Henry Fielding – Tom Jones

Justice, Mercy, and Judgment

Fielding constantly juxtaposes notions of justice and mercy, establishing that justice in isolation is a barren concept. This alerts the reader to the hypocrisy of the characters who lack a sense of mercy while professing to admire and abide by the tenets of justice. This has direct consequences when assessing the reliability of their evidence. For example, the reader learns early on that Blifil lacks Tom’s quality of mercy, but he exhibits the “higher quality [of] justice.”⁷⁶ Similarly, Thwackum and Square talk about mercy but prefer justice. ⁷⁷ In contrast, Tom acts honourably throughout: mercy, not justice, is his driving motivation. In Book 13, chapter 10, when Tom learns that the highwayman he spared is Mrs Miller’s cousin, Mr Anderson, Fielding’s explanation of Tom’s reaction reveals his distaste of justice absent mercy:⁷⁸

… greatly exulting in the happiness which he had procured [Tom] could [not] forbear reflecting, without horror, on the dreadful consequences which must have attended them, had he listened rather to the voice of strict justice, than to that of mercy when he was attacked on the high road.

⁷⁵ R P C Mutter “Introduction” in Tom Jones, above n 6, xxvii.

⁷⁶ Tom Jones, above n 6, 116.
⁷⁷ Ibid.
⁷⁸ Ibid, 600.
Tom’s reaction mirrors Fielding’s personal approach to justice and mercy. As a magistrate, records show Fielding “often [went] beyond what a strict interpretation of the laws would warrant, to temper justice with mercy, and to influence changes in the laws themselves.” ⁷⁹ Typically, Fielding extended leniency to “those … yet [to] become incorrigible offenders”, or who were driven to minor crime by financial necessity⁸⁰ – as Anderson is. Anderson, after Tom bests him, “began to implore mercy … This is the first robbery I ever attempted, and I have been driven by distress to this.”⁸¹ Anderson’s situation reflects a concern Fielding expresses in his Robbers pamphlet: “[W]hat can be more shocking than to see an Industrious poor Creature … forced by mere Want into Dishonesty … .” ⁸² Likewise, when Tom appeals for Sophia’s forgiveness concerning his affair with Lady Bellaston, he seeks “mercy, and not justice … Justice I know must condemn me.”⁸³ Justice, here, would convict Tom solely on the basis of his deeds. Evidence of motive or extenuating circumstances would not be admissible – that is why justice absent mercy is a barren concept.

Fielding articulates his distrust of lawyers and judges who lack a sense of mercy in a combined theatrical–legal metaphor at the beginning of Book 11: “Critic … signifies judgment … [but] some persons who have not understood the original have concluded that it meant judgment in the legal sense, in which it is frequently used as equivalent to condemnation.”⁸⁴ Fielding draws a link between critics and lawyers who “[i]n despair, perhaps, of ever rising to the Bench in Westminster-hall, have … on the benches of the playhouse, … exerted their judicial capacity, and given judgment, ie condemned without mercy.”⁸⁵

This analogy helps explain the paradoxical character of Squire Allworthy. The reader is constantly reminded that Allworthy is “good”, and he does “[temper] justice with mercy”⁸⁶ when he declines to send Jenny to a Bridewell for being an unwed mother, but he presides over several trials that result in substantial injustice. The injustice arises because Allworthy exceeds his formal legal

⁷⁹ Battestin, above n 7, 551.

⁸⁰ Ibid, 551–52. No doubt Fielding was aware of the irony of the situation when, in April 1752, he was called on to enforce the Licensing Act 1737 against “a poor troup of amateur players … Out of compassion for their Youth only bound them over to their good behaviour.” See Godden, above n 11, 261–62.
⁸¹ Tom Jones, above n 6, 560 (emphasis added). Anderson’s distress is “five hungry children, and a wife lying in of the sixth, in the utmost want and misery.”
⁸² Fielding Robbers, above n 62, 172. Robbers, the “most distinguished and ambitious of Fielding’s social pamphlets” was first published in January 1751 (pp lii–liii).
⁸³ Tom Jones, above n 6, 813.
⁸⁴ Ibid, 463.
⁸⁵ Ibid (emphasis added).
⁸⁶ Ibid, 45.
authority, and he fails to adhere to procedure which would ensure a fair “trial”. “Trials”, formal and informal, dominate much of the action in Tom Jones.

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