the _Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon_ and elsewhere, that Mary Daniel did
prove an excellent wife, mother, and nurse. Another thing is made clear
by the date established, and this is that the verses "On Felix; Marry'd
to a Cook-Maid" in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for July 1746, to which
Mr. Lawrence refers, cannot possibly have anything to do with Fielding,
although they seem to indicate that alliances of the kind were not
unusual. Perhaps _Pamela_ had made them fashionable. On the other hand,
the supposed allusion to Lyttelton and Fielding, to be found in the
first edition of _Peregrine Pickle_, but afterwards suppressed, receives
a certain confirmation. "When," says Smollett, speaking of the relations
of an imaginary Mr. Spondy with Gosling Scrag, who is understood to
represent Lyttelton, "he is inclined to marry his own cook-wench, his
gracious patron may condescend to give the bride away; and may finally
settle him in his old age, as a trading Westminster justice." That,
looking to the facts, Fielding's second marriage should have gained the
approval and countenance of Lyttelton is no more than the upright and
honourable character of the latter would lead us to expect.

The _Jacobite's Journal_ ceased to appear in November 1748. In the early
part of the December following, the remainder of Smollett's programme
came to pass, and by Lyttelton's interest Fielding was appointed a
Justice of the Peace for Westminster. From a letter in the _Bedford
Correspondence_, dated 13th December 1748, respecting the lease of a
house or houses which would qualify him to act for Middlesex, it would
seem that the county was afterwards added to his commission. He must
have entered upon his office in the first weeks of December, as upon the
ninth of that month one John Salter was committed to the Gatehouse by
Henry Fielding, Esq., "of Bow Street, Covent Garden, formerly Sir Thomas
de Veil's." Sir Thomas de Veil, who died in 1746, and whose _Memoirs_
had just been published, could not, however, have been Fielding's