e in _Roderick Random_ in
consequence, according to Sir Walter). Tobias, armed with the
_Regicide_, a tragedy--a provision precisely similar to that with
which Dr. Johnson had started, just before--came up to London. The
_Regicide_ came to no good, though at first patronized by Lord
Lyttelton ("one of those little fellows who are sometimes called
great men," Smollett says); and Smollett embarked as "surgeon's
mate" on board a line-of-battle ship, and served in the Carthagena
expedition, in 1741. He left the service in the West Indies, and,
after residing some time in Jamaica, returned to England in 1746.

He was now unsuccessful as a physician, to begin with; published the
satires, _Advice_ and _Reproof_--without any luck; and (1747) married
the "beautiful and accomplished Miss Lascelles".

In 1748 he brought out his _Roderick Random_, which at once made a
"hit". The subsequent events of his life may be presented,
chronologically, in a bird's-eye view:--

1750. Made a tour to Paris, where he chiefly wrote _Peregrine
Pickle_.

1751. Published _Peregrine Pickle_.

1753. Published _Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom_.

1755. Published version of _Don Quixote_.

1756. Began the _Critical Review_.

1758. Published his _History of England_.

1763-1766. Travelling in France and Italy; published his _Travels_.

1769. Published _Adventures of an Atom_.

1770. Set out for Italy; died at Leghorn 21st of Oct., 1771, in the
fifty-first year of his age.

149 A good specimen of the old "slashing" style of writing is presented
by the paragraph on Admiral Knowles, which subjected Smollett to
prosecution and imprisonment. The admiral's defence on the occasion
of the failure of the Rochfort expedition came to be examined before
the tribunal of the _Critical Review_.

"He is," said our author, "an admiral without conduct, an engineer
without knowledge, an officer without resolution, and a man without
veracity!"

Three months imprisonment in the King's Bench avenged this stinging
paragraph.

But the _Critical_ was to Smollett a perpetual fountain of "hot
water". Among less important controversies may be mentioned that
with Grainger, the translator of _Tibullus_. Grainger replied in a
pamph