King's youngest son, the Duke of Cumberland, he proceeded south to Derby, which was reached on December 4, and saw the way open to London, where he hoped to eat his Christmas dinner. But he was never to traverse that hundred and fifty miles of road. Few English Jacobites dared join him; the French, who had been counted on to invade southern England, held aloof; and so the disappointed Prince was forced, in order to escape annihilation, to turn backwards, with the Duke of Cumberland in hot pursuit. At the beginning of the triumphal progress south, when no one could foretell what the result would be, Fielding launched, on November 5, 1745, "The True Patriot: and The History of Our Own Times," a weekly newspaper to appear on every Tuesday: It was printed for "M. Cooper, at the Globe in Pater-Noster-Row," who had published Fielding's two pamphlets; and at his bookshop were to be left all advertisements and "letters to the author," of which the latter were to be carefully addressed that Mrs. Cooper, who managed the business, might not open them by mistake, thinking they were intended for her. Subsequently the editor had another and more convenient office at the shop of George Woodfall, "near Craig's Court, Charing-Cross." Other places where the newspaper might be had, were the shops of Andrew Millar in the Strand, Mrs. A. Dodd without Temple Bar, and Henry Chappelle in Grosvenor Street, of whom the last had been a partner in "The Champion." Though Smollett later charged Fielding with being in the pay of the Government, there is no basis for the insinuation. That Fielding was encouraged by his friends in the Ministry, that they gave him access to trustworthy political news, is clear enough; it is probable, too, that they purchased a certain number of copies for free distribution; but there are no indications that he was directly employed by them. "The True Patriot," on the face of it, appears to have been an enterprise of a book

seller-perhaps of a group of them-as strongly antiJacobite as the editor, with both of whom patriotism counted much, and money somewhat less at just, that time. Their pamphlets had sold, and the next step was a periodical.

Fielding's first leader is a pleasant essay on the changing fashions in dress, amusements, and literature, working itself out into a statement of his design in establishing "The True Patriot." Left solely to his own inclinations, he would hardly have taken to journalism for the display of his literary genius; but as his bookseller, "a man of great sagacity in his business," has informed him that "no body at present reads any thing but newspapers," it is the part of wisdom for an author to conform to "the reigning taste." By neglecting this golden rule, Milton, says Fielding, lived long in obscurity, and the world "nearly lost the best poem which perhaps it hath ever seen"; whereas by adhering to it, "Tom Durfey, whose name is almost forgot, and many others who are quite forgotten, flourished most notably in their respective ages, and eat and were read very plentifully by their cotemporaries." Though not the highest literary ambition, it is probably worth while, Fielding thinks, to set a better standard for the London newspapers, now in the hands of "the journeymen of booksellers," who, having no regard for truth, fill their columns with scandal and nonsense, or at best with trivial paragraphs wholly lacking in human interest, to say nothing of a style so wretched that one wonders whether it is English. Of course an honest newspaper, conducted by "a gentleman" instead of a Grub Street writer, will cost rather more than the other weeklies, which sell at twopence; but a reader should consider that by paying an extra penny he will "gain six times the knowledge and amusement'; in fact that threepence a week will give him all the news besides much entertainment. entertainment. Just as no man will drink

"cider-water" if he can get champagne, so Fielding expects that hereafter no one will read any newspaper but "The True Patriot."

Who the author or editor is, must be left, says Fielding, to the conjecture of the curious, though he is quite willing to give a few hints to the "sagacious guesser." It is clear that he is the "gentleman" he professes to be, for the first number contains nothing scurrilous; and furthermore, that he is of no party, for there is no abuse of Whig or Tory. The editor's style and knowledge of politics incline one to believe if I may fill out Fielding's stars and dashes-that he is my Lord Bolingbroke; his zeal for the Protestant religion looks as if he were perhaps Dr. Hoadly of Winchester; while his wit and humour make it probable that he is none other than Lord Chesterfield himself. For these and other reasons, he may be Mr. Winnington, Mr. Dodington, Mr. Lyttelton, Mr. Fielding, or Mr. Thomson the poet; "or indeed any other person who hath ever distinguished himself in the republic of letters." At any rate, it is certain that he is "a true patriot," convinced (to take a phrase from the second leader) that "the preserving the present Royal Family on the throne, is the only way to preserve the very being of this nation." So far as this, Fielding lent his hearty support to the Government, some distinguished members of which, he led the public to think, would contribute a share of their ability to an enterprise in which "no person, how great soever, need be ashamed of being imagined to have a part"; for "The True Patriot" will never publish anything "inconsistent with decency, or the religion and true civil interest of my country."

Besides the leader, a typical number of "The True Patriot" had a résumé of foreign news under the heading "The Present History of Europe," dealing mostly with Continental politics and the varying fortunes of England and her allies in the war with France; and a longer account

of the movements of the armies in the North, labelled "The Present History of Great Britain." Fielding's observations on the rebellion, running through the first numbers, were especially commended at the time for their moderation. His point of attack was not the Scottish people, whom he loved and honoured, but that band of "outlaws, robbers, and cut-throats" which the Pretender collected for an invasion of England. These banditti, he maintained, were not representative of Scotland. The Scottish nation as a whole-her nobility, her gentry, her clergy, the common people of the Lowlands-remained, he averred, loyal to the House of Hanover. It might have been expected that the initial success of the rebellion would have swept vast numbers into the ranks of the Highlanders; but such had not been the case. "Except outlaws, and one or two profligate younger brothers, there is not," said Fielding, "a single man of any name in the Kingdom, who hath given sanction to the Pretender's cause." All this redounded to the glory of Scotland. The politics of the first number were enlivened by ridicule of the Pretender and his master the Pope, and by "A Loyal Song" to the tune of Lillibullero, "proper to be sung at all merry meetings." A few announcements from the booksellers completed an issue. To Fielding's credit were excluded all those accounts of nostrums by quack doctors of those pills, drops, and tinctures which disgraced eighteenth-century journalism. In place of them, an advertisement, written by himself and for which he received no pay, does the man the greatest honour. In the ninth number we may read in italics :

A

NY Person who hath enough of real Christianity to preserve a large Family from Destruction by advancing the Sum of Two hundred Pounds, on a reasonable Prospect of its being repaid, may hear further Particulars, by applying to Mr. Millar, Bookseller, opposite Katharine Street in the Strand.

Fielding dealt little in the general news, political or other, of the ordinary newspaper except to burlesque it. Such news as he regarded of genuine interest usually formed a part of "The Present History of Great Britain." It was his practice to gather from the newspapers of the week about a page of the more absurd paragraphs and to reprint them with comment beneath the headlines: "APOCRYPHA. Being a curious Collection of certain true and important WE HEARS from the News-Papers." He liked to show how one newspaper contradicted another, or how an item was rendered valueless by the vagueness of the rumour upon which it was based. On observing two "we hears" in a single paragraph of "The General Advertiser" he remarks: "As two negatives make an affirmative, two 'we hears,' I am afraid, amount to a negative." The same newspaper announced that the Duke of Richmond's regiment was at Lichfield; and Fielding, in printing the news, adds: "The Duke hath no regiment." The public was informed that yesterday the saddles for the Duke of Bedford's Regiment of Horse set out from town; whereupon Fielding comments: "As the Duke of Bedford hath only a regiment of foot, it is probable these saddles will shortly set out on their way home again." "The Daily Advertiser" said, "We hear that the Rebels are much afflicted with the bloody flux"; to which Fielding replies that "it is a distemper which may probably increase, if General Hawley should be able to come up with them." Two men were committed to prison-Patrick Hand as a sneak thief, and Thomas Sutton for stealing old iron. The former, Fielding thinks, made "an ill use of his name"; while the latter "will probably experience the danger Hudibras asserts there is in meddling with that commodity," if the lines be true

Ay me! what perils do environ

The man that meddles with cold iron!