"Jack," said famed Samuel Johnson, "has great variety of talk. Jack is a scholar, Jack has the manners of a gentleman." Jack (John Wilkes, 1727-1797) was also a rowdy, a beerhouse brawler, a blasphemer, a fornicator, a publisher of lewd and libelous literature. He was expelled from the House of Commons, outlawed, deported and cast into prison when, upon his return, King George III refused to pardon him. . . . But Whigs, great, rich, respected, thronged his prison cell, for Jack was a Hero. The freeholders of Middlesex had four times elected...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
