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made kind inquiries after his health, but who left neither card nor name. Thinks they did him much honour." I assume from the fact of meeting with nothing similar in my researches into newspaper journals of Sir John Fielding's day, that it was not customary at that time thus to return thanks for kind inquiries into one's health, where no indication was given of the name or address of the inquirer, and, if so, this public mode of thanking his friends shows that Sir John Fielding was, as I have said, both a kind and courteous man.

Henry Fielding was a man of brilliant ability as a novelist. It is the general opinion that his "Tom Jones" is the best novel ever written. Lord Byron called him "the prose Homer of human nature." The reading world has derived so much gratification from his "Joseph Andrews," "Tom Jones," and other works of fiction,-not omitting some of his dramatic productions-that one cannot help regretting that he was called away at so early a period of his life, having died in his forty-seventh year; and still more the causes of his death. These were chiefly his early excesses. It is due, however, to his memory to say that in his various works he always commended virtue and condemned vice. With regard to the follies and immoralities which characterized his conduct soon after emerging into manhood, and for some time subsequently, he has recorded in the prologue to his "Modern Husband," the deep regret he felt in later life at the course he then

pursued.

he says:

In that prologue, speaking of himself,

At length, repenting frolic flights of youth,

Once more he flies to Nature and to Truth;

In Virtue's just defence aspires to fame,

And courts applause without the applauder's shame.

Fielding was coarsely and unceasingly assailed during the time he was a newspaper editor, or known contributor, by contemporary editors of journals, in some instances because of opposite party views, but probably more because of personal dislike; but an ample compensation to his memory for this abuse has been rendered in the "Life of Fielding," which proceeded wellnigh fifty years ago from the pen of a no less no less popular author than Sir Walter Scott.

Fielding died on the 8th of October, 1754, at Lisbon, where he had gone in the hope of restoring his health, which was so bad, through dropsy and a combination of other diseases brought on by the previous irregu larities of his life, that it made him a lamentable object to look at. Yet amidst all this bodily wreck, he retained some of the finest feelings of our nature, as is evident from the following passage extracted from entries in his "Journal," on the day he left London for Lisbon,-only three months and a half before his death. Writing under date June 26th, 1754, Mr. Fielding says: "On this day the most melancholy sun I ever beheld arose and found me awake at my house at Fordbrook. By the light of

this sun, I was, in my own opinion, last to behold. and to take leave of some of those creatures on whom I doted with a mother-like fondness, guided by nature and passion, and uncured and unhardened by all the doctrines of that philosophical school where I had learned to bear pains and to despise death. In this situation, as I could not conquer nature, I submitted entirely to her, and she made as great a fool of me as she had ever done of any woman whatever ; under pretence of giving me leave to enjoy, she drew me in to suffer, the company of my little ones during eight hours; and I doubt whether in that time I did not undergo more than in all my distemper."

There is not only something touchingly tender in the sentiments embodied in this brief passage, but something exquisitely beautiful in the language in which they are expressed. Who can help feeling the deepest regret that any one possessing so fine a mind and warm a heart, should have been consigned to the grave at the comparatively early age of forty-eight, by the dissipated life which he had been taught to live through listening to, and acting on the doctrines of that philosophical school "in which he had been taught to bear pains and to despise death."

Mr. Fielding was a voluminous writer, though but comparatively few of his works are now known. Mr. Frederick Lawrence, in his "Life of Fielding," gives the titles of exactly fifty productions of his pen; but

the great majority of their number consist of pamphlets which possessed only a temporary interest; of dramas, and of republications of his contributions to the Newspaper Press. The "Joseph Andrews" and "Tom Jones" of Henry Fielding will, however, be alone sufficient to hand down his name and fame to generations yet to come.

CHAPTER VI.

TEN YEARS' NEWSPAPER HISTORY.

Dr. Smollett-The Briton-The North Briton-Mr. John Wilkes -Press Prosecutions in the Middle of the Eighteenth Century -Circulation of Newspapers-The Middlesex Journal-The Public Ledger-Oliver Goldsmith-The General Advertiser— Revival of the Question of Parliamentary Reporting-Proceedings against the Lord Mayor by the House of Commons for a Breach of Privilege-Horne Tooke.

We are now approaching a period in the history of the Newspaper Press of Great Britain which will ever occupy a prominent place in our journalistic annals. In the year 1762, on May the 29th, Dr. Smollett, the author of "Roderick Random" and the "Continuation of Hume's History of England," started a newspaper under the title of the Briton. It was no

secret that, though started in Smollett's name, it was at Lord Bute's suggestion, and that the funds were supplied by him, he being then the Prime Minister of George III. This paper, edited, as I have said, by Smollett, had only a brief existence, having ceased before six months had elapsed from its commencement. I refer to it, in connexion with our early newspaper history, because the decidedly strong part it took, in its very first number, in favour of the Bute Minis

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