gentlemen who are absent. There is no sign of Fielding's former collaborator on "The Champion." Ralph was primarily a political writer, and politics were excluded from "The Covent-Garden Journal." Nor is there anyone who looks much like Lyttelton. At first sight we may think that we have a glimpse here and there of Garrick; but on closer view he invariably turns out to be Fielding himself in the habit of the actor and theatrical manager.

CHAPTER XXV

BATTLE OF THE WITS

Fielding's reappearance in the rôle of journalist was an event of prime interest to his contemporaries. Since his "failure" (so his enemies said) with "The True Patriot" and "The Jacobite's Journal," he had published “Tom Jones" and had acquired further prestige as the chief police magistrate of the metropolis. The attention which he gained from friends and foes alike was immediate. Beginning with the first number, his articles were generally reprinted, somewhat abridged, not only in the two most substantial monthlies of London but also in "The Scots Magazine" and other periodicals of the North. There was also a queer piracy over in Dublin, called directly "The Covent-Garden Journal." On the title-page stands out in large letters the name of "Henry Fielding Esq." as the alias of Sir Alexander Drawcansir. The publisher was the well-known pirate "James Hoey, at the Sign of the Mercury, in Skinner-Row," who had long been accustomed to lay his hand upon any London book or pamphlet for which he thought there would be a sale in Ireland. He began his periodical, the first number appearing on Thursday, January 23, 1752, as a weekly; but soon afterwards it was turned into a semi-weekly in order to satisfy the demands of the students at Dublin University during term-time. Fielding's leaders and humorous pieces supplied Hoey with most of his material for many months. The Dublin "Covent-Garden Journal," however, was not an exact reprint of the original. Though the robber took such

leaders as he wished from Fielding, he frequently reworked them in part by way of adaptation to Dublin society. As time went on, he pillaged other London periodicals, and obtained fresh contributions and news-items from Dublin University. It was a successful enterprise. Long after the gentleman ceased to draw his sustenance from Fielding, the Dublin periodical, under varying titles, lived on for several years. Doubtless Fielding's novels had been sought all along by University students, but this is the only authentic record we have that any of these young men were eager to read and imitate what he had written.

In contrast with Fielding's silent admirers throughout the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, were the noisy gentlemen of the metropolitan press, who made it a business to belittle all his works. "The Covent-Garden Journal" in conjunction with "Amelia" became the literary stormcentre of 1752. Since we last saw Argus Centoculi, he had changed his skin. "Old England" was now conducted by "Jonathan Free, of the Duchy of Cornwall, Esq." Apparently the clever scoundrel under these disguises was now William Kenrick, the scurrilous versifier and pamphleteer. Apparently, too, he had appropriated some time since the name of "Porcupine Pelagius," stealing it from one Morgan. As the Porcupine of the Sea, he had drawn in "The 'Piscopade" (1748) a satirical sketch of Fielding as a turncoat politician; and in "The Scandalizade" (1750) he had ridiculed Fielding's praise of Hogarth in "Tom Jones" as that of a jackanapes trying to ingratiate himself into the favour of a lion. It was clearly the same man, also, who had dedicated to Fielding in mockery "The Old Woman's Dunciad" (1751). In turn Fielding had treated him with the utmost contempt in "The Jacobite's Journal." Whoever the man was, he never abated in his hostility towards Fielding. As Jonathan Free, he crawled out of his lair and began to spit venom as soon as he heard that the

impotent author of a bawdy novel intended to take down his old hurdy-gurdy and drone forth once more the sad music of Covent Garden. Kenrick tried hard to make out that the new periodical was being established as an organ of the Pelham Ministry. In "Old England" for January 11, 1752,* he has an essay on "Fame, Lucre, and Poverty" as "the grand Springs of human Actions," and illustrates his text, after turning "fame" into "infamy," by the many transformations of "Harry Foolding, Esq," a discredited novelist and trading-justice, not long ago masquerading as John Trottplaid, and now as a superannuated virago called "Goody Drawcansir." In the career of this man ever ready to alter his face, one may see, Kenrick asserts, lucre, poverty, and infamy in all their colours. To show just how "The Covent-Garden Journal" came into existence he adds the "Fragment of a Farce, not intended for the Press, tho' now acting" on a stage concealed from the people. In the first scene enters alone Harry Peg'em, otherwise Henry Pelham, in great distress over the failure of his foreign policy. Treading upon his heels, comes Littlebones, that is, Lyttelton, who suggests that they again employ the impudent fellow who wrote their "Jacobite's Journal" to distract the attention of the public from the critical state of affairs at home and abroad. Thereupon Harry Foolding appears and learns what his masters want of him. A quid of tobacco somewhat embarrasses his speech, but, after removing it, he succeeds in telling them that as their servant he will obey their commands.

This and all other efforts to lure Fielding into politics were in vain. Nothing was left for "Old England" except general abuse of an idle justice of the peace who turned his office over to a brother and wasted his time in writing dull paragraphs on the news of the day, which nobody could read. Not one coffee-house in four, it was asserted, would * See also 'Old England" for Dec. 21, 1751, and Jan. 18, 1752.

admit the new journal, "celebrated" as it was in the author's own opinion. This nagging evoked no direct reply. The truth is, Fielding had long ago done with "Old England," now in its decline. He had no desire to fight over again, as he was invited to do, the political battles of 1747-1748. They were all dead issues. There was at least live game to be encountered in a passage at arms with "The London Daily Advertiser," whose leaders, written by Dr. John Hill, were the talk of the town.

This man we have already met in the company of Tom Jones and Elizabeth Canning. He was a clergyman's son who, instead of following his father's profession, became an apothecary and eventually obtained a medical degree from the University of St. Andrews, and admission to the Royal Academy of Sciences at Bordeaux. His specialty was the brewing of herbs into various "teas" for the correction of human ills. He discovered, for example, a cure for the gout, the disease of which he himself died. The year before his death he was honoured by the King of Sweden with the Order of Vasa, which entitled him, he thought, to sign himself Sir John Hill; and as early as 1752 he could write after his name, "Doc. Acad. Reg. Scient. Burd. etc. Soc." He was a handsome man about thirty-six years old, and he dressed like a beau. His previous history was known to everybody, for he did not put his light under a bushel; it always burned conspicuously on a candlestick. When Fielding was manager of the Little Theatre in the Haymarket, Hill, who had an apothecary's shop near Covent Garden, was trying to become an actor. Failing in this endeavour to rise in the world, he subsequently wrote a treatise on the actor's art, and submitted a play called "Orpheus, an English Opera," to Rich of the Covent Garden Theatre. Rich not only rejected the piece, but accepted and brought out only a few months later an "Orpheus and Eurydice" by Theobald. Hill, enraged at