16 FEBRUARY 1918, Page 17

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

[Notice in this colonels does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.] Wilkes and the City. By Sir William Treloar. (John Murrray. 12s. net. )—This is a very readable Life of Wilkes, laying special stress on his long and intimate connexion with the City. The author, himself an ex-Lord Mayor and an Alderman for Wilkes's old ward of Farringdon Without, has. collected a great deal of fresh and interesting information about his hero's masterful dealings with the City Fathers. It was characteristic of Wilkes that, after his election to the well-paid office of Chamberlain in 1779, he declined to resign his seat as an Alderman ; when his re-election was opposed in 1791, he declared " that he would live and die an Alderman of the City of London," with the approving cheers of the Livery. As Cham- berlain, the stormy petrel of politics had to make speeches on behalf of the City to the eminent men who were admitted to the freedom. It is curious to think of Wilkes solemnly welcoming Pitt and Nelson.