directed against authoritarian power. ”
It is clear that the Wilkes case is not only a struggle between him (and the middle and lower classes he represents) and the ruling class (the crown), but also a struggle between two lines within the British ruling class. As the historian Paul Langford put it in His book Eighteenth-Century Britain, "the changing political nature of the 1760s will forever be associated with the new King George III and one of his most restless subjects, John Wilkes." According to another historian, Gordon Wood, the British freedom embodied in the Wilkes trial was both "a national identity and a state of mind," which is in line with the spiritual temperament of Milton in On the Freedom of the Press a century earlier. Wilkes's contemporary, Mandeville, in The Fable of the Bees, also proudly declared that "the Golden Age was first and foremost the Age of Freedom"—an ancient political conviction of the British.
Eventually, due to the king's forceful intervention, the Chancellor decided to try Wilkes in absentia (he had absconded from Paris, France" on "fear of guilt"), convicted of all charges, sentenced him to prison, and stripped of his citizenship (outlaw). During his exile in Paris, Wilkes lost his financial resources, lived on advance payments, was heavily indebted, and in a hurry, returned to Leiden at an "advanced age" of nearly half a hundred years to enroll (according to local decrees, university students could not be arrested for debt). In 1768, after four years of dormancy and hearing of a loosening of the domestic political situation, Wilkes immediately sneaked back to London and quickly set off a storm in British politics again (Sturm und Drang).
Wilkes' campaign upset the government and the king. The trouble-maker was the first to politely decline the wishes of his old friend Lord Temple: the latter suggested that he run in the pocket borough he controlled, and that he could return to Parliament effortlessly. But it was clear that Wilkes' goal was to make a "big move" – his preferred constituency was the City of London. In the British political tradition, the City is small in size but unique in stature: economically powerful and has its own judicial system, which is equivalent to an "independent kingdom" (on the eve of the Civil War, the leader of the parliamentary opposition, John Pym, hid here, and Charles I personally led a pursuit, but he did not succeed) – it is said that within the urban area, even if the king came, his royal driver would be ranked after the Lord Mayor of London. This election, despite Wilkes' confidence, ended in an unexpected defeat. The government issued a proclamation ahead of the election, requiring voters to fill in their names on the ballot papers – the wealthy merchants of the financial city, fearing that the authorities would settle accounts after the autumn, so they had to switch to others.
Wilkes then turned his attention to Middlesex County, where the financial city is located. The county is small in size, but the land tax paid on one-seventh of Britain is indicative of its economic importance, and its political status is corresponding: the county has eight seats in parliament (three in the Financial City). Not only that, but Wilkes chose this place for another important reason: Horne Tooke, a wealthy businessman, is his staunch political ally and the founder of the "Bill of Rights Supporters Association." The association raised £20,000 in a short period of time, which not only helped Wilkes pay off his debts, but also provided a strong guarantee for his campaign. At the same time, in order to satisfy the candidate's qualifications as a "propertied person", Lord Temple offered to transfer six hundred pounds of land worth six hundred pounds to Wilkes – in this way, everything was ready, and only the East Wind was owed.
In February 1769, the much-anticipated Wilkes won the Middlesex County Elections with "one thousand one hundred and forty-three votes, while the candidates put forward by the authorities received only two hundred and ninety-six." Londoners light bonfires to celebrate." But when the results of the election were reported to Parliament, they were judged to be "invalid" because it was not the result that the king wanted. Parliament ordered Middlesex county to re-organize the elections in March. This time, Wilkes was re-elected because his opponent was a bad-tempered lawyer and suffered from severe stuttering (most likely deliberately arranged by the county), and Parliament, fearing the king's wrath, once again declared the election null and void. Ahead of the April election, the government had done its homework. First, the state media spread rumors that Wilkes was "eroded in his private life", separated from his wife for many years (fact), and had multiple mistresses (part of the truth). Second, Wilkes's external communications were disrupted: his home was monitored, his letters were intercepted, and he was sometimes confined to traveling in disguise. Finally, before the formal vote, all his powerful political allies were "dissuaded" on the grounds that the election should "truly reflect the will of ordinary people." The most important thing is that seeing Wilkes's popularity, the official actually ordered the closure of his ballot box early.
Rao was so, the powerful Wilkes achieved a crushing victory for the third time. At this point, the king's irritation escalated into anger: he denounced the incompetence of the parliament and ordered the ouster of Wilkes at all costs — "My crown almost determines this." A panicked parliament ruled that Wilkes' candidate was unqualified (previously stripped of his citizenship) and instead declared his rival, Henry Luttrell, "legitimately elected" – a benevolent brother who, though a royal in-law, was of despicable character and had to be publicly "dueled" by his old father. This "reversal", while somewhat comforting to the king, provoked a strong backlash within Parliament. Former Prime Minister William Pitt denounced him as a "sharp axe to the roots of the tree of freedom," and Burke denounced the act as "shaking the foundations of the Constitution" and predicting that it would lead to a serious political crisis.
Sure enough. After the verdict was pronounced in the throne court, tens of thousands of people poured into the streets. According to historians, "not so many people have been seen on the streets of London since the prediction of the great earthquake in the early 1750s". The procession rampaged, smashing the glass of the shops along the street, and LeReter and his cohort were frightened and did not dare to go out for several days. At nightfall, the streets were brightly lit — Franklin estimated that on the two worst nights of the riots, it cost as much as fifty thousand pounds to burn candles in London. What is even more terrifying is that on the way to Wilkes' escort to the throne prison, the mob overturned the guards and hijacked the prison cart. Wilkes, shocked, quickly broke away from his "savior", fled to a tavern, dressed up in disguise, and quietly arrived at the prison in the twilight — history books are usually prisoners absconding from prison in disguise, and there is no other way to disguise himself like him. Shi Zai famously said before he went to prison: "Parliament does not abide by the law, but I must set an example." ”
Perhaps moved by his fearless spirit, the Prison of the Throne gave Wilkes a very special treatment: he enjoyed a luxurious private room, read the manuscript, received visitors, and everything was no different from ordinary people (he claimed to enjoy the courtesy of his friend Voltaire in the Bastille). There was an endless stream of people coming to visit, the vast majority of whom were women: half curious and half admiring. As a sign of love, they give gifts in large quantities, generously, and compare themselves to each other, even at the expense of ruining their families - they can be called the ancient "star chasers", the most famous of which is the socialite Duchess of Queensberry. In addition, the people of the American colonies held the "Friend of Liberty" in high esteem— Wilkes and Burke were two of the most sympathetic representatives of the American Revolution in Parliament—and even Benjamin Rush, the founding father of the American Revolution, was proud to see him. In a letter of 1769, Rush wrote: "A few days ago I had the privilege of having a meal with Monsieur Wilkes, who was in the prison of the Court of throne, accompanied by some gentlemen from the Americas and elsewhere in England... He was an enthusiast for the liberal cause of the United States. ”
In April 1770, Wilkes was released from prison. Having previously written off his "bad record" in Parliament, he finally got his wish and re-entered the lower house of Parliament, which the famous writer Horace Walpole had commented jokingly: Wilkes was imprisoned, and the British elected him as parliamentarian; if he was sent to the gallows, the British might elect him king. In fact, the king, who was always watching the outcome of the election, did feel a great deal of pressure: after Wilkes was imprisoned, his supporters took to the streets, even under the reactionary banner of "want Wilkes, not the king" (the pamphlet author imitated Pope's heroic two-way system, mocking "vicious judges and ministers joining forces to restrict the freedom of Wilkes and Britain"), and at the same time, sixty thousand people signed a love letter demanding the immediate release of the "protector" of British freedom. Marx later pointed out that the Wilkes Affair once had the potential to shake the power of King George III– and its momentum can be imagined.
The king was heartbroken by the hoodwinking and provocation of the "ignorant multitude," and even more bitterly against wilkes (whom Dr. Johnson called "the contemporary Cicero"), who "incited the masses." But the king also knew that wilkes' supporters could not be underestimated (especially after the outbreak of the American Revolution, the king was almost regarded as the culprit of this imperial "civil war"). Burke, an old opposition, once retorted the king to his face: "The question is not whether you have the power to make people miserable, but whether you have the responsibility to make them happy." Warren Hastings, who had been governor of India, prophesied: "When he [King George] is complacent about the safety of his crown, he should remember that this crown was taken from a (glorious) revolution, but also lost from a (American) revolution." In his speech, the playwright Sheridan, who had been a member of parliament for more than thirty years, stood up for Wilkes, declaring: "Corrupt upper house, tyrant tyrant, flattering court ... With just one newspaper that doesn't go under seizure, I can defeat them all. In the view of the veteran Whig politician, the essence of the Wilkes affair was that the people had the right to elect representatives, free from any coercion (the king) or restrictions (the government). This is a big matter, and it is related to the prosperity of the country, so it must not be ambiguous.
Wilkes certainly did not live up to the king's "concern" for him. It is said that his first major proposal after returning to the House of Commons was to change the festival of Fasting on January 30 to Carnival every year. It was the day of the beheading of Charles I, and Wilkes believed that the English people should not fast on that day, but should revel in binge drinking to celebrate the demise of tyrants and the triumph of freedom. Moreover, whenever Parliament approved royal expenditures, Wilkes would carefully review every sum of money and urge a cut where there was any doubt— on the grounds that taxpayers' money must be saved or else the people would be entrusted. For such a grand political "trick", although the king was angry, he was also monetized. To the king's annoyance, a group of rabbles in the Financial City seemed to be deliberately opposing the king, and actually elected Wilkes as a municipal magistrate in absentia during his detention, and later as a magistrate and treasurer, and elected him as the mayor of the financial city in 1774. During his more than a decade in office, Wilkes reformed the system, advocating a humanitarian approach to debtors and other criminals, removing their shackles and focusing on improving the prison environment. At the same time, he strictly forbade the court from participating in the auction of the parties' property, stipulating that the court could not charge additional fees, and that violators should not be severely punished (a judge who extorted the family of the offender was sentenced to death). In 1771, the government sent people to arrest journalists covering parliamentary debates, and Wilkes used the judicial privileges of the City to stop them. After a wanted warrant was issued in Parliament, Wilkes, seeing it as a flagrant violation of press freedom, refused to carry it out. He ordered the arrest of the members of Parliament on the grounds that "if you show a sense of authoritarianism, the people will show a spirit of resistance." ”
In his later years, Wilkes's political views became increasingly conservative. During the Gordon Riots of 1780, when he was in charge of guarding the Bank of England, he ordered the shooting of unarmed people (most of whom were his former fans), a move that left him disreputable. Since then, although he has proposed judicial reform, religious tolerance, and redistricting of constituencies in the Lower House, it has little to do with and has not had much impact on his previous claims of "the rights and interests of the middle and lower classes". The French Revolution of 1789 led to bloody massacres, which made him even more disheartened. According to historians, the warrior who dared to challenge the monarchy and the "old system" through the press and elections had now become an "extinct volcano." In 1790, Wilkes lost the middle-of-the-road race and withdrew from Parliament. His life seems to confirm the famous saying of Robert Frost's poem "Ten Mills" (1936): "When I was young, I did not dare to be too radical, for fear of being too conservative in my old age." ”
Editor-in-Charge: Huang Xiaofeng
Proofreader: Liu Wei