the charge of cutting a hazel twig while passing through the fields of Lawyer Scout, and afterwards as quickly released them when he discovered who they really were. The dishonesty of pettifoggers Fielding often denounced, and was amused by legal casuistry such as whether the defendant was mad or not. While waiting for briefs at Westminster Hall, he liked to listen, he says, to the arguments between Serjeant Bramble and Serjeant Puzzle. "Now Bramble throws in an argument; and Puzzle's scale strikes the beam; again, Bramble shares the like fate, overpowered by the weight of Puzzle. Here Bramble hits, there Puzzle strikes; here one has you, there t'other has you; 'till at last all becomes one scene of confusion in the tortured minds of the hearers." Another humorous complaint against lawyers was that they were inclined to talk too much about their profession on all occasions, and so spoil many times good company by keeping the conversation from general topics. Perhaps he once met Sir Francis Page, who died in 1741,—a coarse and brutal judge re'membered on the Western Circuit, over which he presided during the summer Assizes of 1737 and 1739. At least Fielding relates of him an incident which actually occurred at Salisbury.* As told by Partridge in "Tom Jones," a horse-stealer, who was tried before "Lord Justice Page," set up the defence that he had found the horse. "Ay!" retorted the judge, "thou art a lucky fellow; I have travelled the circuit these fifty years, and never found a horse in my life; but I'll tell thee what, friend, thou wast more lucky than thou didst know of: For thou didst not only find a horse, but a halter too, I promise thee." Yet beneath all Fielding's banter of his brethren was a most severe application to the law. Lean as his purse sometimes was, he collected a law library numbering more than three hundred volumes, the majority of which were in folio. * Mr. J. Paul de Castro, "Notes and Queries,'' 11 S. X, 253 (Sept. 26, 1914).

These books were studied and annotated in some cases as a preparation for treatises of his own. Fielding was in training for the Bench.

Circumstances, however, checked his immediate ambitions. The Ministry that had been patched up after the fall of Walpole was held in contempt by the politicians of both the Whig factions from which it had been formed. Consequently it had to face a torrent of abuse from the friends of Walpole, who wished to paralyze it, and from the members of the old Opposition, who were angry because their real leaders were left out. In an anonymous "Letter to a Friend in the Country," which appeared in April, 1743, the author declared that at no time in his memory had there ever been afloat so many scurrilous libels, lampoons, and ballads violating all truth and decency. Much of this scandal was laid to Fielding, notwithstanding his solemn promise in the preface to the "Miscellanies" that nothing should ever again come from his pen without his name. Probably he was not greatly troubled because his "Journey from this World to the Next" was quickly followed by an anonymous Lucianic vision, half religious, half political, entitled "A Particular Account of Cardinal Fleury's Journey to the other World, and his Tryal at the Tribunal of Minos. . . . . . With a curious Description of the Infernal Regions and their Inhabitants. By Don Quevedo, Junior, Secretary to Aeacus." Although Fielding had nothing to do with this pamphlet, it was subsequently advertised as his.

Within a few weeks, came a long verse satire on the legal profession, supposed also to have been written by Fielding "The Causidicade. A Panegyri-Satiri-Serio-Comic-Dramatical Poem. On the Strange Resignation, and StrangerPromotion. By Porcupinus Pelagius." Who the real author of this Grub Street production was, is not quite certain. "The Gentleman's Magazine" ascribed it, erro

neously I think, to a Mr. Hughes, who died a few months later. The expressive pseudonym was used afterwards by William Kenrick, one of Fielding's bitter enemies, and apparently by other facetious writers. In 1743, Kenrick, then only a boy, was too young to have been the author. The Porcupine of that year was probably Macnamara Morgan,† an Irish pettifogger, who later wrote poor plays and seems to have relied upon the newspapers for a living. He knew just enough of the London bar to abuse it. His poem derived its title and substance from the resignation of Sir John Strange, the Solicitor-General, and the appointment of William Murray, afterwards Lord Mansfield, in his place. Both the retirement of Strange and the selection of Murray for his office puzzled the general public; for the former, though appointed by the Walpole Government, had taken a stand in favour of the new administration, while the latter, being a Scotsman, was suspected of Jacobite principles. Porcupinus Pelagius undertook to lay bare the political transaction. Under a thin allegorical disguise, the "Inquisitor-General" summons his court, announces his resignation, and calls upon the candidates for his office to plead their claims. One after another, ten or twelve wellknown London lawyers of the several Inns, their names partially concealed by the dash, pronounce eloquent eulogies upon themselves, "from the zenith of B-tle to the nadir of W-ll-r"; but in vain, for Murray, in addition to all his qualifications-or rather disqualifications-has the support of the Court and the King. Though so free a use of their names must have been hotly resented by the younger members of the bar, the most offensive passage was levelled at Chief Justice Willes, who is described as having the "weak voice" of a "poor old woman." This "lawless libel" encountered a sharp reply in "Causticks applied to

"The Gentleman's Magazine,'' Nov., 1743, p. 569. "Notes and Queries," 2 S. I, 94 (Aug. 1, 1857).

the Causidicade . . . by B. Flavius Flap-Bugg of Barnard's Inn." Still it ran on through no less than four editions before the year was over. To have one or both of these wretched satires on his own profession and friends ascribed to him gave Fielding great pain. A few weeks before, "Thomas Bootle, Esq; Chancellor to His Royal Highness," and "George Weller, Esq; of the Middle Temple," and scores of other lawyers had subscribed to his "Miscellanies," and now in return they were being subjected to gross ridicule by a brother whom they had aided and supposed to be a gentleman at least. So it was made to appear to the public.

.

This trading on Fielding's literary reputation continued for a full year, until a book appeared that compelled him, in justice to the real author, to break silence. It happened in this way. While he was out of town in the spring of 1744, his sister Sarah published a novel entitled "The Adventures of David Simple: Containing An Account of his Travels Through the Cities of London and Westminster, In the Search of A Real Friend." Like her hero, Miss Fielding felt that she had no friend among her acquaintances who could help her; and in an "Advertisement to the Reader," appealed as a last resort to the public for support in her undertaking. The first edition of "David Simple" with its cry for help is a very rare book, unknown to all who have written of the novel. The "Advertisement" doubtless reflects in a measure Fielding's distressful circumstances in 1744 as well as his sister's. For this reason it is here quoted in full:

"THE following Moral Romance (or whatever Title the Reader shall please to give it) is the Work of a Woman, and her first Essay; which, to the good-natured and candid Reader will, it is hoped, be a sufficient Apology for the many Inaccuracies he will find in the Style, and other Faults of the Composition.

"PERHAPS the best Excuse that can be made for a Woman's venturing to write at all, is that which really produced this Book; Distress in her Circumstances: which she could not so well remove by any other Means in her Power.

"If it should meet with Success, it will be the only Good Fortune she ever has known; but as she is very sensible, That must chiefly depend upon the Entertainment the World will find in the Book itself, and not upon what she can say in the Preface, either to move their Compassion or bespeak their Good-will, she will detain them from it no longer."

The novel runs gently on friendship and good nature, with ingratitude as a foil to these virtues of the heart. Like the Heartfrees in "Jonathan Wild," David is "simple" because he is kind, honest, and generous. Miss Fielding kept her name off the title-page; the novel was written by "a Lady"; and bore the imprint of Fielding's publisher, Andrew Millar. Moreover, "David Simple" resembled "Joseph Andrews" in format-two handsome duodecimo volumes; the chapters were grouped in four books with facetious headings; and there were conversations in a stagecoach, on the road up to London, between a clergyman and an atheist, and Cynthia and a Butterfly. Altogether the novel was a rather pale yet delicate reflection of the master, just such a book as should come from the sister of Henry Fielding, who had lived with him, listened to his wonderful conversation, and read the books he thought not too hard for her. But people, not knowing that Fielding had such a sister, could not be blamed for ascribing "David" to him. Fielding had no good reason for being surprised on his return to London, to find himself the reputed author of an anonymous novel.

It was a curious situation. Fielding felt that his honour was at stake, for he had promised to put forth no more