dealing, let our enemies themselves be judges. For my part, I have no place to lose; no expectation of any to give over. I neither have, nor can accept of, any place upon the terms that have been, any more than on the terms that are now required; though perhaps I have had as many offers and as much family occasion as any man. I cannot be arguing, therefore, any part of my own interest. The corruption of the times makes it necessary to say this; let any man equally indifferent answer it if he can." *

As soon as the bill had passed, De Foe published, in his 'Review,' a paper which he says was handed about at the time in manuscript, and was no doubt of his own composition. "I have met," says he, "with an unlucky paper in the town, said to be a speech spoken by a stone chimney-piece, which expostulates this matter very smartly." It was afterwards printed in another of his works,t and purports to be "The Speech Spoken by the Stone Chimney-piece in the House of Lords," and is thus introduced : "The bill having been read and committed, and no lord offering to speak against it, on a sudden a great noise was heard towards the fire, and from a crack in the Chimneypiece these words were audibly heard :—

"Wonder not, my Lords, when you sit mute, like statues of stone, that I speak. I am now a Peer, and since you, with hearts harder than rocks, can tamely abandon those poor creatures who have trusted to your protection, without saying one word for them, my softer stone cannot any longer keep silence. I have often been witness, my Lords, to the zeal and passion with which some of you have defended their cause. I heard with pleasure those Reverend Prelates, those noble patriots, plead for them, and now I see them sit more unconcerned than myself. For God's sake, my Lords, what meant your former zeal? or what means your present indolence? Were you in the wrong when you opposed what now you consent to? Or are you now in the wrong, in consenting to what you before reckoned the greatest act of violence and oppression? Speak, my Lords; a reason of your change is due from you. (Here was a long pause, and all silent.) What, silent still! I conjure you, by your honours, my Lords, to speak. (Here was another pause, and yet silent.) What, silent still! Oh shameful change! Will not the sense of honour move you more than statues? Hearken then to me, and I will reprove you. I will not, my Lords, tell all that I have heard you whisper, while you lolled on me in your late unnatural caresses; I will not expose you too far, but I have not been totally deaf. I heard what passed when you sold your friends, and sold them for nought-for a vote, for a single worthless vote, that will desert you in the matter you depend upon it for, and so return upon you a just retribution. Was this, my Lords, an equivalent for those that had always stood by you; that had endured mobbing, plundering, burning, and all manner of abuses for your sakes? is it possible that after all this they should be thus surrendered, without one word for them? Who, my Lords, will depend on you after this? Who will move a finger or lip in your quarrel? Depend upon it, you will miss your aim, you have ruined your own interest, and have lost the honour of your former integrity. With what regret will you reflect on this day's action, when you shall find yourselves the jest of those that decoyed you, and thescorn of those that you have abandoned? Think of this; repent if you can, though it is too late.''

As a last effort to avert so obnoxious a measure, our author besought the Queen, in pathetic terms, to interpose her good offices. For this purpose, he drew up a pamphlet with so much dispatch, that it was announced for publication in the Review' for the 22nd of December, and bears the following title: An Essay on the History of Parties and Persecution in Britain.' The appeal, however, was in vain, for the bigotry of the Queen was as incurable as the ambition of her ministers, and was a torment to her subjects throughout her reign.

• Review, viii, 479.

+ Present State of Parties, p. 102.

CHAPTER XIV.

Ar the opening of the year 1712, our author was engaged in some commercial concerns, the nature of which remains unknown. His partner in this speculation was a Mr Ward, who for many years carried on a respectable business as a mercer and draper at Coleshill, in Warwickshire. He was then a member of the Established Church, but a Whig in politics, which exposed him to the rage of his High-church neighbours, who, following the fury of the times, raised such an odium against him as occasioned his business to decline. Mr Ward was the only Whig in the town; but being a man of a mild temper, and of inoffensive manners, he gained the respect even of his enemies. Unable to move him from his principles, party malignity at length triumphed over this deference to his character, of which the following anecdote furnishes a striking instance. The curate of Coleshill, whose name was Badger, paid a visit one afternoon to Mr Ward, who had the company of other neighbours. Whilst they were enjoying themselves over a cheerful bottle, the Jacobite priest thought fit to propose for a toast the health of James the Third, which, from prudence and principle, Mr Ward declined to drink. This irritated the parson so much that he threatened to drive him from the town, and from that time he lost his business. After this occurrence the spirit of malevolence was further manifested in the following imprecation written upon his door :

"Curse and confusion, hell and damnation,

Be to Ward and his generation."

The machinations of his enemies at length obliged him to leave the town, and he settled at Nuneaton, in the same county. Whether it was here or at Coleshill that he became connected with De Foe, is uncertain; but if it was at the last-mentioned place, it must have been previously to March, 1712, when Mr Ward was still at Coleshill. Their scheme, whatever it was, proved unsuccessful, and Mr Ward suffered considerably in his fortune by it. The seeds of Jacobitism were sown at Coleshill by Mr Kettlewell, who was dispossessed of the vicarage for refusing the oaths to the government in 1690. Thomas Carte, the historian, seems to have possessed the living at this time, and was zealous in propagating the same anti-revolution principles. Badger was probably his curate. The political bias of the inhabitants was owing principally to the influence of Lord Digby, who owned most of the town, and was patron of the living. Being himself a friend to the Stuarts, he took care to place such clergymen there as were zealously attached to his own politics. Under such instructors, it is no wonder that the people went astray.

The folly of persecution De Foe has strikingly pourtrayed in the following narrative:-" A certain corporation town, having abundance of poor, large manufactories, and great trade, was thus circumstanced:-The magistrates, mayor, aldermen, and town-council, were all Churchmen; the master manufacturers were generally Dissenters; at least, being twelve in number, nine of them were so, and the other three had the smallest business; so that the government of the town was Tory and the trade Whig. The times running hard upon the Dissenters, the laws were put in execution against them in most places; and the magistrates, pushed on by the parson, fell upon them here also. Two meeting-houses which they had in the town were immediately demolished, many of the people sent to prison, their ministers driven five miles off by the Corporation Act, and the chief of the Dissenters prosecuted in the Ecclesiastical Courts, to excommunication, seizing of their goods, and all manner of extremities. A gentleman about six miles from the place, who was a Dissenter, and had a good estate in that country, invited two of the principal persecuted tradesmen to shelter with him, and gave them two houses rent-free in his village; their two ministers he entertained in his house, and there they preached every Sabbathday. The two tradesmen finding themselves easy here, which they could not be in the neighbouring

Whilst De Foe was occupied in the peaceful pursuits of industry, the news-writers assailed his character for the purpose of destroying his credit. The real ground of offence was the assistance he afforded to the ministers by advocating a peace; but they betrayed their malice in diverging from that topic to his private misfortunes. One of the writers of whom he had thus to complain was Ridpath, who succeeded Tutchin in the conduct of the 'Observator.' "Instead of confining himself to public matters," says De Foe, "he descends to personalities, and, for want of better arguments, reproaches me with private misfortunes, things altogether foreign to the matter in hand, and which he can on no honourable pretence mention, but merely renovare dolorem. While, to make good the deficiency of his reasoning, he frequently called me bankrupt, I held my tongue, supposing he took that for a good proof that I was wrong in all I said; for how should a bankrupt have any sense? Or, how should he argue who could not pay his debts? But finding this would not move me, he comes closer, and publishes in the 'Observator' that nobody will trust me with a shilling. This, indeed, though it were true, as I thank God it is a premeditated untruth, weighs not one grain in the scale of his argument; yet it forces me to speak a word or two more than I designed. If I had not at this time in the lawful pursuit of my business, by which, and not by writing, as he does, I get my bread, support a large family, and honestly set apart the overplus, all which this malicious person has thus endeavoured to blast and overthrow,-if, I say, I had not in the course of this business, even at this time, the trust of several thousand pounds in my hands,—if I had not, since the misfortune he reproaches me with, been trusted both with public and private money above the value of 100,000l., and if I was not every day oppressed with credit of both goods and money, by friends whom I act for, much more than I desire, all which business and credit he has done his utmost to ruin and prevent, I should have said nothing. But as this is my case, justice to myself, my family, and such as are daily trusting me, obliges me to take this notice of it."

De Foe then refers him to several persons of his own acquaintance who had trusted him with a thousand pounds at a time, which he had faithfully discharged; and observes, "Had what he says been true, he, a professed Dissenter, ought not to have mentioned it, since thereby he only calls to mind how I suffered 3,5001. loss for a cause that he owns, and a party which he ought to have more respect for than to force me to upbraid them with unkindness, and to tell how easily I could have prevented that loss with advantage, if I would have betrayed honest men, even some who have since forgotten the obligation. But, as he can, without any just provocation, thus attempt to ruin and overthrow a family

corporation, soon removed their families and working servants, and settled in the village; such of the weavers and other work-people as were dependent upon them for employment soon followed, and the poor of the village soon found the sweets of it. In a short time three more of the masters, with all their et ceteras, followed the example, and in less than two years all the nine master manufacturers removed, so that the village could not receive the people that followed. Some built houses, the lord of the manor letting them land, and giving them all imaginable encouragement. In the meantime the persecution of Dissenters slackened, and they began to preach openly in the new town. This also drew many from the corporation, and the trade increasing with the people, the village grew up to a great town. All this while the corporation town decayed, the employment of the people was gone, the weight of the poor not only remained but increased, insomuch that the rate was doubled. The people ran all away, not to the village only, but to the meeting-house too, to make their court to the masters for work. These, remembering how they had been used, encouraged chiefly those that were Dissenters, so that hundreds went to the meeting-house who used to go to church, for fear of losing their work. By the industry of some and the charity of others, all their real poor were provided for, and the few that remained in the Tory corporation served only to show the ruins of a good town, and the fatal effects of cruelty and persecution. Some corporations in England besides C, ," observes De Foe, " may take a hint from this story."Review, viii, 711, 712.

struggling with a known and unwearied diligence to recover its misfortunes, and do justice to al ́the world, so I cheerfully depend upon it, that God will not suffer.so malicious a purpose to have its effect." De Foe then gives notice that he is ready to return all goods, money, and effects entrusted to him, to such persons as may have been rendered uneasy by this villanous attempt to stab his reputation.* This was not the only occasion upon which our author had to complain of the injustice of Ridpath; but he meets his attacks with gentleness, and scorns to return the ill-language that was meted out to him by his adversary. "I own it is my affliction," says he, "to be used so, having not given the least occasion; but it is my duty when reviled not to revile again. Time, perhaps, will better inform any one that these people shall deceive; I only remember that this same man assailed me in the very same manner with being employed by the late ministry, and flew as much in their faces for mismanagement, and in mine too for defending them, as he does now. And yet he cannot charge me with one word which contradicts anything I said then, nor reflecting on the cause I ever espoused, which I hope is the cause of truth. I might go back to his reviling King William, but I say no more; nor shall I give any more answers to anything he thinks fit to say, till he can assume so much of the Christian as to say nothing but what he can prove, and so much of the gentleman as to give good language.”+

De Foe's next production was a pamphlet, entitled 'The Conduct of Parties in England, more especially of those Whigs who now appear against the new Ministry, and a Treaty of Peace. London, 1712;" wherein much information is brought together relating to the factions of the reign, and the party distinctions by which they were known. In exposing the inconsistency of the Whigs, the author abstains from those terms of vituperation which were dealt out against them by the Tories, and censures them chiefly for joining with a set of men who were equally enemies to the late and present ministry.

Next appeared 'The Present State of Parties in Great Britain: Particularly an Inquiry into the State of the Dissenters in England, and the Presbyterians in Scotland. 1712. A work containing a good historical view of the times, illustrated by some useful documents, and abounding in good sense and manly feeling.

The delicate hand with which De Foe now touched the acts of the government, and his forbearance upon topics which must have deeply engaged his feelings, induced many to suspect that he was bribed by the ministers. But the suggestion was as unfounded as it was unworthy; his conduct being wholly governed by prudential motives, and by delicacy towards the chief minister, from whom he had formerly received benefits. Some printed papers having been circulated to his disadvantage, he thought it necessary to interpose the following defence :—

6

"I remember a malcontent of a reign not many years behind us, whether he wrote Pagan or Protestant 'Post-Boys,'' Examiners,' or what, authors are not agreed, when an argument was brought a little too close to him, said, 'Sir, you would rail as I do, if you were not bribed.'-' Ay,' replied the other, and you would be quieter than I, if anybody would bribe you.'" Upon this De Foe remarks, "Three sorts of men always rail at a government. First, those whose opinion of their own merit makes them think they are never well enough rewarded. The second sort are those who having enjoyed favours, but being found unworthy, are discarded from their offices; these always rail as if they had never been obliged. But we have a third sort of people who always go with their mouths open, in order to have them stopped; like a sort of dogs I have met with, that, when they attend under your table, bark that they may be fed. I remember a man of some note who practised this with great success, and canted a long while in the

House of Commons about abuses in the management, misapplying the public treasure, making felonious treaties, and the like; but a wise old fox no sooner halved his den to this badger, but he put a stop to the clamour, and the nation's treasure was never misapplied since, because a good share of it ran his way." Our author here alludes to John Howe, M.P., in this and the former reign, who was made joint pay-master of the forces with Sir Stephen Fox.

Our author continues, "He that takes a bribe is a traitor to his own principles and to his country. It has been the fate of these nations to be always plagued with such vermin; but I never knew any real good come of buying them off, and therefore just governments always let them alone." De Foe intimates that the railers of his day were of too little importance to be bought off. "For my own part, I must needs be perfectly free from the scandal; and if the rest had not more vanity, they would leave off expecting it. I do not believe many of the writers of this age were ever offered a bribe ; and I'll clear them of that scandal upon the same foot as I do myself, believing that the ministry know better what to do with their money; therefore, whatever honour they do me that way, I am in no condition to return it. I have written this upon account of two printed papers relating to myself, of which the authors have so far owned themselves ashamed as to let them but just see the world and retire: and upon account of those who boast of their being employed by the government, when what they write is scandalous even to human society."

The Preface to the eighth volume of the 'Review,' published at this period, gives a narrative of the treatment he had received during its progress, and relates some affecting particulars of his past life, as well as of the existing state of his circumstances. Although the narrative is rather long, yet it throws so much light upon his personal affairs, and is so descriptive of his real character, that to suppress it would deprive the present work of an important document.

"I have now finished the eighth volume of this work, and as this particular part has been the subject of as much clamour and noise as any of the former, though on a different account, and from different people, I cannot close it without giving some account both of it and of myself. From the beginning of this undertaking, which I have now carried on almost ten years, I have always, according to the best of my judgment, calculated it for the support and defence of truth and liberty. I was not so weak when I began as not to expect enemies, and that by speaking plain, both to persons and things, I should exasperate many against both the work and the author, and in that expectation I have not been deceived.

"I confess I did not expect that if the same truth summoned me to differ from the people I was serving, they would treat me as they do for it. I own I thought an uninterrupted fidelity, and steady adhering to an honest principle for near forty years, would have been some plea in my behalf, and, if not, that suffering the shipwreck of my fortunes, which were at that time recovering, and by the bounty of his late majesty, in a fair way of being restored; suffering all the indignities, penalties, and punishments, an enraged party could inflict upon me, and above three thousand pounds loss; I say I thought this might have lodged a little in the breasts of my friends, and might have allowed them at least to examine, before they condemned me, whether they did me wrong or no.

"I thought that while I had given such proof that I could neither be bribed from the truth, or threatened, or terrified from my principles, it might at least be a ground for impartial, honest men to examine before they censured me. But I have found all this in vain; and as if forfeiting my reason as well as my estate were a debt from me to the party I espoused, I am now hunted with a full cry, Acteon like, by my own friends, I won't call them hounds, in spite of protested innocence and want of evidence against the