_Papers of John Wilkes._
John Wilkes, it is well known, sent to the newspapers copies of Lord
Weymouth's and Lord Barrington's Letters respecting the riots in St.
George's Fields in 1768. We Can easily conjecture how he did or how he
might have, got possession of a copy of Weymouth's Letter, which was
addressed to the magistrates of Surrey; but Barrington's letter was
strictly official, and directed to the "Field officers, in staff
waiting, for the three regiments of Foot Guards." Has the circumstance
ever been explained? If so, where? Can any of your readers inform me the
_exact date_ of the first publication of Barrington's Letter in the
newspaper? Is it not time that Wilkes' Letters and MSS. were deposited
in some of our public libraries? They would throw light on many obscure
points of history. They were left by Miss Wilkes to Mr. Elmsley, "to
whose judgement and delicacy" she confided them. They were subsequently,
I believe, in the legal possession of his son, the Principal of St.
Alban's; but really of Mr. Hallam.