FIELD GLASS 



2166 FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD 



63,000 titles and a well-equipped printing shop. 

 In 1913 arrangements were made whereby the 

 work of the museum could be carried on in 

 connection with the Chicago public schools. 

 The institution is managed by a board of trus- 

 tees, and is incorporated. 



FIELD GLASS, a small instrument for 

 viewing objects at a distance, possessing con- 

 siderable magnifying power. It is in general 

 use by military men, naturalists, tourists and 

 sportsmen. The field glass most commonly 



FIELD GLASS 

 Cross section shows construction of reflecting 

 prisms. Glasses of this kind are commonly 

 called binoculars (having two eyes). 



used consists of two telescopes, varying from 

 five to ten inches in length, and having an 

 arrangement of reflecting prisms within the 

 tubes (see illustration). Field glasses are made 

 in four different powers, magnifying respectively 

 three, six, nine and twelve diameters. A glass 

 magnifying six diameters would increase the 

 surface of the object viewed thirty-six (6 2 ) 

 times, one magnifying nine diameters would 

 increase it eighty-one times, and so on. Glasses 

 with a power of twelve diameters are used 

 especially by naturalists and military officers. 

 See TELESCOPE; OPERA GLASS. 



FIELDING, HENRY (1707-1754), a celebrated 

 English novelist and playwright, who has been 

 called by his admirers the father of the mod- 

 ern novel. He was born at Somersetshire, 

 studied at Eton, Leyden and the Middle Tem- 

 ple, London, and was admitted to the bar in 

 1740. Play-writing, was the first step in his 

 literary career, and he is said to have com- 

 pleted at least twenty-five comedies during a 

 period of ten years. Love in Several Masks 

 was the first to be produced, and this was soon 

 followed by Temple Beau and the Modern 



Husband. These, while clever and amusing, 

 have not the merit and originality of his 

 novels. The latter include his masterpiece, 

 Tom Jones, said to be a history of his own 

 life, Amelia, Joseph Andrews, Jonathan Wild 

 and others now less known. His style, while 

 displaying the coarseness of the period, is dis- 

 tinguished by a remarkable descriptive ability 

 and much wit and wisdom. 



FIELD 'ING, WILLIAM STEVENS (1848- ), 

 a Canadian journalist and statesman, premier 

 of Nova Scotia from 1884 to 1896 and Do- 

 minion Minister of Finance from 1896 to 1911. 

 During his fifteen-year service as Minister he 

 was largely responsible for the financial policy 

 of the Liberal party, and even after his retire- 

 ment from the House of Commons in 1911 he 

 remained its chief financial adviser. He per- 

 sonally introduced or was responsible for many 

 of the bills of the Laurier Ministry, including 

 the moderately protective tariff of 1897, note- 

 worthy for its clause granting preference to 

 British manufactured goods. At various times 

 he represented the Dominion on imperial com- 

 missions and at important conferences in Lon- 

 don, and between 1907 and 1911 negotiated 

 commercial treaties with France, the United 

 States, Germany, Italy and Belgium. He se- 

 cured the installation of the Ottawa branch 

 of the Royal Mint in 1901, and in 1903 estab- 

 lished the penny-bank system. In 1903, while 

 acting temporarily as Minister of Railways 

 and Canals, he conducted negotiations which 

 resulted in the construction of the National 

 Transcontinental Railway. The reciprocity 

 treaty which he negotiated with the United 

 States in 1911 was responsible for the fall of 

 the Laurier Ministry and his own defeat for 

 reelection to the House of Commons (see 

 CANADA, subtitle History). 



Fielding was born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, 

 attended the public schools of that city, and 

 in 1864 became a reporter on the Halifax 

 Morning Chronicle, of which he later became 

 managing editor. This paper was the leading 

 Liberal organ in Nova Scotia. Fielding was 

 elected to the provincial assembly in 1882, and 

 two years later became premier of the prov- 

 ince. He resigned in 1896 to accept election 

 to the House of Commons and a seat in the 

 Laurier Ministry. He declined the honor of 

 knighthood in 1902, and later returned to his 

 old field of journalism in Montreal. G.H.L. 



FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD, a loca- 

 tion in the Valley of Andren, between the 

 English castle of Guisnes and the French castle 



