nies of the Christian faith. The energy and the
earnestness which other men devote to the advancement of some public
cause, to the furtherance of their country's welfare, or even to the
gratification of their own ambitions, these men devoted to a passion
for being pre-eminent in sin, conspicuous in infamy. If they succeeded
in nothing else, they succeeded in making their names notorious and
shameful, they succeeded in stirring the envy of men no better than
they, but less enabled by wealth or position to gratify their passions.
They succeeded in arousing the loathing not merely of honest men, but
even of the knaves and fools whose rascality was not so rotten and
whose folly was not so foul as that of the noblemen and statesmen who
rioted within the walls of Medmenham.

It is curious and melancholy to record that the leading spirits of this
abominable brotherhood were legislators in both Houses of Parliament,
men of old family, great position, large means, men holding high public
office, members of the Government. Their follies and their sins would
scarcely be worth remembering to-day were it not for the chance that
gave them for companion and ally one of the most remarkable men of his
age, a man whose abilities were in striking contrast to those of his
associates, a man who might almost be called a man of genius.

{48}

John Wilkes was the son of a rich distiller and of a Presbyterian
mother. He had received a good education in England and at Leyden,
where so many of the Englishmen of that day went as students. He had
travelled much in his youth upon the Continent. On his return he was
induced by his father, he being then only two-and-twenty, to marry a
lady who was exceedingly rich, but who had the misfortune to be at
least ten years older than her husband. It is scarcely surprising to
find that the marriage did not turn out happily. Wilkes was young,
fresh from the bright Continental life, delighting in pleasure and the
society of those who pursued pleasure. How far a happier marriage
might have influenced him for good it were idle to consider. His
marriage he regarded always and spoke of always as a sacrifice to
Plutus, not to Venus, and he certainly was at no pains to make it any
more of a sacrifice than he could help. His wild tastes, his wild
companions soon sickened and horrified Mrs. Wilkes. The ill-matched
pair separated, and remained separate for the rest of their lives.

Wilkes was delighted t