Wilkes, John

The North Briton-Volume III

      London: Printed for J. Williams, 1763. 206pp. Sixteenmo [16 cm] Full brown leather with raised bands, a gilt tooled spine, and gilt stamped decorative borders on the covers. Gilt rolled edges. Marbled edges and endsheets. Very good condition. The edges of the covers are lightly rubbed. There is a 1 inch crack in the front joint at the foot of the spine. There is a former owner's bookplate on the front pastedown. The pages are clean and bright. The book is very sturdy. John Wilkes was a malt distiller, an English radical, journalist libertine, and politician. When the Scottish John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, came to head the government in 1762, Wilkes created this radical weekly publication, The North Briton, to attack him, using an anti-Scots tone.