him_." His comments on weekly news items are no less characteristic than those hidden in the columns of the _Patriot_. Thus, on a trotting match, he observes, "Trotting is a Sport truly adapted to the English Genius." And on a man found dead in Jewin Street "formerly an eminent Dealer in Buckrams, but [who] being greatly reduced is supposed to have died for Want," he notes, "_either of Common Sense in himself or Common Humanity in his Aquaintance_." His own humanity is shown in the wise appeals, repeated on more than one page of the _Journal_, for some effective provision for the distressed widows and children of the poor clergy. And his unbiassed judgment appears in the _amende honorable_ to Richardson, in the form of generous and unstinted praise of _Clarissa_. The first number of the _Jacobite's Journal_ was dated Dec. 5, 1747, and 'Mr. Trott Plaid' formally takes leave of his subject exactly eleven months later, on November 5, 1748, declaring that Jacobites were, by then, little to be feared. [8] Ten days before this last 'brandish' of Fielding's Constitutional pen, on October 26, 1748, his oaths had been received as a Justice of the Peace for Westminster. [1] These are in the Burney Collection, and are inscribed "These papers are by the celebrated Henry Fielding Esqre." [2] See the _Gentleman's Magazine_. Dec. 1747. [3] _A Free Comment on the Late Mr. W-G-N's Apology ... By a Lady ..._ 1748. [4] _The Patriot Analized_. 1748. [5] _True Patriot No. 14_. [6] _True Patriot_. No. 29. May 20, 1746. [7] R. Cobbett. _Memorials of Twickenham_, 1872. [8] The _Journal's_ epitaph was promptly written by a scurrilous opponent in lines showing that the prominences of Fielding's profile were well-known: Beneath this stone Lies _Trott Plaid John_ His length of chin and nose. See the _Gentleman's Magazine_, November 1748. CHAPTER XI TOM JONES "In God's Name let us speak out honestly and set the good against the bad." No. 48 of the _Jacobite's Journal_.