Character, as well as out of Charity with all Mankind, haunted by Duns and Bumbailiffs, hollow'd, hooted at and chased from every Side and by every Voice, I escap'd with whole Bones indeed, but d-bly mangled into these Purlieus of Safety, where no venemous Creatures dare enter."'*

Summarizing the attacks upon him, Fielding declared that the writers on the anti-ministerial press, as soon as they got hold of his name, "attempted to blacken it with every kind of reproach; pursued me into private life, even to my boyish years; where they have given me almost every vice in human nature." "Again," to quote further, "they have followed me, with uncommon inveteracy, into a profession, in which they have very roundly asserted, that I have neither business nor knowledge: and lastly, as an author, they have affected to treat me with more contempt, than Mr. Pope, who had great merit and no less pride in the character of a writer, hath thought proper to bestow on the lowest scribbler of his time. All this, moreover, they have poured forth in a vein of scurrility, which hath disgraced the press with every abusive term in our language." It was impossible, he said, for any man to defend himself against slander so determined and malicious. He could nevertheless console himself with the reflection that those who knew him would not take their opinion from those who knew him not. And then for the amusement of his readers, he illustrated by the death of Socrates how the scandalmonger, having a few facts, may pervert them to his purposes. Fielding called it "the Art of mixing up Truth and Falsehood." Socrates, it is well known, might have escaped from prison had he so desired; but he chose to die in the midst of his disciples after those wonderful conversa

*"'Old England," March 5, 1748. For other attacks, see "Old England,'' April 23, 30, June 25, and Nov. 12, 1748; and "The London Evening Post," March 12-15, 15-17, 29-31, April 7-9, July 28-30, Sept. 13-15, 17-20, Oct. 8-11, Nov. 5-8, 1748, and many other issues of these newspapers.

tions on the immortality of the soul. When his wife Xanthippe visited him on the morning of the last day, he was disturbed by her loud lamentations and requested a friend to remove "the troublesome woman." These are the facts according to Plato; but had there been an "Athenian Evening Post," the editor would have inserted the following paragraph on the occasion:

"WE HEAR the famous Atheist Socrates, who was lately condemned for Impiety to the Gods, refused to go out of Prison, tho' the Doors were set open, and defied the Government to execute him; a fresh Instance of his Obstinacy. He persisted likewise in uttering the most horrid and shocking Blasphemies to the last; and when his Wife, who, WE HEAR, is a Woman of remarkable Sweetness of Temper, and whom he hath very cruelly used on many Occasions, went to take her Leave of him, he abused her in the grossest Language, called her by several opprobrious Names, and at length prevailed on one of his Gang, who were there to visit him, to kick the poor Woman down Stairs; so that she now lies ill of the Bruises she received.''*

Inasmuch as "men of the best and most solemn characters" had no certain redress at law for libels against them, Fielding decided to erect a "Court of Criticism,' with himself as judge and lawmaker, for "the well-ordering and inspecting all matters any wise concerning the Republic of Literature, and for the correction and punishment of all abuses committed therein" by the horde of "loose, idle, and disorderly persons, calling themselves authors." It would not be, he promised, merely "a Court of Damnation," for he intended to recommend every book or writing in which he could discover the least merit. The public was strictly charged not to purchase any new book or to attend any new play at the theatres until it had received the approbation of the court. Bills of complaint might be presented *"The Jacobite's Journal," June 11, 1748.

in person or by letter; and in answer to them authors might appear with witnesses and counsel if they wished. Whichever way it happened, a fearless judge would render an impartial decision. All proceedings of the court, which would sit weekly, were to be reported by the clerk in "The Jacobite's Journal" and nowhere else. The account of these transactions, begun in the seventh number, was continued down through the thirty-third, with four omissions in weeks when there came from the press no book worth the slightest consideration.

Before his court Fielding summoned the worst literary offenders to meet their fate. "The Fool" and the editor of "The London Evening Post" were easily convicted of scurrility. The author of "The Letters to the Whigs" was adjudged guilty of calumny; and a sentence of infamy was accordingly pronounced against him. "Porcupine Pelagius," none other in the court's opinion than "Argus Centoculi" under another name, was denounced in a scathing address to the culprit for libelling the law, the church, and the editor of "The Jacobite's Journal" in "Old England" and various satirical poems such as "The Causidicade" and "The 'Piscopade"; but in view of the scribbler's wretched condition, the court thought it sufficient to commit "Porcupine Pillage" to "the Bridewell of Billingsgate" for a month and to stand for a full day in the pillory of "The Jacobite's Journal" with two opprobrious Latin verses pasted over his head. Ever since 1743, a literary hack connected with the newspapers had been collecting stray poems and publishing them under the title of "The Foundling Hospital for Wit"; hence Fielding's "Hospital for Scoundrels." This writer, known as "Samuel Silence," pleaded so pathetically his poverty in excuse for the crime of attempting to impose bastard wit upon the public for true and legitimate humour, that the judge not only dismissed him but gave him a half-crown to purchase bread.

Much fun was derived from Thomas Carte's "General History of England," the first volume of which made its appearance in December, 1747. This work, based upon considerable research, would have met with a favourable reception but for an unfortunate note asserting that one Christopher Lovel of Bristol, while at Avignon in 1716, was cured of "a scrofulous humour" on his neck by the touch of the Old Pretender, though the head of the House of Stuart at that time had been neither crowned nor anointed. By the Jacobites the miracle was regarded as absolute proof of the Chevalier's pure blood, of his descent from a race of kings that for a long succession of ages had touched for the king's evil. Immediately the wits fell upon Carte and the newspapers professing to believe the idle tale which he told; and the Common Council of London, who had been aiding Carte in his work, withdrew their subvention of fifty pounds a year. Carte was duly seized and brought before the Court of Criticism, on an indictment for stealing his silly story from an old woman with the intention of deceiving weak and credulous people. Though the prisoner pleaded not guilty, the charge was clearly proved against him, and he was judged to be and to remain perpetually under the contempt of the court. The next week Mr. Carte's counsel explained to the court that the note on Lovel got into the history through the carelessness of a scribe while the author was asleep; whereupon the judge, taking into consideration the infirmities of the historian, ordered his clerk to erase the word "contempt" and to write in its place the word "compassion," so that the sentence of condemnation would read that the said Carte was merely an object of compassion.* Continuing a jest that pleased the town, Fielding published an ironic protest, signed "True Blue," from the Jacobites of Manchester against his endeavours to discredit the miraculous cure of *"The Jacobite's Journal," Feb. 20 and 27, 1748.

Lovel, accompanied by a blank-verse poem in mock praise of the "Immortal Carte"; and when the ass and his retinue were removed from the front of "The Jacobite's Journal," the emblem was given to Mr. Carte that it might be prefixed to the next volume of his great work.

In this foolery occurred an interesting episode. Of the many pamphlets in circulation for and against Carte one was sent forth by Cooper in January, 1748, entitled "A Letter to John Trot-Plaid, Esq; Author of the Jacobite Journal. Concerning Mr. Carte's General History of England." The anonymous author, claiming to belong to the Scots branch of the historian's family, styled himself "Duncan MacCarte, a Highlander," and dedicated his sixpence worth of wit to the patrons of his distinguished kinsman. Though slight in texture, the pamphlet is a wellsustained piece of irony, in appearance lauding Carte's history for its clear and vigorous style, full and accurate facts, jocose and smart thrusts at the new kings, their ministries, and their measures, but in fact utterly condemning the book as the work of a blunderer whose head is but a confused jumble of ideas. On reading the effusion, Mr. Trottplaid found that it contained wit and humour, and so recommended it to his brother Jacobites throughout the kingdom. The man who perpetrated on the public a joke in which Mr. Trottplaid and Mr. MacCarte regaled each other with mutual flatteries was Samuel Squire, afterwards Bishop of St. David's. At the time he addressed Fielding as "Dear Trott," he was Archdeacon of Bath and Chaplain to the Duke of Newcastle.

Once Judge Trottplaid gave way to justifiable anger. For a year or more Samuel Foote, the actor and manager of Covent Garden Theatre, had been diverting the town with satirical performances mixed with mimicry. Few of them were ever published, but their general character is "The Jacobite's Journal," Jan. 30, 1748.