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. |