PREFACE.

In this supplementary volume of the works of Fielding will be found the Case of Elizabeth Canning,' as stated by the great novelist himself, in vindication of his conduct, as a magistrate, in that very mysterious affair. Its purpose is to refute the harsh animadversions of some respectable writers, who viewed the merits of the transaction through a medium, which imparted to that strange and appalling picture of human conduct a form and complexion very different from the impression which it had made upon himself, after he had investigated the matter with scrupulous attention, and the sagacity of an accomplished criminal lawyer. That it is a triumphant vindication no one who will read it with attention can help admitting; although the poor young creature's narrative is fraught with incidents that border closely upon the precincts of improbability. But these doubtful points are conclusively disposed of, after being put forward in the most effective manner by the author himself. He there appears as a pleader of great acuteness and rare logical discrimination.

To this case is now, for the first time, added that of Bosavern Penlez, who was hanged for a robbery in one of the three houses which were sacked by a mob during the Strand Riots' in 1749.

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On this occasion, also, the magisterial conduct of Fielding was severely animadverted on, and the government accused of having acted contrary to the spirit of the constitution. But here, likewise, he fairly exonerated his judicial character from all blame; while, at the same time, he showed that the Government had not infringed the barriers of constitutional law, as it then existed.

In a moral point of view the case of Penlez falls far short of that of Canning, in regard to the story; for it consists, in a great measure, of statements as to Acts of Parliament respecting riots, from the outbreak of Wat Tyler, in Richard II.'s reign, to the Riot Act of George I.; and of affidavits in evidence of those Strand Riots of 1749, and of the guilt of Penlez. But still it is interesting to the admirers of the greatest of English novelists, as a record of the fact, that the committal of the accused, on that occasion, was not an unhumane overstraining of the law; for he proves, by the sworn testimony of trustworthy witnesses, that Penlez was guilty of burglary, and as that crime was then deemed capital felony, there was no other alternative left him but that which he pursued. Here it is a consolation to know that we live in a time when a wretched creature, whose theft may spring not from inherent roguery, but possibly from the poignant goading of starvation and destitution of all kinds, cannot now be hanged by the neck until he is dead' for stealing anything to the value of thirteen-pence. It was sworn, also, that Penlez was seen among the rioters in one of the sacked houses in the Strand, to whose owner be

longed the wearing apparel found in the possession of the unfortunate young man. But, supposing him to be only guilty of riot, Fielding shows that that was a crime which the early statutes he quotes looked upon as treason against the king; and that, therefore, the passing of the Riot Act of George I. could not be considered unconstitutional.

So bitter were the aspersions cast upon him on that occasion, that, in order to guard himself against the charge of being unjust or devoid of clemency, he ventures to assert that he felt that the milk of human 'kindness' formed a characteristic ingredient of his mental constitution; and that this rendered it a painful necessity for him, while affirming the strict adherence of his conduct to the constitutional law of England, to call forth from its silent resting-place the name of the unhappy Penlez.

And certainly no one can read his works, with discriminating care, without feeling assured that good-nature was an essential and abundant element of the capacious mind of Harry Fielding. Thus it was his name was called, long after his death, by his old friend, David Garrick, when, upon receiving in its soiled and neglected garb the comedy of The Good-natured Man,' he exclaimed, in tones of affectionate remembrance, 'the lost sheep is found! This is Harry Fielding's comedy.'

To show that Fielding was not presumptuous in arrogating to himself the possession of a fair share of that quality which Shakespeare has so beautifully named, it may not be out of place here to quote a few lines from his Epistle on Good-nature, addressed to the good Duke

of Richmond, who knew his character well, and must have known that the sentiments expressed therein were the genuine effusion of his kindly heart. In that poem he says, in answer to the question, What is goodnature ?

'Is it not virtue's self? A flower so fine,
'It only grows in soils almost divine.'

And again

'What by this name, then, shall be understood?
'What but the glorious lust of doing good?'

And again

'O! great Humanity, whose beams benign,
'Like the sun's rays, on just and unjust shine;
'Content what Nature lavishes admire,
'Nor what is wanting in each piece require;
'Where much is right, some blemishes afford,
C Nor look for Ch- -d* in every Lord.'

Here is clemency, that benign attribute of Good-nature, recommended as a safeguard against undue captiousness in judging of any one's character. And as a

satirist Fielding was, all through life, careful in following the charitable injunction which he has thus poetically and enthusiastically enjoined. For instance, while alluding, in the preface to his Miscellanies, to his 'History of Jonathan Wild the Great,' as he calls him, he says that Roguery, and not a Rogue, is his subject; and that, in drawing the portrait of that detestable character, he had not used any particular individual as his model; but, on the contrary, had with his utmost art avoided it.' But yet he concludes

* Chesterfield.

with the following pungent sarcasm upon vicious and unfeeling persons :

". . . So will any such application be unfair to my reader, espe'cially if he knows much of the great world, since he must then be 'acquainted, I believe, with more than one upon whom he can fix the ' resemblance.'

So far, indeed, was he from bitterly subjecting his enemies to personal reproaches, that he was never reluctant in awarding them their just meed of praise; as he did, for instance, in regard to his distinguished rival Richardson.

Though the insertion of the very singular and interesting story of Elizabeth Canning, and that of Bosavern Penlez, never before printed in any collected edition of Fielding's writings, is a considerable enhancement of the value of this edition, yet it would not be in accordance with the strongly expressed wishes of his readers were we to exclude those poems of his which are contained in the first volume of his Miscellanies, published by Miller in 1743.

With regard to the poetic phase of Fielding's genius, it will be allowed by all, who are instinctively affected by the charms of poetry, and are familiar with his works, that his mind was imbued with a fine sense of the beautiful, which is the essential ingredient without which the spirit of poetry cannot exist.

That this spirit of poetry doth not always need the aid of verse for its exhibition, and that Fielding was endowed by natural instinct with an ample share of it, are facts which are admirably exemplified in the following glowing passage from Tom Jones,' which announces the first approach of the charming Sophia Western :