PLACED UNDER MR. BANKS's FINE BUST OF JOHN HORNE TOOKE, ESQ. -- ON HIS BIRTHDAY IN MDCCCX 

ARISE! portray THE PATRIOTIC MAN,
with intellectual arch of broadest span;
who, nursed in Wisdom, early took his stand       
near the Palladium of his native Land,
her Laws, and Constitution made his own,
nor feared in their defence to stand alone.

Up, Truth immortal!- tell the Earth and Skies, 
this was the Alan that carried Virtue's prize:
scarce, like the fruitful bud, perceived at first, 
admired when his unblighted blossoms burst; 
nourished by Learning's deep delicious streams, 
matured through Freedom's sun-like partial beams; 
gentle as love,-- indulgent as desire, 
candid as patience,-- bold as native fire; 
intuitive sagacity -- inborn 
acumen-- noble rectitude, just scorn 
are His, -- foe only to the brood 
of heart-corrupted Statesmen lost to good; 
Him, all-consistent, oft his country saw, 
inflexible to every pow'r but Law, 
England's Leonidas, first of the band 
faithful to death to serve their native land, 
loyal in every bearing of the word 
to Law, to Right, the People, and their Lord:
Reason's mild son, legitimate and just, 
who never took a single truth on trust;
for never-fading honours conscious joy, 
tried all things by a rigid manly sense, 
and proved his principles at Life's expense:
yet still He lives, beloved, admired, obeyed,
gay, in his garden's ever-grateful shade, 
with mercy launching shafts of keenest wit,
while Flora, and Pomona near him sit, 
and Mercury the winged-words supplies, 
that waft our mortal thoughts beyond the Skie 

O ! well-poised steddy-Virtue, heaven's delight, 
thousands admire, yet few attain thy height! 
of Life the honour, Liberty the throne, 
possessing thee, the world is all our own; 
onward we march, despising Fortune's frown, 
through thee partaking, Glory, Health, Renown 
the splendor that illumines Psyche's cave, 
and everlasting joys beyond the grave!

                                                          G.

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Who was John Horne Tooke?

John Horne, the son of a prosperous poulterer, was born in Westminster in 1736. Educated at Eton and Cambridge University, he became a lawyer and later, to please his father, in 1760 was ordained a priest and became a minister in Brentford.

In the early 1760s John Horne became interested in politics. He became friendly with John Wilkes, a man whose journal, The North Briton, had upset George III and his Tory government. In 1765 Horne wrote an anonymous pamphlet, The Petition of an Englishman, that defended Wilkes.

On 20th February 1769, a lawyer, John Glynn, organised a meeting at the London Tavern to discuss the refusal of the House of Commons to accept the election of John Wilkes. Glynn subscribed £3,340 to form an organisation, the Bill of Rights Society, that would help support the campaign to reinstate Wilkes. Robert Morris, a Welsh barrister, was elected secretary, John Horne Tooke became treasurer. Other members of the group included John Sawbridge, the MP for Hythe,  Sir Cecil Wray, MP for East Retford and Sir John Molesworth, MP for Cornwall.

Meetings of the Bill of Rights Society took place fortnightly at the London Tavern. At first the main objective of the society was to "maintain and defend the liberty of the subject, and to support the laws and constitution of the country." John Horne Tooke, who eventually became the most important figure in the Society, believed that the organisation should campaign for a radical programme of parliamentary reform. Tooke managed to do this but some members disagreed and it was this conflict that eventually brought the Bill of Rights Society to an end in 1771. Horne now formed his own group, the Constitutional Society, to campaign for for parliamentary reform. In 1775 Horne attacked the government's actions in America and was imprisoned for libel. After his release from prison Horne joined with Major John Cartwright to establish the Society for Constitutional Information.

John Horne's campaign against the Enclosure Acts brought him to the attention of William Tooke, a wealthy landowner from Purley. The two men became close friends and in 1782 Horne adopted Tooke's surname. John Horne Tooke was strongly influenced by the ideas of Tom Paine and after the publication of The Rights of Man in 1791 he began to work closely with Thomas Hardy and the Corresponding Society.

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Tooke, John Horne