whole, it seems most likely, as Mr. Keightley conjectures, that his
chief occupation in the interval was studying law, and that he must have
been living upon the residue of his wife's fortune or his own means, in
which case the establishment of the above periodical may mark the
exhaustion of his resources.

The _Champion_ is a paper on the model of the elder essayists. It was
issued, like the _Tatler_, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Murphy
says that Fielding's part in it cannot now be ascertained; but as the
"Advertisement" to the edition in two volumes of 1741 states expressly
that the papers signed C. and L. are the "Work of one Hand," and as a
number of those signed C. are unmistakably Fielding's, it is hard to
discover where the difficulty lay. The papers signed C. and L. are by
far the most numerous, the majority of the remainder being distinguished
by two stars, or the signature "Lilbourne." These are understood to have
been from the pen of James Ralph, whose poem of _Night_ gave rise to a
stinging couplet in the _Dunciad_, but who was nevertheless a man of
parts, and an industrious writer. As will be remembered, he had
contributed a prologue to the _Temple Beau_, so that his association
with Fielding must have been of some standing. Besides Ralph's essays in
the _Champion_, he was mainly responsible for the _Index to the Times_
which accompanied each number, and consisted of a series of brief
paragraphs on current topics, or the last new book. In this way Glover's
_London_, Boyse's _Deity_, Somervile's _Hobbinol_, Lillo's _Elmeric_,
Dyer's _Ruins of Rome_, and other of the very minor _poetae minores_ of
the day, were commented upon. These notes and notices, however, were
only a subordinate feature of the _Champion_, which, like its
predecessors, consisted chiefly of essays and allegories, social, moral,
and political, the writers of which were supposed to be members of an
imaginary "Vinegar family," described in the initial paper. Of these the