CHAPTER XV

THE TRUE PATRIOT

I

The publication of the "Miscellanies" was followed by a period of silence extending over two years and a half, except for one occasion midway when Fielding explained why he was writing no more. Near the close of his preface to the "Miscellanies," he had declared that he would never again publish a book or pamphlet without setting his name to it. Subsequent to this promise, he evidently determined to employ his pen no longer in fiction and political pamphlets, whether anonymous or not. With his "Miscellanies," containing such stray pieces as he wished to preserve, his literary career was to end. Thereafter he would devote himself wholly to the law. If he wrote anything more, it should be on legal subjects. This, if I understand Fielding rightly, was his resolution. He was then only thirty-six years old, and there was yet time for a solid reputation in the law, towards which numerous friends, as seen by the array of legal names among the subscribers to his "Miscellanies," were encouraging him. The decision to cut loose from literature and to rely wholly upon the law for a livelihood meant an heroic struggle. His wife was in declining health, his gout was increasing; nevertheless he took the plunge.

So far as his gout would permit, Fielding was constant, says Murphy, in his appearance at Westminster Hall during term time, and regularly attended every March and August the Assizes on the Western Circuit, which included

Winchester, Salisbury, Dorchester, Exeter, Taunton, Wells, and other towns, where he had lived and tramped in his youth. Among his companions on the Western Circuit were his cousin Henry Gould, subsequently a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and the two future Lord Chancellors whom I have already mentioned-Robert Henley and Charles Pratt. But one searches in vain for the name of Fielding along with theirs in connection with the important trials of the period. The inference is that his practice was confined to small cases, of which he may have had few or many. A story got into the "Annual Register" of 1762 that after attending the judges on the Western Circuit for two or three years without success, he then published proposals for a new law book, which raised him in so high favour among the country people that he was for a time "loaded with briefs at every town." But, it is added, "his practice, thus suddenly increased, almost as suddenly declined.''* The law book of the anecdote was probably the "Miscellanies," the only book that Fielding ever published by subscription. Proposals for its publication, if circulated at the Assizes in 1742, may well have prepared the way for more business during the next two years. But Fielding's wide acquaintance in the West and his full devotion to the law, now that he had abandoned politics and literature, must also be reckoned with. He was making extraordinary efforts to succeed.

His delight in the law, despite the hard labour, is apparent in "Joseph Andrews," which draws much of its humour from the administration of country justice and legal anecdotes. There is the justice, in from a fox-chase, before whom Parson Adams was brought on a charge of robbery, whose custom it was never to commit a gentleman, whatever the offence; and Justice Frolic who condemned Joseph and Fanny to Bridewell at the request of Lady Booby on * ́ ́Annual Register," 1762, under "Characters,” p. 18.

the charge of cutting a hazel twig while passing through the fields of Lawyer Scout, and afterwards as quickly released them when he discovered who they really were. The dishonesty of pettifoggers Fielding often denounced, and was amused by legal casuistry such as whether the defendant was mad or not. While waiting for briefs at Westminster Hall, he liked to listen, he says, to the arguments between Serjeant Bramble and Serjeant Puzzle. "Now Bramble throws in an argument; and Puzzle's scale strikes the beam; again, Bramble shares the like fate, overpowered by the weight of Puzzle. Here Bramble hits, there Puzzle strikes; here one has you, there t'other has you; 'till at last all becomes one scene of confusion in the tortured minds of the hearers.". Another humorous complaint against lawyers was that they were inclined to talk too much about their profession on all occasions, and so spoil many times good company by keeping the conversation from general topics. Perhaps he once met Sir Francis Page, who died in 1741,-a coarse and brutal judge remembered on the Western Circuit, over which he presided during the summer Assizes of 1737 and 1739. At least Fielding relates of him an incident which actually occurred at Salisbury.* As told by Partridge in "Tom Jones," a horse-stealer, who was tried before "Lord Justice Page,' set up the defence that he had found the horse. "Ay!" retorted the judge, "thou art a lucky fellow; I have travelled the circuit these fifty years, and never found a horse in my life; but I'll tell thee what, friend, thou wast more lucky than thou didst know of: For thou didst not only find a horse, but a halter too, I promise thee." Yet beneath all Fielding's banter of his brethren was a most! severe application to the law. Lean as his purse sometimes was, he collected a law library numbering more than three hundred volumes, the majority of which were in folio. * Mr. J. Paul de Castro, "Notes and Queries,'' 11 S. X, 253 (Sept. 26, 1914).

These books were studied and annotated in some cases as a preparation for treatises of his own. Fielding was in training for the Bench.

Circumstances, however, checked his immediate ambitions. The Ministry that had been patched up after the fall of Walpole was held in contempt by the politicians of both the Whig factions from which it had been formed. Consequently it had to face a torrent of abuse from the friends of Walpole, who wished to paralyze it, and from the members of the old Opposition, who were angry because their real leaders were left out. In an anonymous "Letter to a Friend in the Country," which appeared in April, 1743, the author declared that at no time in his memory had there ever been afloat so many scurrilous libels, lampoons, and ballads violating all truth and decency. Much of this scandal was laid to Fielding, notwithstanding his solemn promise in the preface to the "Miscellanies" that nothing should ever again come from his pen without his name. Probably he was not greatly troubled because his "Journey from this World to the Next" was quickly followed by an anonymous Lucianic vision, half religious, half political, entitled "A Particular Account of Cardinal Fleury's Journey to the other World, and his Tryal at the Tribunal of Minos. . . . With a curious Description of the Infernal Regions and their Inhabitants. By Don Quevedo, Junior, Secretary to Aeacus." Although Fielding had nothing to do with this pamphlet, it was subsequently advertised as his.

Within a few weeks, came a long verse satire on the legal profession, supposed also to have been written by Fielding

"The Causidicade. A Panegyri-Satiri-Serio-Comic-Dramatical Poem. On the Strange Resignation, and StrangerPromotion. By Porcupinus Pelagius." Who the real author of this Grub Street production was, is not quite certain. "The Gentleman's Magazine" ascribed it, erro