veiled the only religion in the world, which hath ever taught the doctrines of benevolence, peace and charity, to be the foundation of hatred, war, and massacres? Have I not propagated ambition, with the doctrine of humility? . . Doth not the Book say, Do unto all men, that which you would have them do unto you? And have I not made them, in mere obedience to this law, do unto all men every thing, which they would most fear to have others do unto themselves?" The Pretender is represented as being instigated by the Pope, who in turn is in league with the Devil, and has become worse than his master. As Fielding conducts the dialogue, the Devil appears before the Pope, who proposes to him the establishment of the Inquisition in England; but the Devil stares at the proposal as beyond anything he had ever had in mind. Thereupon the Pretender enters, and the conversation proceeds between the three, the Devil having disguised himself, at the Pope's suggestion, in the robes of Cardinal Alberoni, that his cloven foot may be concealed from the young gentleman. The Pope bids the Pretender godspeed, and promises him 100,000 indulgences and 200,000 curses for his use; but when the Pretender asks that his chaplain be made Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope becomes very angry, and compels .him to submit wholly to the church in all ecclesiastical appointments.

Before they have done with him, the Pretender accepts the divine right of kings as explained by the Devil, and promises to regard England as a fief held at will from the Pope, to restore the abbey lands, and to massacre all the heretics. As soon as the Pretender leaves, the Devil laughs at the Pope for his impossible project of subduing England to the Church of Rome and refuses to grant so great a bungler a further leave of five years' power. "Was not Alexander the Great," says the Devil, "contented, that I suffered him to live but half your age? Did not he say,

1

he had lived enough to glory, that is, in other words, he had done mischief enough? whereas you know what a large lease I granted you, and yet you are not satisfied. . . . None of your wild projects for me; shew me you can do any real service to my cause, which another will not execute as well, and I will give you as much time as is necessary to complete it; otherwise, as soon as your lease is expired, I shall expect you below according to Articles: And so I kiss your toe. "The Pope angered at the want of respect, exclaims as the Devil passes out: "Impudent rascal! but I will have my terms of him yet, or I'll blow up his church, and send his Inquisition back to the place from whence it came."

Both of these shilling pamphlets appeared anonymously. "A Serious Address" has been mentioned once or twice. by writers on Fielding, for he afterwards referred to it as his own in a note to "A Proper Answer to a Late Scurrilous Libel," but it has hitherto existed as a mere title; it seemed to have been lost. "A Dialogue between the Devil, the Pope, and the Pretender," which is really supplementary to "A Serious Address," has so far escaped all notice, but it is certainly from Fielding's pen; he advertised the two pamphlets together in "The True Patriot" of November 26, 1745, as by "the same author." Both may be found in the catalogue of the British Museum-the one under "Great Britain," the other under the "Devil.” While their literary merits are not of the highest order, they represent good pamphleteering, and are interesting as preliminary to Fielding's return to political journalism.

II

The Pretender, having become master of most of Scotland, began his march south near the first of November, and took Carlisle on the fourteenth. Thence, outwitting the English army, now under the general command of the

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. 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