Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 18.djvu/427

 Covent Garden; J. H. Steffens made it into a German comedy; and in 1765–6 it was transformed into a comédie lyrique by Poinsinet, of which Mr. Austin Dobson gives an amusing specimen. In 1785 ‘Tom Jones à Londres,’ by a M. Desfarges, was played at the Théâtre Français. The most recent adaptation is ‘Sophia,’ by Mr. Robert Buchanan (1886), who has since (1888) dramatised ‘Joseph Andrews’ as ‘Joseph's Sweetheart.’ ‘Amelia’ followed ‘Tom Jones’ on 19 Dec. 1751. Millar is said to have paid 1,000l. for the copyright. He adopted some devices in consequence of which a second edition was called for on the day of publication. Johnson ‘read it through without stopping’ (, 12 April 1776), and said that the heroine was ‘the most pleasing of all the romances;’ but he added, ‘that vile broken nose, never cured, spoilt the sale of perhaps the only book of which, being printed off betimes one morning, a new edition was called for before night’ (, Anecdotes, p. 221). Yet Johnson preferred Richardson to Fielding, whom he called a ‘blockhead,’ by which, as he explained, he meant ‘a barren rascal’ (, 6 April 1774). The original edition of ‘Amelia’ contained some curious little puffs of a proposed ‘Universal Register Office’ or advertising agency, which Fielding with his brother John was endeavouring to start. Fielding's last purely literary performance was the ‘Covent Garden Journal,’ a bi-weekly paper, from January to November 1752. It brought him various quarrels with Sir John Hill, Smollett, and Bonnell Thornton.

Fielding was meanwhile labouring energetically as a magistrate. A passage in the above-mentioned letter from Walpole describes an intrusion made upon Fielding by Rigby and Peter Bathurst. They found him at supper on some ‘cold mutton and a bone of ham, both in one dish, and the dirtiest cloth.’ With him were ‘a blind man’ (clearly his brother, Sir John), ‘a whore’ (a polite way of describing his wife), and ‘three Irishmen.’ Rigby, according to Walpole, had often seen him ‘beg a guinea of Sir C. Williams,’ and he had ‘lived for victuals’ at Bathurst's father's. The insolence of Fielding's visitors is obvious, and Walpole adds his own colouring. The anecdote shows rather that Fielding's position was despised by Walpole's friends than that there was anything really ‘humiliating’ (in Scott's phrase) about it. The position, however, of a justice was at that time regarded with suspicion, as appears from references in Fielding's own plays. On 12 May 1749 Fielding was unanimously chosen chairman of quarter sessions at Hicks's Hall, and on 29 June delivered a very careful and serious charge to the Westminster grand jury. He published in the same year a pamphlet, justifying the execution of one Bosavern Penlez, convicted of joining in a riot and the plunder of a house by some sailors. In January 1750 he published an ‘Inquiry’ into the increase of robbers in London, with suggestions for remedies. It was dedicated to Hardwicke, then lord chancellor, and insists gravely upon the social evils of the time, especially upon the excessive gin-drinking which then caused much alarm, and led to the passage of a restrictive bill that summer. Walpole (Memoirs of George II, i. 44) mentions the influence of Fielding's ‘admirable treatise.’ Hogarth's famous ‘Gin Lane,’ published in February 1751, contributed to the impression due to his friend's writing. Fielding frequently advertises in the ‘Covent Garden Journal’ to request that notices of thefts and burglaries may be sent to his house in Bow Street. In 1752 he published and distributed a curious little pamphlet giving accounts of providential detections of murderers. In January 1753 he published a ‘proposal for making an effectual provision for the poor,’ containing a very elaborate scheme for the erection of a county poor-house. Fielding's remarks upon the operations of the poor laws show both knowledge and intelligent reflection, though he attracted little attention at the time. Later in 1753 he became conspicuous by his connection with the famous case of Elizabeth Canning. He took [see under ] a questionable part in his zeal to protect what he regarded as injured innocence, and defended himself in a pamphlet called ‘A Clear Case of the State of Elizabeth Canning.’ He was attacked by Sir John Hill, and seems to have taken a rather singular view of his duties. In March 1753 he made a raid upon a gambling-house, where he expected to find certain highwaymen (Gent. Mag. March 1753). His health was now rapidly breaking. He was easily persuaded to adopt quack remedies. At the end of 1749 he had a severe attack of fever and gout, and was under the care of Dr. Thomson, who had the credit of killing Pope in 1744 (, p. 383) and Winnington in 1746, and was one of Dodington's hangers-on (see, Memoirs). In 1751 he testifies to the effect of a wonderful spring at Glastonbury, which had been revealed in a dream to a man who was cured of an asthma by its waters. Fielding declares (London Daily Advertiser, 31 Aug. 1751; Gent. Mag. September 1751) that he had been himself relieved from an illness. In August 1753, after taking ‘the Duke of