To what extent he was occupied by literary work during his probationary period it is difficult to say. Murphy speaks vaguely of "a large number of fugitive political tracts;" but unless the _Essay on Conversation_, advertised by Lawton Gilliver in 1737, be the same as that afterwards reprinted in the _Miscellanies_, there is no positive record of anything until the issue of True Greatness, an epistle to George Dodington, in January 1741, though he may, of course, have written much anonymously. Among newspapers, the one Murphy had in mind was probably the _Champion_, the first number of which is dated November 15, 1739, two years after his admission to the Middle Temple as a student. On the whole, it seems most likely, as Mr. Keightley conjectures, that his chief occupation in the interval was studying law, and that he must have been living upon the residue of his wife's fortune or his own means, in which case the establishment of the above periodical may mark the exhaustion of his resources. The _Champion_ is a paper on the model of the elder essayists. It was issued, like the _Tatler_, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Murphy says that Fielding's part in it cannot now be ascertained; but as the "Advertisement" to the edition in two volumes of 1741 states expressly that the papers signed C. and L. are the "Work of one Hand," and as a number of those signed C. are unmistakably Fielding's, it is hard to discover where the difficulty lay. The papers signed C. and L. are by far the most numerous, the majority of the remainder being distinguished by two stars, or the signature "Lilbourne." These are understood to have been from the pen of James Ralph, whose poem of _Night_ gave rise to a stinging couplet in the _Dunciad_, but who was nevertheless a man of parts, and an industrious writer. As will be remembered, he had contributed a prologue to the _Temple Beau_, so that his association with Fielding must have been of some standing. Besides Ralph's essays in the _Champion_, he was mainly responsible for the _Index to the Times_ which accompanied each number, and consisted of a series of brief paragraphs on current topics, or the last new book. In this way Glover's _London_, Boyse's _Deity_, Somervile's _Hobbinol_, Lillo's _Elmeric_, Dyer's _Ruins of Rome_, and other of the very minor _poetae minores_ of the day, were commented upon. These notes and notices, however, were only a subordinate feature of the _Champion_, which, like its predecessors, consisted chiefly of essays and allegories, social, moral, and political, the writers of which were supposed to be members of an imaginary "Vinegar family," described in the initial paper. Of these the most prominent was Captain Hercules Vinegar, who took all questions relating to the Army, Militia, Trained-Bands, and "fighting Part of the Kingdom." His father, Nehemiah Vinegar, presided over history and politics; his uncle, Counsellor Vinegar, over law and judicature; and Dr.