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I. Observations on Government, the Liberty of the Press,
News-papers, Partys, and Party-writer[s]
The writer's arguments in defending Walpole and his government against
the attacks of antiministerial journalists anticipate HF's defense of the Pelham
administration in the late 1740s, when he complained against the abuse
of the Liberty of the Press by hired "Incendiaries" and ridiculed "the Multitude,"
who were swayed by such demagoguery, for presuming to think they
were competent to discern "the secret Springs by which the Wheels of State
move"—competent, that is, to judge the policies of the present government.
Opening with an epigraph from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations that
also serves as the conclusion to the essay in The Comedian, Fielding in The
True Patriot (4-11 March 1746) would repeat the essayist's argument, though
the essayist's "inferior Tradesman," a haberdasher in his coffee-house, has
given place to "the lowest Mechanic," a cobbler in his two-penny club. Having
in a critic who would judge the productions of musician, painter or
writer, HF considers the case of "the Politician, whose Talents are often
misrepresented, and his honest Endeavours defeated, by total Want of Skill,
and Weakness of Judgment, in those who take to themselves a Right of
giving a definitive Sentence in Politics." He continues:
The Mischief arising from Incapacity in the Judge, in this last Instance, is on
many Accounts the greatest, and particularly in this, as it is the most extensive: For
all the Sciences [HF had mentioned earlier], though there are many who assume
the Office of deciding, without any adequate Qualification, yet there are some who
have the Modesty to confess their Ignorance; whereas, in Politics, every Man is an
Adept; and the lowest Mechanic delivers his Opinion, at his Club, upon the deepest
Public Measures, with as much Dignity and Sufficiency as the highest Member of the
Commonwealth.
Now it is scarce probable that a Cobler, or indeed any other Man of Trade, nay
not even the Country Squire himself, if he be a Sportsman, should find Time sufficient,
from the Business of their several Callings, however well they may be qualified,
to search much into the History and Policy of the several States of Europe; and
thence to form an adequate and perfect Judgment of the true Interest of their own
Country, as it stands connected with, or opposed to that of others. Hence therefore
it may frequently happen, that the wisest and best Measures of a Ministry may not
meet with the Approbation of a Two-penny Club, or a Meeting of Fox-hunters.
235-236)
The same argument asserting the incompetence of "the Multitude" to
judge the appropriateness or efficacy of the government's policies is reintroduced
in The Jacobite's Journal (8 October 1748):
To speak plainly [Fielding writes], I am a little inclined to doubt whether Politics
(tho' it seems at present to be thought the universal Science, and within the Reach
of every Capacity) be, indeed, the proper Study of the Multitude; since Experience,
I am afraid, if not Reason, must convince us, that they are herein liable to commit
rather grosser Errors than their Superiors.
The following Observations on Government, the Liberty of the Press, Newspapers,
Partys, and Party-writer[s], were communicated to me by a Friend.
As Nature hath[9]
stamped on every Face[10]
Something particular, whereby
it may be distinguished from those of all other Men,[11]
so hath she given to
every Nation certain Characteristics different from one another.[12]
There is
scarce a People on Earth who have not a particular Bent,[13]
which is as general
among themselves as it is peculiar from that of the Rest of Mankind.
Thus the general Cast[14]
of the Dutch is to Trade, that of the Germans to drinking,
the French to dancing, the Italians to Music,[15]
and, I believe,[16]
the English
may of all Nations be sayed to be most inclined to Politics; and the unbounded
Liberty which we enjoy of speaking and writing our Thoughts is
the Cause of the present flourishing State of Politics in this Kingdom.
I have often wondered within myself what Idea a Foreigner must conceive[17]
at his first Entrance into[18]
one of our celebrated Coffee-houses; every
one of which resembles a Pamphlet-shop, or Register-office, especially on a
Saturday, when, I believe, there are almost as many new Essays published in
Spectator[20] was a great Enemy to[21] these little Cabals, and inferiour Councils
of State, and endeavoured to represent them as highly prejudicial to the
retail Trade of the Kingdom: the Sale of three Hats have been sometimes
lost by the reading one News-paper; and many Haberdashers have undone
their Familys by their too great Zeal[22] for the Good of the Nation. I must
own that[23] I cannot see the great Advantage which an inferior Tradesman
can reap[24] from the Study of News-papers, unless it is from the Advertisements;
which seem the Parts designed for his Perusal; and as they chiefly
turn on buying and selling, I shall easyly allow him the reading them: but
of what Benefit those laborious political Essays[25] which appear in the Front
of our Journals, one of which I have seen employ a careful Reader a full
Hour, can be to an honest Citizen I must confess I cannot understand: these
weekly Venders of Sedition prejudice the State by raising strange Chimæras
in the Brains[26] of those who are not competent Judges of the Subject, yet
are ready to acquiesce in every Assertion, tho it is seconded by no Colour of
Proof;[27] for Ignorance either believes every Thing, or it believes Nothing; it
either leaps over Mountains, or stumbles at every Straw.
The Study of Politics is of that intricate Nature, and the secret Springs
by which the Wheels of State[28]
move so difficult to be discerned, that it requires
no slender Genius, nor a small Share of Knowledge, to gain an Insight
into this Science; yet such is the foolish Forwardness of Mankind, especially
of our Countrymen, that, tho you meet with thousands who will own their
Ignorance in every other Way, you will scarce find one who is not in his own
Opinion a tolerable Politician. This our epidemical Distemper[29]
the Enemys
to our present happy Establishment have sufficiently nourished to their own
Ends. I have been often diverted, tho with a Mixture of Concern,[30]
in seeing
Half a Dozen of these mechanical Machi[a]vilians[31]
shaking their Heads,[32]
as a Sort of Approbation of the Author and Dislike of the Government, at a
flagrant[33]
Paragraph in one of the Papers against the Ministry, which some
vociferous Member[34]
hath been reading aloud to the Table; whereas had
the honest Board seen the Affair set in a true Light,[35]
they would not have
wished to have had a Man of the Author's Principles for a Customer.
The Dutch,[36]
whose Wisdom in Government hath been the Theme of
most of those whose Endeavours have been to depreciate our own, are extremely
jealous of suffering their People to intermeddle in political Matters;
nor indeed would such busy Heads, as our present Incendiarys,[37]
find Food
for their Lucubrations,[38]
that wise State always prohibiting, with the strictest
Severity, all Sorts of Libels, which are so many Firebrands,[39]
and have often
raised Flames[40]
in a Commonwealth not to be extinguished without great
Trouble, and often not without the Ruin of the State.
Tho I have been always an Advocate for every Branch of Liberty, and
among others for that of the Press, yet I conceive that this, as well as all other
good Institutions, may, for Want of some Regulation, be in the End attended
with evil Effects.[41]
One of the Advantages arising from Liberty not abused is
the Power of alarming the People when any Invasion on their Propertys is
Attempt is evident; but to abuse in general Terms, to accuse without mentioning
Particulars, and, in the vulgar Phrase, to call Names,[42] savour[43] more
of the Licentiousness of Billingsgate[44] than of the Liberty of the Press. I
never yet heared it denyed that a speaking Trumpet[45] is of great Service to
alarm a Turnpike, when a Robbery hath been committed on the Highroad;
but should a Person take it into his Head,[46] whenever an Express arrives from
abroad, to cry out stop Thief,[47] and thereby interrupt him who is employed
in the national Busyness, I apprehend that some Stop should be put[48] to that
merry Gentleman's diverting himself[49] at the Expence of the Public, and of
the Character of the Person so employed: and I do not see, if a Stop was put
to our present weekly Incendiarys in a legal Way, why the Liberty of England
may not be sayed to stand on a very sound Bottom; however I would not be
understood[50] here to write against the Liberty of the Press, but the Abuse of
it; and the great Men who have been most aspersed by the Abuse are most
zealous for maintaining the Liberty of the Press; which will never fail while
the present Ministry subsists.
My present Design is to caution such of my Fellow-countrymen,[51]
who
cannot have had sufficient Opportunitys to improve in Politics, from giving
too ready an Ear[52]
to the Voices of Envy and Revenge, and to advise them to
rest contented[53]
under an Administration which hath hitherto defyed their
Enemys to make good any Charge against them;[54]
and whose chief Opponents
have been the most flagitious[55]
and most approved Enemys of their
Country: I would counsel them to be satisfyed under the Blessings of Peace
and Plenty tho they are not able to account for those Measures which have
worked their Happyness.
Cicero, esteemed a wise man in his Time, has left a just Reproof behind
him to these political Enquirers.[56]
Says he, [57]
when Men in the inferior Arts
guide themselves by Methods of their own, must the wise and they who act
in the more exalted Spheres of Life be obliged to govern themselves by the
Directions of the Multitude, and proceed by Maxims only which are obvious
to their Eyes?
"hath": Though no longer considered an invariable feature of HF's style during this
early period, he generally favored the archaic verb form hath, and its occurrence in six of
seven instances in the two pieces in question supports the case for his authorship.
"stamped on every Face": Cf. TJ (IV.xi) "stamped in the Mind of Allworthy" (p.
196); JA (III.i) "bears the truest Stamp of Dignity on his Mind" (p. 190).
"AS Nature . . . all other Men": A variation of phrasing HF often used when
treating the science of physiognomy, a favorite topic. Cf. KCM: "Nature doth really imprint
sufficient Marks in the Countenance, to inform an accurate and discerning Eye"
(Misc1, p. 161); JA (II.xvii) "Nature generally imprints such a Portraiture of the Mind in
the Countenance, that a skilful Physiognomist will rarely be deceived" (p. 182); JVL "we
may remark, in favour of the physiognomist . . . that nature is seldom curious in her works
within, without employing some little pains on the outside. . . . A tyrant, a trickster, and a
bully, generally wear the marks of their several dispositions in their countenances" (p. 57).
"so hath she [Nature] given to every Nation certain Characteristics different from
one another": Cf. Ch (16 Feb. 1739/40) "Different Ages, as well as Nations, distinguish
themselves by certain Characteristics from each other"; CGJ (2 Jun. 1752) "Charity is in fact
the very Characteristic of this Nation" (p. 247); F (I.ii) "It was ever the Characteristic of this
Nation." See also New Essays, p. 86 n. 33.
"Bent": Fielding elsewhere speaks of the natural inclination of a person or nation
as a "bent". Cf. Ch (20 Nov. 1739) "the Bent . . . of his Genius"; (21 Feb. 1739/40) re the
founding of hospitals, "this present Bent of our Genius"; TJ (XVIII.xi) "against the Bent
of their natural Dispositions" (p. 968); ECIR "the general Bent of the People" (p. 96);
CGJ (18 Jul. 1752) "a violent Bent or Disposition of the Mind to some particular Point"
(p. 300).
"Cast": In the sense of a disposition of mind or character, "cast" was a recent
usage in the eighteenth century; the earliest examples in the OED (cast, sb XII.38b) are
from 1711. HF also uses the word to refer to outward appearance (OED, cast, sb XII.37).
Cf. TJ (III.ii) Blifil is "A Youth of so different a Cast from little Jones" (p. 118); (V.i) "the
finest Woman in the World would lose all Benefit of her Charms, in the Eye of a Man who
had never seen one of another Cast" (p. 212); Am (I.iii) "to perform Characters of no
amiable Cast" (p. 28); JVL "the characters of Iago, Shylock, and others of the same cast"
(p. 57).
"the Dutch . . . to Music": Cf. JSS, where HF similarly identifies the characteristic
traits of these four nations, "French Finery, Italian Meats, / With German Drunkenness,
Dutch Cheats" (Misc1, p. 117). In TP (11-18 Mar. 1746) he characterizes the French hangman
as being "as well dress'd a Man as any in the Kingdom," and states that a Dutchman's
"God is Gold" (p. 242).
"I believe": The parenthetical interjection "I believe," which occurs twice in this
essay, is a hallmark of HF's style. The Chadwyck-Healey data base of eighteenth-century
fiction (which includes Sh, JA, JWN, JW, TJ, and Am) records 527 instances of "I believe"
for HF, 259 of which are of this specific interjection.
"what Idea a Foreigner must conceive": Cf. CGJ (4 Jan. 1752), where, as here, HF
marvels at the "Multitude" of newspapers published in London: "When I survey all these
wondrous Works . . . I am struck with no less Astonishment, than was the Foreigner when
he saw Leadenhall Market; nor can I more conceive what becomes of all this Quantity of
Paper, than he could find Consumers for so much Meat" (p. 14).
"at his first Entrance into": A favorite locution of HF's. Cf. JWN (I.viii) "on his
first Entrance into Elysium" (Misc2, p. 36); JW (I.iv) "Wild's first Entrance into the World"
(Misc3, p. 17); TJ (I.i) "at their first Entrance into the House" (p. 31); (XVIII.viii) "upon
his first Entrance [into the room]" (p. 947); Am (XI.vi) "at her first Entrance [into the
room]" (p. 480).
"our celebrated Coffee-houses . . . Journals in this City": In HF's Coffee-House
Politician (1730), Politick, a retired tradesman in the City, is just such a character as the
writer describes, though his insatiable appetite for news is for news of foreign, not domestic,
affairs. With the writer's estimate of the number of newspapers published daily, especially
on Saturday, cf. Politick's advice to his daughter Hilaret: "If you would be informed in
these Matters, you must read all [the newspapers] that come out: about forty every Day,
and some Days fifty: and of a Saturday about four score" (I.ii). Later, Politick regrets that
he's had no time to read the "Lying Post" [HF's version of the Flying Post] because he's
been occupied poring over seventeen other papers, all of which he names (V.iii).
"The Spectator": HF's admiration for The Spectator (1711-12), and for its authors
Addison and Steele, was limitless; the paper would later serve as a model for his own
periodical The Champion. The Ribbles (S44) list no fewer than thirty-three references to
it in HF's writings.
"a great Enemy to": A favorite locution of HF's. C-H lists twenty-six occurrences
in his fiction alone, including the following. JA (I.xvii), where Parson Adams refers to
Whitefield, "I am myself as great an Enemy to the Luxury and Splendour of the Clergy as
he can be" (p. 82); (III.iii) Adams again: "I have never been a greater Enemy to any Passion
than that silly one of Vanity" (p. 214); (IV.viii) "he was a great Enemy to the Passions" (p.
309); JW (VI.i) "a great Enemy to this kind of Greatness" (Misc3, p. 139); TJ (V.x) "The
Parson . . . was not only strictly Chaste . . . but a great Enemy to the opposite Vice in all
others" p. 258); Am (II.viii) "the greatest Enemy to the French" (pp. 124-25). Also CS (13
May 1738) "as great an Enemy as I am to Noise" (New Essays, p. 546). In addition to
"great" HF's other adjectives modifying "Enemy" in this phrase are "bitter," "severest,"
"terrible," "dangerous," "utter."
"Zeal": C-H records thirty-three occurrences of "zeal" (21) and its related forms
"zealot," "zealous," "zealously" (12) in HF's fiction. E.g., JW (III.xii) "his Zeal for Justice"
(Misc3, p. 127); (IV.ii) "Zeal for a certain . . . Thing called Liberty" (Misc3, p. 140); TJ
(VIII.vii) "Zeal for the Cause" (p. 427); (XVII.viii) "Zeal for the Match" (p. 901).
"I must own that": C-H records 294 occurrences of this imperative construction in
HF's fiction: e.g., "I must say," "I must confess," "I must not . . . omit," etc. The form in
question here ("I must own") occurs twenty times: e.g., JW (I.v, Misc3, p. 20); Am (III.x,
p. 140; VI.iii, p. 241; VIII.x, p. 355; X.iv, p. 428).
"great Advantage . . . can reap": C-H records eleven occurrences of "reap" with
"advantage" as direct object in HF's fiction, and four others substituting "Benefit," "Profit,"
"Happiness," and "Harvest" [the last used metaphorically].
"those laborious political Essays": One of HF's favorite terms to denote dullness:
cf. JW (III.ii) "those laborious Writers" (Misc3, p. 97); TJ (V.i) "in which we profess to be
laboriously dull" (p. 215); JVL "the laborious much-read Doctor Zachary Grey" (p. 6).
"Chimæras in the Brains": References to the "Chimera" of classical mythology or
to the adjective "chimerical" abound in HF's writings. Particularly close to the phrasing
here are Ch (24 Jan. 1739/40) "nothing more than Chimeras of their own Brains"; Am
V.ix) "some Chimeras now arose in his Brain" (p. 228). Cf. also UG (I.ii) "This must be
some strange Chimera of his own"; TJ (XIV.i) "the Centaur, the Chimera, or any other
Creatures of mere Fiction" (p. 742); CGJ (7 Jan. 1752) "a strange mixed Monster, not much
unlike the famous Chimera of old" (p. 26). Besides these five examples, HF refers to the
Chimera or uses the adjective "chimerical" at least a further nineteen times from The
Modern Husband (I.ix) to A Comment on a Fragment of Lord Bolingbroke's Essays (1755):
see New Essays, pp. 482-483 n. 7.
"Colour of Proof": Cf. JW (IV.xiv) where the ordinary of Newgate speaks of Plato
and Aristotle: "Their whole Works are a strange Medley of the greatest Falshoods, scarce
covered over with the Colour of Truth" (Misc3, p. 185); and Am (XI.ii), where Dr. Harrison
comments on the nation's failure to reward merit: "It is an infamous Scandal . . . and I am
heartily sorry it can be said even with a Colour of Truth" (p. 459).
"The Study of Politics . . . secret Springs . . . Wheels of State": HF often refers to
the science of politics, or "Pollitricks" as he calls it in JW (II.v, Misc3, p. 67), as an intricate,
clocklike machine whose workings only a true adept could comprehend. With the phrasing
here, cf. TJ (VI.ii), where Mrs. Western mocks her brother: "You who are so great a Politician
can . . . discover the secret Springs which move the great State Wheels in all the
political Machines of Europe" (p. 275). Cf. also JW (I.i) the "secret Springs, various Windings,
and perplexed Mazes" [of human nature] (Misc3, p. 7); TP (24 Dec. 1745) "the principal
Wheels of this our political Machine" (p. 161); TJ (V.iv) "The World may indeed be
considered as a vast Machine, in which the Wheels are originally set in Motion by those
which are very minute, and almost imperceptible to any but the strongest Eye" (p. 225);
Am (XII.ii) "one who pretended to manage the Wheels in the great State Lottery of
Preferment" (p. 499).
"epidemical Distemper": HF several times represents the vogue of certain political,
or literary, opinions with which he disagrees as an "epidemical Distemper" (or "Madness"
or "Phrenzy") raging in the country: cf. CdGJ: "Evils" which, "like an epidemic Distemper,
affected Society" (ECIR, p. 14). Also Sh: "an epidemical Phrenzy now raging in Town" (p.
306); JJ (5 Dec. 1747) "epidemic Frenzy" (p. 95); (5 Nov. 1748) "this dangerous, epidemical
Madness" (p. 424); also Ch (11 Nov. 1739) "that Nation, where this [virtue] is epidemical."
"diverted, tho with a Mixture of Concern": Cf. TJ (XII.iv) though happy at
finding Sophia's pocketbook, Jones "was affected with a Mixture of Concern" (p. 632); JW
(I.v) "viewed, with a Mixture of Astonishment and Concern" (Misc3, p. 20); Am (I.vi) "Booth
standing silent, with a Mixture of Concern and Astonishment in his Countenance" (p. 43).
Also TJ (V.vi) "to ruminate, with a Mixture of Pain and Pleasure" (p. 237); (IX.iii) "with
great Indignation, but with a Mixture of Pity, answered" (p. 502); (XVIII.x) "may reflect,
not without some Mixture of Pleasure" (p. 960).
"mechanical Machi[a]vilians": Though HF's reference to Niccolo Machiavelli, the
most famous of all politicians, is not uncommon, few authors of the period can have
admired him more: in JJ (8 Oct. 1748) HF calls him "the greatest of Politicians" (p. 404),
and from The Modern Husband (III.iii) to the Covent-Garden Journal (21 Mar. 1752) he
quotes from or alludes to Machiavelli no fewer than eighteen times. For a passage from
TP in which HF invokes Machiavelli in a context similar to that of the present essay, see
intro. In that essay (p. 239) HF also spells the adjective with an i instead of an e: Machiavillian.
"shaking their Heads": In TP (4-11 Mar. 1746), a paper parallelling the argument
of the present essay in several passages (see intro.), HF thus reports overhearing the leader
of a party of Opposition supporters declare "That the Nation was undone; to which all the
rest assented by shaking their Heads" (p. 237). Characters in HF's fiction also fall to shaking
their heads for different reasons: to express disapproval (JA III.viii, p. 25; JWN I.iv, Misc2,
p. 22; I.xv, p. 63), pain or anger (JA IV.xi, p. 322), hearty satisfaction at cracking a joke
(II.xi, pp. 145-146). But with this gesture of the writer's "mechanical Machiavillian" signifying
approbation of another's comment in affectation of deep understanding, cf. TJ
(V.ix) Square's response to the doctor's opinion that Tom and Blifil are scoundrels: "the
Philosopher, very sagaciously shaking his Head, agreed" (p. 255); and cf. also (XI.ii), the
landlord of an inn, whom his neighbors believe to be "a very sagacious Fellow." He
acquired this reputation by looking wise and by accompanying "his Words with certain
explanatory Gestures, such as shaking, or nodding the Head," leaving "his Hearers to
understand more than he expressed" (p. 576).
"flagrant": Cf. JWN (I.xiv) "those flagrant Proofs of his Inhumanity" (Misc2, p. 62);
JJ (11 Jun. 1748) "The first of these flagrant Instances (indeed the most flagrant that any
Age or Country hath produced" (p. 306).
"some vociferous Member": Cf. TJ (VII.xiv) "a vociferous Drawer" (p. 385); JVL
"all the vociferous Inhabitants" (p. 24). Also TJ (II.ix) "made his Sister vociferous" (p. 111);
(VII.xi) "they grew . . . very noisy and vociferous" (p. 366).
"set in a true Light": A favorite formula of HF's; C-H records 109 instances in
the fiction alone. Cf. Sh (titlepage) "and all the matchless Arts of that young Politician set
in a true and just Light"; Am (I.ii) "another Illustration . . . will set my Intention in still
a clearer Light" (p. 20).
"The Dutch": During 1728 and 1729, when he was a student at Leiden, HF would
have had opportunities to witness at first hand the Dutch policy of censorship to which the
writer refers.
"our present Incendiarys" [repeated later in the essay]: HF also uses this term for
antiministerial writers in JJ (26 Mar. 1748) "these Incendiaries" (p. 212).
"Lucubrations": Frederick Ribble notes that this is HF's favorite term for describing,
as here, the opinions of periodical journalists: see Ch (26 Jan. 1739/40), TP (5
Nov. 1745, p. 107), JJ (3 Sep. 1748, p. 380), CGJ (4 Jan. 1752, p. 13). Cf. also TJ (VIII.xv) the
Man of the Hill "made use" of the night "for his Walks and Lucubrations" (p. 486).
"Firebrands": Cf. JW (I.iii) Hecuba dreamed "that she was delivered of a Firebrand
that set all Troy in Flames" (Misc3, p. 13). "Firebrand" is the name of the priest who
murders Common Sense in Pasquin (1736).
"raised Flames": C-H records eighteen instances in the fiction alone where HF
uses "Flame" or "Flames" in a metaphorical sense. With the specific idea of raising a
flame, cf. JA (I.xviii) "he did indeed raise a Flame in her, which required the Care of a
Surgeon to cool" (p. 86); JW (I.xii) "in whose tender Breast his Passion has raised a more
ardent Flame than that of any of his Rivals had been able to raise" (Misc3, p. 39). Cf. also
Am (II.i) "so foolishly did I imagine I could be Master of a Flame to which I was every Day
adding Fuel" (p. 68).
"Liberty . . . attended with evil Effects": For examples of this favorite locution,
see New Essays, p. 86, n. 31. HF would later argue strenuously against any attempt by the
government to "regulate" the stage, which, he warned, would prove to be a first step
toward curtailing the liberty of the press. When, however, he later became principal
propagandist for the Pelham ministry, he would take the essayist's own view that the abuse
of the government by Opposition writers warranted regulation of the press. In JJ (12 Mar.
1748) he declared: "I am very sorry to see, in an Age when the Liberty of the Press is pretended
to be in Danger, such an Abuse made of this Liberty, as must give the greatest
Encouragement to its Enemies (if there were any such) to attempt a Restraint of it: For
wise and good Men will, by these Means, be brought to esteem this Liberty rather as a
Nusance, than as a valuable Privilege to the Society" (p. 198).
"the vulgar Phrase . . . call Names": C-H records 85 occurrences in HF's fiction
alone of "vulgar" or "vulgarly"; of these, 38 occur in phrases referring to terms used in
colloquial speech—e.g. "vulgarly called," "vulgarly named," "as the Vulgar express it"—
including seven instances of the essayist's "in the vulgar Phrase," as follows: JW (II.ii) "in
the vulgar Phrase, cheating" (Misc3, p. 54); TJ (IV.v) "would, in the vulgar Phrase, be
crying Roast-meat" (p. 165); (VIII.ii) "(according to the vulgar Phrase) struck all of a Heap"
(p. 410); (IX.iii) "In the vulgar Phrase, she had taken up the Broomstick" (p. 501); (X.ix)
"began, in the vulgar Phrase, to smell a Rat" (p. 563); (XII.xii) "He was . . . according to
the vulgar Phrase, whistle-drunk" (pp. 624-625); (XII.xiii) "as the vulgar Phrase is, . . .
drew in his Horns" (p. 677). On the specific vulgar phrase "to call Names," see note 36.
"savour": This olfactory metaphor was a favorite of HF's, who, for example, used
it in much the same context in Ch (10 Dec. 1739) "The Licentiousness of some modern
Performances savouring too much of the old Comedy." Also, among many other examples:
JA (IV.viii) "it savours too much of the Flesh" (p. 310); KCM "seems to savour of Ill-nature"
(Misc1, p. 160); JW (I.vi) "a Custom . . . savouring of the Sneaking-Budge" (Misc3, p. 27); TJ
(VII.vi) "these Views . . . may seem to savour too much of Malevolence" (p. 346); CdGJ
"it seems rather to savour of Ostentation than Utility" (ECIR, p. 12).
"Billingsgate": HF often refers to the foul and abusive language of the porters and
fishmongers of Billingsgate, and at least twice with reference to the essayist's "vulgar
Phrase, to call Names": JJ (13 Feb. 1748) "The Defendant [the Corporation of Billingsgate]
. . . urged, that when these Invectives proceeded to the Use of opprobrious Terms, and to
downright calling Names [emphasis added], such Works had always been adjudged to be
the Property of Billingsgate" (p. 160); CGJ (3 Mar. 1752) referring to a species of false wit:
"it never fails to propagate gross Abuse and Scandal; so far indeed as to inspire Men to call
Names [emphasis added], and to deal in all the Language of Billingsgate" (p. 128). Other
references to the language of Billingsgate: JJ (5 Dec. 1747, p. 96; 12 Mar. 1748, p. 200; 16
Apr., p. 237; 11 Jun., p. 307; 2 Jul., p. 328); TJ (XI.viii, p. 603; XVIII.ii, p. 919); CGJ (11
Jan. 1752, p. 32; 25 Jan., p. 56; 25 Nov., p. 379).
"a speaking Trumpet": A sort of megaphone: cf. JW (IV.ix) "One of the Sailors . . .
with the Assistance of a speaking Trumpet, informed us" (Misc3, p. 165); JVL "his voice,
which was as loud as a speaking trumpet" (p. 83).
"take it into his Head": A favorite locution of HF's: cf. JWN (I.xviii) "This
Gentleman took it into his Head to list under my Banner" (Misc2, p. 78); TJ (XI.iv) "if
they take it into their Heads to go to the Devil" (p. 585); Am (II.ix) "I took it into my
Head to marry" (p. 95); (III.iii) "This young Fellow had taken it into his Head to go into
the Army" (p. 107); (III.viii) "When my Wife had once taken it into her Head" (p. 125);
(VI.vi) "you are liable to take such things into your Head" (p. 251) [emphasis added].
"cry out stop Thief": Cf. TJ (VIII.xi) "called out . . . Stop Thief" (p. 458); Am
(XI.vii) "He instantly gave the Alarm of `stop Thief' " (p. 483); (XII.vi) "Action in the
Street, accompanied with the frequent Cry of `stop Thief' " (p. 519).
"some Stop should be put": A passive form of "put a stop to," a favorite locution
of HF's appearing three lines below this. Both constructions occur in JA (I.v) "an Accident
. . . put a stop to these agreeable Walks" (p. 28); (III.iii) "This Career was soon put a stop
to by my Surgeon" (p. 206); (IV.x) "something now happened, which put a stop to Dick's
Reading" (p. 320). Cf. also JW (I.vi) "an Accident . . . put a Stop to his Continuance in a
Way of Life" (Misc3, p. 27); (IV.i) "several . . . thought it principally their Duty to put
a Stop to the future Progress of our Hero" (p. 139); (IV.ii) "Modesty . . . put a Stop
to the Torrent of Compliments" (p. 142); (IV.xiv) "the Punch . . . put a Stop to his Reading"
(p. 185); TJ (IV.ix) "Fortune . . . put a Stop to her Promotion" (p. 187); (V.v) "an
Accident put a Stop to her Tongue" (p. 229); (VIII.viii) "she put a Stop to his swearing"
(p. 433).
"that merry Gentleman's diverting himself": Dr. Ribble notes that HF often used
"merry" ironically to describe malicious, ill-natured "fun": cf. JWN (I.ii) "I am surprized
. . . that you did not divert yourself by . . . playing some merry Tricks with the Murderer' "
(Misc2, p. 10); JA (Preface) "the Comedy of Nero, with the merry Incident of ripping up
his Mother's Belly" (p. 7 [italics reversed]); TJ (XV.iii), referring to a club of liars: "every
Member should, within the twenty-four Hours, tell at least one merry Fib" (p. 789).
"I would not be understood": Cf. JA (II.xiii) "I would not be understood to mean
Persons literally born higher" (p. 156); TJ (V.vi) "I would not be understood" to have
meant to offend (p. 238); Am (III.vi) "I would not be understood . . . to reflect on Mrs.
Booth" (p. 119).
"Fellow-countrymen": HF was fond of using various compound forms of "Fellow-":
"Fellow-Citizens" (Ch [22 Nov. 1739]), "Fellow-Creatures" (TJ [I.iii, p. 41]), "Fellow-Soldiers"
([JWN I.xxi, Misc2, p. 93]), "Fellow-Sufferers" (TJ [XIII.ii, p. 691]); "Fellow Travellers"
(JW [III.iii, Misc3, p. 98]).
"giving too ready an Ear": Cf. Am (IX.i) "This worthy Clergyman . . . gave a
ready Ear to all which Amelia said" (p. 359); JA (II.iv) "she inclined so attentive an Ear to
every Compliment" (p. 103).
"to rest contented": Am (IV.iii) "forced to rest contented with his Ignorance" (p.
164); JVL "I was obliged . . . to rest myself contented" (p. 25).
"defyed their Enemys to make good any Charge against them": One of HF's
favorite formulas: JA (IV.vi) " `my Conduct may defy Malice itself to assert so cursed a
Slander' " (p. 297); TJ (XIV.iii) " `I defy any body . . . to say' " (p. 752); Am (I.ix) " `I defy
the World to say' " (p. 58). See also JA (pp. 62, 112, 234 [2]), TJ (pp. 185, 317, 506, 600), and
additional references in New Essays, p. 138 nn. 29, 32.
"flagitious": This otherwise rarely used word recurs in HF's works: Ch (6 Mar.
1739/40) "private Scandal . . . of so flagitious a kind"; JWN (I.xv) "the most impudent and
flagitious manner" (Misc2, p. 64); TP (12 Nov. 1745) "guilty of the most flagitious Acts"
(p. 118); (28 Jan.-4 Feb. 1746) "the most flagitious Schemes" (p. 210); (6-13 May 1746) "one
of the most flagitious Crimes" (p. 285); CdGJ "a Crime . . . carried to so flagitious a Height"
(ECIR, p. 29); ECIR "a cruel and flagitious Act" (p. 117); "the most impudent and flagitious
of [wretches]" (p. 121); CGJ (8 Feb. 1752) "the Trial of very flagitious Offences" (p. 84).
"Cicero . . . these political Enquirers": This same passage from Cicero's Tusculan
Disputations (V.xxxvi.104) also served HF as the epigraph for TP (4-11 Mar. 1746), which
treats much the same theme as this essay (see intro.); it served him again as the epigraph
for JJ (6 Feb. 1748). It is possible, however, that the editor Cooke, a classicist, was responsible
for this concluding paragraph. Besides the anomalous use of "has" (instead of "hath,"
as in the five preceding instances), the writer quotes Cicero from the conventional text,
reading "numerosque moderantur" and "verissimum," whereas HF in the TP and JJ has
"modulantur" and "rectum," respectively—variants to be found in the 1566 edition of
Cicero's Opera by Lambin, which HF owned (Ribbles C29): see Miriam Austin Locke, ed.
The True Patriot (University of Alabama Press, 1964), p. 171.
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