Note 161 — No. XVII.

[John Horne Tooke was educated for the Church, and in 1760 became vicar of New Brentford. Resigning this he studied the Law, but being a clergyman was refused admission to the Bar. At first he supported Pitt, then a promising Reformer, publishing in 1788 his “Two Pair of Portraits,” disadvantageously contrasting Fox and his father with Pitt and his father. But Pitt not fulfilling his hopes, he became his bitter opponent and softened his animosity towards Fox. In 1775 he was imprisoned for a libel on the king’s troops in America. In 1790 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Westminster; the other candidates being Fox and Admiral Sir Alan Gardner. In 1794 he was tried, in company with Thelwall and others, for high treason, when all were acquitted. In 1796 he again stood for Westminster, and failed; but in 1801 he obtained a seat in Parliament for Old Sarum, on the nomination of Lord Camelford. A remarkable memoir of him was contributed to the Quarterly Review, vol. 7, by Lord Dudley, Secretary for Foreign Affairs in Canning’s administration, 1827–8.—Ed.]