s a heavy blow fell on F. in the death of
his wife. The next few years were occupied with writing his
_Miscellanies_, which contained, along with some essays and poems, two
important works, _A Journey from this World to the Next_, and _The
History of Jonathan Wild the Great_, a grave satire; and he also
conducted two papers in support of the Government, _The True Patriot_ and
_The Jacobite Journal_, in consideration of which he was appointed
Justice of the Peace for Middlesex and Westminster, and had a pension
conferred upon him. In 1746 he set convention at defiance by marrying
Mary MacDaniel, who had been his first wife's maid, and the nurse of his
children, and who proved a faithful and affectionate companion. F. showed
himself an upright, diligent, and efficient magistrate, and his _Inquiry
into the Increase of Robbers_ (1751), with suggested remedies, led to
beneficial results. By this time, however, the publication of his great
masterpiece, _The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling_ (1749), had given
him a place among the immortals. All critics are agreed that this book
contains passages offensive to delicacy, and some say to morality. This
is often excused on the plea of the coarser manners of the age; but a
much stronger defence is advanced on the ground that, while other
novelists of the time made immorality an incentive to merriment, F.'s
treatment of such subjects, as Lowell has said, "shocks rather than
corrupts," and that in his pages evil is evil. On the other hand, there
is universal agreement as to the permanent interest of the types of
character presented, the profound knowledge of life and insight into
human nature, the genial humour, the wide humanity, the wisdom, and the
noble and masculine English of the book. His only other novel, _Amelia_,
which some, but these a small minority, have regarded as his best, was
_pub._ in 1751. His health was now thoroughly broken, and in 1753, as a
forlorn hope, he went in search of restoration to Lisbon, where he _d._
on October 8, and was buried in the English cemetery. His last work was a
_Journal_ of his voyage. Though with many weaknesses and serious faults,
F. was fundamentally a man of honest and masculine character, and though
improvident and reckless in his habits, especially in earlier life, he
was affectionate in his domestic relations, and faithful and efficient in
the performance of such public duties as he was called to discharge.
Thackeray thus describes h