_The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling_, was published by Andrew Millar on the 28th of February 1749, and its appearance in six volumes, 12mo, was announced in the _General Advertiser_ of that day's date. There had been no author's name on the title-page of _Joseph Andrews_; but _Tom Jones_ was duly described as "by Henry Fielding, Esq.," and bore the motto from Horace, seldom so justly applied, of "_Mores hominum multorum vidit._" The advertisement also ingenuously stated that as it was "impossible to get Sets bound fast enough to answer the Demand for them, such Gentlemen and Ladies as pleased, might have them sew'd in Blue Paper and Boards at the Price of 16s a Set." The date of issue sufficiently disposes of the statement of Cunningham and others, that the book was written at Bow Street. Little more than the dedication, which is preface as well, can have been produced by Fielding in his new home. Making fair allowance for the usual tardy progress of a book through the press, and taking into consideration the fact that the author was actively occupied with his yet unfamiliar magisterial duties, it is most probable that the last chapter of _Tom Jones_ had been penned before the end of 1748, and that after that time it had been at the printer's. For the exact price paid to the author by the publisher on this occasion we are indebted to Horace Walpole, who, writing to George Montagu in May 1749, says--"Millar the bookseller has done very generously by him [Fielding]: finding Tom Jones, for which he had given him six hundred pounds, sell so greatly, he has since given him another hundred."