'A second and a very strong Motive with us, is to lend all the Assistance in our Power to a very worthy and willing, tho' weak Brother, the learned and facetious Novelist, Mr. _Carte_; whose great Romance, tho' in our Court of Criticism, where we shall always act impartially, we have been obliged like other Judges, to condemn, contrary to our own Inclinations, to be grubb'd, we shall always privately esteem as a work calculated solely for the use of our Party. As we have therefore, to our great Concern, received very credible Information that the said work begins already to be considered only as a Heap of Waste Paper, we have thought proper to lend our Frontispiece to our good Brother, in order that it may be prefixed to the future Volumes of that great Work advising him to omit the words _London Evening Post_, and to insert _English History_ in their stead. This will not fail of greatly recommending his Performance to our Party, who never willingly read anything but what an Ass may at least be supposed to have bray'd. 'I could wish, moreover, that the learned Novelist would take our Advice in another Instance, and for the future deal forth his excellent work in weekly Portions or Numbers; I do not mean in such a Form as the real History of _England_ is now publishing by Mr. Waller; but in the same manner with those true and delectable Histories of _Argalus_ and _Parthenia_, _Guy_, Earl of _Warwick_, the _Seven Champions_, &c., in which Form, at the price of 1d. each, when embellished by our Frontispiece, I make no doubt of assuring him as universal a Sale as the inimitable Adventures of _Robinson Crusoe_ formerly had throughout this Kingdom.' The 'Mr. Carte' to whom Fielding proposed to lend his 'Frontispiece' was Thomas Carte, the historian, who had just brought out the first volume of his _History of England_, in which he showed such decided Jacobite predilections that his work was ruined in consequence. He professed to be acquainted with the case of a person who had been cured of the King's Evil by the Pretender, then an exile in France, and this so disgusted many of the subscribers to his book that they withdrew their names and abandoned the author and his work together. He, however, brought out two more volumes, and a fourth was published after his death. It was probably in allusion to this story of the Pretender curing the King's Evil that Fielding speaks of Carte as 'the learned and facetious novelist;' and doubtless the 'great Romance' referred to was intended for his history of England. Fielding and Carte both died in the same year, 1754. [Illustration: PERSPECTIVE VIEW OF FORT FOURAS, AS IT APPEARED IN THE SHIPS FROM THE CHARENTE, FROM 'OWEN'S WEEKLY CHRONICLE,' 1758.]