known Men remarkable for the opposite Modesty possess it with the Mixture of any other good Quality. In this Fault then you must indulge me: for should I ever see you as high in Power, as I wish, and as it is perhaps more my Interest than your own that you should be, I shall be guilty of the like as often as I find a Man in whom I can, after much Intimacy discover no Want, but that of the Evil abovementioned. I beg you will do me the Honour of making my Compliments to your unknown Lady, and believe me to be with the highest Esteem, Respect, Love, and Gratitude Sir, Yr most obliged humble Servant HENRY FFIELDING To the Honble George Lyttelton, Esqr"'* The request was not granted, though Lyttelton soon came to Moore's aid in other ways. There may have been some immediate assurances, for on August 10, 1749, Edward Moore led Jenny Hamilton to the altar. The year of labour and new friendships closed for Fielding in gloom. Succeeding the controversies over Penlez, he was visited by the severest attack of gout that he had ever had. In "The General Advertiser" for December 28, we read: "Justice Fielding has no mortification in his foot as has been reported: that gentleman has indeed been very dangerously ill with a fever, and a fit of the gout, in which he was attended by Dr. Thompson, an eminent physician, and is now so well recovered as to be able to execute his office as usual." The physician who attended him was Dr. Thomas Thompson, the quack whose improper treat* From the autograph in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. ment of Winnington, the wits said, had put an end to that eminent statesman's career. Fielding knew the story, and yet employed him. The doctor had another patient in the house whom his physic could not cure. On December 17, 1749, Mary Amelia, who had breathed the Bow Street air a scant year, was buried at St. Paul's, Covent Garden. Her place was taken a month later, on January 21, 1750, by Sophia, christened after the daughter of Squire Western. But before the new year, beginning so auspiciously, was over, Fielding lost two of his sisters-Catherine and Ursula-who were laid at rest in Hammersmith; the former on July 9, the latter on November 12, 1750. A third sister, Beatrice, was buried by their side on the twenty-fourth of the following February. Of the spinsters only Sarah remained to survive him. His brother John soon married, took over as assisting justice a share of the routine business of the court, and thus enabled Henry to give more attention to literature and the larger questions arising out of his office. During these months no cases comparable to the riots of 1749 came before the court, though organized disturbances threatened and demanded prompt action. With reference to one of them, Henry wrote to the Duke of Bedford: "My Lord, In obedience to the Commands I have the Honour to receive from your Grace, I shall attend to-morrow morning and do the utmost in my Power to preserve the Peace on that occasion. I am, with gratitude and Respect, Your Grace's most obliged most obedient humble servant. Bow Street, May 14, 1750.""* * Miss Godden, "Henry Fielding," p. 221. From autograph at Woburn Abbey. Fielding also nipped in the bud a conspiracy against the life of the Lord Chancellor entered into by the keepers of three notorious gambling-houses which had been closed by his lordship's order. In a letter to a lawyer named Hutton Perkins we see the two men preparing to confer over the case: "Sir I have made full enquiry after the three Persons and have a perfect account of them all. Their characters are such that perhaps three more likely Men could not be found in the Kingdom for the Hellish Purpose mentioned in the Letter. As the Particulars are many and the Affair of such Importance I beg to see you punctually at six this evening when I will be alone to receive you-and am, Sir, Y most obedient humble servant Bow Street. Nov! 25. 1750."'* As time went on, only cases like these required Fielding's personal attention. Eventually, minor misdemeanors were left to his brother. Thus relieved from constant attendance in the court room, the principal justice was able to bring his intelligence to bear on the most difficult criminal problem of the time-the suppression of house-breaking and highway robbery within the metropolis and on the roads leading to it. * British Museum, "Additional MSS.,'' 35591, f. 147. CHAPTER XXI THE MIDDLESEX MAGISTRATE II WAR AGAINST ROBBERY AND MURDER No description can easily exaggerate the lawless state of London when Fielding took office. The following item from the newspapers of December, 1748, is but typical of the violent crimes occurring every week and almost every day: "This evening, as a gentleman and lady were going out of Drury-lane playhouse, a pickpocket snatch'd at the lady's watch, upon which the gentleman collar'd the fellow; but immediately another came to attack the gentleman, who behaved very gallantly, by immediately running the fellow thro' the body, and he died in half an hour afterwards. Not only pickpockets, but street-robbers and highwaymen are grown to a great pitch of insolence at this time, robbing in gangs, defying authority, and often rescuing their companions, and carrying them off in triumph."* Horace Walpole, returning from Holland House on another evening, was robbed in Hyde Park, after the skin of one cheek had been grazed by the highwayman's bullet. Near the same place his uncle Horatio was stopped and had his face scorched with powder. These were common incidents within the heart of Westminster-in the Haymarket and Piccadilly, right under the Duke of Devonshire's wall. Within the memory of man, streets and roads had never been so infested with footpads, while highway"The London Magazine," XVII, 570 (Dec., 1748). |