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power of ministry or party, prince or parliament, to do it. If the attempt is made, let them look to it that venture upon the attempt. The people of England have tasted liberty, and I cannot think they will bear the exchange."

Whilst some were prompting him to abuse the ministers, others were as industriously stimulating the government to fall upon him. This was the case with the author of a pamphlet, entitled 'Now or Never.' "With a head as full of ignorance as a heart full of malice," says De Foe, "he takes upon him to prompt my Lord Dartmouth, to whom he addresses his libel, to prosecute the author of the Review;' in which he has most scandalously abused that noble person, as well as betrayed his own folly." To silence this writer, he tells a story of the Czar of Muscovy, who, when he was in England, and saw a number of fine ladies on some occasion, is said to have applied to the king to send him twenty or thirty of them, and was surprised when he learnt that his majesty had not the power to send one of them without her consent. "Englishmen," says he, "enjoy a thing called liberty, and are protected by the laws; nor can any man be punished but after a fair hearing, and a verdict per pares; a privilege I hope Scotland will now learn to value, and which they will gain by the Union. To punish without law, and prosecute without crime, is not the English way; and to ask it of a minister of state is an affront to his understanding." Our author adds, "I have been desired to bestow an answer to that ridiculous paper, but I really think it merits no better answer than this: To be laughed at for its ignorance."

As the ministers could scarcely expect to maintain their footing with thepresent parliament, its dissolution was one of the measures contemplated in the new changes. But before this could be effected there was much opposition to encounter, and Harley was long embarrassed as to what course he should pursue. His own feelings were in favour of moderate measures, and he promised to observe a medium between the two parties. Aware of the untractable nature of the Tories, he wished to form a junction with the Whigs, and made overtures for that purpose, but being unsuccessful, he was thrown upon the Tories; and when a dissolution was decided upon, it spread a general panic "The amongst the citizens of London. Addison, writing upon the 5th of August, says, bank have represented that they must shut up upon the first issuing out of new writs ; and Sir Francis Child, with the rest of the monied citizens on the Tory side, have declared to the Duke of Shrewsbury, that they shall be ruined if so great a blow Most of be given to the public credit as would inevitably follow upon a dissolution." the monied men having brought their stock to market, there were more sellers than buyers, so that the price of bank-stock fell gradually down to 100. At this time many foreign merchants, who had large concerns in the funds, sent orders to their agents to dispose of their stock, which not only increased the evil, but gave a tolerable hint of the general feeling abroad upon the probable policy of the new ministers.†

Notwithstanding the evils that seemed to threaten this measure, and the loss of a powerful friend in the Duke of Somerset, who resigned his place as Master of the Horse, and went over to the Whigs in consequence, a proclamation for the dissolution of parliament was issued the 21st of September. As soon as it appeared, "all England was in an uproar, and so inflamed by the churchmen, that their fury was to determine elections without any regard to the rights of the electors; for the canvassings and elections were carried on with such feuds as had never before been known in England. In many cases they were carried on by open violence. That firebrand of sedition, Dr Sacheverell, employed his whole time and pains to this purpose. Religion was therefore looked upon as the only popular cause, in the support of which all the furies were raised to procure votes, and ran together as it were to the funeral of the government and public liberty."+ In

• Steele's Correspondence, i. 99.

† Impartial View, p. 251.

Cunningham, ii. 305, 306.

numerable were the outrages committed by the rabble; but as the cause they appeared for sanctified their crimes, they were passed over with impunity. Two flagrant instances of this fury appeared at the elections for London and Westminster. In the former place the chief magistrates met with the grossest insults, and in the latter the proxy of General Stanhope only escaped with his life. "These times were full of all kinds of insolence, and the glorious actions and victories lately obtained were turned into ridicule; good men, therefore, thought it advisable to withdraw themselves from public affairs until the tumult should be ended."*

In the midst of these disorders De Foe was one of those true patriots who stood in the breach between his country and the party that was aiming to enslave it. In energetic strains he now warned his countrymen of the dangers that beset them, in A Word against a New Election. 1710.'

The distracted state of the country at this time is pathetically described by our author, who took a circuit into several parts of the kingdom. "In the counties through which I have passed," says he, "I have been an eye-witness to practices that every honest heart, concerned for the welfare of the country, cannot but bleed at the sight of. A people miserably divided against themselves, in consequence of which their destruction cannot be far off. All the arts and engines imaginable are made use of to bring the people to a wilful surrender of themselves to names and parties. To this end they heat their blood with wine, foment their passions by continued reproaches, and expose each other to studied quarrels. No man but he that sees these things, as this author does to his amazement, could believe it possible that the animosities of the people of this nation could, in so short a time, and after such views of the danger these things have formerly brought them to, be capable of such inflammations. The name of peace is become a scandal. Nor do we fight with cudgels only, as at Marlow, Whitchurch, &c.; with swords and staves, as at Coventry; with stones and brick-bats, as at other places; but we fight with the poison of the tongue, the venom of slander, the foam of malice, and the poison of reproach. This is the present temper of the people where I have been, and too much so all over the nation; wounding not men's bodies only, but stabbing their reputation, reproaching their morals, ripping up their miscarriages, and wounding their families, without any regard to truth or honour. Even our civil war, though bloody and unnatural enough, was not carried on with such a spirit of fury as is now to be seen. Rogue and villain are in the mouths of our men of manners; and, as Sallust tells us of Catiline's conspiracy, when his men came to fight, rage and fury were to be seen in the countenances of both sides. Doubtless God, who governs the world he made, has designed some extraordinary event from this strange phenomenon; and men's minds cannot bear this fermentation without some eruption which, like that at Etna, must put the whole country into confusion."+

The scene that was exhibited in the city of London affords a striking picture of the times, and is thus described by our author :-" Honest men have been afraid to come to the poll for fear of being abused; and many that attempted it have been so beaten and bruised, that they thought it a happiness to get safe back again without getting up to the books, and so have not polled at all. A lane of these furies was formed from the entrance of the hall to the hustings, and in the avenues, through which every man that came to poll was obliged to pass. Here, such insufferable insults were committed as is a shame to this well-governed city."-" I cannot think that any wise man of either side can approve of the riots and tumults practised at the election. Let him go through the streets and view the houses, how they look like houses of ill-fame, with their windows broke, their shutters daubed with dirt, and their balconies full of stones, as if some public

Cunningham, ii, 307.

+ Review, vii. 335-337.

Ibid, 356.

enemy had taken possession of the city. Rage and madness filled the streets, and every one was exposed to the discretion of the rabble. In the general disorder no regard was paid either to friend or foe. Let any man view the streets. Are they all Whigs that dwell between Ludgate and Temple Bar? And was there a house that was not in this manner insulted? And what was it for? All for choosing parliament-men, to make laws for good government, protect our property, and preserve the peace!"* In reference to these disorders, the 'Tatler' humorously remarks, "That if the whole people were to enter into a course of abstinence, and eat nothing but water-gruel for a fortnight, it would abate the rage and animosity of parties, and not a little contribute to the cure of a distracted nation."+

At this time, many ruinours were in circulation of plots and conspiracies to bring in the Pretender. It was given out that the French were to land a body of ten thousand troops to assist in the design, and that there was a strong party in the nation ready to join them. Letters were industriously spread about, and found in the public streets, implicating many persons of consequence, and full of ciphers and half-sentences, pointing out the particular individuals. Of these contrivances to alarm the people, De Foe had no good opinion. He observes that the nation was not then ripe for such a plot, nor were the measures of the party that would be most inclined to it in sufficient forwardness for its execution; but that whatever might be the ulterior design of the Jacobites and Highflyers, their pushing it forward just then would be fatal to their object. Amongst the delusions of the times, it was unblushingly given out, that the Whigs and Dissenters were favourable to the Pretender; a fallacy thus exposed by our author:-"We have a wild suggestion, and the party have taken some pains, in this time of public delusion, to possess the poor abused country-people with this wild story :-That the Dissenters are for the Pretender, that the Whigs are turned Jacobites, that the Low-churchmen are Atheists, and that the bishops are Presbyterians. But these things will die of themselves, and the persons accused need be under no concern for clearing their reputation from that scandal. You might as well accuse the Scotch kirk to be for episcopacy, the Non-jurors for King William, and the High-flyers for a calves'-head feast! Yet, such is the present infatuation, that the poor people are really ready to fancy such things as firmly as they believe anything." He adds, "If the Pretender is kept out till the Whigs and Dissenters concur to bring him in, we may be all easy, and he may e'en go and hang himself; for he has nothing to do as to that matter, but to despair and die." ||

Unripe as the nation was at this time for any exertions in favour of the Pretender, it is certain that the change in the ministry inspired hopes in his adherents. and they continued to be fed until the close of the reign. At this time there appeared a remarkable pamphlet, entitled 'A Letter from a Gentleman at the Court of St Germain's to one of his Friends in England; containing a Memorial about Methods for setting the Pretender upon the Throne of Great Britain. London: 1710.' This pretended discovery was probably of English manufacture, and written by a person well acquainted with the state of parties in England. He gave a long list of instructions for the use of the Jacobites, and, as De Foe says, let out some important confessions. The letter says,-"That since the Prince of Orange was the great cause of all their misfortunes, it will always be a great point gained to lessen the esteem for him, and to blacken his memory as much as possible." Upon this De Foe remarks, "The poor unfortunate author of the 'Review,' who had the honour once to serve, and if I may say it with humblest acknowledgments, to be beloved by that glorious prince, has run a strange variety of fate for his zeal for the honour and memory of his person and actions. By governments ruined, by pretence of

• Review, vii. 361.

+ No. 240.
Review, vii. 417-419.

Review, vii. 351-354.

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justice punished, by enemies reproached, and even by Protestant writers, pretending the defence of our constitution, scurrilously insulted for adhering to his service, and vindicating his character. And now it appears that the blackening the memory of this prince is the first maxim of the politics of St Germain's towards preparing a way for the Pretender." *

Another work relating to the Pretender, that appeared just before the dissolution of parliament, and has been given to De Foe, is 'Reasons against receiving the Pretender. Together with some Queries of the utmost importance to Great Britain. Lond. A. Baldwin. 1710." The object of the writer is to alarm the nation with a prospect of the consequences that would result from the admission of the Pretender, but there seems no good reason for attributing it to our author.

As De Foe now wrote with great caution, and abstained from attacking the ministers, he was charged with wavering in his politics. To this he makes the following reply:"The author of this paper, finding the times perilous, the age censorious, enemies furious, friends cautious, and espousing truth dangerous, and knowing not how long he may be permitted to speak in this manner, humbly desires to state a little the case of this paper and its author. It is now seven years since this work first began, during which time the author has had the fate of pleasing and displeasing in their turn, as must be the lot of every man who writes in an age when so many parties have alternately governed, and where the men of the same party have so often been of several opinions about the same thing. All the world will bear me witness that this is not a Tory paper, as the rage with which I am daily treated will testify. Yet, because I cannot run the length that some would have me, new scandals fill their mouths; and now they report I am gone over to the new ministry. These are the men who, it seems, are angry that I write for upholding credit, without regard to changes in the administration. I have had some conference with these men, and I thank God I have; for it has taught me to abhor their temper, pity their folly, and laugh at their censure. The scandal, therefore, of changing my principles, because I am not for ruining my country, is what I despise. I shall trouble the world with no more apologies. The method I shall take for the future in speaking of public affairs, will be with the same desire to support and defend truth, yet with more caution of embroiling myself with a party that has no mercy, and for a party that has no sense of service."

In November he paid a visit to Scotland, where he stayed for some time, most probably engaged in some secret service. During the whole of his stay there, he furnished the materials for the 'Review;' and he continued it, amidst all his other avocations, on his return, with unabated diligence. There is reason to suppose that his worldly circumstances were now pretty comfortable, for he describes himself as writing his 'Review' in "a nice retirement" at Newington, a pleasant situation, endeared to him, as we have seen, by the recollections of his boyish years. There were not wanting enemies who, in order to destroy the effect of De Foe's writings, afterwards asserted that during this period his pen had been employed in the composition of Tory tracts and pamphlets-the implied condition, as they would have us to understand, of the continuance of his allowance. But we shall soon have to notice a most speaking instance of the falseness of these charges. When Harley himself, bred in revolutionary principles, first came into power, he did so, indeed, by the aid of the Tory party; but he had neither espoused their principles in their full extent, nor did he consent to anything like a total expulsion of the Whigs from office; for this last part of his policy, indeed, as our readers may remember, he was some years afterwards severely blamed by Swift in the celebrated Free Thoughts on the State of Public Affairs.' But the minister's object, no doubt, was to strengthen

Review, vü, 371-374.

his own power by carrying along with him as many of the more moderate Whigs as he could detach from Godolphin's party; and if he failed ultimately in the attainment of this object, the blame was more imputable to the fiery and audacious temper of his colleague, Bolingbroke, than to him. As yet, however, Bolingbroke himself had not entirely forgotten the Whig principles, in which he also had been educated; or if such a change had taken place in his mind, it was not suspected even by those who knew him best.

De Foe, in truth, less than any one either of the political rulers of that period, or even than any of its political writers, seems to have merited the blame of versatility in political principles; he wrote against the peace of Utrecht, although by doing so he must have known he was thwarting Harley in the dearest and most important of all his measures. Yet his honesty does not appear even in this delicate instance to have lost him the protection of the minister.

During this residence in Scotland, the corporation of Edinburgh, grateful for his former services, empowered him to publish the Edinburgh Courant,' in the room of Adam Rooge. This was the second newspaper published in Scotland, and was projected by James Watson in 1705. The first was the Edinburgh Gazette,' established by the same writer, and printed by authority in 1699. This, and his 'Review,' the matter for which he regularly transmitted to London, seem to have occupied nearly all his literary leisure during his absence from England; but after he had issued forty-five numbers of the 'Courant,' he relinquished it to "the heirs and successors of Andrew Anderson, printer to the queen, the city, and the college." De Foe returned to London in March, 1711.

During his absence, our author was assailed in a penny pamphlet, called 'A Hue and Cry after Daniel De Foe and his Coventry Beast; with a Letter from that worthy Horse-courser to a Friend of Mr Mayo in Coventry, that lent it him. London: 1711.' This libel recites that De Foe's travelling occasions leading him, about three years since, into Warwickshire, "to encourage the faction there as well as elsewhere, he could not but pay his respects to the brethren, who at times were very numerous in Coventry ;" that he there hired a horse of one Mayo, which he took with him into Scotland; and that neither the animal nor the hire of him had been heard of since. A letter is added, said to be written by De Foe, in reply to one that had been left for him at his printer's, but its contents prove it a manifest forgery. In reply to this libel, De Foe published the true state of the case in one of his 'Reviews,' from which it appears, that "about three years since, the author going to Scotland, a gentleman who went with him, his horse falling lame, was obliged to leave him at Coventry and hire another; so that, in the first place, the story is a falsity as to the person; for the author of the 'Review' hired no horse at all, neither was the other person any servant, or otherwise belonging to him, but a travelling companion." It appears that the hire of the horse was paid down, and a further sum agreed upon for the purchase, in case it was not returned. De Foe's friend, settling in Scotland, kept the horse, and remitted the money to Coventry; but the horsedealer had hitherto declined receiving it, there being a dispute between them as to the price. Such is the substance of a story that was made the ground of a senseless slander against our author, who considered it little deserving of notice, but thought fit to state it correctly," for the sake of some people who are willing to lay hold of any shift to reproach the man they hate."

Our author's most frequent assailant at this time was Dyer, the new's-writer, who dealt largely in personalities, and was far from particular in the means he employed for advancing the cause of High-church. His libels upon private individuals sometimes exposed him to summary chastisement, but this did not cure him of the cacoethes scribendi. His frequent clashings with De Foe, which produced a waste of words that often degenerated into scandal and abuse, induced our author at this time to propose a literary truce,

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