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Cornell University Libraiv 
 PR 3406. W9S 1894 
 
 The life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 3 1924 013 180 033 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013180033 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE OF DANIEL DEFOE 
 
THE "JURE DIVINO" PORTRAIT. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE OF DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS WRIGHT 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF COWPER SCHOOL, OLNEY ; AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF 
 WILLIAM COWPER," ETC. 
 
 * Defoe was always my darling " — Charles Lamb 
 
 Letter to Mr. Walter Wilson 
 
 CASSELL AND COMPANY, Limited 
 
 LONDON. P-ARIS &» MELBOURNE 
 
 1894 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
A.'g ^i'\(o 
 
C^is Volume 
 
 IS DEDICATED TO 
 
 GEORGE A. AITKEN, Esq., 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE "LIFE OF RICHARD STEELE," ETC., 
 
 FROM WHOSE WORKS 
 
 I HAVE RECEIVED MUCH HELP, 
 
 AND TO WHOSE PERSONAL KINDNESS 
 
 I AM GREATLY INDEBTED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 With the personality of no eminent man of letters 
 of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is the 
 public less familiar than with that of Daniel Defoe. 
 "Robinson Crusoe" has been read to tatters, 
 "The Shortest Way" even has been taken down 
 and dusted ; but of the man who wrote them the 
 great world knows nothing, except, perhaps, that he 
 had a hooked nose and was put in the pillory. 
 Biographers have been so occupied in gathering 
 together facts concerning his writings, especially 
 those of the obscurer kind, and in trying to dis- 
 cover fresh writings, and have devoted so much 
 space to the consideration of his position as a 
 politician, that the man himself and his inner life 
 have been almost entirely lost sight of. 
 
 Defoe, to quote Heine's phrase, was a brave 
 soldier in the war of humanity, but he was also 
 an extremely interesting personality, and it is partly 
 in order to reveal the secrets of the mine neglected 
 
xii Preface. 
 
 by my predecessors that this work has been under- 
 taken ; and I use the word "neglected" advisedly, 
 for though, thanks to the kindness of friends, I 
 have had placed in my hands a great mass of 
 material with the existence of which my predeces- 
 sors were unacquainted, nevertheless, it is owing 
 quite as much to a careful study of Defoe's works, 
 and especially his novels, as it is to the new 
 material, that I am able to present, as I trust I do 
 present, not a mythical figure hardly discernible 
 behind a pile of half-forgotten pamphlets, but a 
 man of flesh and blood — the hero, Defoe. I wish 
 to show the man who is responsible for the im- 
 mortal story of " wild, wicked Robinson Crusoe," 
 or wild, wicked Daniel Defoe, if you like — for, 
 Bunyan-like, he flagellated his own back ; and I 
 shall describe the painful travail which made that 
 great allegory possible ; for " Robinson Crusoe," as 
 Defoe himself declares, and as I shall prove, is an 
 allegory of Defoe's own life. I wish to show the 
 man who wrote the moving scenes in " Colonel 
 Jack," the unapproached realism of "Moll Flanders," 
 the truth-like " History of the Plague," and the 
 stirring and picturesque "Memoirs of a Cavalier." 
 
 I wish to show Defoe in the street, in the 
 meeting-house, in " Lob's Pound " (as Newgate was 
 
Preface. xiii 
 
 prettily called), on his travels, in his parlour with 
 his three beautiful daughters, whom he loved so 
 tenderly and of whom he was so justly proud, to 
 show him cultivating his garden of four acres (with 
 adjoining close) — he was a mighty gardener before 
 the Lord — superintending his tile-yard, writing his 
 books, and (must we say it ?) dodging his creditors. 
 
 As in my " Life of William Cowper," I have not 
 despised trifles, and for the reason that I believe, 
 with Sir Walter Raleigh, that " Even by trifles are 
 the qualities of great persons as well disclosed as 
 by their great actions, because in matters of im- 
 portance they commonly strain themselves . to the 
 observance of general commended rules ; in lesser 
 things they follow the current of their own natures." 
 
 Another feature of this work is my venturing 
 to submit what I believe to be the true key to 
 " Robinson Crusoe." 
 
 Defoe not only declares, in his " Serious Re- 
 flections " ("Robinson Crusoe," Part III.), that 
 Robinson Crusoe is an allegory of his own life, 
 but that the correspondence extended even to 
 minuteness. He averred that the fright and 
 fancies that succeeded the sight of the print of 
 the man's foot, the discovery in the cave of 
 the goat with gleaming eyes, the incident of 
 
xiv Preface. 
 
 his annexation of Friday — everything, in short, 
 that happened in Crusoe — had its counterpart 
 with Defoe. 
 
 As a natural consequence, many persons have 
 tried to find out the key — to discover which in' 
 cident in Defoe's Hfe corresponded with his ship- 
 wreck, which with the coming of the savages, etc. ; 
 one of the most recent of these explorers being 
 the late Professor Minto (author of the Handbook 
 to Defoe, in the "English Men of Letters'' series), 
 who, not meeting with success, came to the con- 
 clusion that the story is not an allegory at all : 
 that it merely suited Defoe's purpose to call it by 
 that name after it was published, whilst previously 
 he had thought nothing about the matter. To my 
 mind, indeed, the chief blemish of Professor Minto's 
 book, valuable as it is, and much as I am indebted 
 to it, is his charging Defoe with lying — declaring 
 that he was a story-teller in both senses of the 
 word. That E^foe "at his worst," that is at the 
 most trying period of his political career, " might," 
 as S. R. B. says, "have taught Talleyrand the method 
 of plausible dissimulation, and Pope the art of 
 mystification " is undoubtedly true ; but that is a 
 very different thing from saying that he told — that 
 he was in the habit of telling — downright falsehoods, 
 
Preface. xv 
 
 on all sorts of occasions, for the mere pleasure 
 of telling them. 
 
 I have not set myself the Quixotic task to paint 
 a perfect man, and I am aware that the business of 
 a biographer is not to justify words and deeds, but 
 merely to record facts ; nevertheless, I may, without 
 being suspected of bias, throw out one or two sug- 
 gestions. While it does not fall to my lot to lay 
 down to what extent a man may pardonably prac- 
 tise dissimulation, I may observe that all men, 
 without exception, take a good deal of pains to give 
 their neighbours a different idea of the condition of 
 their affairs from what is really the case. Is that 
 more venial than Defoe's playing the role of a 
 Jacobite as he did, and writing as if he were a 
 Jacobite for a Jacobite journal, all the while he was 
 in reception of Whig pay ? Is being a spy a crime ? 
 Does England execrate the memory of Major Andr6 ? 
 
 I was first thrown on the right track respecting 
 the connection between "Robinson Crusoe" and the 
 life of Defoe by the discovery, a few years back, 
 by Mr. G. A. Aitken, of the true date of Defoe's 
 birth, which was 1659 and not 1661, as previously 
 supposed, with the result of the disclosure that in 
 order to get at the date in the life of Defoe which 
 corresponds with the date in " Crusoe," nothing has 
 
xvi Preface. 
 
 to be done except to add twenty-seven years. As in 
 the body of this book the subject is thoroughly 
 gone into (see § ^ 2, 7, 50, etc.), the various 
 parallels being pointed out, nothing further on it 
 need be said here, except to notice how very par- 
 ticular Robinson Crusoe is regarding dates ; over 
 and over again he repeats a date, in order to 
 engraft it in the reader's memory. 
 
 Thanks to the kindness of Mr. Richard Champion 
 Rawlins, I am able to settle once and for ever the 
 vexed question as to whence Defoe obtained the 
 bulk of the material upon which " Robinson Crusoe " 
 is founded, and I give a photograph of the house 
 of Mrs. Damaris Daniel in Bristol where Defoe 
 met Selkirk. Mr. Rawlins is a descendant of 
 Francis Rogers, one of the twelve merchants of 
 Bristol who fitted out the Duke and the Duchess, 
 commanded by Captain Woodes Rogers, who 
 brought Selkirk home. (See § 42 and Appendix.) 
 
 The interesting facts connected with Defoe's 
 imprisonment for writing " The Shortest Way," 
 related m. % 19, are^ also new. My attention was 
 drawn to these by Joseph Redington, Esq., of the 
 Record Office. 
 
 Another feature of this book is its bringing out, 
 more clearly than can be found elsewhere, that 
 
Preface. xvii 
 
 Defoe was above all things — that it was his en- 
 deavour to be at all times — the man of God. 
 This, after referring to his dissimulation in matters 
 political, may perhaps startle. But what I mean is, 
 not that he never sinned, or that all which he did 
 was right, but that his aims and desires were right. 
 His was a great soul, and little souls should beware 
 of measuring him by their own standard. An 
 Achilles in the field who feared not the face of any 
 man, Daniel Defoe before his God was a humble, 
 tearful penitent. To use his own words, " he was 
 often heard to pray to God in his solitudes very 
 audibly and with great fervency." The prize of 
 fame he constantly coveted, and it has been awarded 
 to him; but above all things he valued "the prize 
 of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
 
 I have endeavoured to write this book without 
 bias, and the task has been the more easy insomuch 
 that, staunch a Dissenter as Defoe was, few authors 
 have spoken with greater kindliness of the Church 
 of England {see his beautiful remarks in % 30 and 
 % 63). The book is likewise politically neutral. I 
 have too much admiration for some of Defoe's Tory 
 opponents to allow the " Whig dogs " to have always 
 the best of the argument. To speak soberly, my 
 desire is for it to be felt that Defoe belongs not to 
 b 
 
xviii Preface. 
 
 the Dissenter or to the Churchman, not to the Whig 
 or to the Tory. He is the nation's. 
 
 The question as to the number of works actually 
 written by Defoe need not trouble us. Mr. Lee's 
 list being undoubtedly the most trustworthy, I have 
 followed it, but the precise number of books that 
 Defoe wrote, or whether some of the minor works 
 attributed to him were by him, will never be known. 
 Whether, however, he wrote 240, 250, or 260 does 
 not greatly matter, for the doubtful works are of 
 no intrinsic value ; and the same may be said of 
 the "recently discovered" newspaper "writings" of 
 Defoe, many of which were probably not by him 
 at all, published by Mr. Lee in 1869. Even of 
 the vast number of productions that were certainly 
 his, very many deserve, and will receive from us, 
 no more than a passing notice. To run away with 
 the idea that everything that Defoe wrote is bullion 
 is a mistake, and the sooner the mind is disabused 
 of it the bette% Mr. Lee's list is not only the best 
 yet made, but probably the best that ever will be 
 made, for we are unlikely to see another man willing 
 to spend so much time and trouble in trying to settle 
 a question of so little real importance. In this list 
 I have made only two alterations. No. i — "A 
 Letter containing some Reflections on His Majesty's 
 
Preface. xix 
 
 Declaration for Liberty of Conscience " — was dis- 
 covered, subsequent to the publication of Mr. Lee's 
 work, to have been written by Dr. Burnet. So this 
 I have struck out, but have put in its place Defoe's 
 first known publication — a tract relating to the Turks 
 — which, as it was lost, Mr. Lee did not trouble to 
 include. The other alteration is the insertion of the 
 work " Due Reflections for the Plague " {see § 76), 
 which Mr. Lee accidentally omitted. 
 
 The material that has been made use of for the 
 present volume is of four kinds : — 
 
 The first comprises the labours of my prede- 
 cessors in the biographical office, to wit, the " Life 
 of Defoe " by the Scotch antiquary George Chalmers 
 (1786), the life by Walter Wilson in 1830, that by 
 William Chadwick in 1859, and that by William Lee 
 (1869), valuable works all of them, but dry as the 
 very Sahara. 
 
 The second comprises the discoveries that have 
 been made by various persons since the publication 
 of Lee — e.g., the letter of Defoe to Keimer sent to 
 Notes and Queries in 1869 by Mr. James Crossley ; 
 the letters of Defoe to John Fransham, which we owe 
 to Mr. Norgate {Notes and Queries, April 3rd, 1875, 
 and April loth, 1875) ! ^he letter in Notes and Queries 
 for January 26th, 1884, furnished by Mr. Joy; the 
 
 b2 
 
XX Preface. 
 
 articles by Mr. Altken in the Contemporary Review 
 for February, 1890, and the Aikencsuffziov April 30th; 
 1889, and August 3tst, 1890; and the notes in 
 " Lewis's History of Islington," 
 
 The third comprises the valuable critical writings 
 of John Forster (Historical and biographical essays, 
 1858), Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, Mr. Saintsbury in the 
 " Britannica" and his " Introduction to Defoe's Minor 
 Novels" (1892), the valuable review of the last in the 
 Daily Chronicle by Mr. A. B. Walkley, and Professor 
 Minto's monograph. 
 
 The fourth comprises the unpublished material 
 in the British Museum and other collections, my own 
 discoveries, and the material placed in my hands by 
 various ladies and gentlemen. 
 
 In the British Museum are six letters by Defoe's 
 sons, all of which have been useful — namely, one from 
 Daniel Defoe, Jils, to his cousin. Miss Cornwall, one 
 by Benjamin Defoe to Sir Hans Sloane, and four 
 by Benjamin D*foe to the Duke of Newcastle. There 
 are also in the Museum some printed pamphlets 
 relating to Defoe which my predecessors could not 
 have seen. 
 
 In the "Calendar of Treasury Papers" (1702 to 
 1 71 7), preserved in the Record Office, are two very 
 interesting notices of Defoe and his arch-enemy the 
 
Preface. xxi 
 
 Earl of Nottingham. My attention was most kindly 
 called to these by Mr. Joseph Redington, of Church 
 End, Finchley. 
 
 The Rev. Henry Defoe Baker, Rector of Thruxton, 
 Hants, who very kindly entertained me at Thruxton, 
 placed in my hands a great mass of materials, the most 
 important of which consisted of a volume of letters 
 written by Sophia, Defoe's youngest daughter, and 
 Henry Baker, her betrothed, previous to their mar- 
 riage, most of which contain allusions to Defoe ; and 
 seven unpublished letters of Defoe (one in Defoe's 
 handwriting, and six copies made by Henry Baker). 
 The Rev. W. Defoe Baker, Rector of Welton, Lincoln, 
 was kind enough to send me copies of the four auto- 
 graph letters of Defoe in his possession. One of 
 them, a long and extremely beautiful letter, is given 
 in its entirety in § 94 ; and from all I have made 
 quotations. 
 
 Of no little importance was my discovery of the 
 will of Defoe's grandfather — or rather the Rev. W. 
 Sweeting's discovery of it, for it was found by him 
 at Peterborough in the Consistory Court of North- 
 ampton when he was making researches for me ; and 
 this disclosed, among other things, that the home of 
 the Foes was Etton, not Elton, in Northamptonshire, 
 and suggested an examination of the Etton registers 
 
xxii Preface. 
 
 which brought to light a number of other interesting 
 facts. 
 
 I am under obHgations to the Marquis of Bute 
 for information concerning the so - called Kneller 
 portrait of Defoe, {see % 34) ; to Miss Mary Defoe 
 (great-great-grand-daughter of the novelist) for in- 
 formation conveyed during long conversations and by 
 letter, and for the loan of a copy of " Wilson's Life 
 of Defoe," with manuscript corrections ; and to the 
 aged and infirm Mr. James William Defoe (great- 
 great-grandson of the novelist) for the indentures 
 of Samuel Defoe, the novelist's, grandson. I may 
 observe in passing that the late Lord Tennyson, 
 Poet Laureate, tried hard to get Mr. Defoe placed 
 on the Civil List, and that, being unsuccessful, he 
 joined cordially with me in establishing a fund for 
 Mr. Defoe's assistance. This fund is still open. 
 
 I also wish to acknowledge my indebtedness, for 
 various services, to the following ladies and gentle- 
 men : — G. A. Aitkeri, Esq., Hornton Street, Ken- 
 sington, to whom I have the honour of dedicating 
 the book ; Mr. John T. Page, Holmby House, 
 Hampton Road, Forest Gate ; Mr. W. H. Peet, 
 of the firm of Longmans and Co., Paternoster Row, 
 whose house of business occupies the site of the 
 "Ship," whence "Robinson Crusoe" was issued- 
 
Preface. xxiii 
 
 Mr. Henry Gray, bookseller, of 47, Leicester Square, 
 London, W.C. ; the Rev. J. F. Kennard, Bury St. 
 Edmunds ; the Rev. F. Snape, Bury St. Edmunds ; 
 Mrs. Jennings, Cupola House, Bury ; Rev. Evelyn 
 White, Christ Church Vicarage, Chesham ; the Rev. 
 Dr. Anderson, Defoe Manse, Tooting ; A. B. Walkley, 
 Esq. (dramatic critic of the Speaker and the Star, 
 etc., etc., and author of "Playhouse Impressions"); 
 W. H. King, Esq., Leigh Hill, Leigh, Essex ; the 
 Rev. J. Lewis, College Road, Norwich ; Mr. William 
 George, St. Wulfstan's, Durdham Park, Bristol; Rev. 
 J. R. Bailey, Craven House, Halifax; Rev. C. R. 
 Durham, Rector of Etton, Northants ; Messrs. George 
 Bell and Sons (publishers of the useful edition of 
 Defoe's works in seven volumes) ; Messrs. T. Nelson 
 and Sons (publishers of the carefully edited " House- 
 hold " edition of " Robinson Crusoe ") ; Mr. W. Wright, 
 College Street, Westminster ; Henry Gough, Esq., 
 Redhill ; W. W. Wainewright, Esq., 162, Portland 
 Street, W. ; the Rev. R. F. Whistler, Rector of 
 Elton, Hunts ; Alfred Double, Esq., F.S.S., C.C., 
 Stamford Hill, N. ; the Rev. W. D. Sweeting, 
 Maxey Vicarage, Market Deeping ; Mr. P. Soman, 
 of the Norwich Argus; Mr. R. Batey, Halifax; 
 Mr. Joseph Redington, Church End, Finchley ; Miss 
 Bessie Wright, Margery Hall, Forest Gate ; Hyde 
 
xxiv Preface. 
 
 Clarke, Esq., St. George's Square, S.W. ; J- G. 
 Godwin, Esq., St. George's Row, Pimlico ; Rev. 
 F. C. Naish, Gravesend ; E. Forbes Robinson, Esq., 
 Aldeburgh House, Westcombe Park Road, Black- 
 heath ; W. H. G. Webb, Esq., R.N., The Firs, 
 Warwick Road, New Barnet ; H. Gough, Esq., 
 Redhill ; and my amanuensis. Miss May Burford. 
 
 THOMAS WRIGHT. 
 
 Coivper School, Olney. 
 
 31 May, 1894. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Dedication . . ix 
 
 Preface . . . . xi 
 
 gook I.— PAMPHLETEER AND POET. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Childhood and Youth (1659 — 1678). 
 
 I. — The Foes of Etton in Northamptonshire 2 
 
 2.— The Butcher's Shop in Fore Street S 
 
 3. — The Acadenay at Newi.ngton ; Thy Place in Life is Seeking after Thee 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Merchant of Cornhill (1678 — 1694). 
 
 4. — At "Ye Sign of the Civet Cat" — His Marriage with Mary Tuffley 
 
 (ist Jan., 1683) 16 
 
 5. — Pie Travels in Spain and Portugal — An Affair of Honour . .18 
 
 6. — With King Monmouth .21 
 
 7. — The Life of Silence (30th Sept. 1686) 23 
 
 8. — At Tooting — He Visits the other Side of his Island — Orange Every- 
 where (1687—88) • . .30 
 
 9. — Bankruptcy and Bristol — Defoe's Daemon — Te Deum Laudamus . 34 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Hackney and Chadwell — The Mouthpiece of the King 
 (1694— 1703). 
 
 10. — The Pantile Works at Chadwell — He Changes his Name (arc. 1797) . 42 
 II. — The Poet Defoe and his " Elegy on Dr. Annesley" (1697) . . 45 
 
xxvi Contents. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 12.— In Favour of a Standing Army— His First Great Pamphlet (1697) • 48 
 13- — The Occasional Conformity Struggle — "Playing Bp-Peep with God 
 
 Almighty" 4SJ 
 
 14- — The Essay on Projects — " Woman, Lovely Woman " (May, 1698) ■ 5* 
 15.— His Poems, "The Pacificator" and "The True-born Englishman " 
 
 (Jan., 1701)— Death of Dryden -51 
 
 16. — The Kentish Petition 61 
 
 17.— The Death of King William (»■ 
 
 18. — " The Shortest Way " — Dekniia est Cariia^o [ist Dec, iyo2) . ■ 6; 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 In "Lob's Paund " (about Eighteen Months). 
 
 19. — In the Clutches of "Don Dismal" (Nottingham) — "This Damned 
 
 Satirical Way of Writing'' — The Shy Informer .... 71 
 20. — The True Collection of the Writings of Defoe — At the Old Bailey — 
 
 Bullied by Harcourt 7, 
 
 21. — Three Days in the Pillory (July 29, 30, 31, 1703) . . . .7' 
 22.— At "Newgate, Horrid Place '' — Te Deum Laudamus ... 71 
 
 23. — Failure of the Pantile Works (1704) 8; 
 
 24. — Commencement of the /i?«otVot (19th Feb., 1704) . . . -Si 
 
 25. — Eighteen Newgate Pamphlets — The Fall of " Don Dismal " . . 91 
 26. — Defoe, Swift, Addison, and Steele — Defoe's Release from Newgate 
 
 (Aug. 1704) 9i 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 At Bury St. Edmunds. 
 
 27. — His Friend, John Fransham 10 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Electioneering. 
 
 • 
 
 28. — Giving Alms no Charity — His First Long Illness (Jan., 1705) . . 10 
 29. — The Man in the Moon — A Beautiful Letter (to Fransham) . . .11 
 
 30. — -Lord Halifax, the English Mecsenas II 
 
 3 1 . — Exeter and the West — Eleven Hundred Miles on Horseback — Down 
 
 with the Tackers ! 11 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 To and From Scotland. 
 
 32. — The "Melancholy Story" of Defoe's Embarrassments — He Places his 
 
 Affairs in the Hands of the Bankruptcy Commissioners . . .12 
 
Contents. xxvii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 33. — Mrs. Veal and the Jure Divino — Benjamin Bragg his Smartness . . 127 
 34. — The yare ZJzOTwa Portrait — The Portraits of Defoe . . . -133 
 35.— Secret Service in Scotland— The Union (Oct., 1706— Dec, 1707)— Yet 
 
 Alive, in Spite of Scotch Mobs, Swedish Monarchs, and Bullying 
 
 Jacobites 13S 
 
 36.— Little Lord Godolphin— Death of Defoe's Father . . . .142 
 37. — History of the Union — -Third and Fourth Visits to Scotland 
 
 (June, 1708; Aug., 1709) I45 
 
 38.— High Church Darling, Sacheverell (Feb. 1710) 147 
 
 39. — The Savages Arrive — " Et erit inihi Magnus Apollo" — "Hey, Boys, 
 
 up go We!" 149 
 
 40. — Fifth Visit to Scotland — A Passage-at-Arms with Swift — A Treaty to 
 
 Abstain from Shying Mud 153 
 
 41.— Guiscard Stabs Harley (8th Mar., 1711)— "No Man has Tasted 
 
 Differing Fortunes More " — Acteon Torn by his Hounds . . IS7 
 42. — The Meeting of Defoe and Selkirk — " I am Monarch of All I Survey" 164 
 
 CHAPTER VHL 
 
 At Halifax (Autumn, 1712). 
 
 43. — At the Sign- of the " Rose and Crown " .... . 175 
 
 44. — The Man that Blows Hot and Cold with the same Breath . . .177 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 In " Lob's Pound " Again. 
 
 45. — "Two Vipers Tangled into One" — The End of the Review — The 
 
 Scriblerus Club 182 
 
 46. — Mercator — His Pardon — Steele and Swift again 186 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Newington. 
 
 47. — The Death of Queen Anne — Samuel Tuffley's Will . . . igj 
 48.— The Lord Anglesey Affair— Did "Friday" Write "The White 
 
 Staff?" 193 
 
 49. — How Defoe Turned his Fit of Apoplexy to Account — The Quaker 
 
 Pamphlets— Keimer (Nov., 1714 ; Jan., 1715) ... 195 
 50. — End of the Life of Silence — Crusoe leaves his Island . . . .201 
 
 51. — The Family Instructor — A Puritan Sabbath 204 
 
 52. — Charles XII. — Thanks to a Dream ; or. How Defoe got out of the 
 
 Anglesey Scrape 208 
 
xxviii Contents. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 S3.— A Government Spy— The Letters to Mr. De la Faye . • • -211 
 
 54. 
 55 
 56, 
 
 57. 
 
 — Mercurius Politicus and Count Patkul ^'3 
 
 —" Friday " writes Mesnager (17th June, 1717) ^'" 
 
 — Mist and his Journal — Dancing over Broken Glass . . . .218 
 — "That Notorious Insignificant Animal Mist, and his Scandalous 
 
 Author, Daniel Foe " '. '. 220 
 
 §Dok II.— NOVELIST AND HISTORIAN. 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Adventure Series. 
 
 58. — "Wild, Wicked Robinson Crusoe" (asth Apr., 1719)— Death of 
 
 Addison (17th June, 17 19) 229 
 
 59. — The Daemon of Defoe — Defoe's Character 240 
 
 60. — Baron Goertz 243 
 
 6i. — Robinson Crusoe, Part II. (20th Aug., 1719) 244 
 
 62.— The Attack on " Crusoe " by Gildon 247 
 
 63. — Dickory Cronke — Defoe and the Church of England . . . . 250 
 64. — Duncan Campbell (30th Ap., 1720)— The Ghost of Dorothy Dingley 
 
 (iSth June, 1720) 253 
 
 65. — Memoirs of a Cavalier (20th May, 1720) 258 
 
 66. — Captain Singleton (4th June, 1720) 262 
 
 67. — Applebee's — Summary of Defoe's Journalistic Work — The Bursting of 
 
 the South Sea Bubble 265 
 
 68.— Crusoe, Part III. (Serious Reflections), (6th Aug., 1720) . . .268 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CRIMmAL AND TOPOGRAPHICAL SERIES. 
 
 69. — Mist is Pilloried (13th Feb., 1721) — He is "Visited in Prison and 
 Cheered by his Judicious, Learned, and Merry Friend," Daniel 
 
 Defoe 271 
 
 70. — Benjamin Defoe in Trouble ........ 273 
 
 71. — The Great Criminal Series ......... 275 
 
 72. — Moll Flanders (27th Jan., 1722) 278 
 
 73. — Characteristics of Defoe's Style — The Amorphousness of his Writings. 283 
 
 74. — Religious Courtship (20th Feb., 1722) 288 
 
 75. — The Man of God 291 
 
 76. — The Journal of the Plague (17th Mar., 1722) — Cartouche . . . 293 
 
 77. — The Property at Colchester 296 
 
Contents. xxix 
 
 78.—" Colonel Jack " (20th Dec, 1722)— Peter the Great— Rob Roy. 
 
 298 
 301 
 305 
 307 
 311 
 318 
 
 323 
 325 
 
 80. — The Great Law of Subordination Considered (4th April, 1724) . 
 81. — Tour through Great Britain (21st May, 1724) 
 
 82.— Defoe at Home — Henry Baker 
 
 83. — The Calais Murders (Aug., 1724)— Jack Sheppard (Oct., 1724} . 
 84. — The So-called Duel with Mist (Oct., 1724) .... 
 
 85. — Voyage Round the World (8th May, 1725) — Everybody's Business 
 86. — ^Jonathan Wild (June, 1725) — Death of Samuel Tuffley (Summer, 
 
 1725) 329 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Business and Magical Series. 
 
 87.— The Complete English Tradesman (1725-27) . . • • 332 
 
 88.— The History of the Devil— Peter the Wild Boy— Daniel Tabooed . 334 
 89.— The History of -Magic-" 'Twas not those Souls that Fled in Pain " 
 
 — A Tilt at Alexander Pope 347 
 
 90. — " The Use and Abuse '' — -Specimens of the Defoe-au Anecdote : The 
 
 Man who was too Hard upon his Wife ; The Old Woman who 
 
 Married a Little Boy 350 
 
 91. — The History of Apparitions : " The Spirits who between Somewhere 
 
 and Nowhere Dwell " 353 
 
 92. — The Courtship of Henry Baker — The Finest Julap upon Earth . . 355 
 93. — " Be at the Parson's by furthest at Ten o'Clock " — Marriage of Sophia 
 
 Defoe (30th Apr., 1729) 369 
 
 94. — A Touching Letter — Death of Sir Richard Steele . . . 371 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 His Last Days. 
 
 95. — "The Compleat English Gentleman" — "Ne'er a Blockhead in the 
 
 Family but Me " 
 
 96. — In Hiding at Greenwich — " Et tu. Brute " — The Last Te Deum 
 97. — " Daniel Defoe, Gentleman. To Tindall's (Lethargy) " (26th Apr. 
 
 1731) 
 
 98. — Defoe's Library . . .... 
 
 99. — Summary of his Work ..... 
 
 100. — His Descendants . . .... 
 
 Appendix . 
 
 Index 
 
 37S 
 378 
 
 382 
 388 
 389 
 391 
 394 
 429 
 
LIST OF ILLLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The "Jure Divino" Portrait Frontispiece 
 
 The Defoe Window, Butchers' Hall .... To face 31 
 
 Defoe's House, Tooting 3^ 
 
 House in Castle Street, Bristol 3^ 
 
 Defoe in the Pillory .To face 77 
 
 Cupola House, Bury St. Edmunds ,,103 
 
 The Looking-over-Shoulder Portrait .... ., i33 
 
 Oval of Defoe i. '35 
 
 Portrait of Defoe from "Wilson" . . . . ,, 137 
 
 Cumberland Bay, Joan Fernandez ,,168 
 
 Cave in Juan Fernandez 168 
 
 House of Mrs. Damaris Daniel To face 171 
 
 Selkirk and his Family i73 
 
 Frontispiece OF "Robinson Crusoe" .... To face 230 
 
 Title- Page of "Robinson Crusoe" ,,232 
 
 The Rev. Timothy Crusoe ,, 234 
 
 Map of Crusoe's Island „ 246 
 
 Signatures to the Colchester Deed 297 
 
 Frontispiece to "Roxana" To face 302 
 
 Defoe's House at Newington 310 
 
 Plan of Defoe's Grounds 311 
 
 Frontispiece of "Jack Sheppard" To face 322 
 
 Henry Baker •> 355 
 
 The Original Tombstone to Defoe 385 
 
 Defoe's Monument in Bunhill Fields .... To face 386 
 Fac-simile of Pages in " Compleat English Gentleman " 403-4 
 
 Genealogical Table 428 
 
THE 
 
 Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 PAMPHLETEER AND POET. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH (1659—1678). 
 
 To narrate the career of Daniel Defoe is to tell a tale 
 of wonder and daring, of high endeavour and marvel- 
 lous success. To dwell upon it is to take courage, 
 and to praise God for the splendid possibilities of life. 
 Defoe's incessant activity of itself excites astonish- 
 ment. It can be said of him, even with greater truth 
 than of Dryden, " His chariot wheels got hot by 
 driving fast." Defoe is always the hero ; his career 
 is as thick with events as a cornfield with corn ; his 
 fortunes change as quickly and as completely as the 
 shapes in a kaleidoscope — he is up, he is down, he is 
 courted, he is spurned ; it is shine, it is shower, it is 
 co2tleur de rose, it is Stygian night. Thirteen times 
 he was rich and poor. Achilles was not more auda- 
 cious, Ulysses more subtle, ^neas more pious. The 
 tasks he set himself, the way he performed them, how 
 
2 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 he struggled, and the meed that he won, it is the object 
 of these pages to set forth ; and with a full sense of 
 the importance of our mission we proceed merrily. 
 
 I.— THE FOES OF ETTON IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
 
 The ancient home of the Foes — the village of Etton 
 — is a diminutive place of fewer than one hundred in- 
 habitants, situated about five miles from Peterborough, 
 in Northamptonshire ; and that it was this spot, and 
 not Elton in Northants (a place that does not exist), 
 or Elton in Hunts, as stated by previous biographers, 
 we are able, as the result of research at the Probate 
 Office, Peterborough, and in the Etton registers, to 
 lay down for certain. This, it may be urged, is a 
 small matter (which, for the sake of peace, we will 
 grant) ; but at the same time it may be submitted that 
 there is something decidedly cheering, when a long 
 journey has to- be performed, in the knowledge that 
 one is right at .starting. 
 
 Foe, Faux, Vaux, and Devereux^ — all variations of 
 the same — are old Northamptonshire names, and. were, 
 there is not the slightest doubt, Flemish importations, 
 brought over, to use Chadwick's expression, " with 
 the straw-pl^ of Dunstable and the bobbin-lace of 
 Northampton.'' It is also almost certain that Defoe 
 himself was aware of his Flemish extraction, as may 
 be judged from his "Giving Alms no Charity," where 
 he lauds the wisdom of Elizabeth in encouraging the 
 Flemings, and mentions the names of a number of 
 Flemish families, though, for reasons best known to 
 himself, he does not give his own. 
 
 What we have unearthed concerning the earlier 
 
Childhood and Youth. 3 
 
 Foes is as follows : — In the Court of the Archdeaconry 
 of Hunts, 1616 — 1739, the name does not occur, nor 
 is there anything like it; in the earlier books of the 
 Consistory Court of Ely (1449 — 1618) there are none, 
 but the later books (1683 — 1690) have Few, Fiew, 
 and Faux, and once occurs a De Few (Edward), 
 whose executor would not swear, because he was a 
 Quaker. It is not, however, till the inquirer arrives 
 among the Northants books that he finds himself in 
 clover. In these, between the years 1608 and 1723, 
 are eleven Foes, all of them of Etton or the neigh- 
 bouring villages : — Foe, Margaret ; Fooe, Henry ; 
 Foe, Robert ; Foe, Daniel ; Foe, Thomas ;* Foe, 
 Mathews ; Fow, Thomas ; Foe, William ; Foe, Daniel, 
 Foe, Luke (or Lucy) ; Foe, Godfry. 
 
 The first Daniel was the novelist's grandfather. 
 He was in good circumstances, and, according to his 
 grandson, kept a pack of hounds {Review, vol. vii., 
 Preface). 
 
 Mr. Foe's dogs, owing to a whim of his hunts- 
 man's, bore names suggested by the Civil War. 
 There was a Roundhead and a Cavalier, a Goring 
 and a Waller ; in fact, " all the generals of both armies 
 were hounds in his pack." 
 
 Mr, Daniel Foe's will, preserved in the Consistory 
 Court of Northampton, at Peterborough (E. 65), is 
 dated 3rd March, 1630, and was proved 28th April, 
 1 63 1. The first date we should now write 3rd March, 
 163^; therefore the will was proved only eight weeks 
 after it was signed. The testator leaves to a Mr. 
 
 * Of Peakirk, three miles from Etton. Will dated 19th Nov., 1632. 
 B 2 
 
4 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Temple, los. ; to the church, los. ; "to the poore of 
 the parish, los." ; to " Daniel ffoe," his eldest son, 
 " foure score pounds " at age of 2 1 ; to Mary Foe, his 
 daughter, ^50 at marriage or at age of 2 1 ; to Henry- 
 Foe, his son, ;^5o, at age of 21 ; to James ffoe, his 
 son, ^50, at age of 21. Residue to his "loving wife, 
 Rose Foe," whom he appoints sole executrix. The 
 portions of any child or children who died before they 
 received their legacies were to be equally divided 
 among the survivors. 
 
 It may be urged that the money left by " Daniel 
 ffoe" does not look like keeping a pack of hounds, 
 but let it be noted that we are not told the amount of 
 the " residue " left to his " loving wife," or whether 
 the testator earlier in life was in better circumstances. 
 From his having left a trifle to Etton Church, we may 
 presume that Daniel Foe was a Churchipan. 
 
 Of James Foe (father of the novelist), who, having 
 been baptised May 13, 1630, was probably not more 
 than twelve months old on the death of his father, we 
 learn nothing more till many years later. 
 
 Daniel, James's eldest brother, continued to live 
 at Etton, where he died in 1647, leaving^ an only 
 daughter, Mfery. 
 
 There is in Etton parish, a mile from the village, 
 a handsome old moated, thirteenth-century fortified 
 house, called Woodcroft, historically noted as the 
 scene of fighting in the civil wars (1643). This was 
 the principal house in the parish, but the Foes were 
 not " of Woodcroft," as all entries in the register from 
 there are so entered. From this, and from the fact 
 that no Foe was a churchwarden, we may judge that 
 
Childhood and Youth. 5 
 
 the Foes were not squires of the place, but merely 
 well-to-do yeomen, and that their residence was some 
 substantial farm-house. 
 
 Although the name of his family was Foe, a name 
 which the novelist did not change to Defoe till he had 
 reached middle life, nevertheless, in order to avoid 
 confusion, we shall call him Defoe from the beginning. 
 To the great world that honours his name he will 
 always be Defoe, and nothing else ; consequently, it 
 would be mere pedantry to persist in calling him 
 Daniel Foe, or Mr. Foe, during the first forty years 
 of his life. 
 
 2.— THE BUTCHER'S SHOP IX FORE STREET. 
 
 James Foe, after leaving school, was sent to 
 London, and placed as an apprentice with John 
 Levit, citizen and butcher. Subsequently he is found 
 in business for himself as a butcher in Fore Street, 
 parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate. To the Rev. Samuel 
 Annesley, LL.D., minister of St. Giles's, Mr. Foe, 
 and his family, who worshipped there, were, and always 
 continued to be, very much attached. 
 
 In 1658, or early in 1659, a daughter was born to 
 James Foe — Mary; and late in 1659 arrived his next 
 child, Daniel, who was destined to become so famous. 
 It is generally stated that Daniel Defoe was born in 
 1 66 1, but Mr. G. A. Aitken, in the Athenceum for 
 August 23, 1890, shows this to be a mistake, and 
 proves that Defoe was born either in the latter part of 
 1659 or early in 1660. Probably it was in the latter 
 part of 1659. 
 
 Mr. Aitken's discovery of the time of Defoe's birth 
 
6 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 has been of the utmost importance to me, for it has 
 furnished one of the two clues which have enabled me 
 to discover what has so long; baffled the search of 
 students of Defoe — the key to Robinson Crusoe. 
 Crusoe, as Defoe himself declares (in " Serious Re- 
 flections "), is an allegory or emblem of his own life, 
 and every important event in the story (Part I.) had, 
 as Defoe also declares, its counterpart in Defoe's life. 
 Robinson Crusoe iS' made to be born in 1632, twenty- 
 seven years before the birth of Defoe ; and one has 
 only to add twenty-seven to every date in Crusoe (and 
 Crusoe was wonderfully careful about dates) in order 
 to arrive at the year that corresponds to it in the life 
 of Defoe. To the other, and more important, clue I 
 shall refer later on (§ 7). 
 
 The names of James Foe's other children have not 
 transpired. Crusoe, be it remembered, had two elder 
 brothers. One of them was killed at Dunkirk, but 
 what became of the other, neither Crusoe nor his 
 father or mother ever knew, and it is noteworthy that 
 Defoe in all his writings refers only once to a " brother," 
 who was living in 1705. (Letter to Lord Halifax. See 
 
 In 1662, rather than submit to the Act of Unifor- 
 mity, over two thousand ministers of the Church of 
 England quitted their livings, among them being Dr. 
 Annesley, who, taking with him a part of his congre- 
 gation, including the Foes, founded a meeting-house 
 in Bishopsgate Street. Of the persecution to which 
 Nonconformists were then subjected, Defoe could, of 
 course, know little, being much taken up about that 
 time with his whip, his " troop horse," and his " card- 
 
Childhood and Youth. 7 
 
 board windmill at the end of a stick," but he often in 
 after years heard his parents talk about it ; and in his 
 Reviews, and elsewhere, he has many a scathing word 
 for the iniquitous times of Charles II. 
 
 Of his father and mother Defoe always spoke with 
 studied respect. Robinson Crusoe describes his father 
 as " a wise and grave man," who often gave him 
 " serious and excellent counsel." At an early age 
 Defoe was well-grounded in the Scriptures, but his 
 parents, though Presbyterians, were free from asce- 
 ticism and austerity, consequently his childhood was a 
 happy one. To Presbyterianism, indeed, amid which 
 he had been nurtured, Defoe clung with tenacity all 
 his life ; and to Scotland, the cradle of Presbyterian- 
 ism, and to the Scottish people, he always felt himself 
 bound by the cords of love. 
 
 In 1665 occurred the dreadful Plague of London, 
 of which Defoe was destined, many years after, to 
 write so graphic an account. To his own memory, 
 however, he could have been indebted for very little, 
 seeing that he was only six years old ; nevertheless, 
 the creepy tales of the cross-marked houses, of the 
 fires in the streets, of the maniacs at large, of the 
 dust-rakers with their horns, of the death-tumbrils with 
 the eternal cry of " Bring out your dead ! " must early 
 have made an impression on a mind instinct with so 
 strong a bias for the wild, the weird, the monstrous, 
 and the bizarre. 
 
 Like other small boys he was sometimes naughty, 
 and he used to say to his mother, " If you vex me, I'll 
 eat no dinner"; but, commented he, long after, "my 
 mother taught me to be wiser by letdng me stay till I 
 
8 - The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 was hungry." He was of a light and buoyant dis- 
 position, and very courageous. In a boxing match 
 which he had with another boy, he learnt the " piece 
 of generosity " never to strike an enemy who is down 
 — a rule that he adhered to throughout life — though, 
 when he himself was down the compliment was not 
 always returned. 
 
 Among the tasks that his. parents set him, or that 
 he set himself, one was to copy out. the Bible ! and he 
 worked at it like a horse ; but by the time he had 
 finished the Pentateuch, he got so tired that he was 
 obliged to acknowledge himself defeated. His 
 acquaintance with the Scriptures in after years was 
 phenomenal, scarcely less so, indeed, than that of his 
 celebrated contemporary, John Bunyan. Among the 
 delights of his childhood was to stand at a basket- 
 maker's near his father's house, and watch " them 
 make their wicker- ware." Being officious to help, 
 as boys usually are, he sometimes lent a hand, 
 and himself became an expert. Nor did he for- 
 get to turn his knowledge to account when, many 
 years afterwards, he told the story of Robinson 
 Crusoe. 
 
 In 1668, when about eight or nine, Defoe was 
 taken, probably on a visit to some relation, to Ipswich, 
 which he described as "a town of very good business ; 
 particularly, it was the greatest town in England for 
 large colliers or coal-ships employed between New- 
 castle and London," and these ships were built "pro- 
 digious strong." Fifty years later, however, when he 
 wrote his " Tours," much of the trade had gone, and 
 the town had considerably decayed. 
 
Childhood and Youth. - 9 
 
 3.— the academy at newington (1673— 78).— thy place in life 
 is seeking after thee. 
 
 When about fourteen, Defoe was placed by his 
 father, who intended him for the Dissenting ministry, 
 at a well-known academy at Newington Green, con- 
 ducted by "that polite and profound scholar," Mr. 
 Charles Morton. 
 
 Mr. Morton, styled by those who did not love him, 
 ■' a rank Independent " had formerly been rector of 
 Blisland, in Cornwall, and was one of the two thou- 
 sand ejected in 1662. To the goodness and learning 
 of his tutor, with whom, apparently, he stayed about 
 five years, Defoe pays many a tribute ; and he also 
 looked back with gratitude to the liberality of his 
 father, who spared nothing, that might qualify his 
 son to make a good scholar. Besides theological 
 knowledge, Defoe was grounded in Latin, Greek, 
 French, Spanish and Italian. But that which was of 
 much greater benefit to him in after life was the pains 
 Mr. Morton took to drill his pupils in good English. 
 Very wisely, though contrary to the custom of the 
 times, Mr. Morton read his lectures in English, the 
 consequence being that no academy of the time 
 turned out so many scholars that were adepts in their 
 mother tongue. Mr. Morton's discourses were not 
 stale or studied, but always new and occasional ; no 
 matter what the subject started, he always had ready 
 some pleasant and pat anecdote for it. Other items 
 in the curriculum of the academy were mathematics, 
 natural philosophy, logic, geography, and history, 
 especially ecclesiastical. 
 
10 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 In the year 1676, while Daniel Foe was grinding 
 theology, mathematics, and languages at Newington, 
 or strolling among the cornfields with which the 
 academy was surrounded, an event, exterior to his 
 knowledge though of no small import to him, occurred, 
 to use a Crusoeism, on the other side of his island : 
 the arrival, in the house of John Selcraig, a thriving 
 shoemaker of Largo, Fife, of a seventh son, and 
 not only so but with no intermediary and obtru- 
 sive daughters . to break the charm ; on the strength 
 of which, together with the fact that Euphan Sel- 
 craig, the mother, Sarah-like, had "waxed old," her 
 husband "being old also," more than one gossip 
 prophesied great things ; and Alexander (familiarly 
 Sandy) Selcraig, did, as we shall show, under 
 the altered name of Selkirk, live to some purpose. 
 Meantime, the infant Selcraig, who is understood to 
 have been fortunate in that the lenity of his mother 
 was nicely balanced by the sternness of his father, 
 dribbled and cooed in his cot at Largo, compara- 
 tively in seclusion, the outside world not having as 
 yet been apprised of his importance. 
 
 Daniel Defoe, who devoured every scrap of print 
 he could set- eyes on, may, in his desultory reading 
 at Newington, have come across the saying of the 
 Caliph Omar, " Thy place in life is seeking after thee," 
 but he could have little thought just then that it was 
 his destiny to become one of the greatest masters of 
 fiction the world has seen ; yet here was young 
 Selcraig, in Largo, doing his best to grow up and 
 render the conjuncture possible. That Defoe would 
 have been a great story-teller without the accident of 
 
Childhood and Youth. i i 
 
 Selkirk, is very probable, but that he would have been 
 among the greatest of story-tellers is open to question. 
 The event at Largo, moreover, is still further sug- 
 gestive. If tbe destinies of man, as Homer supposed, 
 depend on the wills of the gods, the deity that took 
 Defoe in tow must have had Scotland very much on 
 the brain, for though Defoe was a Cockney born, of 
 a Northamptonshire stock, yet, from beginning to end, 
 as we shall see, he was always finding himself mixed 
 up with Scotland and the Scottish. 
 
 Another contemporary event, though unconnected 
 with Defoe, may here, not inappropriately, be noticed. 
 It was in 1677, while Defoe was still tussling with 
 languages and mathematics at Newington, that John 
 Bunyan, another great Puritan, wrote his " Pilgrim's 
 Progress '' in Bedford Jail, 
 
 Defoe mentions four of his fellow-students by 
 name, to wit, Kitt, Battersby, Jenkyns, and Hewling. 
 Others who were educated at the academy were Mr. 
 John Shower, Mr. Timothy Cruso, Mr. Hannot, of 
 Yarmouth, Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, Mr. Owen, Mr. 
 Obadiah Marriot (uncle of Dunton, the bookseller), 
 and Samuel Wesley, father of the celebrated founder 
 of Wesleyanism, all of whom obtained more or less 
 distinction in their day as preachers of the Gospel. 
 The one that rouses our curiosity most is, of course, 
 Mr. Cruso, for it is impossible to disassociate him in 
 our minds from a certain " Robinson Crusoe, of York, 
 mariner," who, later on, made considerable bustle in 
 the world. 
 
 Mr. Morton wrote several works, one of which, 
 " Eutaxia," was a system of politics, drawn up in 
 
12 The 'Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 imitation of More's " Utopia," and he published 
 several treatises upon religious and philosophical 
 subjects. In 1685, about seven years after Defoe left 
 him, Mr. Morton, owing to persecution, emigrated to 
 America, and became pastor of a church at Charles- 
 town (July, 1686), and vice-president of Harvard 
 College. 
 
 Despite the careful training at Newington, Daniel 
 Defoe did not enter the ministry after all. The 
 principal reasons for his change of mind were, first, 
 because it would make him less independent than he 
 wished to be, and, secondly, because, owing to the fact 
 that by no means the most gifted men were chosen 
 for the principal pulpits, there seemed to be in the 
 ministry very little scope for the exercise of the talents 
 of which he believed himself to be possessed. This 
 good opinion which he had of himself (and we blame 
 him not) was always a conspicuous element in Defoe's 
 composition. In prosperity, in adversity, in every up 
 and in every down, he always rode the high horse, 
 and it is doubtful whether any other quadruped could 
 have borne him through al} his difficulties. 
 
 The exact date when Defoe left Newington is not 
 known. At some of the Nonconformist academies 
 students usually remained no longer than three years 
 {see Defoe's " Present State of Parties,'' etc., p. 319), 
 but the course at Newington, according to Wilson, 
 was five 3'ears. He may, therefore, have left in 1678. 
 
 That he did not throw up the ministry without a 
 rare tussle with his parents is certain, and, considering 
 the expense they had been at with his education, we 
 can find it in our heart to sympathise with them. It 
 
Childhood and Youth. 13 
 
 is also certain that this quitting of Newington corre- 
 sponds with Robinson Crusoe's running away to sea. 
 Crusoe (as we learn from a passage in the middle of 
 his history) was born on September 30, 1632, and ran 
 away to sea on September i, 165 1, when he was 
 eighteen years and eleven months old; and Defoe, 
 assuming that he was born in 1659, would in 1678 be 
 thereabouts the same age. 
 
 Defoe himself speaks of his abandonment of his 
 ministerial career as a " disaster." " The pulpit," * he 
 says, "is none of my office. It was my disaster, first 
 to be set apart for and then to be set apart from the 
 honour of that sacred employ," and we may well 
 believe that often in the broils of his tempestuous life 
 he must have looked back and reflected on what a 
 clear, unruffled stream it might have been, had he, 
 when a lad of eighteen, bowed to the will of his 
 father. Not that this feeling could at any time have 
 lasted long. With all his protestations, Crusoe is 
 never able to convince us that, even had the oppor- 
 tunity offered, he would have quitted his island and 
 returned to England for good and all. He was a 
 born rover. 
 
 For the rest, the influence of Defoe's training at 
 Newington can be traced all through his life ; like 
 Mr. Stevenson's Long John Silver, he was always 
 " a kind of a chapling, " and was quite as capable ot 
 preaching a sermon as those who wore a Geneva 
 gown. 
 
 In 1678, the year that, in all probability, Defoe 
 
 * Review, vi., 341. 
 
14 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 left Newington, all England was In terror owing to 
 the abominable lies of Titus Oates. Everybody went 
 in fear of the " Papishes." 
 
 " I remember," says Defoe, " in the time of the 
 Popish plot, when murthering men in the dark was 
 pretty much in fashion, and every honest man walked 
 the streets in danger of his life, a very pretty invention 
 was found out, which soon put an end to the doctrine 
 of assassination, and the practice, too, and cleared our 
 streets of the murthering villains of those days ; this 
 was a Protestant flail. Now, a Protestant flail is an 
 excellent weapon — a pistol is a fool to it ; it laughs at 
 the sword or the cane ; for you know there's no fence 
 against a flail. For my part, I have frequently walked 
 with one about me in the old Popish days, and though 
 I never set up for a hero, yet, when armed with this 
 scourge for a Papist, I remember I feared nothing."* 
 Though Defoe firmly believed in the reality of a 
 Roman Catholic plot, yet, when folk " ran up that 
 plot to general massacres, fleets of pilgrims, bits and 
 bridles, knives and handcuffs," and a thousand other 
 scares, he only shrugged his shoulders. It was im- 
 possible, he said, that the Papists, who in England 
 were not fivg to a hundred, could be contemplating a 
 general massacre of the Protestants. 
 
 No lie against the "Papishes" seemed too huge 
 to be swallowed. One day when Defoe was in a 
 tavern, a fellow entered and gravely told the gaping 
 audience that six Frenchmen had attempted to run 
 away with the Monument — even before it was quite 
 
 * Review, viii., 614. 
 
Childhood and Youth. 15 
 
 finished, too, "and but for the watch, who stopped 
 them as they were going over the bridge, and made 
 them carry it back again, they might, for aught we 
 know, have carried it over into France." Perceiving 
 some to be incredulous, up jumps Defoe, and with a 
 twinkle in his eye, begs the audience, if they have any 
 doubts, to satisfy them by going to the spot " where 
 they'd see the workmen employed in making all fast 
 again." The simpletons, Defoe would have us believe, 
 swallowed the joke, " and departed quite satisfied." 
 
 In the next year, 1679, Defoe's sister, Mary, was 
 united to Mr. Francis Bartham, a shipwright, the 
 following being the licence for her marriage : — 
 
 "Bartham, Francis, jun., of St. Mary, Whitechapel, shipwright, 
 bachelor, about 30, and Mrs. Mary Foe, of St. Swithin, London, 
 spinster, about 20, with her father's consent ; at St. Mary Magdalen, 
 Bermondsey, co. Surrey. 20 May, 1679." 
 
 I do not think Defoe anywhere mentions his sister. 
 There are, however, very few allusions in his writings 
 to any of his relations. His brother, as we have seen, 
 he mentions only once. Other relations he speaks of 
 are a schoolmaster of Martock, in Somersetshire, with 
 whom he maintained a friendly intercourse (" Tour 
 Through Great Britain," vol. i., let. 3) ; a near relation 
 at Sherborne, in Dorsetshire (" Use and Abuse," etc., 
 p. 99), and a cousin, who seems to have resided in 
 London, a good man of business, but otherwise dis- 
 reputable ("Hist, of Apparitions," p. 316). 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MERCHANT OF CORNHILL (1678-1694). 
 
 4.— AT THE SIGN OF THE CIVET-CAT.— HIS MARRIAGE WITH MARY 
 TUFFLEY (JAN. i, 1683). 
 
 Work : i. — A Tract on the Tui-kish Question. (Lost.) 
 
 Soon after leaving college, Defoe set himself to learn 
 the hosiery business, and, as can be gathered from his 
 marriage licence, he was already a merchant in the 
 parish of St. Michael's, Cornhill, in 1683, his office or 
 shop being in Freeman's Yard, nearly opposite the 
 entrance to Change Alley. Defoe's enemies spoke of 
 him as the civet-cat merchant, and Mr. Saintsbury 
 suggests that " The Civet-Cat " wa« the sign of his 
 place of business, and this is extremely likely, for the 
 sign was a common one. 
 
 To his life at this period Defoe makes few allu- 
 sions. In one of his Reviews he denies that he had 
 ever been % hosier, but admits having been a trader. 
 Perhaps what he means is that he had never stood 
 behind the counter. In his " Tour Through Great 
 Britain" (iii. 22), he speaks of being at Aylesbury once 
 at the time " when there was a mighty confluence of 
 noblemen and gentlemen at a famous horse-race, at 
 Quainton Meadow, not far off," Among those present 
 was the Duke of Monmouth, then very popular, who, 
 contrary to custom, rode his own horses. 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 17 
 
 The interesting facts concerning Defoe's marriage, 
 were first made known by Mr. G. A. Aitken, in the 
 Contemporary Review for February, 1890, and the 
 Athencsum for August 23 of the same year. Among 
 other things, Mr. Aitken was able to prove that the 
 oft-repeated statement that Defoe married twice is a 
 mistake. The maiden name of the girl — ^for she was 
 only twenty — whom Defoe made his wife, was Mary 
 Tuffley. The licence was taken out on December 28, 
 1683, the wedding being solemnized four days after, 
 on New Year's Day, 1684, at St. Botolph's, Aldgate. 
 The following is the marriage licence allegation, which 
 can be seen in the Vicar-General's' Office : — 
 
 "38 December, 1683. Charles Lodwick, of St. Michael, Corn- 
 hill, applies for Daniel Foe of the same parish, 24, and a batchelor, 
 marchant, and Mary Tuffley, of St. Botolph, Aldgate, 20, spinster, 
 with consent of her father. At St. Botolph, Aldgate, St. Giles, 
 Cripplegate, or St. Lawrence, Jewry." 
 
 The entry of the marriage in the parish register of 
 St. Botolph's runs thus : — 
 
 "Jan. I, 1683 [O.S.]. Daniel Ffoe, batchellor, and Mary Tufflie, 
 spinster, married by Mr. Hollingworth." 
 
 During the next two or three years arrived his 
 three eldest children, Hannah, probably the firstborn ; 
 Mary, who died a child ; and Daniel, born probably 
 in 1685. 
 
 How soon Defoe began to meddle with politics we 
 are not told, but in 1683, the year of his marriage, we 
 find not only that he is an ardent politician, but that 
 he is using his pen. The occasion was the invasion 
 of Austria by the Turks, who, having overrun Hungary 
 C 
 
1 8 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 and surrounded Vienna, seemed not unlikely to be 
 about to spread themselves over the whole of Europe. 
 The Whigs in England, being very bitter against the 
 Popish house of Austria, wished well to the Turks ; 
 but Defoe, though a staunch Whig, took in this 
 matter the opposite view, considering that it was 
 better the Catholics of Austria should ruin the Pro- 
 testants of Hungary than that the infidel Ottomans 
 should crush both Pi'otestants and Papists by over- 
 running the continent. Whether his denunciation of 
 the " unspeakable Turk " was ever published we 
 know not, but no copy has come to light. The fact, 
 however, that he wrote it is in itself interesting, for 
 we have no record of anything earlier from his pen. 
 Apparently, however, it would have been just then to 
 Defoe's own interest to have let the Turk and every- 
 body else alone, and to have paid a little more attention 
 to his hosiery business. 
 
 5.— HE TRAVELS IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.— AN AFFAIR OF 
 HONOUR. 
 
 Before proceeding further, it will be necessary to 
 refer again to " Robinson Crusoe." The ship that 
 Crusoe had embarked in at Hull on ist September, 
 165 1, was, a few days later, destroyed by a storm, 
 Crusoe and the rest of the crew having the good 
 luck to escape by means of a boat and to land at 
 Yarmouth. From Yarmouth Crusoe proceeded to 
 London, whence he set out on his first real voyage — to 
 Guinea. Having returned in safety, he shortly after 
 went out on another voyage, during which he had the 
 misfortune — on September i (1653), his unlucky day, 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 19 
 
 the day he quitted Hull — to be taken prisoner near 
 the coast of Spain by a Sallee rover ; and at Sallee he 
 was kept in captivity for two years, escaping on De- 
 cember 19th (1655), his lucky day, with the boy Xury. 
 
 What events in Defoe's life coincided with these 
 adventures we have no means of ascertaining, but it is 
 noteworthy that during the early days of his merchant 
 career, he voyaged, like Crusoe, about the coasts of 
 Spain and Portugal. Unfortunately, however, though 
 he mentions a number of incidents that occurred in 
 these travels, he does not give dates. In the " Essay 
 on Projects," speaking of the goods which in the 
 course of his business he imported from abroad, he 
 says that he sometimes paid more in insurance premios 
 than he had cleared by a voyage. But not only did 
 he voyage to Spain, for a time he took up his resi- 
 dence there. On one occasion he cleverly defeated an 
 attempt to outwit him over a consignment of brandy, 
 and in one of his Reviews he gives an account of the 
 loss on the Spanish coast of a vessel in which he was 
 a shareholder, and records the inhospitable treatment 
 the crew received from the natives, in retaliation for 
 barbarities they themselves had experienced when 
 wrecked on the coast of England. Defoe often had 
 occasion to denunciate the cruelty of the inhabitants 
 of English coast towns, especially Deal, to poor ship- 
 wrecked mariners. 
 
 In his Review for January 27, 17 11, he alludes to 
 an old Spanish proverb, which, says he, " I learnt 
 when I lived in that country." The proverb is, " Let 
 the cure be wrought, though the devil be the doctor." 
 
 Among both the Spanish and the Portuguese, 
 c 2 
 
20 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Defoe must have found many admirable characters ; 
 for the Portuguese captain who saved Crusoe and 
 Xury is a model of humanity and magnanimity ; and 
 the Spaniards left by Crusoe on his island acted like 
 real Christians and perfect gentlemen. Says Crusoe, 
 " I never met with seventeen men of any nation 
 whatsoever, in any foreign country, who were so 
 universally modest, temperate, virtuous, so very 
 good-humoured, and so courteous as these Spaniards." 
 On the other hand, Defoe must have met with both 
 Portuguese and Spaniards who were much less agree- 
 able. Speaking of the crew he found himself amongst 
 in his first voyage. Bob Singleton, the hero of Defoe's 
 stor)', " Captain Singleton," observes, " Thieving, 
 lying, swearing, forswearing, joined to the most 
 abominable lewdness, was the stated practice of the 
 ship's crew ; adding to it that, with the most insuffer- 
 able boasts of their own courage, they were, generally 
 speaking, the most complete cowards I ever met with." 
 Singleton, indeed, entertained so settled an abhorrence 
 of the abandoned vileness of the Portuguese that he 
 could not but hate them most heartily from the be- 
 ginning, and all his life afterwards. The devil and a 
 Portuguese were equally his aversion. 
 
 Some time in early manhood Defoe was concerned 
 at least once in " an affair of honour," but we have no 
 particulars, and only know of it through an allusion 
 in a paragraph in the Review (vii. 451), where, in 
 compunctious mood, he says, " I am an enemy to 
 duelling, as it is a sin against God, and therefore 
 never speak of it but to declare my own penitence 
 upon that subject." 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 21 
 
 6.— WITH " KING MONMOUTH." 
 
 In 1685 (February 14) terminated the "lazy, long, 
 lascivious reign"* of Charles II.; and the accession 
 of his brother James was speedily followed by the 
 Rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth, who landed at 
 Lyme- Regis on June nth with about a hundred 
 followers. Like many other Dissenters, Defoe sym- 
 pathised with Monmouth ; and, to his misfortune, took 
 part in the rising. The peasantry of Devon and 
 Somerset were so powerfully attracted, that, on June 
 15th, when Monmouth marched out of Lyme, his 
 following amounted to 3,000, and by the time he had 
 reached Bridgewater, where he assumed the title of 
 King, to as many as 7,000, though they had but 
 indifferent arms. In a skirmish at Philip's Norton 
 Lane, near Bath, to which Defoe particularly refers, 
 and at which he may have been present, " the Duke 
 had the decided advantage, which, if he had pushed 
 further, would have amounted to a complete victory."! 
 Foiled of expectations from Bristol, and repulsed at 
 Bath, Monmouth fell back to Sedgemoor, where he 
 was defeated, July 6, 1685. Ten days later he was 
 beheaded at Tower Hill. Then raged Jeffreys and 
 Kirke. Defoe happily escaped them, but three of his 
 friends, Battersby, Jenkyns, and Hewling — all of 
 whom had been students at Mr. Morton's — found 
 their way to the scaffold. 
 
 Among those brought before Jeffreys, we are to 
 notice one in particular, a handsome, fearless young 
 
 * Defoe. t Defoe's " Consolidator," p. 135. 
 
2 2 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 fellow, whose opinions on social and political matters 
 were, and continued to be, as like to Defoe's as one 
 pea to another, though with Defoe himself he could 
 rarely agree. Brave to temerity, fearless even of 
 death, a wit and a master of sarcasm, John Tutchin, 
 subsequently of the Observator, and one of the 
 staunchest champions of the -liberties of the people, 
 will, later on, be seen — such freaks have the fates — 
 sticking his spines into the man with whom he was 
 politically at one with as great a delight as he was 
 accustomed to stick them into those with whom he 
 was by nature at variance. 
 
 That Tutchin had taken an active part in the rebel- 
 lion could not be proved, but he pleaded guilty to 
 havinor been intimate with friends of Monmouth, and 
 to having used a fictitious name ; for which the up- 
 right judge thought it would be sufficient punishment 
 if the accused were " to remain in prison seven years, 
 once in every year to be whipped through all the 
 market towns in Dorsetshire, to jaay a fine of one 
 hundred marks to the King, and find security for his 
 good behaviour during life." 
 
 Conceiving his situation to be worse than death, 
 John Tutchin, who describes himself as "of Lyming- 
 ton, now a prisoner in the county jail of Dorset," 
 humbly petitioned his Majesty King James — not to 
 reverse the sentence — but to mercifully " grant him 
 the favour of being hanged with those of his 
 fellow-prisoners that are condemned to die " ; to 
 which request the King, with whom mercy was not 
 exactly a speciality, declined to accede, thus putting 
 it into the power of the poet Pope, who disliked 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 23 
 
 Tutchin, to write, years after, spitefully, but truth- 
 fully :— 
 
 " And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below.'' 
 
 7.— THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE LIFE OF SILENCE (PROBABLY 
 30TH SEPTEMBER, 1686).— CRUSOE IS WRECKED ON HIS ISLAND 
 (30TH SEPTEMBER, 1659). 
 
 The battle of Sedgemoor had been fought and 
 lost on July 6th, 1685, but of Defoe's movements 
 during the next two or three years we know little 
 that is definite. Probably he had to lie low. For a 
 time he resided at Mickleham (Surrey), near the 
 Thames (see " Tour Through Great Britain," vol. i., 
 letter 2), and afterwards, as we shall presently see, at 
 Tooting, in the same county. 
 
 The arbitrary proceedings of King James after 
 the defeat of Monmouth are a matter of history ; how 
 he gave commissions in the army to Papists, dis- 
 pensed with tests, erected mass-houses ; how, in short, 
 he fondled everything connected with the Holy See, 
 and frowned down all things Protestant. To believe 
 in the doctrine of the divine right of kings was only 
 what was expected of one. Says Defoe, " I have 
 heard it publicly preached, that if the king com- 
 manded my head, and sent his messengers to fetch 
 it, I was bound to submit and stand still while it was 
 cut off." 
 
 We come now to the point in Defoe's life which 
 corresponds with the moment in which Robinson 
 Crusoe was thrown on his lonely island ; and we are 
 to ask ourselves what Defoe meant when he solemnly 
 declared that the twenty-eight years odd months which 
 
24 The Life up Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Crusoe spent in solitude corresponded with a great 
 period of his own Hfe. For this clue or key to 
 Robinson Crusoe previous biographers searched in 
 vain, but Chadwick, one of those who did not search, 
 accidentally stumbled upon it, or rather upon the 
 principal key, handled it and played with it, and then 
 put it down without understanding its value. 
 
 The following is the key referred to, and it occurs 
 in Defoe's " Serious Reflections " : — 
 
 '■' I have heard of a man, that, upon some extraordinary disgust 
 which he took at the unsuitable conversation of some of his nearest 
 relations, whose society he could not avoid, suddenly resolved never 
 to speak any more. He kept his resolution most rigorously many 
 years ; not all the tears or entreaties of his friends, no, not of his 
 wife and children, could prevail with him to break his silence. It 
 seems it was their ill behaviour to him at first was the occasion of 
 it ; for they treated him with provoking language, which frequently 
 put him into indecent passions, and urged him to rash replies ; and 
 he took this severe way to punish himself for being provoked, and 
 to punish them for provoking him. But the severity was unjusti- 
 fiable : it ruined his family and broke up his house. His wife could 
 not bear it, and, after endeavouring by all the ways possible to alter 
 his rigid silence, went first away from him ; and afterwards away 
 fiom herself, turning melancholy and distracted. His children 
 separated, some one way and some another way, and only one 
 daughter, who loved her father above all the rest, kept with him ; 
 tended him, talked to him by signs, and lived almost dumb, like her 
 father, nearly twenty-nine years with him ; till, being very sick and 
 in a high fever, delirious as we call it, or light-headed, he broke his 
 silence, not knowing when he did it, and spoke, though wildly at 
 first. He recovered of the illness afterwards, and frequently talked 
 with his daughter, but not much, and very seldom to anybody else. 
 
 " Yet this man did not live a silent life with respect to himself 
 He read continually, and wrote down many excellent things which 
 deserved to have appeared in the world ; and was often heard to 
 pray to God in his solitudes very audibly, and with great fervency ; 
 but the injustice which his rash vow, if it was a vow of silence, was 
 to his family, and the length he carried it, was so unjustifiable 
 
The Merchant of Coknhill. 25 
 
 another way that I cannot say his instructions could have much 
 force in them." 
 
 Chadwick's comment is as follows : — 
 
 " Now, this is very likely to have been taken from his own life, 
 for he read continually, and wrote down many excellent things ; which 
 is true of De Foe : he read continually. He was as a man always 
 conversing with the dead ; he made his bed among the tombs ; his 
 family would be comparatively strangers to him ; and the feeUngs of 
 the one would be alien to the other. He was a poet, a writer, and 
 a philosopher ; and his family felt this, and they made him feel it 
 too ; for he, their father, was not like other fathers ; he wrote, and 
 read, and ran away. . . . This poetic life must have involved 
 misery to all — father, mother, and children." 
 
 More, Chad wick does not say. He perceived that 
 in the extract from "Serious Reflections" Defoe was 
 referring to himself; but that there was any connection 
 between the almost twenty-nine years in the paragraph 
 and the twenty-eight years odd months spent by Crusoe 
 on the island did not strike him. 
 
 That the paragraph had reference to Defoe is 
 evident from the opening sentence, even without 
 taking into consideration the conclusive statements 
 that follow it ; ''I have heard of a man," " I know a 
 man," and the like, being favourite prologues of 
 Defoe's when he was about to introduce bits of per- 
 sonal history. Take, for example, the incident of his 
 writing to the judge (" Vision of the Angelic World "),* 
 which commences, " I know a man who made it a 
 rule to obey these silent hints," etc., where it is 
 absolutely certain that he meant himself. 
 
 The idea having struck me that the " nearly 
 twenty-nine years " had reference to the twenty-eight 
 
 * Sen I 53. 
 
26 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 years odd months Crusoe was on the island ; and 
 having noticed how extraordinarily particular Crusoe 
 is about dates, I argued that at the time Defoe had 
 his great illness, and broke his silence, he would be 
 precisely the same age that Crusoe was when he left 
 his island. Now, Crusoe, who left his island on 
 December 19, 1687,* was born September 30, 1632, 
 consequently he was fifty-five years two months nine- 
 teen days old. Defoe's great illness, which is fully 
 recorded by all his biographers, commenced in the 
 middle of December, 1714. That is an admitted fact. 
 I assumed that the actual day it commenced was 
 December 19; and counting back fifty-five years two 
 mdnths nineteen days, brought me to September 30, 
 1659, the very time (late in 1659) that, according to 
 Mr. Aitken's discovery, Defoe in all probability was 
 born. It may be urged that twenty-eight years two 
 months nineteen days is not " nearly twenty-nine 
 years," but it must be remembered that in saying 
 " nearly twenty-nine years " Defoe is speaking roughly, 
 and that had he been more exact he would have let 
 the cat out of the bag, which was not his intention. 
 
 The following, then, are the dates of the four 
 leading events of Crusoe's life, and our deductions 
 from them : — 
 
 Crusoe was born 30th September, 1632 ; adding 
 twenty-seven years, makes Defoe to be born 30th 
 September, 1659 ; and, as we said, it is next to certain 
 
 * In most editions of Robinson Crusoe this date, by a printer's 
 blunder, is put i586, but of course, twenty-eight years, two months, 
 nineteen days, added to 30th September, 1659, brings us to 19th 
 December, 1687. 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 27 
 
 now, owing to Mr. Aitken's discovery, that Defoe was 
 born late in 1659. 
 
 Crusoe (aged eighteen years eleven months) left 
 Hull 1st September, 1651 ; adding twenty-seven years, 
 makes Defoe to have left Newington ist September, 
 1678; and it is always said that Defoe, who entered 
 Newington at about fourteen, stayed there till he was 
 nearly nineteen. 
 
 Crusoe was wrecked on his island (on which he 
 stayed twenty- eight years two months and nineteen 
 days) 30th September, 1659; adding twenty-seven 
 years, makes Defoe's life of silence to commence 30th 
 September, 1686; and from this date to the date of 
 the commencement of his great illness, when, as we 
 presume, he resumed his speech, is twenty-eigkt 
 years two months and about a half. 
 
 Crusoe left his island 19th December, 1687 ; 
 adding twenty- seven years, makes Defoe's silence to 
 be broken 19th December, 17 14; and that at this 
 time Defoe's character underwent a great change I 
 shall hereafter prove (§ 50). 
 
 To the minor parallels between Crusoe and Defoe 
 we shall refer in their right order. For the present 
 we are contented to state that the belief is forced upon 
 us that Defoe, provoked on account of the irritating 
 conduct of his wife, made a kind of vow to live a life 
 of silence. That beyond maintaining this rigid silence 
 he ever acted unkindly to her is improbable. No 
 doubt, as Cbadwick suggests, the reason of her '' pro- 
 voking language" was the fact of Defoe neglecting 
 his business for poetry and politics. We can sympa- 
 thise with Mrs. Defoe to a certain extent, for, above 
 
2 8 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 all things, it is necessary that a housewife should have 
 the wherewithal to provide dinners ; and she could, 
 no doubt, see, what Defoe couldn't see, that everything 
 was going to the dogs. But we sympathise more with 
 him. He lived in a high plane; he had the literary 
 temperament, the ideas of a man of genius, the am- 
 bition of Lucifer. His wife couldn't understand him; 
 they were unequally yoked. His reply to her taunts 
 was a vow of silence — that great silence,* that extra- 
 ordinary isolation, which made possible in after years 
 the marvellous realism of " Robinson Crusoe." 
 
 That Defoe was not unkind to his wife appears 
 to me to be proved by the will of Samuel Tuffley, 
 Mrs. Defoe's brother. In this document, drawn up 
 in October, 17 14, while Defoe was yet in silence, 
 occurs a very curious passage. Mr. Tuffley leaves 
 all his property to his sister " absolutely and inde- 
 pendently of- her husband, or of any claim or demand 
 which he or anyone claiming by, from, or under him 
 by right of marriage or otherwise, might have or 
 make to the same." Further on he enjoins her, " if 
 she should think fit to bestow any part at any time oh 
 her children, to give the greatest share to such as 
 behave with the greatest tenderness, duty, and affec- 
 tion, both to their father and to herself," and further 
 on occurs the clause, " declaring that 'it is not from 
 distrust of or disrespect to their said father that this 
 my will is made in this manner." 
 
 In short, as I interpret it, though there • had 
 been unpleasantness between Mr. Tuffley and Mr. 
 Defoe, Mr. Tuffley wished bygones to be bygones ; 
 at the same time, knowing not only Defoe's original 
 
The Merchant of Cornhtll. 29 
 
 methods of finance, but also his peculiar character, 
 he was resolved that Defoe should have no oppor- 
 tunity to try experiments or play freaks with the 
 Tuffley money. The phrase, " That it is not from 
 distrust of," etc., is, of course, only the coating of gilt 
 on the unpalatable pill. 
 
 At first sight it may appear monstrous that a man 
 should for so long a time abstain from speech with 
 his own farnily, but Defoe's conduct is, perhaps, ex- 
 tenuated, when we remember that for the earlier part 
 of that period he could have seen very little of his 
 wife or children at all, for, from the time of his bank- 
 ruptcy (1692) to the year 1706, he was continually 
 being hunted by his creditors. He had been in retreat, 
 he says, August 23, 1706, fourteen years, with jeopardy, 
 broils, and most of the time in banishment from his 
 family (see § 32). 
 
 Despite his extraordinary vow, and despite, too, 
 his nomadism, Defoe took great interest in the welfare 
 of his children. All of them were well educated, the 
 daughters noticeably so. He had always held that 
 children are creditors to the father of a family ; that 
 " he cannot be an honest man that does not discharge 
 his debt to them, any more than he could if he did not 
 repay money borrowed to a stranger"; and that the 
 first and foremost item in that debt is education, by 
 which he meant " not only putting children to school, 
 which some parents think is all they have to do with 
 or for their children," but several other additional 
 cares, as — (i) Directing what school, what part of 
 learning, is proper for them ; (2) studying the genius 
 and capacities of their children in what they teach 
 
30 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 them ; (3) the debt of instruction, the debt of govern^ 
 ment, the debt of example. But in this last, owing 
 to his vow of silence, as he himself admits, he in part 
 failed. 
 
 Another feature of Defoe's character, which may 
 here fittingly be mentioned, was his love of fine 
 clothes and ostentation. No matter how he is circum- 
 stanced, we always find him " gorgeously apparelled." 
 In prosperity or adversity, in shine or shower, Daniel 
 Defoe was always what, in his " Complete English 
 Tradesman," he so heartily condemns, " a tradesman 
 dressed up fine with his long wig and sword." 
 
 8.— DEFOE AT TOOTING.— HE VISITS THE OTHER SIDE OF HIS 
 ISLAND.— ORANGE EVERYWHERE (1687— 88J. 
 
 In April, 1687, King James, solely on his own 
 authority, and therefore illegally, published a Declara- 
 tion of Indulgence permitting all his subjects to 
 worship in their own way. " Was anything ever 
 more absurd," asks Defoe, "than this conduct of 
 King James and his party in wheedling the Dissen- 
 ters ; giving them liberty of conscience by his own 
 arbitrary dTspensing authority, and expecting they 
 should be content with their religious liberty at the 
 price of the Constitution ? " From a passage in 
 Review viii., 442, it has been conjectured that 
 Defoe wrote some tracts on these proceedings of 
 King James, but it is more likely that he declaimed 
 against them only by word of mouth. In his opinions 
 Defoe stood almost alone. The "grave, weak, good 
 nTen " of his party were as much annoyed at the 
 
THE DEFOE WINDOW IN BUTCHERS' HALL. 
 {Ft om photograph by R. W. Thomas, 41, Cheafside.) 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 31 
 
 course he had taken as if they had been his adver- 
 saries. They called him a youth. But, says 
 Defoe, " He that will serve men must not promise 
 himself that he shall not anger them." The second 
 and more important Declaration of Indulgence was 
 proclaimed on April 27th, 1688. ,A few weeks pre- 
 vious, Defoe had sent in his claim to have his name 
 inscribed on the roll of the Butchers' Company, and 
 he was admitted a liveryman of the City of London 
 on the 26th of January, 1688. The entry in the 
 Company's book runs as follows : — " At a Court held 
 in Pudding-lane, Daniel Foe, son of James Foe, citizen 
 and butcher, of Fore-street, Cripplegate, attended to 
 apply for his admission by patrimony, and was ad- 
 mitted accordingly, and paid, in discharge of serving 
 all offices, ^10 15s." 
 
 Thus, though his business was hosiery, he was a 
 member, not of the Mercers' or the Haberdashers' 
 Company, but of the Butchers' Company. " Pro- 
 bably," says Mr. Hyde Clarke, "the Haberdashers, 
 or perhaps the Mercers, granted him leave to enroll 
 himself as a butcher." A few years ago, consonant 
 with the suggestion of Mr. Clarke, a stained-glass 
 window to Defoe was placed in Butchers' Hall, 
 Bartholomew Close. 
 
 Defoe now (1688) resided at Tooting, where he 
 formed the Dissenters of the neighbourhood, chiefly 
 Independents and Presbyterians, into a regular con- 
 gregation, and there is no doubt that occasionally he 
 preached among them. The church founded by Defoe 
 met at first in a private house, and afterwards in a 
 temporary wooden building, which in 1765-6 gave 
 
32 
 
 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 place to the Defoe Presbyterian Chapel, erected in 
 the main street a few yards north of the " Angel Inn." 
 Tooting, which in Defoe's time was only a village, 
 is to-day a populous and wealthy suburb of London ; 
 and the congregation of the old chapel are now intent 
 on another move—namely, the erection of a large and 
 handsome Defoe Memorial Church, with a spire and a 
 statue. 
 
 ■^-Wi. 
 
 DEFOE S HOnSK AT TOOTING. 
 
 These years spent at Tooting correspond with 
 the early pH-iod of Crusoe's stay on his island. The 
 events in " Crusoe " of this period are, September 30, 
 1659, the shipwreck; October i to 24, voyages to and 
 from the wreck; April 16, 1660, the earthquake; 
 June 19 to 27, serious illness, Crusoe reads his Bible; 
 spring, 1 66 1 (eighteen months after the shipwreck), he 
 visits the other side of his island. 
 
 Knowing so very little of Defoe's doings in 1686 
 and the two following years, it is impossible to say 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 33 
 
 to what events in his life all the above refer. It is 
 probable, however, that the illness, succeeded by a 
 devotional spell, corresponds with the period of his 
 religious activity at Tooting. Crusoe's visit to the 
 other side of his island (he was shipwrecked on the 
 south side) points to a visit of Defoe's to Scotland at 
 this time. This visit not being mentioned by pre- 
 vious biographers, was, I feared, unrecorded ; but to 
 my very great satisfaction I found it described by 
 Defoe very precisely in " The Great Law of Subor- 
 dination." He says : " As I made myself master of the 
 history of the ancient state of England, I resolved in 
 the next place to make myself master of its present 
 state also ; and to this purpose I travelled, in three or 
 four several tours, over the whole island, critically 
 observing, and carefully informing myself of every- 
 thing worth observing in all the towns and countries 
 through which I passed." . . . Before setting out 
 on this tour Defoe studied Camden's " Britannia," 
 " and some other books too, which treat of the natural 
 history, as well as the antiquities, of every country." 
 He noticed, however, that while the books he perused 
 contained much about the gentry, " very few take 
 notice of the common people, how they live, and what 
 their employment, etc." To treat of the common 
 people, he resolved, should be his task. Defoe, in 
 short, was to topography something what J. R. Green 
 in our own day has been to history. He dealt with it 
 not as it concerned a few aristocrats, but as it con- 
 cerned the people in general. " I took this journey," 
 he says, " at the unhappy time when this change or 
 revolution in manners and temper of the common 
 
 D 
 
34 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 people was in the height of its operation — namely, 
 in the years 1684 to 1688, for I was near four years 
 before I finished my travels." Unlike Crusoe, how- 
 ever, he did not go alone. " I took with me an 
 ancient gentleman of my acquaintance, who I found 
 was thoroughly acquainted with almost every part 
 of England, and who was to me as a walking library, 
 or a movable map of the countries and towns through 
 which we passed." Defoe often made tours through 
 England and to Scotland subsequently. For geo- 
 graphy he had an extraordinary passion, so much so 
 that some of his works, as we shall see, are quite 
 spoilt by the superabundance of geographical detail. 
 
 We may notice, too, that Crusoe was wonderfully 
 smitten with the north side of his island ; indeed, he 
 would have taken up his abode there for good, only 
 the south side afforded greater facilities for keeping 
 a look out after ships ; and Defoe was not only vastly 
 enamoured of Scotland, but made preparations at least 
 once to remove his wife and family thither, and to 
 settle there. 
 
 9.— BANKRUPTCY AND BRISTOL (1692).— DEFOE'S DAEMON.— 
 TE DEUM LAUDAMUS. 
 
 Works : 2. — A New Discovery of an Old Intrigue. 1691. 
 
 3. — Tlie Englishman's Choice and True Interest. 1694. 
 
 The arbitrary conduct of James II. had by this 
 time thoroughly alienated the hearts of the majority 
 of his people, and the eyes of all lovers of liberty 
 were turned towards the Netherlands. The day of 
 the nation's deliverance — November 4th, 1688, when 
 William of Orange arrived in Tor Bay — was ever 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 35 
 
 after commemorated by Defoe, who, as long as he 
 kept up the Review, made this event, on each returning 
 anniversary, the subject of a paper. He calls it, in 
 Review iv., 453, "A day famous on various accounts, 
 and every one of them dear to Britons who love their 
 country, value the Protestant interest, or have an 
 aversion to tyranny and oppression. On this day 
 William the Third was born ; on this day he married 
 the daughter of England ; and on this day he rescued 
 the nation from a bondage worse than that of Egypt 
 — a bondage of soul as well as bodily servitude — a 
 slavery to the ambition and raging lust of a generation 
 set on fire by pride, avarice, cruelty, and blood." 
 
 Defoe, who was among the many citizens who 
 hastened to meet William, joined the second line of 
 the Prince's army at Henley-on-Thames. On Decem- 
 ber 18, William made his public entry into London, 
 Defoe one of the most handsomely dressed and one 
 of the proudest in his train. The weather was squally, 
 but an enthusiastic people neither sleet nor wind can 
 subdue. It was orange everywhere. Bosoms and 
 hats, cane-handles and sword-knots, all flamed with 
 the popular colour. Protestant bells were rung back- 
 wards in the steeples, Protestant throats sliouted until 
 they were hoarse, and when night came half a million 
 Protestant candles did their devoir in order that even 
 then the jubilations might not cease. 
 
 Defoe was present during the debates of the Con- 
 vention, and heard, with inexpressible joy, delivered 
 at the bar of the Lords' House, in a message from the 
 Commons, by Mr. Hampden, of Buckinghamshire, 
 " That it is inconsistent with the Constitution of 
 D 2 
 
36 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 this Protestant kingdom to be governed by a Popish 
 prince." 
 
 In due time, with "all the fantastic pomp of 
 heraldry," William and Mary were proclaimed King 
 and Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, with France, 
 as the pleasant custom was, thrown in. This on 
 February 13th. Then the land gave itself up to a 
 saturnalia, which for deep, hearty enjoyment could 
 scarcely have had an equal. One hears of " cavalcades 
 of gentlemen and yeomen, processions of sheriffs and 
 bailiffs in scarlet gowns, musters of zealous Protestants 
 with orange flags and ribands, salutes, bonfires, illumi- 
 nations, music ; balls, dinners, gutters running with ale, 
 and conduits spouting claret." Your true-born English- 
 man has often drunk more wine than is good for him ; 
 but rarely, it is to be supposed, with more excuse. 
 
 On the 29th of October (1689), when King William 
 and his consort accepted the Lord Mayor's invitation 
 to the City Feast, a regiment of volunteers, composed 
 of the chief citizens and commanded by Charles Mor- 
 daunt, Earl of Peterborough, attended their majesties 
 from Whitehall to the Mansion House ; and among 
 these troopers, "gallantly mounted and richly accou- 
 tred," Oldmixow noticed Daniel Defoe. 
 
 For the next fifteen months we know of Defoe's 
 doings absolutely nothing. When he appears again it 
 is in the character of a poet, the subject of his effusion 
 being the recent Jacobite plot of Lord Preston and 
 others, who were tried and found guilty in January, 
 1 69 1. The title runs : — 
 
 " A New Discovery of an Old Intrigue : a Satyr level'd at 
 Treachery and Ambition ; Calculated to the Nativity of the 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 37 
 
 Rapparee * Plot, and the Modesty of the Jacobite Clergy. Designed 
 by way of Conviction to the CXVII Petitioners, and for the Benefit 
 of those that Study the Mathematics. Unus Nobis Cunctando 
 Restituit. — En niu s . " 
 
 A certain amount of interest attaches itself to this 
 pamphlet, first, because it is the earliest production of 
 Defoe's pen that has been preserved ; and, secondly, 
 because, as he himself states, it was his first attempt 
 at satire ; but its intrinsic value is nil. 
 
 As already intimated, Defoe's attention to politics 
 and the muses was doing little good to his business. 
 He found it more to his taste to argue upon the 
 treacheries of the Jacobites, and to discuss Horace and 
 Virgil at the coffee-houses, than to attend to his journal 
 and his ledger ; and unlike — to use his own apt illus- 
 tration — ^the carrier's waggon, " which keeps wagging 
 and always goes on," he seems in his business to have 
 attempted to go too fast, and to have injured himself 
 by over-rashness in speculation. This we gather from 
 certain remarks in his " Complete English Trades- 
 man," where, however, with customary vanity, he 
 gives the reader to understand that there are trades- 
 men and tradesmen, and that he himself was none of 
 your petty pedlars, but a great merchant who did 
 business beyond sea. 
 
 Finally, in 1692, came bankruptcy, with a deficit 
 of ^17,000. He hints in one of his Reviews that 
 this misfortune was brought about by the frauds of 
 swindlers, but persons who neglect their business are 
 precisely the persons upon whom swindlers find it 
 easiest to prey. The war, too, he considered had 
 
 * Rapparee : Irish plunderer. 
 
38 
 
 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 done him harm. Probably it had, but when attri- 
 buting his misfortune to these things, he never 
 speaks quite convincingly, and he always seems to 
 have had an inward conviction that Daniel Defoe's 
 worst enemy had been Daniel Defoe himself. 
 
 In order to escape his creditors he took refuge at 
 Bristol, where he lived at the Red Lion Inn, kept by 
 
 OLD HOUSE IN CASTLE STREET, BRISTOL, FORMERLY THE RED LION INN. 
 
 Mark Watkins, in Castle Street, now Nos. 80, 81. 
 Here he got Ae name of the Sunday Gentleman, 
 " because of his appearance on that day, and that day 
 only, in fashionable attire — a fine flowing wig, lace 
 ruffles, and a sword by his side — being kept indoors 
 during the rest of the week by fear of the bailiffs" ; 
 but after some parley with his creditors, " a composi- 
 tion was agreed to," though what that precisely means 
 it would puzzle a Dutchman to determine ; certain it 
 is that it was no impediment to his creditors hunting 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 39 
 
 him from pillar to post during the next dozen years, 
 though he was trying heart and soul all that time to 
 pay them back in full. The composition, however, 
 saved him from one thing — a debtor's prison. 
 
 It was not likely that a man of Defoe's buoyant 
 temperament would long remain down. Like his 
 Robinson Crusoe, he was one who could turn himself 
 to anything. Several business offers were made him, 
 and he could have had a remunerative post at Cadiz ; 
 but " Providence," as he afterwards said, " which had 
 other work for him to do, placed a secret aversion in 
 his mind to quitting England." 
 
 This is the first intimation we have of that curious 
 belief of Defoe's that, like Socrates and other ancients, 
 he was accompanied by a daemon or good spirit which 
 afforded him wise counsel on all trying occasions. To 
 this subject we shall often recur as this book proceeds, 
 and in the sections devoted to his works on magic deal 
 with it exhaustively. There can be little doubt that at 
 this time Defoe experienced many dark and distressing 
 hours, that he reviewed and reviewed again his whole 
 life, and that he prayed to God "in his solitudes very 
 audibly, and with great fervency." It may have been 
 in the midst of this great wrestling with Heaven that 
 the idea of the daemon first came to him. He had read 
 in his Bible that God had sent forth " ministering 
 spirits to minister to those who should be heirs of Sal- 
 vation," and the belief, either at this time or before, 
 came into his mind that God had sent a special spirit 
 to him. In the Bible ages, Defoe insisted, instances of 
 such spirits accompanying men were numerous, where- 
 as latterly "men, by a differing conduct and a way of 
 
40 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 life too gross for so excellent and sublime a converse, 
 have rendered themselves unworthy and unqualified ; 
 so that the angelic train seem to have forsaken the 
 earth, and only communicate themselves to such as 
 render themselves acceptable and worthy by a life of 
 earnest application to the study of divine science, and 
 who seek after the high illumination." 
 
 This brings us to another accompaniment of Defoe 
 — the great refrain, Te Deum Laudamus, which bursts 
 upon us at every turning of his career. When that 
 intense belief in the wisdom of God which enabled him 
 to offer these words of fervent praise at all times, 
 whether in prosperity or adversity, first took posses- 
 sion of him, we cannot say ; but it stands out as one of 
 the most marked characteristics of his life. To bow 
 the head and murmur submissively, "Thy will be 
 done," is not always easy ; but to cry aloud at all times 
 and in all seasons, and in such times and seasons as 
 Defoe experienced, " Te Deum Laudamus ! " marks a 
 confidence in the wisdom of the Almighty which but 
 few have attained unto. 
 
 Entering again into politics, Defoe became, in 1694, 
 "concerned with some eminent persons in proposing 
 ways and meanstto the Government for raising money 
 to supply the occasions of the war just begun " — the 
 war with France. He also wrote a pamphlet entitled, 
 " The Englishman's. Choice and True Interest ; in 
 the vigorous prosecution of the War against France ; 
 and serving K. William and Q. Mary, and ac- 
 knowledging their, right " ; and this pamphlet and 
 other services were so appreciated by the Government 
 that, " without the least application " of his own, he was 
 
The Merchant of Cornhill. 41 
 
 sent for and appointed Accountant to the Commis- 
 sioners of the Glass Duty — a post which he held till 
 the duty was abolished in 1699. 
 
 It was probably during the year 1694 that he had 
 the happiness of becoming personally known at Court. 
 The Queen was about to lay out Kensington Gardens ; 
 and Defoe, who, life through, was passionately fond of 
 horticulture, " had the honour to attend her Majesty 
 when she first viewed the ground, and directed the 
 doing it." * 
 
 Queen Mary died of small-pox on December 28 of 
 the same year (1694). 
 
 * " Tour through Great Britain,' vol. ii. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 HACKNEY AND CHADWELL— THE MOUTH-PIECE OF 
 THE KING (1694-1703). 
 
 10.— THE PANTILE WORKS AT CHADWELL (1694).— DEFOE 
 CHANGES HIS NAME (CIRC. 1697). 
 
 Defoe gave up his hosiery business in Cornhill in 
 1794, and then, or soon after, tdok up his residence in 
 Hackney, where several of his children were born. 
 
 In the Hackney parish register are the following 
 entries : — 
 
 " Sophia, daughter to Daniel Defoe, by Mary, his wife, was bap- 
 tised December 24th, 1701. Martha Defoe, a child, was carried out 
 of the parish to be buried in 1707." 
 
 We next find Defoe acting as secretary to a 
 manufactory of bricks and pantiles at Chadwell, near 
 Tilbury, in Essex, where a hundred labourers were 
 employed. If' is possible that the estate the tile-yard 
 was situated in belonged to some of Defoe's kin. At 
 any rate, a branch of the Foe family resided at Chad- 
 well, and had property both there and in the adjoining 
 parish of West Tilbury. In the parish register we find 
 the following: — 
 
 " 1605. Edmund Foe, married man, was buried y= 28 March." 
 " 1621. Robert Smith, son of George Smith, of Welleborne, in 
 Wiltshire, and of Joane his wife (both deceased), and Katherine foe, 
 
Hackney and Chadwell. 43 
 
 daughter of Edmond foe (deceased) and Lucie his wife, were married 
 the 13th day of February, 1621." 
 
 The connection between Edmond Foe and Defoe's 
 family I have not been able to find out ; but it would 
 indeed be an extraordinary coincidence — the name 
 bejng an uncommon one — if in so small a place as 
 Chadwell one family of Foe should have held property, 
 and 'another Foe (Defoe) have lived there, and yet 
 that the two should have been unconnected. The site 
 of the brickyard is unknown. 
 
 What with one thing or another, Defoe had a second 
 time become prosperous, and by unwearied diligence 
 he punctually paid the composition on his bond ; but 
 he did more, he paid — of his own accord, as even his 
 antagonist Tutchin testifies — some of his old creditors 
 who had fallen into distress to the full amount, and 
 made the declaration " that, as far as God should 
 enable him, he intended to do so with everybody." 
 
 Defoe now set up a coach, and at Tilbury, where 
 he had a house " near the river's edge," he kept a 
 pleasure boat, which figures in his account of the pro- 
 digious flight of ants which fell about that time on the 
 marshes of Essex and in the Thames. The ants fell 
 so thick that the water was covered with them, and 
 near two pecks were taken out of the boat. 
 
 About 1697, Defoe changed his name from Foe — 
 which, like his father, he had hitherto been called — to 
 De Foe. He was now nearly forty. Why he tacked 
 on this foreign prefix is uncertain. Oldmixon declares 
 that it was because he had stood in the pillory ; Dr. 
 Browne that he did it at the suggestion of Harley : 
 
44 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 " Have I not changed by your advice my name ? " 
 Mr. Lee suggests that it was in order to be distin- 
 guished from his father, and scouts the idea that 
 personal vanity had any share in bringing about the 
 change. I am myself not so sure about that. As 
 already shown, Defoe had always a large share of 
 personal vanity. We noticed his rather uncalled-for 
 assertion that he had never been a common trades- 
 man, and that though he did formerly engage in trade, 
 it was only in a superior sort of way ; and also his 
 pleasure in telling us that his grandfather was a country 
 gentleman and kept a pack of hounds. Then again, 
 he always carried a seal with his coat of arms cut on 
 it, and he liked to see this coat of arms underneath 
 his portraits. But if you want to know what he thought 
 of himself, the "Divino" portrait will tell you precisely. 
 Is he not sitting "like a lord in Parliament" .'' Does 
 he not seem to be saying, " Here you behold me, the 
 great Daniel Defoe " ? Few men of letters put forward 
 greater pretensions, and few with more justification. 
 He was a king in literature, and he knew it, and he 
 was resolved that everybody else should know it too. 
 His father's name could not have been sounding 
 enough for hifn. Writing for posterity, he would 
 naturally wish something more important than Foe. 
 But vanity was not his only reason. The word itself 
 was a constant thorn in his side. It is not surprising 
 that a man who plumed himself upon his patriotism 
 should dislike to be called a Foe — better almost such 
 a culling from the directories as Badman or Swindler 
 — and we know that our author's name often subjected 
 him to banter. He tells one of his annoyers (in his 
 
Hackney and Chad well. 45 
 
 Review) that he is a foe in name only, not by nature, to 
 anybody. Before 1703 Defoe generally signed him- 
 self only " D.F." In that year he is " Mr. De Foe," 
 and "Daniel De Foe"; but, curiously, even after- 
 wards, and right on until the year before his death, he 
 occasionally put " D.F.," with a full stop after the D. 
 
 II.— THE POET DEFOE AND HIS "ELEGY ON DR. ANNESLEY" (1697). 
 Work ; 4. — The Character of the late Dr. Samuel Annesley. 
 
 We are not accustomed to think of Defoe as a 
 poet, yet nothing is more certain than that during the 
 first forty years of his life he plumed himself more on 
 his skill in writing verse than on anything else. And 
 not only so, but his claim to the title of poet was very 
 generally allowed. {See Gibbon's " Life of Watts," 
 p. 346.) Indeed, at a time when Nahum Tate was 
 Laureate, and such swans sang in Caystor as " Mr. 
 Motteux and Mr. Richardson " (not the novelist), 
 Defoe cut quite a respectable figure ; and if doggerel can 
 be poetry, doggerel expressed in terse language, " full 
 of earnest, weighty sense," every word of which hits 
 like a hammer, it will be impossible even now to deny 
 that he has gained a footing on Parnassus. 
 
 Born in the parish of Milton, whom he early 
 learned to admire, though without adulation ; a close 
 student of Dryden and Rochester, as well as of the 
 great Latins, Virgil and Horace ; and the possessor 
 of a consciousness of certain undeveloped powers 
 within himself, he was already, in his own opinion, 
 one of the great poetical brotherhood. But " the 
 sweet and lovely di'eams " that in early life " walk the 
 
46 The Life of Daniel Defue. 
 
 waves of our sleep " rarely come true. There was a 
 great future for Defoe ; but it was not as a poet. 
 Nevertheless, it must be admitted that he has written 
 quite a respectable amount of verse that will live ; 
 and, at least, one passage, the quatrain beginning — 
 
 " Wherever God erects a house of prayer " 
 
 — to which we shall again refer by-and-by — has been 
 quoted as often as anything else in rhythmic literature. 
 
 In 1697, when occurred the death of Dr. Annesley 
 (the minister of the Meeting-house in Little St. 
 Helen's, Bishopsgate), Defoe, at the request of 
 Dunton, the bookseller — who had married one of 
 Dr. Annesley 's daughters — " improved " the event 
 with a poem, entitled, " The Character of the late 
 Dr. Samuel Afinesley by way of Elegy "; and to 
 praise this good man, under whom he and his father 
 had so long sat, whom, moreover, everyone that had 
 known him, remembered with love and reverence, 
 must have been a congenial task. 
 
 Although the poem, as a whole, is of but little 
 value, it contains several excellent passages ; as, for 
 example, the following, which reminds of the Good 
 Parson in Chau«er : 
 
 " His native candour, his familiar style, 
 Which did so oft his hearers' hours beguile. 
 Charmed us with godliness ; and while he spake, 
 We loved the doctrine for the preacher's sake ; 
 While he informed us what those doctrines meant 
 By dint of practice more than argument.'' 
 
 This poem, and the poems by other writers that 
 were published with it, are described by Dunton as 
 
Hackney and Chadwell. 47 
 
 "made by the chief wits of the age; namely, Mr. 
 Motteux, Mr. De Foe, Mr. Richardson, and, in 
 particular, Mr. Tate, now poet-laureat." Among them, 
 too, was Swift, who, however, was as yet too small 
 a warbler to be specially named. 
 
 One of the daughters of Dr. Annesley married 
 Samuel Wesley, and became the mother of John 
 and Charles Wesley, the founders of Wesleyan 
 Methodism. 
 
 The following is an alphabetical list of the longer 
 poems of Defoe — seventeen in number: — 
 
 Annesley, Dr., Elegy on ... ... ... ... 1697 
 
 Athenian Society, Ode to the ... 6th May, 1703 
 
 Caledonia ... ... ... ... 28th Jan., 1707 
 
 Compleat Art of Painting 1720 
 
 Double Welcome to the Duke of Marlborough 
 
 9th Jan., 1705 
 Good Advice to the Ladies ... ... 3rd Sept., 1702 
 
 Hymn to the Mob ... ... ... 14th July, 1715 
 
 Hymn to the Pillory, The ... ... 29th July, 1703 
 
 Hymn to Peace ... ... ... 10th Jan., 1706 
 
 Hymn to Victory ... ... ... 29th Aug., 1704 
 
 Jure Divino (in 12 books) ... ... 20th July, 1706 
 
 Mock Mourners, The ... ... ... May, 1702 
 
 New Discovery of an Old Intrigue .. . ... ... 169 1 
 
 Pacificator, The ... ... ... 20th Feb., 1700 
 
 Spanish Descent, The ... ... ... Nov., 1702 
 
 Storm, The ... ... ... ... 17th July, 1704 
 
 True-Born Englishman, The... ... ' ... Jan., 1701 
 
 Defoe, indeed, apart from his other labours, wrote 
 far more poetry, such as it was, than even Milton or 
 Dryden. " By his printing a poem every day," 
 says Dunton, "one would think he rhymed in his 
 sleep." 
 
48 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 i2.-in favour of a standing army.— his first great 
 pamphlet. 
 
 Works : 5.— Some Reflections on a Pamphlet lately published, entitled, " An Argu- 
 ment Showing that a Standing Army," &c., &o. 1697. 
 g. —An Argument Showing that a Standing Army, with consent of Parlia- 
 ment, is not inconsistent with a Free Government. 1698. 
 
 In 1697, when the war with France was brought 
 to a close by the Treaty of Ryswick, all England got 
 in commotion on the question of a standing army. 
 The enemies of William were anxious that the army 
 should be disbanded, and John Trenchard and others 
 wrote pamphlets to show that a standing army was a 
 menace to domestic liberties. Rushing into the fray, 
 Defoe replied to Trenchard in a tract entitled, " Some 
 Reflections on a Pamphlet," &c., &c., which reached a 
 second edition the same year (1697) ; and, encouraged 
 by his success, he produced in the following year a 
 second pamphlet on the same controversy, entitled, 
 " An Argument Showing that a .Standing Army, with 
 consent of Parliament, is not inconsistent with a Free 
 Government." Upon this, Defoe's first great tract. 
 Professor Minto writes thus eulogistically : — 
 
 " He was now in the thirty-ninth year of his age, his contro- 
 versial genius in#ill vigour, and his mastery of language complete. 
 None of his subsequent tracts surpass this as a piece of trenchant 
 and persuasive reasoning. It shows at their very highest his mar- 
 vellous powers of combining constructive with destructive criticism. 
 He dashes into the lists with good-humoured confidence, bearing 
 the banner of clear common-sense, and disclaiming sympathy with 
 extreme persons of either side. He puts his case with direct and 
 plausible force, addressing his readers vivaciously as plain people 
 like himself, among whom as reasonable men there cannot be two 
 opinions. He cuts rival arguments to pieces with dexterous strokes, 
 representing them as the confused reasoning of well meaning but 
 
Hackney and Ciiadwell. 49 
 
 dull intellects, and dances with lively mockery on the fragments. 
 If the authors of such arguments knew their own minds, they would 
 be entirely on his side. He echoes the pet prejudices of his readers 
 as the props and mainstays of his thesis, and boldly laughs away 
 misgivings of which they are likely to be half ashamed. He makes 
 no parade of logic ; he is only a plain freeholder like the mass 
 whom he addresses, though he knows twenty times as much as 
 many writers of more pretension. He never appeals to passion or 
 imagination ; what he strives to enlist on his side is homely self- 
 interest, and the ordinary sense of what is right and reasonable. 
 He wrote for a class to whom a prolonged intellectual operation, 
 however comprehensive and complete, was distasteful. To persuade 
 the mass of the freeholders was his object, and for such an object 
 there are no political tracts in the language at all comparable to 
 Defoe's." 
 
 The result of the pother was that Parliament 
 granted a standing army, though not so large a one 
 as the king wanted. 
 
 Defoe was now surrounded by numerous and in- 
 fluential friends, who respected his genius and took a 
 delight in the vivacity of his conversation and the 
 readiness of his wit. Among them was Sir John 
 Fagg, M.P., at whose noble seat at Steyning Defoe, 
 in the summer of 1697, was hospitably entertained; 
 and Dalby Thomas, afterwards knighted, one of the 
 commissioners of the Glass Duty. 
 
 13.— THE OCCASION.'^.L CONFORMITY SQUABBLE.— PL.WING BO-PEEP 
 WITH GOD ALMIGHTY (1769). 
 
 Work : 6. — An Enquiry into the Occasional Conformity of Dissenters, &c. 
 2Sth Jan., 1698, 
 
 We are now to concern ourselves with that precious 
 piece of business, the Occasional Conformity squabble, 
 which, despite its contemptibility, was to rack all 
 England for over a dozen years. 
 
 E 
 
50 The Life of Daniel Defoe, i 
 
 That the oppressive laws against the Dissenters 
 ought never to have been made ; and that it is unjust 
 and tyrannical ta disqualify anybody for a public office 
 merely on account of religious differences is readily 
 conceded ; at the same time, although the squabble 
 reflects very little credit on the High Church Party, or 
 " High-fliers," as the age called them, one cannot see 
 that the Dissenters showed themselves in it to the 
 best advantage. The practice of occasionally taking 
 communion with the Established Church as a quali- 
 fication for public office had grown up gradually, and 
 had been in vogue during most of the reign of 
 William, without attracting much notice ; but on 27th 
 September, 1697, Sir Humphrey Edwin, a Dissenter, 
 who had been elected Lord Mayor, thought fit, 
 after attending church one Sunday morning, to go 
 in the afternoon, with all the insignia of his office, 
 to his meeting-house. Pinner's Hall. That was the 
 signal for a very fine hullabaloo. The whole question 
 of Occasional Conformity was raised ; and every 
 weapon that bitterness, spite, jealousy, and tyranny 
 could devise was brought out, furbished, and wielded. 
 The High Church party were wrong ; for they should 
 not have Adeavoured to put into force laws that 
 ought never to have been made. The Dissenters 
 were wrong ; for they ought not to have taken upon 
 
 * 
 
 themselves to receive the Lord's Supper in a manner 
 which, but for the particular end of obtaining office, 
 they would not have consented to. Such, at any rate, 
 was the view that Defoe took, and, in consequence, 
 he issued a pamphlet, entitled, " An Enquiry into the 
 Occasional Conformity of Dissenters," in which he 
 
Hackney and Chadwell. 51 
 
 argued that occasional conformity was a sinful act, or 
 else Dissent itself was sinful. 
 
 To receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
 at the table of the Church of England merely as 
 a qualification for civic honours, and the privilege of 
 playing at long-spoon and custard on Lord Mayor's 
 day, was, he argued, " a scandalous practice, and 
 a-playing at bo-peep with God Almighty "; and upon 
 this ground Defoe stood for years, to the great 
 annoyance of his co-religionists. 
 
 The din of this squabble, will again from time 
 to time, assail our ears. For the present we turn 
 thankfully to another subject. 
 
 14.— THE ESSAY ON PROJECTS.— " WOMAN, LOVELY WOM.VN " 
 (M.AY, 1698), 
 
 Works : 7. — .'\.n Essay upon Projecls. aglh May, 1698 (Printcid in 1697). 
 8. — The Poor Man's Plea, &c. 31st March, 1698. 
 
 For some time, as we have seen, Defoe had 
 employed his pen in promoting objects that were 
 pleasing to the king; and in January, 1696-7, he 
 published his " Essay upon Projects," dedicated to his 
 friend, Dalby Thomas. In this work he advocated 
 a number of enterprises — some praiseworthy, others 
 Qui.x;otic. 
 
 Amonsf the former was a Colles^e for the Education 
 of Women. No'other writer of the time regarded 
 woman in so chivalrous and respectful a manner 
 as Defoe, saving and excepting Steele. To Defoe 
 a woman was not a doll, a fool, or a mere adjunct 
 of man. She was a human beingf with a soul ; 
 and with man's training would be man's equal. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 The Life of Daniel Defoe.. 
 
 The only training that women had at that time 
 Was beneath his contempt. He did not believe, 
 he said, that God made them so delicate, so glorious, 
 to be only stewards of our houses, cooks, and slaves ; 
 and then comes a passage which, for truth and beauty 
 of expression, is among the very finest things that 
 any man ever wrote of the other sex : — 
 
 " A v/oman well bred and well taught, furnished with the 
 additional accomplishments of knowledge and behaviour, is 
 a creature without comparison : her society is the emblem ot 
 sublimer enjoyments ; her person is angelic, and her conversation 
 heavenly ; she is all softness and sweetness, peace, love, wit, and 
 delight ; she is every way suitable to the sublimest wish ; and the 
 man that -has such a one to his portion has nothing to do but 
 to rejoice in her, and be thankful." 
 
 And then Defoe draws the picture of the same 
 beautiful woman without education, showing that the 
 chances are that she will degenerate "to be turbulent, 
 clamorous, noisy, nasty, and the devil." A woman's 
 ornaments and beauty, without suitable behaviour, 
 are, he declares, "a cheat in nature; like the false 
 tradesman, who puts the best of his goods uppermost 
 that the buyer may think the rest are of the same 
 goodness." ^ 
 
 'Ware of the uneducated and uncultured but 
 beautiful woman ! 
 
 In verse Defoe is no less chivalrous to women 
 than in prose. Whoever vituperised " The True- 
 born Englishman," it is not to be supposed that the 
 ladies did — 
 
 " Nor shall my verse the brighter sex defame, 
 For Enghsh beauty will preserve her name ; 
 
Hackney and Chad well. 53 
 
 Beyond dispute agreeable and fair, 
 
 And modester than other nations are ; 
 
 For where the vice prevails, the great temptation 
 
 Is want of money more than inclination." 
 
 And then follows a little couplet which rolls very 
 deliciously round one's tongue — 
 
 " In general this only is allowed. 
 They're something noisy, and a little proud." 
 
 Among the other public improvements that Defoe 
 suggests in this valuable book are a royal or national 
 bank ; assurances against shipwreck, fires, etc, ; 
 friendly societies ; savings banks for the poor ; a 
 commission of inquiry into bankruptcy ; and the 
 establishment of a society " for encouraging polite 
 learning, for refining the English language, and for 
 preventing barbarisms of manners," the last being also 
 a favourite dream of Mat Prior and Jonathan Swift. 
 Of these improvements several have since come into 
 vogue ; and perhaps the time is not far distant when 
 we shall even see a society formed for preserving the 
 purity of the language, and the realisation of Mr. 
 G. A. Sala's suggestion of an Index Expurgatoriiis, 
 and the revival of the pillory for those miscreants 
 who sully the waters of the pure well of English 
 with such accretions as "talented,"' " preventitive," and 
 "reliable." The only difficulty, apparently, would be 
 to find pillories enough. The " Essay upon Projects " 
 had no inconsiderable share in moulding the mind 
 of Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 Among the commendable actions of William's 
 Government, one was an attempt at the reformation 
 
54 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 of manners ; and in 1697 an address was voted by 
 Parliament asking his Majesty to see that wickedness 
 was discouraged in high places. To this good work 
 Defoe lent his assistance in a pamphlet entitled " The 
 Poor Man's Plea," in which the poor man pleaded the 
 uselessness of passing laws and making proclamations 
 for the reform of the people so long as persons in high 
 places were themselves corrupt, the argument being 
 spiced with some amusing anecdotes to show the pre- 
 valence of swearing and drunkenness among members 
 of the judicial bench. , 
 
 15.— HIS POEMS, •■ THE PACIFICATOR " AND " THE TRUE-BORN 
 ENGLISHMAN."— DEATH OF DRYDEN. 
 
 Works: io. — The Pacificator, a Poem. 20th Feb., 1700. 
 
 II. — The Two Great Questions Considered, etc. 2nd Dec, 1700. 
 
 12. — An Enquiry into the Occasional Conformity of Dissenters, etc. 
 
 20th Nov. , 1700. 
 13. — The Two Great Questions further considered. 2nd Dec, 1700. 
 14. — The Six distinguishing Charactersof a Parliament Man. 4th Jan., 1701. 
 15.— The Danger of the Protestant Religion considered, etc. 9th Jan. , 1701. 
 16. — The True-Born Englishman. Jan., 1701. 
 
 17. — Considerations upon Corrupt Elections of Members. Jan., 170T. 
 18. — The Freeholder's Plea against Stock-Jobbing Elections of Parliament 
 
 Men. 
 19. — A Letter to Mr. Howe. 24th Jan., 1701. 
 20. — The Villany of Stock-jobbers Detected, nth Feb., 1701. 
 
 In his satirical poem, " The Pacificator," Defoe 
 describes an imaginary war among the leading authors 
 of the day. After recommending a cessation of hos- 
 tilities, he advises each to choose only the part he can 
 do well, and to confine himself to his own province — 
 
 '■'■ Dryden to Tragedy, — let Creech Translate, 
 D'Urfey make Ballads, — Psalms and Hymns for Tate ; 
 Let Prior flatter kings in Panegyric, — 
 Ratdiffe Burlesque, — and Wyckerley be lyric ; 
 Let Congreve write the Comic, — Foe Lampoon, — 
 Wessley the Banter, — Milbourn the Buffoon." 
 
Hackney and Chadwell. 55 
 
 " The Pacificator " was published on 20th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1700; ere two months were fled Dryden, the 
 greatest in Defoe's list, had gone to his long home. He 
 died on May Day that year. Wycherley, aged sixty, 
 had fifteen more years to live ; Prior, aged thirty-seven, 
 twenty-one more ; Congreve, aged thirty-one, twenty- 
 nine more. Pope, who had not yet blazed into the 
 firmament, was a boy of twelve, living with his father 
 and mother at Binfield. 
 
 The death of Charles II. of Spain, in October 
 (1700), and the bequest of his throne to the Duke of 
 Anjou (grandson of Louis XII.) now caused trouble 
 on the Continent. By Charles's will Spain, Italy, and 
 France would be virtually one country, and this after 
 all William's endeavour, by sword and treaty, to limit 
 the power of France ! The fiat then went forth from 
 the Court that there must again be war ; but Parlia- 
 ment would none of it, and the people, tired of war, 
 stood by them. Defoe, taking the King's part, was 
 ready, as usual, with a pamphlet, which he entitled, 
 " The Two Great Questions Considered. I. What 
 the French King will do with respect to the Spanish 
 Monarchy. II. What measures the English ought 
 to take " — in which he contended that to allow the 
 French to obtain the upper hand in Spain was to 
 court the ruin of England. But even the eloquence 
 of a Defoe was unavailing. The people did not 
 want war, and war they would not have. The King 
 became unpopular, and every brazen-throated true- 
 born Englishman shouted, " Down with the Hugger- 
 muggers ! " (Dutch). An anonymous writer, replying 
 to Defoe's pamphlet eight days later, accused him 
 
56, The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 of place-hunting, with the result of a rejoinder 
 by Defoe entitled, " The Two Great Questions 
 further considered " (2nd December, 1700). 
 
 In the meantime the Occasional Conformity cal- 
 dron, which for a time had quieted down, had lately 
 received a new ingredient ; again the fire was stirred, 
 and the nauseous liquor was now steaming and 
 bubbling again with all its old virulence. 
 
 Three years had passed since the commotion about 
 Sir Humphrey Edwin, and now another Dissenter, 
 Sir Thomas Abney, Lord Mayor of London, and one 
 of the congregation of the celebrated John Howe, 
 had, upon induction to office, received the Sacrament 
 according to the Church of England, with the result 
 of reopening the whole question. 
 
 The High Church pamphleteers were of opinion 
 that " Sir Tom " would have been much better 
 employed singing "psalms at Highgate Hill," and 
 " splitting texts of Scripture with his diminutive 
 figure of a chaplain" (Dr. Watts), than in "running 
 the hazard of qualifying himself to be called a hand- 
 some man, for riding on horseback before the city 
 train-bands," or venturing damnation " to play at 
 longspoon anff custard for a transitory twelvemonth." 
 
 Defoe, whom chance, for the nonce, had put on the 
 same side, reprinted his tract on " Occasional Con- 
 formity," cancelling, however, the former preface and 
 substituting one to Howe, in the hope of eliciting 
 " from so influential a minister some expression of 
 approval or disapproval of the practice" (20th Novem- 
 ber, 1700). 
 
 Over and over again, Defoe maintains that the 
 
Hackney and Chadwell. 57 
 
 ordinance of the Lord's Supper cannot be converted 
 into a civil action ; and he repeats what he had before 
 advanced, that to take the Sacrament as the Occasional 
 Conformists did was " nothing but a bantering with 
 religion and playing bo-peep with God Almighty." 
 
 Howe lost his temper — persons who were confronted 
 with the exasperating coolness of Defoe generally did 
 — and, good man as he was, wrote a not very christian- 
 like reply. Defoe, who did not know what it was to 
 lose his temper, followed up with a pamphlet written 
 with even more than his usual imperturbability, "A 
 Letter to Mr. How," etc. (24th January, 1701), in 
 which he insists on the wrongfulness of " doubling 
 and shifting in points of religion," and sums up his 
 argument in one of those beautiful sentiments with 
 which all his works are so plentifully sprinkled : 
 
 " Sincerity is the glory of a Christian. The native lustre of an 
 honest heart is impossible to be hid ; 'twill shine through all his 
 life in one action or another, in spite of scandal ; and it wants 
 no artifice to set it out." 
 
 Mr. Howe made no reply, and so for a time the 
 matter again rested. 
 
 In January and February, 1701, besides the letter 
 to Mr. Howe, Defoe published five political pamphlets: 
 " The Six Distinguishing Characters of a Parliament 
 Man " (January 4), showing that the chosen of the 
 people should be loyal, religious, sensible, mature, 
 honest, and moral ; " The Danger of the Protestant 
 Religion considered" (January 9), advocating an 
 alliance with Austria (the natural rival of France) 
 and a defensive union of all Protestant States ; 
 
58 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 "Considerations upon Corrupt Election of Members 
 to serve in Parliament," a tract directed against bribery 
 at elections ; " The Freeholders' Plea against Stock- 
 Jobbing Elections of Parliament Men," exposing the 
 practice of buying and selling of seats in Parliament 
 upon the Stock Exchange ; and " The Villany of 
 Stock-jobbers detected" (nth February, 1701), a 
 denunciation of Stock Exchange gambling. 
 
 Far and away, however, the most important pro- 
 duction of this period was his famous satirical poem, 
 " The True-Born Englishman" (January, 1701). 
 
 The unpopularity of the King has already been 
 touched upon. Among those who attacked him was, 
 for some reason or other, the Whig writer, John 
 Tutchin, the same who was brow-beaten by" Jeffreys 
 and whipped through Doncaster, and who afterwards 
 bestowed a grudged compliment on Defpe's honesty. 
 Mr. Tutchin, in an effusion called " The Foreigners," 
 styled delicately by Defoe " a vile, abhorred pamphlet, 
 in very ill verse," had taken upon himself to belabour, 
 not only King William, but the whole Dutch nation. 
 The chivalrous and loyal soul of Defoe smelt the 
 battle afar off. He rushed among the trumpets, and 
 his " True-B9rn Englishman" is the voice, " Ha, ha! " 
 
 This famous satire opens deliciously with the 
 following oft-quoted quatrain : — 
 
 " Wherever God erects a house of prayer. 
 The devil always builds a chapel there ; 
 And 'twill be found upon examination. 
 The latter has the larger congregation." 
 
 The author then goes on to mention the vices 01 
 the various nations, coming at last to the English, 
 
Hackney and Chadwell. 59 
 
 whom he shows to be the most mongrel race under 
 heaven, derived from Roman, Gaul, Greek, Lombard, 
 Saxon, Dane, and a host of others, continuing — 
 
 " From this amphibious, ill-born mob began, 
 That vain, ill-natured thing, an Enghshman." 
 
 Englishmen, in short, are the offspring of foreigners, 
 and what is more, of the scum of foreigners, con- 
 sequently the term a true-born Englishman is an 
 absurdity. The true-born Englishman does not exist. 
 
 The history of our nation is then continued to his 
 own time, with particular reference to the foreign 
 elements that grafted themselves upon our stock in 
 the reigns of Henry V., Elizabeth, and Charles II. 
 Why, asks Defoe, need the English, seeing that they 
 are themselves so composite, be so bitter against 
 King William and the Dutch. The English did not 
 grumble when William was assisting them against 
 Stuart tyranny ; but 
 
 " Wise men aiifirm it is the English way. 
 Never to grumble till they come to pay ; 
 And then they always think — their temper's such — 
 The work too little, and the pay too much." 
 
 " The True-born Englishman " contains many fine 
 breezy lines. Take, for example, the following : — 
 
 " Titles are shadows, crowns are empty things, 
 The good of subjects is the end of kings." 
 
 Defoe's opinions, too, on our legislators are worth 
 
 remembering — 
 
 " Statesmen are always sick of one disease. 
 And a good pension gives them present ease ; 
 That's a specific makes them all content, 
 'With any king and any government." 
 
6o The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 And with equal vigour he chastises the national sin of 
 drunkenness — 
 
 " In English ale their dear enjoyment lies, 
 For which they'll starve themselves and familie?. 
 An Englishman will fairly drink as much 
 As will maintain two families of Dutch." 
 
 What excited his detestation the most, however, 
 was undue influence of the priesthood. A ruling 
 priesthood he held to be as dangerous as a priest-rid 
 
 king — - 
 
 "And of all plagues with which mankind is curst, 
 Ecclesiastic tyranny is worst." 
 
 But what most astonishes is the extraordinary- 
 audacity of the whole thing. He strikes right and 
 left and in every direction, and no party or degree is 
 spared. " The lines run on from beginning to end 
 in the same strain of bold, broad, hearty banter," and 
 the piece was doubtless written off at a heat. To 
 sum up — 
 
 " For Englishmen to boast of generation, 
 Cancels their knowledge, and lampoons the nation ; 
 A true-born Englishman 's a contradiction, 
 In speech an irony, in fact a fiction." 
 
 • 
 
 As Defoe was of Flemish extraction, there was, in 
 addition, at the back of the trenchant arguments in 
 " The True-born Englishman," a strong personal 
 feeling. 
 
 The publication, fortunately for Defoe, was taken 
 by the public in the light that was intended. All 
 London laughed, and the name of its author was on 
 every tongue. Again and again it was reprinted by 
 
Hackney and Chadwell. 6i 
 
 Defoe himself; and of pirated copies alone it is 
 estimated that over 80,000 were sold. Henceforth 
 Defoe describes himself in his title-pages as the 
 author of " The True-born Englishman." The poem 
 being brought under the notice of the King, Defoe 
 was welcomed to Court, employed in the Royal service, 
 and rewarded " above his capacity of deserving." 
 
 The similarity between the King and Defoe, both 
 in their moral temperament and their physical aspect, 
 has been noticed by more than one, and it is sufficiently 
 striking. Both were sincerely religious men, both 
 inflexible of purpose, each led a life of comparative 
 solitude. In physical aspect, too, men marked the 
 similarity. The King was Defoe's senior by ten 
 years, "but the middle size, the spare figure, the 
 hooked nose, the sharp chin, the keen grey eye, the 
 large forehead, and grave appearance were common to 
 both,"* and as a rule the manner of each was cold. 
 
 16.— THE KENTISH PETITION. 
 
 Works; 21. — The Succession to the Crown of England considered. About ist 
 
 March, 1701. 
 22. — Legion's Memorial to the House of Commons. "Presented 14th May, 
 
 1701. 
 23. — The History of the Kentish Petition. Aug., 1701. 
 24. — The Present State of Jacobitism considered. Before Oct., 1701. 
 25. — Reasons against a War witli France. Oct., 1701. 
 26. — The Original Power of the Collective Body of the People of England, 
 
 e\amined and asserted. 27th Dec, 1701. 
 27. — Legion's New Paper, ist Jan., 1702. 
 
 The death of the Duke of Gloucester, son of 
 the Princess Anne, in July, 1700, had drawn people's 
 thoughts to the subject of the succession, and the eyes 
 of Protestants were turned towards Hanover. In a 
 
 * Forster. 
 
62 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 tract, printed about ist March, 1701, entitled, "The 
 Succession to the Crown of Eng-land considered," 
 Defoe examines the pretensions of all claimants, and 
 finds that the House of Hanover had the only in- 
 disputable title. 
 
 On the 8th of May, 1701, the grand jury of Kent 
 presented to the Commons a petition, which desired 
 them " to mind the public business more, and their 
 private heats less," a procedure which had the effect 
 of landing four of them in jail. Defoe, taking their 
 part, wrote a Remonstrance, his celebrated " Legion's 
 Memorial," which he had the boldness to deliver — 
 according to some, in the guise of a woman, or, as 
 others say, muffled in a cloak — to Harley the Speaker 
 as he entered the House of Commons. To quote the 
 "seductive page" of " Tory Hume," " The Commons 
 were equally provoked and intimidated by this libel, 
 which was the production of one Daniel De Foe, a 
 scurrilous party-writer in very little estimation." 
 When the Kentish petitioners were liberated, and 
 feasted at Mercers' Hall, Cheapside, by the citizens 
 of London, Defoe sat among them as an honoured 
 guest ; and in the August following he published 
 his " Histor}»of the Kentish Petition," which came 
 out about the same time as the " Jura Populi Angli- 
 cani " of Lord 'Somers, a tract which also defends 
 the subject's right of petitioning — 
 
 " Somers by nature great, and born to rise ; 
 In counsel wary, and in conduct wise." * 
 
 The next tract of Defoe's, " The Present State 
 
 * Defoe's "Jure Divino." 
 
Hackney and Chadwell. 63 
 
 of Jacobltism considered," etc., was suggested by 
 the death of James II., and the offensive action of 
 the French king in championing the cause of James's 
 son, the Pretender. , 
 
 The object of the pamphlet was to quiet the 
 animosities of the contending British parties, and to 
 advocate moderation and peace— a Hne of argument 
 which Defoe often afterwards took up. It was re- 
 served, indeed, for Defoe, the most combative of 
 all our political writers, to be at the same time the 
 most persistent and eloquent of the preachers of 
 the gospel of peace. He was perpetually sticking 
 spikes into persons, and recommending them to keep 
 quiet. Nor did the incongruity of the thing ever 
 once occur to him. His next tract, "' Reasons against 
 a War with France" (October, 1701), is styled by 
 Chalmers " one of the finest, because it is one of 
 the most useful, tracts in the language." Professor 
 Minto comments : — 
 
 " As Defoe had for nearly a year been zealously working the 
 public mind to a warlike pitch, this title is at first surprising ; but the 
 surprise disappears when we find that the pamphlet is an ingenious 
 plea for beginning with a declaration of war against Spain, showing 
 that not only was there just cause for such a war, but that it would 
 be extremely profitable, inasmuch as it would afford occasion for 
 plundering the Spaniards in the West Indies, and thereby making up 
 for whatever losses our trade might suffer from the French privateers. 
 This trick of arresting attention by an unexpected thesis, such as this 
 promise of reasons for peace when everybody was dreaming of war, 
 is an art in which Defoe was never surpassed." 
 
 Towards the end of 1701 two pamphlets — one a 
 vindication of the rights of the House of Commons, 
 by Sir Humphrey Mackworth, and the other a reply 
 
64 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 vindicating the rights of the House of Lords, probably 
 by Lord Somers — obtained considerable notice, where- 
 upon Defoe, who perceived that neither of the disputants 
 had properly taken into consideration the rights of the 
 people, issued on December 27 his pamphlet, "The 
 Original Power of the Collective Body of the People 
 of England, examined and asserted " — a work of 
 great merit which, in Mr. Chalmers' opinion, " vies 
 with Mr. Locke's famous tract in power of reasoning, 
 and is superior to it in the graces of style." 
 
 On January i, 1702, the day after Parliament opened, 
 Defoe was to the fore again with another pamphlet, 
 " Legion's New Paper," etc. — " the nervous eloquence, 
 the power of invective, and the lofty scorn " in which 
 reminded Mr. Lee of " some of the finest passages in 
 Junius." Its object was "further to expose the errors 
 of the Parliament." " Legion," says Defoe's opponent, 
 Dr. Davenant, " is come out again, more impudent and 
 inflaming than he was last year." 
 
 17.— DEATH OF KING WILLIAM (8th MARCH, 1702). 
 
 Works: 28. — The Mock Mourners, a Poem. May, 1702. 
 29. — Rerormation of Manners, a Poem. 
 
 30. — A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty. June, 1702. 
 3i.-||pood Advice to the Ladies. 3rd Sept., 1702. 
 32. — The Spanish Descent, a Poem. Nov., 1702. 
 
 Defoe was now to receive a very severe blow in 
 the death of his great friend and benefactor. King 
 William. The King's health had for some time 
 been failing ; nevertheless, but for a serious accident, 
 he might have lived years. Whilst hunting near 
 Hampton Court, on February 21st, his horse's foot 
 caught against a mole-hill, and he fell and broke his 
 
Hackney and Chad well. 65 
 
 collar-bone. The injury, acting on a frame reduced 
 by asthma, brought on a fever, and on March the 
 8th he died. 
 
 Whoever felt distress at the death of William, the 
 Jacobites did not ; and some even went so far as to 
 drink to the little "gentleman dressed in velvet"— 
 meaning the mole that had occasioned the accident — 
 and to the horse. Sorrel, from which the King had 
 been thrown, 
 
 " Illustrious steed, to whom a place is given. 
 Above the Lion, Bull, or Bear, in heaven," 
 
 a favourite Jacobite toast being — 
 
 " Well, then, my friends, since things you see, are so. 
 Let's e'en mourn on ; 'twould lessen much our woe 
 Had Sorrel stumbled thirteen years ago," 
 
 the thirteen years having reference to the length of 
 William's reign. 
 
 These effusions naturally cut Defoe, and in a 
 poem — " The Mock Mourners " (May, 1702) — he both 
 expresses his indignation on their account and gives 
 vent to his own affectionate sorrow. Many of its lines 
 are well worth remembering, as, for instance, those 
 recounting William's noble qualities — 
 
 " He knew that titles are but empty things, 
 And hearts of subjects are the strength of kings." 
 
 Defoe never after spoke of William without some 
 affectionate or laudatory epithet, such as " Great Kino- 
 William," that " noble prince " William, or " that good 
 and great man." In " Jure Divino " he breaks out — 
 
 " Wonder no more new raptures fire my pen, 
 When William's name I chance to write, and when 
 
 F 
 
66 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 I search the lustre of his iriemory — 
 
 The best of monarchs and of men to me." 
 
 " The Mock Mourners " was followed by " Re- 
 formation of Manners," a satirical attack on the vices 
 of the age, in which the taste of the nation is summed 
 
 up with : 
 
 " One man reads Milton, forty Rochester." 
 
 This poem contains, among other things, an exposure 
 of the knavery of company promoters, and a noble 
 denunciation of the slave trade. 
 
 Defoe's next productions were an attack on the 
 High Church party, entitled " A' New Test of the 
 Church of England's Loyalty" (June, 1702), and a 
 poetical satire entitled " Good Advice to the Ladies," 
 showing that as the world goes, and 'is like to go, the 
 best way for them is to keep unmarried. 
 
 Louis of France having supported the claims of 
 the Pretender to the sovereignty of England, Queen 
 Anne, in deference to popular feeling, declared war 
 both against France and its ally, Spain. An arma- 
 ment of fourteen thousand men, under Sir George 
 Rooke and the Duke of Ormond, sailed for Cadiz, 
 but returned to England without having effected a 
 landing, a 1)roceeding which filled the nation with 
 disgust and gave origin to many lampoons, among 
 them being Defoe's " Spanish Descent," a poem of 
 twenty-seven pages, which castigates the English 
 commanders for flying " scared with walls, and not 
 with men," for bravely re-embarking when none pur- 
 sued, and for quitting "the Andalusian shores," not 
 covered with glory, but " drenched with Spanish 
 wine and Spanish ," what we need not name. 
 
Hackney and Chadwell. 67 
 
 The poem, however, is not all vituperation, for on 
 his way home past Vigo Bay, Sir George Rooke had 
 swooped down on some Spanish galleons laden with 
 bullion, for which Defoe gives him fair measure of 
 praise. 
 
 18.— THE SHORTEST WAY; DELENDA EST CARTHAGO 
 (iST DECEMBER, 1702). 
 
 Works : 33. — An Enquiry into Occasional Conformity. Nov., 1702. 
 34. — Tlie Shortest Way with Dissenters, ist Dec, 1702. 
 
 Now bubbles and boils again the detestable Occa- 
 sional Conformity caldron, the origin of the new 
 outburst being the introduction into the House of 
 Commons, on November 4th, of a Bill to make 
 occasional conformity illegal. Then ensued a battle 
 of pamphlets, among them, of course, being one by 
 Defoe — "An Enquiry into Occasional Conformity" 
 — showing that Dissenters are in no ways concerned 
 in it. The measure, he insisted, far from injuring 
 the Dissenters, would, by weeding out time-servers, 
 consolidate their true interests. The Court being 
 for the Bill, the Tories anticipated success. Among 
 others, they had won over fat and easy Lutheran 
 Prince George, whose conscience salve, " My heart 
 is vid you," said to Lord Wharton against whom 
 he was about to vote, will for all time be a respect- 
 able jest. The decision of the Lords, however, drove, 
 for the nonce, this absurd Bill out of the field. 
 
 The next production of Defoe's was his famous 
 tract, " The Shortest Way with Dissenters," written, it 
 is now generally conceded, if not at the suggestion, at 
 any rate with the hearty approval of the Whig leaders, 
 
 F 2 
 
68 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 among whom Harley was facile princeps. But Defoe 
 did not at this time know Harley personally, and the 
 precise nature of his connection with the Whig leaders 
 cannot now be ascertained, for, as we shall see, he 
 kept his secret. The object of the pamphlet was 
 undoubtedly to render odious to the people, and to 
 oust from office, Lord Nottingham and the Tories, 
 and to smooth the way for the succession of Harley. 
 In the "brief explanation" of the pamphlet which 
 he afterwards gave, Defoe declared that it had no 
 bearing whatever upon the Occasional Conformity 
 Bill, but that it was intended as a banter upon the 
 High-fliers, putting into plain English their furious 
 invectives against the Dissenters, and so, "by an 
 irony not unusual," answering them out of their own 
 mouths. 
 
 To use the words of Professor Minto : 
 
 " Its whole merit and its rousing political force lay in the 
 dramatic genius with which Defoe personated the temper of a 
 thorough-going High-flier, putting into plain and spirited English 
 such sentiments as a violent partisan would not dare to utter ex- 
 cept in the unguarded heat of familiar discourse, or the half- 
 humorous ferocity of intoxication." 
 
 To use wTutchin's expression — for in this matter 
 Tutchin was on Defoe's side — Defoe came with a 
 lanthorn, and all the dark deeds of High-flyingdom 
 were revealed to the eye. " Have done," cried Defoe, 
 addressing the Dissenters, " with this cackle about peace 
 and union, and the Christian duties of moderation. 
 We heard none of this when we were huffed and 
 bullied under your friend King William; but your day 
 is over, your power gone, and the throne of this nation 
 
Hackney and Chad well. 69 
 
 possessed by a royal, English, true, and ever-constant 
 member of and friend to the Church of England. . . . 
 Now that the tables are turned upon you, you must 
 not be persecuted ; 'tis not a Christian spirit." What 
 persecution had the Dissenters to complain of in the 
 past ? If under the Jameses and the Charleses they 
 did get a few buffets, they got no more than they 
 deserved. Under King William they had insulted 
 the Church, and now they must be rooted out. " 'Tis 
 vain to trifle in this matter. We can never enjoy a 
 settled, uninterrupted union in this nation till the 
 spirit of Whiggism, faction, and schism is melted down 
 like old money. Here is the opportunity to secure 
 the Church and destroy her enemies. I do not pre- 
 scribe fire and faggot, but delenda est Carthago. The 
 light foolish handling of them by mulcts, fines, etc., 
 'tis their glory and their advantage. If the gallows 
 instead of the counter, and the galleys instead of the 
 fines, were the reward of going to a conventicle, to 
 preach or hear, there would not be so many sufferers 
 — the spirit of martyrdom is over. They that will 
 go to church to be chosen sheriffs and mayors would 
 go to forty churches rather than be hanged." " Now 
 let us crucify the thieves," he concludes ; " and may 
 God Almighty put it into the hearts of all friends of 
 truth to lift up a standard against pride and Anti- 
 christ, that the posterity of the sons of error may be 
 rooted out from the face of this land for ever." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 IN LOB'S POUND (i8 MONTHS). 
 
 ig.— IN THE CLUTCHES OF DON DISMAL (NOTTINGHAM).— ■■ THIS 
 DAMNED SATIRICAL WAY OF WRITING."— THE SHY INFORMER. 
 
 WoKKS : 35- — A Brief Explanation of a late Pamphlet, entitled "The Shortest Way." 
 36. — King William's Affection to the Church of England. 25th March, 1703. 
 37.— An Ode to the Athenian Society. 6th May, 1703. 
 
 Defoe's trick was perfection ; the High-fliers were 
 hooked like so many gudgeon. They took it for 
 granted that the writer of the pamphlet was a High- 
 flier like themselves, only more enthusiastic, more out- 
 spoken, more audacious. One clergyman declared 
 that in his estimation, the " Shortest Way " came next 
 to the Bible {Review ii., 277) ; and others were equally 
 complimentary. Indeed, it "was so like a brat of 
 their own begetting, that, like two apples, they could 
 not know them asunder."* 
 
 But if the High-fliers were jubilant, the Dissenters, 
 or rather the more timorous of them, shook like aspen 
 leaves. Then the truth leaked out, that it was the 
 work of a Dissenter. The Whigs held their sides 
 with laughter. The Tories raged like Sirius. "This 
 damned satirical way of writing," as they called it,t 
 was more than the everyday stomach could endure. 
 Nothing would suit now, but that the author of the 
 
 * Defoe. f Defoe's " Consolidator." 
 
In. -Lob's Pound. 71 
 
 pamphlet should be unearthed and brought to justice ; 
 and — the Tories being in power — shrewd persons 
 hazarded guesses as to which side justice would lean. 
 We likened Defoe to a child catching gudgeon ; but 
 a more pertinent simile would be that of an over- 
 venturesome sailor presenting his blandishments to a 
 sea of sharks, with the result that both are caught, fish 
 and fisherman, the huge and savage beast pulling both 
 line and sailor into the uncomfortable sea. Rather 
 than Defoe should want a pass out of the world, one 
 "honest gentleman, a colonel," undertook to be hang- 
 man ; and another declared that if he could find the 
 villain he would deliver him up and abate the pro- 
 mised ^50. Churchmen and Dissenters, all were 
 offended. The whole world " flew at him like a dog 
 with a broom at his tail." * 
 
 They tell us that the first to track the pamphlet 
 to Defoe was the "tall, sable-complexioned " High 
 Church Daniel Finch, Earl of Nottingham, Swift's 
 "Don Dismal," then one of the secretaries of State; 
 and this is not unlikely. At any rate, it is certain, 
 from a recent discovery, presently to be dealt with, 
 that Nottingham — who, as long as he lived, was 
 Defoe's bitter enemy — had Defoe's case in his hands ; 
 and it was Nottingham, doubtless, who worded the 
 famous proclamation issued by the Government, 
 offering a reward of fifty pounds for the discovery 
 of Defoe's retreat, advertised in the London Gazette, 
 for January 10, 1702-3. It runs — 
 
 "Whereas, Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is charged with 
 writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled, ' The Shortest 
 
 * Defoe. 
 
72 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Way with Dissenters.' He is a middle-sized, spare man, about 
 forty years old, of a brown complexion, • and dark-brown coloured 
 hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and 
 a large mole near his mouth ; was born in London, and for many 
 years was a hose-factor, in Freeman's Yard in Cornhill ; and now is 
 the owner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury Fort in 
 Essex ; whoever shall discover the said Daniel De Foe to one of 
 Her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, or any of Her Majesty's 
 justices of the peace, so he may be apprehended, shall have a reward 
 of ;^So, which Her Majesty has ordered immediately to be paid 
 upon such discovery.'' 
 
 Meantime, the pamphlet was burnt in New Palace 
 Yard by the common hangman, and the printer and 
 the publisher were taken into custody. From his 
 hiding-place Defoe then put forth, " in order to remove 
 the veil from the eyes of those who were too blind to 
 perceive the drift of his argument," " A Brief Ex- 
 planation of a late Pamphlet, entitled, ' The Shortest 
 Way with Dissenters,' " in which he insists that the 
 pamphlet that had caused so much excitement was 
 nothing more than " a ba!nter upon the high-flying 
 Churchmen." He was also in hopes that his explana- 
 tion might " allay the anger of the Government," and 
 that the " poor people " (the printers) in trouble on 
 account of '^The Shortest Way " would be pardoned 
 or .excused. 
 
 That the Dissenters continued to misunderstand 
 him particularly hurt his feelings. How could they 
 suppose, he wanted to know, that he wrote with a 
 design to have them all hanged, banished, or 
 destroyed ; and that the penalty of going to a con- 
 venticle should be the gallows or the galleys ; or that 
 he, a Dissenter like them, desired such treatment for 
 
In Lob's Pound. 73 
 
 his wife, for his six innocent children, for his father, 
 and for himself? The only misfortune about the 
 matter was that the public were so chuckle-headed 
 that they couldn't understand him. Had he, when 
 he painted his picture, acted " like the Dutchman " 
 with his man and his bear, and " written under which 
 was the man and which the bear," all would have 
 been well. 
 
 But if the Dissenters were thick of hearing, the 
 Tories were deaf as adders. For years he had been 
 fulminating against the High-fliers, and doing every- 
 thing in his power to render them odious to the nation ; 
 and now they had him, as they supposed, so nicely in 
 their power, was it likely they were going to let him 
 off — the man who had vindicated the Revolution, pane- 
 gyrised King William, who had defended the rights 
 of the collective body of the people, who had lam- 
 pooned High Torydom in the persons of Sir Edward 
 Seymour and Sir Christopher Musgrave ? It was too 
 much to expect ; for, after all, your High-flier is only 
 human nature. 
 
 Some of Defoe's enemies took the trouble to 
 forge against him more thunderbolts in the form of 
 pamphlets, as, for example, " The Fox with his Fire- 
 brand Unkennelled," and the " Shortest Way Avith 
 Whores and Rogues," the author of which wanted to 
 fight. " Accept this gentle dedication and seasonable 
 warning," he says, " from one that neither loves nor 
 fears you, and, were it lawful, dares meet you at any 
 time with a brighter weapon than a pen '' ; but seeing 
 that just then Defoe was being hunted like a hare, 
 this challenge savoured not so much of the heroic 
 
74 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 as of the ridiculous. Into the fray, too, rushed Mrs. 
 Mary Astell — the Camilla of the strife — who held 
 that the Dissenters, if deprived of their political 
 rights, would be not only none the worse, but in the 
 enjoyment of a sempiternal pudding-time. 
 
 It is generally stated that Defoe, finding the 
 Ministry would not listen to him, " surrendered him- 
 self in order that others might not suffer for his 
 offence." This, however, as a recently-discovered 
 document proves, was not the case. Defoe was found 
 out by, and arrested at the instance of, a person who 
 afterwards claimed and got the promised ;^5o out of 
 the secret-service money. 
 
 The shy informer, not caring to appear himself to 
 lay in his claim, the Earl of Nottingham was kind 
 enough to manage the dirty business for him. 
 
 " The person," says Lord Nottingham (writing to 
 the Lord High Treasurer), " who discovered De Foe, 
 for whom a reward of ;^50 was promised in the 
 Gazette, sends to me for his money, but does not care 
 to appear himself. If, therefore, your Lordship will 
 order that sum to be paid to Mr. Armstrong, I will 
 take care thft the person shall have it who discovered 
 the said Defooe and upon whose information he was 
 apprehended. 
 
 " Dated May 25th, 1703."* 
 
 The 25th of March saw the issue of Defoe's tract, 
 " King William's Affection to the Church of England 
 
 * " Calendar of Treasury Papers from 1702 to 1717," Ixxxv. No. 154. 
 
In Lob's Pound. 75 
 
 examined," the object of which, like that of its prede- 
 cessor, " The Mock Mourners," was to chastise the 
 calumniators of the late King, and to vindicate his 
 memory. 
 
 20.— THE "TRUE COLLECTION OF THE WRITINGS OF DEFOE."— 
 DEFOE AT THE OLD BAILEY.— BULLIED BY SIR SIMON HARCOURT. 
 
 Works : 38. — A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of " The True-Bom 
 Englishman." July, 1703. 
 39.— A Second Volume of the Writings of the Author of " The True- Born 
 Englishman." Spring, 1705. 
 
 Whilst in a state of suspense awaiting his trial, 
 Defoe prepared for publication the first volume of his 
 works, under the title of " A true Collection of the 
 Writings of the Author of the 'True-Born English- 
 man,' " to which he had been chiefly prompted by the 
 issue a short time previous of a spurious edition. 
 The volume contains twenty-two pieces, including 
 " The Shortest Way " ; and its frontispiece was a 
 portrait of Defoe engraved by M. Vandergucht from 
 a painting by Taverner. 
 
 Says Hazlitt : — 
 
 " No portrait can Ijave more verisimilitude, to say the least of it. 
 It exhibits a set of features rather regular than otherwise, very deter- 
 mined in their outlines, more particularly the mouth, which expresses 
 great firmness and resolution of character. The eyes are full, black 
 and grave-looking ; but the impression of the whole countenance is 
 rather a striking than a pleasing one. Daniel is here set forth in a 
 most lordly and full-bottomed wig, which flows down lower than his 
 elbow, and rises above his forehead with great amplitude of curl. A 
 richly-laced cravat and fine loose flowing cloak complete his attire, 
 and preserve, we may suppose, the likeness of that civic ' gallantry ' 
 which Oldmixon ascribes to Daniel on the occasion of his escorting 
 King William to the Lord Mayor's feast." 
 
76 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 M. Vandergucht, the engraver of the picture, 
 figures in Bryan's Dictionary (Stanley's edition) ; but, 
 singularly, the list of portraits by him in this book 
 includes none of Defoe. 
 
 Taverner's name does not occur in Bryan ; but 
 there is the following- notice of him in " Redgrave's 
 Dictionary of Artists of the English School" — 
 
 " Taverner, 'Jeremiah., portrait painter. Practised early in the 
 first half of the eighteenth century. There is a portrait by {sic, but 
 query ofll him, mezzo-tinted, by J. Smith. He was the author of 
 several plays." 
 
 Defoe's trial at the Old Bailey came off in July 
 (7th, 8th, and 9th). 
 
 The prosecution was conducted by Sir Simon 
 Harcourt, the Attorney-General (afterwards Lord 
 Chancellor), "a man without shame but very able." 
 Who had charge of the de'fence we are not told, 
 but there was small laonour to him. 
 
 Conscious that his case was a weak one, Harcourt 
 had recourse to violent bullying, and talked as if 
 Defoe was guilty of a crime almost without parallel ; 
 and, unfortunately for the prisoner, this high-faluting 
 and rowdy system had just the desired effect. Every- 
 body, with trie exception of Defoe, seems to have got 
 frightened — bar, and bench, and jury ; and Defoe, in 
 a moment of weakness, listening to the advice of his 
 counsel, quitted his defence, and threw himself upon 
 the mercy of the Queen. Whether, subsequently, 
 Defoe considered his counsel a knave, a traitor, or 
 a fool, does not appear, but in his " Hymn to the 
 Pillory," written shortly afterwards, he calls himself a 
 fool very plainly for listening to his counsel's advice. 
 
In Lob's Pound. J J 
 
 He only regretted, he said, that he did not make a 
 vigorous defence. It is doubtful, however, whether 
 the best of defences would have availed him anything. 
 One thing is certain, that he had been led to believe, 
 both by his own counsel and by his adversaries, that 
 he had nothing to fear if only he would throw him- 
 self upon the mercy of the Queen. The Court, having 
 obtained its object, turned round and gave him about 
 as stiff a sentence as they were able. He was to pay 
 two hundred marks, stand three times in the pillory, 
 be imprisoned during the Queen's pleasure, and find 
 sureties for his good behaviour for seven years. That 
 was one to Don Dismal. 
 
 21.— THREE DAYS IN THE PILLORY (JULY 29-31, 1703). 
 Work: 40.— A Hymn to the Pillory. 
 
 Conformably to his sentence, Defoe stood in the 
 pillory on the last three days of July, 1 703 — on the 
 29th before the Royal Exchange in Cornhlll, on the 
 30th near the Conduit in Cheapside, and on the 31st 
 at Temple Bar. Pope, with whom Defoe afterwards 
 quarrelled, wrote spitefully — 
 
 "Earless on high stood unabashed Defoe;" 
 
 but Defoe's ears were not cropped, and he had more 
 reason to be elated than abashed, for a crowd of 
 admirers assembled around the " hieroglyphic state 
 machine," and instead of garbage were flung bunches 
 of flowers. The pillory itself was adorned with 
 garlands, and tankards of ale and stoups of wine 
 were drunk in honour of " the darling of the Whig 
 
78 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 mob." In the words of the High-fliers, said through 
 their mouthpiece, Ned Ward — 
 
 " The shouting crowds their advocate proclaim. 
 And varnish over infamy with fame." 
 
 The daring " Hymn to the Pillory " which Defoe had 
 written, and which was hawked about at the time, 
 added to the enthusiasm. It begins — 
 
 , " Hail, hieroglyphic state machine, 
 Contrived to punish fancy in. 
 Men that are men in thee can feel no pain, 
 .And all thy insignificants disdain.'' 
 
 Defoe said that he accounted it no dishonour ■ to stand 
 where Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick had stood, and 
 where it had been intended to put even the " learned 
 Selden," and he adjured the " bugbear of the law " to 
 proclaim to the world that he, Daniel Defoe, was 
 raised on high not for his crimes, but for his honesty — 
 
 " Tell 'em the men that placed him here 
 Are scandals to the times, 
 Are at a loss to find his guilt. 
 And can't commit his crimes." 
 
 To think of Defoe's dauntless courage in such a 
 situation makes one proud of being an Englishman. 
 The nature of his punishment, hov/ever, naturally 
 excited much mirth in his enemies, who in lampoon 
 and satire endeavoured to hold him up to ridicule. 
 Among these pr6ductions were "The True-Born 
 Huguenot" (anonymous), "A Pleasant Dialogue be- 
 tween the Pillory and Daniel Defoe," by Thomas 
 Brown, and " The Dissenting Hypocrite," by Ned 
 Ward. Tutchin, however, so often inimical to Defoe, 
 
In Lob's Pound. 79 
 
 on this occasion, in his " Observator," spoke out boldly 
 against the scurvy way in which his fellow author 
 had been treated ; so boldly, in fact, that he brought 
 prosecution upon himself. 
 
 22.— AT "NEWGATE, HORRID PLACE."— r£ DRUM LAUDAMUS. 
 Work ; 41. — More Reformation, a Poem. 
 
 From the pillory Defoe was taken back to New- 
 gate, that " horrid place," as Moll Flanders calls it ; 
 but in the face of so much popular feeling the Govern- 
 ment did not dare to treat him as a common prisoner. 
 He had liberty to write, and found means to convey 
 his manuscripts to the printer ; and not only so, but 
 in place of the conciliatory tone adopted before his 
 conviction, he now breathed against the Government 
 nothing but defiance. Brave as Defoe always was, he 
 would scarcely, perhaps, at this moment have been 
 so audacious had he not believed that there was a 
 wily and powerful sympathiser outside watching his 
 interests — Robert Harley. 
 
 Successful as had been the game, nevertheless, 
 Don Dismal was not satisfied. How could he be, 
 when, with all his endeavours, he had signally failed 
 to connect with Defoe's affair the slippery and dan- 
 gerous Harley ? So desirous was he of doing this, 
 that he and another of his party called on Defoe, in 
 Newgate, and offered a pardon on condition of the 
 betrayal of the one "who set him on to write "The 
 Shortest Way." A deep game of chess had long" 
 been playing between Nottingham and Harley ; and 
 as " The Shortest Way " was, on the face it, written 
 
8o The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 with a view to pave the way for the Whig ascendency, 
 Nottingham took it for granted that Harley had been 
 the instigator of it. Two words would have made 
 Defoe a free man. He had only to say " Robert 
 Harley." But Defoe, to use his own expression 
 ("Appeal to Honour and Justice"), had never up 
 to this time had the least acquaintance with, or 
 knowledge of, Harley, "other than by fame or by 
 sight, as we know men of quality by seeing them on 
 public occasions." Nor do we call Defoe's veracity 
 into question; nevertheless, that he had been en- 
 couraged by some df the Whig leaders — and indirectly 
 by Harley — is certain ; and he could, had he wished 
 to do so, have made awkward revelations. But Defoe 
 was mum. Neither by promises of reward, nor threat 
 of punishment, could they prevail upon him to reveal 
 anything. 
 
 There likewise visited him in prison two other 
 peers, whose names are not given us, and his friends 
 the five Kentish gentlemen concerned in the famous 
 petition of two years previous. 
 
 Though as a political prisoner Defoe was able 
 to separate himself when he wished from the herd 
 of thieves, highwaymen, coiners, and pirates who 
 thronged the prison, yet, that he did not keep himself 
 at all times from them is certain. The man who was 
 educated by a Morton, who worshipped under an 
 Annesley, who founded a Christian church at Tooting, 
 who ever upheld a high tone of Christian morality to 
 his own hurt, who in later years wrote so much for the 
 benefit of the poor and helpless, such a man, to use 
 the words of Wilson, would improve " the opportunity 
 
In Lob's Pound. 8i 
 
 for conveying to the ignorant and the wicked that 
 moral and religious instruction which he knew so well 
 how to adapt to their capacities." But if some of these 
 miserable wretches got good from him, what he got 
 from them — though he did not know it — was incal- 
 culable. His insatiable curiosity would delight to 
 learn their histories. He would be as much at his 
 ease with Moll Flanders, Moll's " old governess," the 
 three Jacks, and the North-country highwayman as 
 he had been at a tete-a-tete with King William. Your 
 skilful physician, enamoured of his profession, perhaps 
 finds even more delight in a hospital full of hideous 
 diseases than in my lady's parlour. Truly, my lady 
 could tell no stories comparable with those of our 
 Newgate birds ; and how soon Defoe began story 
 writing or biography writing — for with him, as with 
 all good artists, it was much the same thing — is 
 uncertain ; but we know that he was accustomed to 
 withhold manuscripts from the press for many years. 
 
 In short, it is no exaggeration to say, that if Defoe 
 had not been put in durance the world would never 
 have heard of Colonel Jack, or of Roxana; and " Moll 
 Flanders " — the " most remarkable example of pure 
 realism in literature " — would never have been written. 
 Even "Robinson Crusoe" would have lacked some of 
 its most valuable touches had Don Dismal been less 
 malicious. 
 
 In short, what Bedford Jail, some thirty years 
 previous, had been to Bunyan, Newgate was to Defoe. 
 It taught him how to become immortal. Our most 
 bitter enemies are sometimes our best friends. 
 
 Before his confinement, as we have seen, Defoe 
 
82 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 had published a poem on " Reformation of Manners." 
 This he followed up with another poem, entitled 
 " More Reformation : a Satyr upon himself," pub- 
 lished July 16, 1703, about ten days after his trial. 
 In the preface he refers to " The Shortest Way," and 
 confesses his grand mistake to have been a too 
 favourable opinion of the discernment of the public, 
 as to the real intention of that work. Referring to 
 the ill-feeling that had been exhibited towards him 
 on account of his " Reformation of Manners," and 
 the troubles that had ensued, he declares he had 
 already discovered to his cost, 
 
 " That he who first reforms a vicious town, 
 Prevents their ruin, but completes his own." 
 
 It had been urged against him by his enemies 
 that he was none too good himself, and that he would 
 be benefiting society very much more if he would let 
 other people alone and reform the man Daniel. To 
 which he rephes : " As I am far from pretending to be 
 free from human frailties, but forwarder to confess the 
 errors of my life than any man could be to accuse me, 
 I think myself in a better way to reformation than 
 those who ^cuse their own faults by reckoning up 
 
 mine — 
 
 " Confession v/ill anticipate reproach, 
 
 He that reviles us then, reviles too much ; 
 All satire ceases when the men repent, 
 'Tis cruelty to lash the penitent." 
 
 He says that he will not hide his infirmities ; 
 but, on the other hand, he does not consider himself 
 under obligation to confess sins he never committed. 
 At any rate, he has many negative virtues;, and he 
 
In Lob's Pound. 83 
 
 declares that if negative virtues can be of any comfort, 
 he has not been a man of vice. It is disagreeable to 
 him to flaunt his religion; but says he: " If I must 
 act the Pharisee a little, I must begin thus : ' God, I 
 thank Thee I am not a drunkard, or a swearer, or a 
 whoremaster, or a busybody, or idle, or revengeful ; 
 and though this be true — and I challenge all the world 
 to prove the contrary — yet, I must own, I see small 
 satisfaction in all the negatives of common virtues ; 
 for though I have not been guilty of any of these vices 
 — nor of many more — I have nothing to infer from 
 thence, but Te Deum laudaimis." 
 
 Te Deum laudamtis, that, as before intimated, is 
 the key-note to Defoe's life, and no careful student 
 thereof can help being struck with the frequency with 
 which these three words occur. His whole life was 
 one long cry, " We praise Thee, O Lord." There was 
 nothing of the pessimist in Defoe ; and optimism 
 beatified, and that only, could have carried him 
 safely, as it did, through the surges that unceasingly 
 broke upon him. He believed, as few men have 
 believed, that the steps of a good man are ordered by 
 the Lord ; or, rather, the steps of a man whose meaning 
 is good, whose intention is good, who strives after 
 good ; and when from time to time he looked back at 
 what he had gone through, he could only say, " Te 
 Deum laudaiims'.' But was the finger of God in 
 every turning of Defoe's life? In no record of a 
 human being that one knows of was the hand of the 
 Deity more manifest. It is as if you were standing at 
 the great Potter's elbow, and could see him gathering 
 up the clay, pressing it into shape, passing it into the 
 G 2 
 
84 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 furnace seven times heated, and drawing it out a vessel 
 for mankind to admire, and look on with wonder, and 
 to take courage from : to suggest, in short, to the 
 most thoughtless that of all cries to Heaven, the 
 most appropriate is '! TV Deum laudamus." 
 
 It has been said, and with much truth, that Defoe's 
 "whole life was a scene of dash and difficulty, bank- 
 ruptcy and improvidence " ; and that despite his great 
 wit, and his industry in cultivating that wit, he was 
 wanting in common prudence and stability.* His 
 fines, his imprisonments, the treachery of his friends, 
 the malice of his enemies, the troubles of his private 
 life, are not these here chronicled ? Where, then, 
 was the finger of God ? The answer is in the 
 question, " What did all this lead to ? " We say 
 nothing of Defoe's benefits to his country, and 
 indirectly to the world, by his staunch advocacy of 
 the liberty of the subject ; we point only to the great 
 work that subsequently gave him fame, and to the 
 cluster of satellites, some of them emulating their 
 planet itself in brilliancy, which, for want of a better 
 name, have been called his secondary works ; and 
 then we think of the tens of millions who have 
 derived pleasure and profit from them, whose lives 
 have been brightened by them, whose courage has 
 been strengthened by them, whose religion has been 
 deepened by them. Who among the readers of 
 these pages, remembering all this, would not willingly 
 go through all the trials and misfortunes that Defoe 
 experienced In order to reach the high eminence that 
 
 * Chadwick. 
 
In Lob's Pound. 85 
 
 he did, and to sit among the gods ? O men and 
 brothers, go forward, look upward ! There are 
 thousands of heights to be gained, there are thou- 
 sands of victories to be won, not in Hterature merely, 
 but in every department of life. Nerve yourselves 
 for the struggle, gird up your loins, take courage. 
 Every incident in your life, every misfortune, can be 
 made a boon ; every misfortune is a boon to the man 
 who is nothing daunted. Ambition, and ambition 
 only, makes the world go round ; for even love without 
 ambition were a vapid and valueless insipidity. Above 
 all, cry as you. go, " Te Detun laudamus." Such is 
 the moral of Defoe's life, and precisely as a biographer 
 who neglected to lay stress on it would be a traitor, 
 so the reader who took not the lesson to heart would 
 be only a trifler, and might just as well have cast this 
 book on the fire. A book is valuable only for the 
 good one can get out of it. This book being the life 
 of a man who Went, is, by necessity, a book of Go, 
 and he who reads it and does not "go," what on earth 
 use can it be to him ? 
 
 Defoe had complained that his friends misunder- 
 stood him, but now that fate had " clothed his tene- 
 ment in walls of stone," they went a step further and 
 held aloof from him. The Dissenting ministers could 
 visit highwaymen, thieves and murderers in Newgate, 
 could "freely visit" even Witney there; but three of 
 them, including John Howe, though invited, declined 
 to see Defoe. 
 
 " Yet three petitioned priests have said thee nay, 
 And vilely scorn'd so much as but to pray." 
 
 Hurt as Defoe apparently was, and indignant as 
 
86 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 he seems to have been against the " three petitioned 
 priests," yet one cannot help heartily laughing when 
 remembering how unmercifully the man in the " stone 
 doublet" had trounced these same gentlemen only a 
 few months previous. Of a forgiving temper himself, 
 he was quite incapable of understanding how another 
 person could nourish resentment, especially a parson. 
 Combined with his astuteness, there was in Defoe's 
 character a simplicity compared with which the 
 simplicity of a little child is positive cunning. Who 
 else, having in boisterous mirth flung clods at John 
 Howe, and fluttered the Dissenting dovecotes by 
 " The Shortest Way," would, immediately after getting 
 into Newgate, have invited John Howe and other 
 " topping Dissenters " to pray with him, and then felt 
 aggrieved because they did not come ! The thing is 
 too absurd. 
 
 We may sympathise with Defoe in Newgate, and 
 ought to do so, but let it be remembered that clapping 
 political opponents in prison and making life gene- 
 rally uncomfortable for them was just then very much 
 comme il faut. If Defoe was put in the pillory by the 
 High-fliers, ^, later, was the High-flying publisher, 
 Nathaniel Mist, put in the pillory by the Whigs ; if 
 Defoe was cooped up eighteen months in Newgate, 
 did not a two years' imprisonment in the Tower 
 await Robert Harley ; if Defoe's " Shortest Way " was 
 burned by the common hangman, so, too, were 
 High-flying Dr. Drake's " Memorial of the Church 
 of England," and High-flying Dr. Sacheverell's famous 
 sermon. In Anna's golden days it was vae victis, 
 and the devil take the hindmost. 
 
In Lob's Pound. 87 
 
 23.— the failure of the pantile works (1704). 
 
 The long imprisonment of Defoe proved the ruin 
 of the pantile works at Chadwell, and with their ruin 
 departed what had for some time been his chief source 
 of income. Not only had he been secretary for 
 the works, but it is evident from what he says about 
 the affair that he was the principal shareholder. 
 His losses by the abandonment of this undertaking 
 amounted to ^3,500. To use his own words, "Vio- 
 lence, injury, and barbarous treatment demolished him 
 and his undertakings" {Review, March 24, 1705). 
 Among other things that his enemies said was that he 
 " required bricks without paying his labourers." 
 Perhaps this accusation arose from the dispute, in 
 June, 1703, relative to a bill for beer v/hich had 
 been supplied to Defoe's workmen. The dispute ended 
 in a Chancery suit, and Defoe's defence is preserved 
 in the Record Office. It is dated | ujy^ 3rd, 1703, 
 three days after Defoe was last pilloried. How the 
 suit ended we do not know, but possibly a com- 
 promise was agreed to, for Defoe, though he "denied 
 that he owed Chapman (the publican) ^53 6s., or 
 near that sum," expressed his willingness " to come 
 to a fair account with Chapman."* 
 
 When hard pressed for lack of men, Defoe would 
 sometimes invite into his tile- yard any loafers or 
 beggars who happened to be in the neighbourhood, 
 though with ill-success. " I affirm of my own know- 
 ledge," says he, " when I have wanted a man for 
 labouring work, and offered nine shillings a week to 
 
 * Sec Mr. G. A. Aitken's paper in the Atlunceum for April 13, i88g. 
 
88 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 strolling fellows at my door, they have frequently told 
 me to my face, they could get more a-begging ; and I 
 once set a lusty fellow in the stocks for making the 
 experiment." * 
 
 " One incident that occurred at Chadwell very 
 much tickled Defoe's fancy, and he subsequently made 
 use of it in order to illustrate what might happen if the 
 High-fliers persisted in the persecution of the Dis- 
 senters. One day two of his brickmakers, who had 
 quarrelled, fell to boxing. One got the other down 
 and beat him unmercifully ; thereupon the prostrate 
 man cried out, " Pay me, Peter ; pay me, Peter — 'twill 
 be my turn by-and-by." Peter did his best, and being 
 a strong fellow laid on sufficiently ; but presently the 
 other, seizing the opportunity of Peter's being out of 
 breath, suddenly sprang up, and, Peter being below, 
 " used him accordingly." This anecdote Defoe, with 
 his compliments, commended to the study of the 
 High-fliers. 
 
 For his first bankruptcy, in 1692, Defoe has had 
 little sympathy ; but for this second, when his pantile 
 ■works went wrong, he was at any rate not mainly to 
 blame. To his prosperity before this crash he makes 
 many allusions. In one place he says : " I had once 
 a tenant in Westminster (though the world has since 
 taken care I shall have no tenant anywhere) who was 
 a butcher." 
 
 24.— THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REVIEW {-ViTW FEBRUARY, 1704). 
 
 It was whilst in Newgate that Defoe commenced 
 the most voluminous' work of his life — his newspaper, 
 
 * " Giving Alms no Charity." 
 
•In Lob's Pound. 89 
 
 the Review, which in its first stage was a sheet of eight 
 small quarto pages. After the first two numbers, it 
 was reduced in size to four pages of smaller print. ' At 
 first the issue was weekly ; after four numbers it 
 became bi-weekly, and so remained for a year. 
 
 The Review had a- double mission. It sought both 
 to instruct and to amuse. There was a serious depart- 
 ment, and a department devoted to nonsense, gossip, 
 and scandal. The design of the former was to give a 
 true picture, drawn with " an impartial and exact his- 
 torical pen," of the affairs of all the States of Europe. 
 He was writing a history, sheet by sheet ; and the 
 brilliancy of his method, the vivacity of his style, and 
 above all, his pugnacity " and his manifest delight in 
 the strife of tongues," at once made h.im facile princeps 
 among the journalists of his day. He exasperated his 
 ■ enemies to the very last degree. "The insolence of 
 the Review is intolerable!" writes Lesley in No. 124 
 of the Rehearsal. " He studies to provoke in the 
 most affronting manner he can think of. And then 
 he cries Peace and Union, Gentlemen, and lay aside 
 your Heats ! " 
 
 To Louis and the French the Rez'iciv continued, 
 throughout its whole career, consistently antagonistic. 
 Nothing was to be avoided that would thwart their 
 plans — any stick to beat a Frenchman. At the same 
 time, as in everything else that he did, Defoe was 
 always a free-lance ; and Dissenters as well as High- 
 fliers, Whigs as well as Tories, often felt its keen point. 
 On all occasions the Ishmael would out. The annoy- 
 ance he had caused the Dissenters by " The Shortest 
 Way " did not prevent him from indulging in more 
 
90 The Life of Daniel Deioe. 
 
 jeux d' esprit of the same kind. As has been pertinently 
 said, " He had no tenderness for the feehngs of such of 
 his brethren as had not his own robust sense of humour 
 and boyish glee in the free handling of dangerous 
 weapons." What other Protestant, for example, would 
 have had the cool audacity to extol the Grand Monarque 
 for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes ? But Defoe 
 tossed knives about as if they were gingerbread. 
 
 The non-serious portion of the Review ^zs, entitled 
 " Mercure Scandale ; or Advice from the Scandalous 
 Club, being a weekly history of Nonsense, Imper- 
 tinence, Vice, and Debauchery." Under this heading 
 current scandals are noticed, the club being represented 
 as a tribunal before which offenders were brought, their 
 cases heard, and sentence passed upon them ; but, un- 
 like their successors, the inimitable light papers in the 
 Tatler and the Spectator, these effusions, nowadays, 
 utterly fail to interest. In its own day, however, the 
 Review was enormously popular. It was stolen, pirated, 
 and hawked about everywhere. 
 
 The rivals of Defoe's Review were Tutchin's 
 Observator (organ of the extreme Whigs), begun 
 April I, 1702, and Lesley's Rehearsal (organ of the 
 extreme Tories), begun August 2, 1704. 
 
 25. -EIGHTEEN NEWGATE PAMPHLETS.— THE FALL OF "DON 
 DISMAL." 
 
 Works : 42. — The Shortest Way to Peace and Union. 
 
 43. —The Sincerity of the Dissenters Vindicated. 
 
 44.— An Inquiry into the Case of Mr. Asgill's General Translation. 
 
 45. — A Challenge of Peace. 
 
 46. — Some Remarks on the First Chapter in Dr. Davenant's Essays. 
 
 47- — The Liberty of Episcopal Dissenters in Scotland truly staled. 
 
 48. — Peace without Union. 
 
 49.— The Dissenter's Answer to the High Church Challenge. 
 
 50. — An Essay on the Regulation of the Press. 
 
In Lob's Pound. 91 
 
 Works : 51. — A Serious Inquiry into tliis Grand Question : Whether a Law to prevent 
 Occasional Conformity, etc. 
 52.— The Parallel. 
 
 S3' — The Layman's Sermon upon the late Storm. 
 54. — ^ Royal Religion. 
 
 SS. —Legion's Humble Address to the Lords. 
 56.— More Short Ways with the Dissenters. 
 57. — The Dissenters Misrepresented and Represented. 
 58.— A New Test of the Church of England's Honesty. 
 59.— The Storm. 
 
 During the eighteen months he was in Newgate, 
 Defoe, besides starting his Review, wrote no fewer 
 than eighteen pamphlets. In " The Shortest Way 
 to Peace and Union" (29th July, 1703) he endea- 
 vours to convince Dissenters that there ought to be 
 an established religion in connection with the State ; 
 and that the Church of England is not only the most 
 fit, but the only capable institution for that supremacy. 
 Defoe had no quarrel with the Church of England 
 as the Established Church ; it was only the High- 
 flying section of that body that he found so much 
 fault with. " The Sincerity of the Dissenters Vin- 
 dicated " (i8th September) is the answer to a pam- 
 phlet defending Occasional Conformity, by the Rev. 
 James Owen, a Dissenting minister of Shrewsbury. 
 Then, for a change, comes an answer to " the most 
 exquisitely and accomplishedly-whimsical Mr. Asgill," 
 a Barrister in the Temple, who had written a pamphlet 
 to prove that it is possible for men to go to Heaven 
 without dying. Defoe's rejoinder, " An Enquiry into 
 the case of Mr. Asgill's General Translation," easily 
 shatters Asgill's arguments, but at the same time 
 deals gently and respectfully with Mr. Asgill and his 
 innocent delusion, at which, twenty years after, we 
 still find Defoe poking fun.* 
 
 * Sec " System of Magic." 
 
92 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 In his " Challenge of Peace," dedicated to the 
 Queen (23rd November, 1703), Defoe (peaceful man!) 
 begs people all round to avoid heats and divisions. 
 It's those bad High-fliers, he tells her Majesty, "those 
 church vultures, ecclesiastical harpies," who make all 
 the pother. The Dissenters were always content, and 
 ever will be pleased to have the power rest in the 
 hands of the Church." But as we read these words 
 a murmur seems to arise from a thousand meeting- 
 houses, "Speak for yourself, Daniel." Instead, how- 
 ever, of paying heed to the exhortations of Defoe or 
 anyone else for peace, the Tory House of Commons 
 set the occasional conformity pot a-bubbling again by 
 reviving the Bill for making occasional conformity 
 illegal, and not only so, but on the 7th of December 
 (1703) passed it. It was happily, however, once more 
 rejected by the House of Lords. On December loth 
 Defoe published " Some Remarks on the First Chapter 
 in Dr. Davenant's Essays," a confutation of the argu- 
 ment in a recent tract by Dr. Charles Davenant, that 
 it is dangerous to appeal to the people ; though with 
 Davenant personally — "a very cloudy-looking man, 
 fat, of middle stature " — Defoe was on excellent terms. 
 Defoe's pamphlet was subsequently re- issued with a 
 new title : " Original Right ; or the Reasonableness of 
 Appeals to the People." His " Liberty of Episcopal 
 Dissenters in Scotland truly stated " is an attack on 
 the aggressiveness of Episcopalians in the North. 
 Wherever appeared the cloven foot of the High- 
 flier, there was Defoe to hoot at him. " Peace 
 without Union" (December, 1703) is a reply to a 
 pamphlet by Sir Humphrey Mackworth, who, like 
 
In Lob's Pound. 93. 
 
 Mr. Astell, supposed that if the Bill for Preventing 
 Occasional Conformity were passed, and the Dissen- 
 ters were bound hand and foot, everything in England 
 would be coideur-de-rose. That, declares Defoe, is 
 not the way to obtain peace at home, and he who 
 thinks it is must imagine that "the Dissenters are 
 very blind, ignorant people." In short, though Defoe 
 disapproved of occasional conformity, he objected to 
 the Bill that would prevent it. If those High-fliers 
 would only be less bigoted and let the Dissenters 
 alone, all would be well ! Then the learned and 
 dangerous Lesley, the High Church St. Dominic, dealt 
 his blow : " The Wolf Stript of his Shepherd's Cloth- 
 ing." The mildest he can say is, "For God's sake, 
 ye scoundrelly schismatics, tell us what you will con- 
 form to ? Give us a list of ' such indifferent things ' 
 which, if granted, will bring you back to mother 
 church." Whereupon Defoe, ignoring the intolerant 
 tone of his adversary, replies (" The Dissen- 
 ter's Answer to the High Church Challenge") 5th 
 January, "Get the Convocation to pass it into an 
 Act, that the Church will not quarrel with us about 
 habits, ceremonies, liturgies, and ordinations — the 
 schism be upon us if we do not conform.'' In Janu- 
 ary these pestilent High-fliers are again at their 
 tricks. This time they would gag the Press. Daniel 
 is at them in a moment, and with his " Essay on 
 the Regulation of the Press " mangles their argument 
 like a bull-dog. Another pamphlet on the occasional 
 conformity question (" A Serious Inquiry into thi.s^ 
 Grand Question, etc.") is tripped up by " The 
 Parallel : or Persecution of Protestants the shortest 
 
94 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 ■way to prevent the growth of Popery in Ireland," 
 in which Defoe shows that a recent Act of Parliament 
 " requiring all Protestant Dissenters in Ireland, hold- 
 ing any ofifice under Government, to conform to the 
 Established Church," was, owing to its certainty to 
 create disunion among the Protestants of Ireland, 
 only playing into the hands of the Papists. Those 
 High-fliers again ! Always at it ! 
 
 On the 27th of November, 1703, had occurred 
 perhaps the most violent and destructive storm of 
 modern times. The Great Storm, as it is called, 
 swept the country from Trent to the Channel. 
 Houses were unroofed, steeples blown down, stacks 
 of corn scattered to the winds, vessels wrecked, and 
 upwards of eight hundred persons drowned. Alto- 
 gether, it is estimated that eight hundred houses, four 
 hundred windmills, and a quarter of a million timber- 
 trees were thrown down, a hundred churches unroofed, 
 and twelve hundred vessels destroyed. Over fifteen 
 thousand sheep perished by the .overflowing of the 
 Severn alone. On the whole, probably it was pleasanter 
 that night in Newgate than outside. On the 24th of 
 February Defoe improves the occurrence with " A 
 Layman's*Sermon on the Late Storm," which he 
 thinks a severe animadversion upon the feuds and 
 sitorms of parties, kept up with such unaccountable 
 fury in the nation. This was followed by another 
 panegyric on his late beloved master — "Royal Re- 
 ligion : being some Enquiry after the Piety of 
 Princes. With Remarks on a Book entituled, ' A 
 Form of Prayers us'd by King William ' "; the book 
 referred to being a small pamphlet lately issued by 
 
Lv Lobs Pound. 95 
 
 Dr. Moore, Bishop of Norwich. From personal 
 knowledge, Defoe is able to state that William 
 was a prince " of the greatest piety, sincerity, and 
 unfeigned religion." In " Legion's Humble Address 
 to the Lords " (April, 1 704) the House of Lords is 
 applauded as a bulwark of English liberty, in that it 
 had thrown out the Bill against occasional conformity. 
 The despotic conduct of the Tory House of Commons 
 is denounced in the plainest language ; and the Lords 
 are urged to persevere. " We resolve," it concludes, 
 "as one man to live and die with you : our name is 
 Million, and we are more." The exasperated Tories 
 offered a reward of one hundred pounds for the appre- 
 hension of the author, and fifty pounds for the printer ; 
 but though suspicion fell on Defoe, nothing further 
 was done. It must be distinctly understood that the 
 House of Commons did not at this time represent 
 public opinion. Thanks to bribery, rotten boroughs, 
 the high qualification for voters, and a hundred other 
 abuses, the Commons no more represented the people 
 than the Lords did ; and it was fortunate for England 
 that just then bigotry and intolerance were confined 
 to the lower house. Defoe was of opinion that the 
 Lords had saved the nation. 
 
 At the end of April, 1704, a beam of bright light 
 flashed into Defoe's "dungeon." The object for 
 which he had so long intrigued, and for which he 
 had written his " Shortest Way," had been attained. 
 The Earl of Nottingham and his Tory friends, the 
 Duke of Buckingham and Sir Edward Seymour, 
 having offended the Queen, were put from power, and 
 Robert Harley reigned in their stead — changes of 
 
96 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 ministry in those days being effected by the mere 
 word of the sovereign, without consideration for the 
 strength of any party in the House. 
 
 Unlike the "chief butler" who forgat Joseph, 
 Robert Harley had no sooner returned to office than 
 he sought to benefit the man to whom his party had 
 been so greatly indebted, and who — let that be said 
 too — might be able to render still further services. 
 " While," says Defoe, " I lay friendless and distressed 
 in the prison of Newgate, my family ruined, and 
 myself without hope of deliverance, a message was 
 brought me from a person of honour, who, till that 
 time, I never had the least acquaintance with or 
 knowledge of, other than by fame, or by sight, as we 
 know men of quality by seeing them on public occa- 
 sions. The message was by word of mouth, thus : 
 ' Pray, ask that gentleman what I can do for him ? ' " 
 In return to "this kind and generous message," Defoe 
 took up his pen, and wrote, in the words of the 
 blind man in the gospel, " Lord, that I may receive 
 my sight ! " 
 
 A mild and amiable man — " the Dragon," as by 
 contraries his friends Swift and Pope called him — 
 Robert Harley, notwithstanding the milk of human 
 kindness which permeated him, was bent, above all 
 things, on the attainment of one object, namely, the 
 elevation of Robert Harley. In small things as well 
 as big, everything that he did was done with a view 
 to bringing about that sweet consummation. If he 
 himself went to church, he was careful to send his 
 family to the meeting-house ; if a High Churchman sat 
 on this side his dinner-table, a churchman " of another 
 
In Lob' s Pound. 97 
 
 sort " sat on the other. If he was anxious to serve 
 and secure the services of the radical Defoe, he was 
 equally desirous of securing the services of the High- 
 flying Dean Swift, whom he would carry " in his 
 coach to country ale-houses," and with whom he would 
 " play games of counting poultry on the road," or 
 " who shoiild first see a cat or an old woman." He 
 even learned dancing — homely, and even clownish, 
 as were his habits — in order to make himself more 
 acceptable at Court. When it did not clash with his 
 schemes, Harley was everything that a lover of liberty 
 could wish. When it did clash, Harley was very sorry, 
 but liberty had to give him the wall. 
 
 Thanks to Harley's representations, the Queen at 
 once sent assistance to Defoe's wife and family; but 
 beyond this nothing was done for four months. 
 
 In " More Short Ways with the Dissenters" (28th 
 
 April, 1704), Defoe meets the recent attacks against 
 
 Dissenting academies made by the Rev. Samuel 
 
 Wesley, father of the great Wesley, and defends the 
 
 character of his old tutor, the Rev. Charles' Morton. 
 
 " The Dissenters Misrepresented and Represented " 
 
 (May, 1704) and "A New Test of the Church of 
 
 England's Honesty" (July 15) are two more buffets 
 
 administered to the High-fliers. Defoe next took 
 
 upon himself to write a history of and a semi-political 
 
 poem on the late dreadful "Storm" (15th August), 
 
 in which he contrived to knock a little more flour 
 
 out of the wigs of the High-fliers. The account of 
 
 the storm itself is "a most minute and circumstantial 
 
 record, containing many letters from eye-witnesses of 
 
 what happened in their immediate neighbourhood," 
 
 H 
 
98 The Life of Dahiel Defoe. 
 
 and there is not the least doubt both that the letters 
 are genuine and that the other facts were obtained 
 from his numerous friends ; for he had friends — and 
 staunch ones — in many parts of the country. This 
 work is particularly valuable as being the first of that 
 fine series of authentic narratives by Defoe, which 
 includes " Mrs. Veal," the " Journal of the Plague," 
 and the " Memoirs of a Cavalier," all of which are to 
 all intents and purposes truth and fact, Defoe's share 
 in them being merely that of the consummate artist. 
 
 26.— DEFOE, SWIFT, ADDISON, AND STEELE.— DEFOE'S RELEASE 
 FROM NEWGATE (AUG., 1704). 
 
 During the first half of 1704 the four greatest 
 prose writers of the period — Defoe, Swift, Addison, 
 and Steele — were all in London. Defoe's age was 
 forty-five ; Swift's, thirty-seven ; Addison and Steele 
 were thirty-two. 
 
 Defoe, who was still cased in his " stone doublet," 
 we may for the moment leave. 
 
 Jonathan Swift, chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley 
 and Vicar of Laracor, in Ireland, had already distin- 
 guished him|plf with his pen, having this year written 
 and published " The Battle of the Books " and the 
 " Tale of a Tub." He paid several visits to London, 
 one extending from November, 1703, to 1704, and 
 another in April, 1705. With Addison, Swift was 
 at this time both intimate and friendly, as witness 
 the following entry in his note-book : — 
 
 " Tav'° Addison 2s. 6d. Tav'" Addison is. Tav" Add'" is. 6d. 
 Tav'" Addis" 4s, gd. Tav" Addis" 2s. 6d." 
 
In Lob's Pound. 99 
 
 Addison sent Swift a copy of his " Travels in Italy," 
 with the inscription — 
 
 " To Dr. Jonathan Swift, the most Agreeable Companion, the 
 Truest Friend, and the Greatest Genius of his Age, this Book is 
 presented by his most Humble Servant, the Authour." 
 
 Joseph Addison had been in England since 
 September, 1703, and it was in August, 1704, that, 
 at the request of Lord Halifax, he wrote the poem 
 on the victory of Blenheim (" The Campaign," 
 published 14th December, 1704), which brought 
 him fame and proved the stepping-stone to his 
 greatness. 
 
 Richard Steele was as yet known only as a play- 
 writer. His /^M;2fr«/ had appeared in 1701, The Lyinq 
 Lover in 1703, and now in 1704 he was to produce 
 The Tender Husband. 
 
 With none of his three great contemporaries was 
 Defoe personally connected. He was not of their 
 circle. He may be compared to the island of Great 
 Britain, they to the Continent, which comprised, 
 besides themselves, such fair territories as Gay, Con- 
 greve, and Pope. And as the dealings of Great 
 Britain with the Continent were mostly of a bel- 
 ligerent nature, so, when Defoe did pay attention to 
 his literary peers, it was usually to cross swords with 
 them. 
 
 At Addison he again and again discharged the 
 shafts of his wit. In the " Consolidator " — presently 
 to be dealt with — he jeers at the man who had refused 
 to write " The Campaign " " till he had ^200 a year 
 secured to him " ; and the " Double Welcome to the 
 li 2 
 
TOO The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Duke of Marlborough " has the same thing in 
 
 verse — 
 
 " Mecaenas has his modern fancy strung — 
 You fix'd his pension first, or he had never sung." 
 
 Between Defoe and Steele there were also 
 several lively skirmishes ; and Swift, as we shall 
 subsequently see, hated Defoe as only. he knew how 
 to hate. 
 
 It is, however, when' we turn from personal 
 questions to a study of the writings of these four 
 great masters that we most see the necessity of taking 
 some notice of the other three, although dealing par- 
 ticularly with only one. Defoe's Review was the 
 forerunner, and probably the suggestor, of the Spec- 
 tator and Tatler ; and if Defoe had not written the 
 " ConsoHdator," Swift, much as he affected to de- 
 spise Defoe, would never have written " Gulliver." 
 Other interesting connecting links among these 
 head-and-shoulder men will be pointed out as we 
 proceed. 
 
 Four months had now passed since Harley had 
 sent to Defoe " in his dungeon," to inquire what could 
 be done for Iflm ; and the time was at last come when 
 it was safe to act. His own pieces on the great chess- 
 board being well placed, especially his queen, and 
 one or two important outworks of his enemy having 
 been taken, Harley was now able to make the risky 
 move of delivering Defoe from his prison-house. Had 
 he done so before, all Torydom would have openly 
 branded him as the abettor of the writer of the 
 " Shortest Way" ; and even as it was, innuendoes were 
 
In Lob's Pound. ioi 
 
 not wanting. But clever, wily, tricky, shilly-shallying- 
 — but say, too, cultured and good-hearted — Harley 
 minded not these; a knight — at the present juncture 
 one of the most useful pieces on the board — had been 
 freed from an awkward position, and the only thing 
 to do now was to make use of him. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 AT BURY ST. EDMUNDS (AUG., 1704— OCT., 1704). 
 
 27.— HIS FRIEND JOHN FRANSHAM. 
 
 Works: 60. — An Elegy on the Author of "The Trae-Bom Englishman." isth 
 
 Aug., 1704. 
 61. — A true state of the Difference between Sir George Rooke, Kt. , and 
 
 William Colepeper, Esq. Z2nd Aug. , 1704. 
 62. — A Hymn to Victory. 2gth Aug., 1704, 
 63.— The Protestant Jesuit Unmasked. 12th Sept., 1704. 
 
 In order to avoid the public gaze, and also to re- 
 cuperate, Defoe repaired in August, 1 704, to Bury St. 
 Edmunds, where he took up his abode in a handsome 
 residence called Cupola House. The ancient town 
 of Bury, even in Defoe's time, had many interesting 
 associations. Defoe himself, years after, eulogistically 
 described it as "a town famed for its pleasant situ- 
 ation and wholesome air, the Montpelier of Suffolk, 
 and perhaps of England ; famous also for the number 
 of gentry who reside in the vicinity, and for the polite 
 and agreeable conversation of the company resorting 
 there."* In short, it was a fashionable health-resort. 
 The most conspicuous buildings were the magnificent 
 and unique Abbey gate of 1327, the beautiful churches 
 St. James's and St. Mary's, the Angel Inn, the Guild- 
 hall, the Abbot's Bridge, and the Town Hall. 
 
 Being a Presbyterian, Defoe naturally fraternised 
 
 * " Tour thro' Gr. Brit.," i. 
 

 w " 
 ^ Co 
 O ^ 
 
 
At Buky St. Edmunds. 103 
 
 with his co-religionists in the town. The Presby- 
 terians of Bury, who worshipped in a house, or rather 
 a house that had been converted into a chapel, in 
 Churchgate Street, were ministered to by the Rev. 
 Samuel Bury, a very popular preacher, and the re- 
 cognised leader of Nonconformity in the district. 
 Owing to the great increase in the number of Mr. 
 Bury's hearers, the old meeting-house subsequently 
 became inadequate ; so it was pulled down, and a new 
 edifice, which still stands, was erected on its site. 
 This, however, was in 171 1, seven years after Defoe 
 had quitted the town. 
 
 Shortly after his arrival in Bury, Defoe published. 
 a poem which had been written during his confine- 
 ment, "An Elegy on the Author of the True-born 
 Englishman," in the preface of which he complains of 
 the ill-usage he was still receiving from his enemies. 
 "Had the scribbling world been pleased to leave me 
 ■where they found me," says he, " I had left them and 
 Newgate both together ; and as I am metaphorically 
 dead, had been effectually so as to satires and pam- 
 phlets. 'Tis really something hard that, after all the 
 mortification they think they have put upon a poor 
 abdicated author, in their scurrilous street-ribaldry and 
 bear-garden usage, some in prose and some in their 
 terrible lines they call verse, they cannot yet be quiet." 
 " Their terrible lines they call verse," is one of those 
 delicious innocencies that constantly crop up in Defoe's 
 writings. When one remembers that no man inflicted 
 on the world a greater number of terrible lines called 
 verse than Defoe himself, the feeling of sympathy gives 
 place to one of amusement. 
 
I04 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 What the restrictions placed upon Defoe when' he 
 was released from prison were we do not know. All 
 we can learn from his own pen is as follows : — 
 
 " Memento Mori here I stand, 
 With silent lips but speaking hand ; 
 
 A walking shadow of a Poet, 
 But bound to hold my tongue and never -show it. 
 
 A monument of injury, 
 
 A sacrifice to legal t(yrann)y." 
 
 and 
 
 " To seven long years of silence I betake, 
 Perhaps by then I may forget to speak." 
 
 But we must remember that on leaving prison 
 he obtained an appointment with a pension from the 
 Queen, and was employed on secret services ; which 
 has led to the suggestion that in writing these words 
 he was only throwing dust in the eyes of his enemies. 
 In the same poem he proclaims his hardship in that 
 he had been " abandoned " by the Whigs ; and he 
 had reason to complain, seeing that they had per- 
 mitted him to lie so many months in prison ; never- 
 theless, in writing that, too, he was probably throwing 
 dust, for it is certain that he was now working for 
 Harley. ^ 
 
 In respect, however, to another hardship of which 
 Defoe complains he has our real sympathy. Not 
 content with pirating the works of "The True-born 
 Englishman," the mercenary printers of London, 
 with a view to pecuniary advantage, now annoyed 
 him by affixing his name to works with which he 
 had no connection. 
 
 " The mob of wretched writers stand. 
 With storms of wit in every hand ; 
 
At Bury St. Edmunds. 105 
 
 They bate my mem'ry in the street, 
 
 And charge me with the credit of their wit. 
 
 I bear the scandal of their crimes ; 
 
 My name 's the hackney title of the times. 
 
 IJymn, song, lampoon, ballad, and pasquinade, 
 
 My recent memory invade ; 
 
 My muse must be the whore of poetry. 
 
 And all Apollo's bastards laid to me."* 
 
 Defoe had nourished the hope that whilst he was 
 at Bury his political enemies would let him alone ; but 
 in that he was disappointed. 
 
 Dyer, the news-writer, spread it abroad that he 
 had fled from justice. Fox, the bookseller, published 
 that he had deserted his security. Stephen, a state 
 messenger, everywhere said that he had a warrant 
 for his seizure. 
 
 Defoe notices the slander that he had absconded 
 and fled from justice in his Review for the 7th of 
 October, in which he said that the Government knew 
 where he was, and that he should be always ready to 
 show himself to the faces of his enemies. In an 
 unpublished letter to a friend at Shrewsbury, dated 
 iith October, 1704, he mentions that the malice of 
 Dyer and the others made him think it necessary to 
 come up to town and show himself — which he did ; 
 and havintj informed the Secretary of State where 
 he was, and when he would appear, obtained answer 
 that there was no need to fear — that he had not 
 transgressed. 
 
 From Defoe's pen about this time came a tract, 
 written in the interest of his friend, Mr. Colepeper 
 
 * Elegy on the Author of " The True-born Englishman." 
 
io6 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 (known to us as one of the Kentish petitioners), who 
 was engaged in a political quarrel with Sir George 
 Rooke, a man whom the very soul of Defoe abhorred. 
 The title is, " A True State of the Difference between 
 Sir George Rooke, Kt., and William Colepeper, Esq." 
 
 While in prison Defoe had commenced, and made 
 some progress with, a poetical work on government, 
 " Jure Divino." He gave the finishing touches to it 
 at Bury St. Edmunds, and now (September, 1704) 
 advertised it to be published by subscription in near 
 one hundred sheets folio, at the price of ten shillings. 
 Among those who got him subscribers was his friend 
 John Fransham, of Norwich. The letters between 
 Defoe and Fransham, written about this time, were 
 first published in Notes and Queries, April, 1875. 
 
 Besides the works already enumerated, Defoe also 
 wrote at Bury "A Hymn to Victory " (August 29), 
 and a pamphlet, entitled, " The Protestant Jesuit 
 Unmasked" (12th September). The former is in 
 praise of the successes of Marlborough, which he 
 attributes, under God, to the change of government, 
 nor does he miss the opportunity to well lash the 
 leading members of the late ministry, Seymour, 
 Nottingham, *and Rochester, to whom he owed his 
 imprisonment and his great losses. 
 
 "The Protestant Jesuit Unmasked" (12th Sep- 
 tember) is a reply to High Church Lesley, who had 
 endeavoured, with his partiphlet "Cassandra" (in 
 allusion to the famous legendary prophetess of evil), 
 to frighten people "with the fatal consequences of 
 moderation in church and state." 
 
 More malicious reports were now spread about 
 
At Bury St. Edmunds. 107 
 
 concerning Defoe ; and to what had been said before 
 was added the declaration that he had been searched 
 for by messengers but could not be found. 
 
 On his return to London Defoe inserted a notice 
 in the Review of November 4th, declaring that what 
 had been said about' him was false, and offering a 
 reward of twenty pounds for the discovery of " the 
 author or publisher of any of those written news- 
 letters, in which those reports were printed." 
 
 Said Mr. Fransham, in his letter to Defoe, loth 
 November, 1 704 : — 
 
 " It was with no small Sattisfaction that I read your Justification 
 in your Review w'"'"'! doubt not on the other hand prov'd as great 
 a Mortification to Dyer. I had read it to several Gentlemen (before 
 I receiv'd your Letter) in the chief Coffee-house here, where we have 
 it as oft as it comes out and is approv'd of as the politest paper we 
 have to entertain us with." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ELECTIONEERING. 
 
 28.— GIVING ALMS NO CHARITY.— HIS FIRST LONG ILLNESS 
 (NOV. TO JAN., 1704-s). 
 
 Works : 64.^Giving Alms no Charity. 
 
 65. — The Double Welcome. A Poem to the Duke of Marlborough. 
 
 In November, 1704, Defoe plunged into a controversy 
 with Sir Humphrey Mackworth, who was introducing 
 into the House of Commons a Bill for the employment 
 of the poor, the principal object of which was "to 
 establish in every parish a parochial manufactory, and 
 to provide a fund for its support." Convinced that Sir 
 Humphrey's proposal was a mischievous one, Defoe 
 penned his well-known " Giving Alms no Charity," in 
 which he insists : — ist. That there is in England more 
 labour than hands to perform it, and, consequently, a 
 want of people, not of employment ; 2nd, No man in 
 England, of» sound limbs and senses, can be poor 
 merely for want of work ; 3rd, All workhouses for 
 employing the poor, as now they are employed, serve 
 to the ruin of families and the increase of the poor; 
 4th, It is a regulation of the poor that is wanted, not a 
 setting them to work. What we want laws for, he 
 says, is to make the people industrious, sober, and 
 thrifty. There is plenty of work for all if they will 
 do it ; and everyone would be comfortable if he would 
 
Electioneering. 109 
 
 only take care of his earnings instead of running with 
 them to the ale-house. "I once," he said, "paid six 
 or seven men together on a Saturday night— the least 
 ten shillings, and some thirty shillings — for work, and 
 have seen them go with it directly to the ale-house, lie 
 there till Monday, spend every penny, and run in debt 
 to boot, without giving a farthing to their families, 
 though all of them had wives and children. From 
 hence come poverty, parish charges, and beggary." 
 What is wanted, Sir Humphrey, is to apply proper 
 remedies to these evils, and not to set up in every 
 parish manufactories for which there is no occasion 
 whatever. Thus, the question of the poor laws agi- 
 tated politicians in the days of Queen Anne much 
 as it does politicians in the reign of Queen Victoria ; 
 and the worst of it is, we don't seem much nearer a 
 solution to the difficulty. 
 
 McCulloch (" Lit. of Polit. Econ."), whilst granting 
 that "Giving Alms no Charity" is written with con- 
 siderable cleverness, insists that Defoe's arguments 
 are not so conclusive as some have supposed: "The 
 truth is, that in matters of this sort Defoe was quite 
 as prejudiced and purblind as the bulk of those 
 around him." 
 
 The Tories now introduced into the House of 
 Commons, for the third time, the Occasional Con- 
 formity Bill ; and, in the hopes of forcing it through 
 the Lords, they endeavoured to tack it to the Land- 
 Tax Bill, which, owing to their being in the majority, 
 they would have done but for the resistance of the 
 Whig Ministry. The effort to deprive the Lords 
 of their legislative authority, by tacking an obnoxious 
 
I lo The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 measure to a Money Bill, brought great unpopularity 
 upon the one hundred and thirty-four Tackers. They 
 were ridiculed and lampooned, and speedily became 
 *'a bye-word and a hissing to the whole nation." 
 
 Defoe, who had left Newgate with shattered 
 health, had been in hopes that the rest at Bury would 
 set him up. But such was not the case ; and towards 
 the end of October, shortly after his return to London, 
 he was prostrated with an illness which lasted over 
 two months. The Review, however, went on as 
 usual, his own contributions being dictated, no doubt, 
 to an amanuensis. 
 
 Defoe had already sung the praises of the Duke of 
 Marlborough in "A Hymn to Victory," and he now 
 heaped more praise on the victorious general in a 
 congratulatory poem entitled " The Double Welcome 
 to the Duke of Marlborough," published 9th January, 
 1705. In his Review, vol. ii., p. 233, he alludes 
 to the national rejoicings which the Duke's victories 
 had evoked : the Church kept holyday, the Queen 
 made a procession to St. Paul's, the clergy sang 
 anthems, and the people gave thanks. Apparently 
 it was in this great public function that Robinson 
 Crusoe todk part (" Serious Reflections "), though he 
 was not favourably impressed by it. 
 
 We have seen how, spite of drawbacks, Defoe 
 pressed on with his work ; but the most indomitable 
 spirits are quelled by illness, and Defoe now an- 
 nounced that the Review would cease at the end 
 of the first yearly volume. Yielding to the solici- 
 tations of his friends, however, he consented to con- 
 tinue it; and it was kept up for seven more years. 
 
Electioneering. i i i 
 
 An anonymous admirer sent him a large sum of 
 money to distribute at his discretion among the poor. 
 This also gave him encouragement, and in the number 
 for February 20th, 1705, he describes his mode of 
 distribution. Henceforth it was to be A Review 
 of the Affairs of France with observations on affairs 
 at home, and a tri-weekly instead of a bi-weekly. 
 About the same time he published a second volume of 
 his collected works, with a few new pieces. 
 
 29.— THE MEN IN THE MOON.— A BEAUTIFUL LETTER (TO 
 FRANSHAM). 
 
 Works: 66. — Persecution Anatomised. 22nd Feb., 1705. 
 67. — Review, vol. i. 24th Feb. , T705. 
 68. — The Consolidator. 26th Mar. , 1705. 
 69. — A Journey to the World in the Moon. 
 70. — A Letter from the Man in the Moon. 
 71. — A Second Journey to the World in the Moon. 
 72. — The Experiment {Abraham Gill). 27th Mar., 1705. 
 
 In "Persecution Anatomised" (Feb. 22), another 
 discharge at the High-fliers and their persecuting Bill 
 for the Prevention of Occasional Conformity, Defoe 
 shows that he is still smarting under a sense of the 
 cruel injuries that so recently had been inflicted upon 
 him. He was not a man of a revengeful spirit; but 
 when he remembered Newgate, it took no sting out 
 of his utterances. 
 
 It then occurred to him to satirise the times by 
 the medium of a pretended account of the Men in 
 the Moon; and in March 1705 appeared "The Con- 
 solidator : or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from 
 the World in the Moon. Translated from the Lunar 
 language, by the author of ' The True-born English- 
 man.' " Its passages of well-pointed satire, and the 
 
112 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 exuberance of imagination that it displays have found 
 admirers ; but the " Consolidator " has now lost most 
 of its interest. In the Lunar language Defoe shoots 
 his arrows at the follies of the times, and chastises 
 individuals. Poets, wits, metaphysicians, and free- 
 thinkers, all feel his heavy hand. He spares neither 
 Dryden nor D'Urfey, Addison nor Prior, Malabranche 
 nor Hobbes. Perhaps the chief interest of the " Con- 
 solidator " to us lies in the fact that from it Swift got 
 a good many of the ideas which he subsequently 
 embodied in " Gulliver." 
 
 Shortly after the appearance of the " Consolidator,' 
 Defoe issued several papers which may be regarded 
 as appendices to it- — namely, "A Journey to the 
 World in the Moon," "A Letter from the Man in 
 the Moon to the Author of the True-born English- 
 man," and " A Second and more Strange Journey 
 to the World in the Moon," all three of which 
 consist partly of fresh matter and partly of extracts 
 from the " Consolidator." The subject of the men 
 in the moon is also dealt with in several of the 
 Reviews. 
 
 A good deal of commotion had about this time 
 been caused in the religious world by the case of 
 Abraham Gill, a clergyman of the Church of England, 
 who had ceased to use the Liturgy, and had become to 
 all intents and purposes a Dissenter. As the place 
 in which he conducted his services was a " privileged 
 chapel," exempt from ecclesiastical jurisdiction, Gill 
 did not think he was called upon to renounce liis 
 living. The rector of the parish, however, endea- 
 voured to evict him, and a clerical magistrate charged 
 
Electioneering. i i 3 
 
 him with being " an idle vagabond," and forcibly 
 impressed him as a soldier. 
 
 The London Dissenters then took the matter up, 
 and Defoe wrote a pamphlet entitled " The Experi- 
 ment : or the Shortest Way with the Dissenters 
 exemplified. Being the case of Mr. Abraham Gill, a 
 Dissenting minister of the Isle of Ely, and a full 
 account of his being sent for a Soldier by Mr. Fern 
 (an Ecclesiastical Justice of the Peace) and other 
 Conspirators. To the eternal honour of the temper 
 and moderation of High Church principles." 
 
 Twenty copies of this tract were sent to Mr. 
 Fransham for the "topping Dissenters" of Norwich, 
 and Fransham's acknowledgment of the receipt of 
 them drew from Defoe a letter which reveals a 
 beauty of character that his critics have rarely given 
 him credit for. It bears the very stamp of sincerity, 
 and shows its author to have been a true Christian, 
 seeking above all things the furtherance of the interests 
 of his Master. 
 
 " You can give me no greater pleasure," lie tells Fransham, "than 
 to hear that anything I can do or have done in this world is useful 
 and helps to forward that good which e\ery honest man ought to 
 wish, and which I believe I was brought into the world and am 
 suffered to live in it only to perform." 
 
 That his work was of God, " whose immediate 
 hand by wonderful steps " had led him through 
 wildernesses of troubles, Defoe felt assured. 
 
 "This," he continues, "is the glory of his infinite wisdom that 
 brings to pass the great ends appointed by his foreknowledge by the 
 agency of us his most despicable instruments and the interposition 
 of the minutest circumstances. 
 
114 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 " To him be all the praise both of his own work and our little, 
 little, very little share in it, and let the success of his service en- 
 courage all the lovers of truth to stand up for the Lord against the 
 mighty." 
 
 The High Church party attempted to justify their 
 proceedings against Gill by bringing forward charges 
 against his private character. Here was Gill's chance, 
 and all he had to do was to vindicate himself in a 
 court of justice. Very unwisely (for the evidence is 
 that the charges were trumpery) Gill neglected to do 
 so, the consequence being that Defoe and the other 
 London Dissenters, feeling they could no longer 
 contend for a man so blind to his own interests, 
 reluctantly left him to fight his own battle. 
 
 30.— LORD HALIFAX, THE ENGLISH MECAENAS.— DEFOE'S LETTERS 
 TO HIM (APRIL AND JULY, 1705,. 
 
 Works : 73. — Advice to all Parties. 
 
 74. — The Dyet of Poland, a Poem. 
 
 The thoughts of the country being now turned to 
 the approaching General Election, Defoe, as usual, 
 raised the cry of " Peace ! " Churchman and Dissenter, 
 strive after peace! He would do anything, he said, 
 to promote jl^ace. " This is my ultimate end, — ought 
 to be every Christian's wish, — and if an angel from 
 Heaven preached any other doctrine to us, to me he 
 shall be accursed." In furtherance of his great desire 
 he published a tract entitled, " Advice to all Parties " 
 (30th April, 1705), written before the election of three 
 years previous, which contains at least one very beauti; 
 ful thought that all should treasure who have any wish 
 for Christian reunion : — 
 
Electioneering. 115 
 
 " The Church of England and the Dissenters have but one 
 interest, one foundation, and but one end. The moderate Church- 
 men and the charitable Dissenters are the same denomination of 
 Christians, and all the difference which now, looked at near the 
 eye, shows large, if viewed at the distance of Heaven, shows not 
 itself." 
 
 Concerning Popery, he says amusingly — 
 
 " Popery and slavery will never go down with this nation. 
 Popery is so formidable a thing, that the very name of it would set 
 the whole nation in an uproar. Those who do not understand it 
 hate it by tradition ; and I believe there are a hundred thousand 
 plain country fellows in England, who would spend their blood 
 against Popery, that do not know whether it be a man or a 
 horse.'' 
 
 "The Dyet of Poland" (May, 1705), a poem of 
 sixty pages, is merely English politics in Polish guise. 
 The names of persons are throughout the poem 
 obscured under Polish forms and terminations, but 
 the characters are easily distinguishable. Halifax, 
 Russell, Somers, Harley, and Godolphin are praised, 
 Nottingham, Rochester and Seymour castigated, and, 
 as in almost everything else in the political way 
 of Defoe's, William III. (Sobieski) is held up to 
 love and honour. 
 
 Among the very few letters of Defoe that have 
 been preserved (twenty-four) are three written to Lord 
 Halifax in April and July, 1705. 
 
 Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax, poet and 
 statesman, was born at Horton House, four miles 
 from Olney, his most important poetical achievement 
 being "The Town and Country Mouse" (1687), of 
 which he was joint author with Prior. To the robust- 
 I 2 
 
1 1 6 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 ness of his intellect and the smoothness of his verse 
 Defoe pays a tribute in " Jure Divino " : — 
 
 " So sweet his voice, and all his thoughts so strong, 
 So smooth his numbers, and so soft his song.'' 
 
 We owe no thanks to Halifax for having been the 
 chief factor in the establishment of the National Debt, 
 but balanced against that is the fact that he was one 
 of the originators of the Bank of England. In 1697 
 he obtained the Premiership, which, however, he was 
 obliged to relinquish shortly after. In 1699 he was 
 created a peer, but during the whole of Anne's reign 
 he remained out of office. From his liberality in 
 of patronising literature he won for himself the title 
 the English Mecaenas. All the literary men of his 
 age sang his praises, except Swift and Pope, " who 
 forebore to flatter him in his life, and after his death 
 spoke of him. Swift with slight censure, and Pope, in 
 the character of Bufo, with acrimonious contempt." * 
 As Pope say's, " he was fed with dedications," and 
 Tickell affirms that no dedication was unrewarded. 
 
 Defoe's first letter (5th April, 1705), the object of 
 which was#to thank Halifax for favours, is chiefly 
 interesting because it contains the only existing 
 reference to any brother of Defoe's : — 
 
 " The proposal your Lordship was pleased to make by my 
 brother, the bearer, is exceeding pleasant to me to perform. . . . 
 But my misfortune is, the bearer, whose head is not that way, has 
 given me so imperfect an account that makes me your Lordship's 
 most humble petitioner for some hints to ground my observations 
 upon." 
 
 * Dr. Johnson. 
 
Electioneering. i i 7 
 
 Defoe would also be glad of " the name again of some 
 book which his dull messenger forgot." Though not 
 necessarily a fool, Defoe's brother does not appear to 
 have been a genius. 
 
 Lord Halifax, though not in office, was evidently 
 on the best of terms with the Whig Ministers, and 
 Defoe expresses his desire to serve him. In the 
 second letter, i6th July, 1705, with which were sent 
 six copies of " The High Church Legion," an answer 
 to the pamphlet of Dr. Drake, Defoe again thanks 
 Lord Halifax for benefits. 
 
 The third letter (without date) refers to an inter- 
 view, at the close of which his lordship placed in 
 Defoe's hands a handsome sum of money, but without 
 information from whom it had come. It was, of 
 course, a reward from the Government for services 
 rendered. 
 
 31.— EXETER AND THE WEST.— i.ioo MILES ON HORSEBACK.— DOWN 
 WITH THE TACKERS (MAY, JUNE, 1705). 
 
 Works: 75. — The High Church Legion. 
 
 76. — .\ Declaration without Doors. 
 
 77.— Party Tyranny (Carolina). 
 
 78. — An Answer to Lord Haversham's Speech. 
 
 79. — Hymn to Peace. 
 
 80. — Reply to a Pamphlet, entitled, "Lord Haversham's Vindication. 
 
 Zz.— Review, vol. ii. ist Jan., 1706. 
 
 82. — The Case of Protestant Dissenters in Carolina. 
 
 In the British Museum is a long autograph letter 
 (Birch's MSS., 4291) from Defoe to Harley, written 
 the day after one of their meetings. It contains a 
 request that Mr. Christopher Hurt (Defoe) may have 
 leave to be absent on his private affairs for two 
 months or more. The writer requests instructions, 
 
ii8 The Life of Dan-iel Defoe. 
 
 and also a certificate to prevent his being questioned 
 or detained by meddlesome country justices. From 
 its reference to Defoe's poem, " The Dyet of Poland," 
 the date of this letter is fixed for May, 1705, and, 
 shortly after, we find Defoe paying a visit to the 
 south-western counties, where he runs as much danger 
 of his life " as a grenadier upon a counterscarp," his 
 object being to promote by every means in his power 
 the election of such candidates as would support the 
 Ministry. His election cry, as we should expect, was 
 Peace, but Down with the Tackers {see § 28), and at 
 the Tackers and the High Church party he girded 
 perpetually. On this journey, undertaken on horse- 
 back, he was accompanied by " a friend and his 
 friend's servant," and he met with more insults, and 
 experienced more indignities than even he himself had 
 anticipated. High Churchism in the West did not 
 take to him kindly. At Weymouth, his letters, being 
 delivered to a wrong person by mistake, were shown 
 about the town, and one of them happening to contain 
 a scrap of news to the effect that somebody had 
 declared that the Queen had broken her coronation 
 oath, the booby of a mayor smelt sedition, and caused 
 all the pers*is he found had conversed with Defoe to 
 be hauled before the judges at Dorchester, where the 
 assizes happened to be going on, declaring that he had 
 discovered a " phanatick plot and a bloody design to 
 persuade folks to a peaceable rebellion," with the result 
 however, of being sent " home with a flea in his ear." 
 
 At Exeter, this story being magnified and coloured, 
 certain persons misled the judge to the extent that 
 he was occasioned to remark in his charge to the jury, 
 
Electioneering. 119 
 
 that, to use Defoe's words, " a great party of two 
 men are gone forth into the country to raise rebellion 
 against the High Church, by earnestly pressing all the 
 well-meaning people of England to adhere to the 
 Queen's sober and healing admonitions and exhorta- 
 tions to peace and union," and he gave directions to 
 apprehend them. Defoe happened then to be at 
 Bideford, where he was unmolested ; but on arriving at 
 Tiverton, discovered that a Mr. Justice Stafford, of 
 Crediton, had granted a warrant for his apprehension, 
 which, however, was not utilised. But the most sapient 
 
 magnate of all was a certain " Esquire S ," who, 
 
 after having carefully issued a warrant for Defoe's 
 capture, very thoroughly searched every house in the 
 town except the one at which Defoe was known to 
 have put up ; and when he found that the dangerous 
 intruder had left the neighbourhood, sent his warrant 
 the contrary way. Such a character of Defoe was 
 spread abroad, that when he showed himself, and the 
 country people knew who it was, they began to look 
 for the " cloven foot, the head, and the horns." On 
 one occasion he " had the honour, with small difficulty, 
 of convincing some gentlemen, over a bottle of wine, 
 that the author of the Rcviciv was really no monster, 
 but a conversable, sociable creature." 
 
 In all, Defoe had done 1,100 miles on horseback; 
 and, spite of " Weymouth Gothams " hostile High- 
 fliers and officious justices, arrived safely again in 
 Cockaigne. But his dangers were not at an end, for 
 owing to the freedom with which he had spoken his 
 mind against the tactics of the enemy, he was not only 
 subjected in London to scandal and abuse but even 
 
I20 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 threatened with violence. Thirty letters were sent 
 
 threatening his life. In reply, Defoe inquired in his 
 
 Reviezu whether the game was worth the candle ? 
 
 Everybody knows the fate of murderers. 
 
 "Indeed, gendemen,'' he continues, "the mean, despicable 
 author of this paper is not worth your attempting his correction 
 at the price : goals, fetters, and gibbets, are odd melancholy things ; 
 for a gentleman to dangle out of the wo7-ld in a string has some- 
 thing so ugly, so awkward, and so disagreeable in it, that you 
 cannot think of it without some regret ; and then the reflection will 
 be very harsh, that this was for killing a poor mortified author, one 
 that the government had killed before." 
 
 Despite these threats, Defoe moved about un- 
 guarded and unarmed, carrying nothing more for- 
 midable than a "little stick, not strong enough to 
 correct a dog." Mr. Tutchin, who, as the author of 
 the Whig " Observator," also came in for some threats, 
 carried a "great oaken towel" (cudgel). But bullying 
 threats of murder were not the only inconveniences 
 Defoe had to put up with. He complains, among 
 other things, of " crowds of sham actions and arrests ; 
 sleeping debts in trade of seventeen years' standing 
 revived ; debts put in suit after contracts and agree- 
 ments under hand and seal ; and, which is worse, 
 writs taken (5lit for debts without the knowledge of 
 the creditor, and some after the creditor has been 
 paid ; diligent solicitations of persons not inclined to 
 sue, pressing them to give him trouble " ; the whole, 
 could particulars be descended to, " too moving to be 
 read." Defoe, however, had just then at least one 
 satisfaction, for at the election the Tories were very 
 badly beaten, with the result of a further weeding of 
 them out of high places in the Administration. 
 
Electioneering. i 2 1 
 
 Then arose the high cry of " The Church in 
 Danger." Gird yourselves, ye High-fliers, for the 
 Church is about to be given over to the tender 
 mercies of the Dissenters ! Nothing but the poli- 
 tical extinction of Whigs and Dissenters can save 
 her ! So the Tory Dr. Drake and a host of others. 
 Dr. Drake's pamphlet, published just before Defoe 
 started on his Exeter tour, gets burnt by the common 
 hangman, and a reward is offered for the discovery 
 of the author and printer ; but owing to insufficient 
 evidence against him, Drake is unmolested. Defoe 
 took a copy of it with him on his tour, mangled it 
 in his Reviews, and on July 16th wrote a direct reply, 
 "The High Church Legion," an "admirable defence 
 of the Queen and Ministry," which, to quote Lee, 
 " must have highly recommended him, for shortly 
 after his return from the West he was introduced 
 by Harley, became an attendant at his lordship's 
 levies, was honoured by his confidence, and retained 
 his friendship many years." From July to October 
 Defoe published nothing but his Reviews. " A De- 
 claration without Doors " (24th of October) is a 
 pamphlet containing the substance of recent numbers 
 of the Review dealing chiefly with .matters relating 
 to the Press. " Party Tyranny " is an exposure of 
 the High-flier and his malpractices in Carolina, where 
 Lord Granville, the Governor, was worrying the Dis- 
 senters just as his brother Fliers had done in England ; 
 and, thanks to the efforts of Defoe and others, the 
 Queen declared Lord Granville's law null and void. 
 Defoe triumphans ! 
 
 Next comes the pen-and-ink duel with Lord 
 
122 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Haversham. His lordship, who since the change of 
 Ministry had joined the Tories, thought fit to make 
 a speech in the House of Lords on the state of the 
 nation, and in November, 1705, he printed it anony- 
 mously as a pamphlet. Defoe attacked it in his 
 Review, and subsequently published " A Complete 
 Answer to the Lord Haversham's Speech," in which 
 he observes : " The anonymous author " — Defoe knew 
 very well who the author was — " is nothing to me, 
 be he a lord or a tinker." This sent his lordship's 
 blood — only lately blued — up to boiling-point, and in 
 return he calls his antagonist " a mean and mercenary 
 prostitute"- — a slave of the ministry, from whom he 
 received " both his encouragement and instructions.' 
 Now was Defoe's chance, and he belabours Lord 
 Haversham as only he knew how to belabour. But 
 notice how it all came about. Defoe first gives the 
 passer-by a sting with his whip (we find no fault with 
 him), the passer-by returns the compliment, and then 
 Defoe sets upon his antagonist in hearty style and 
 gives him a thorough good thrashing. That was his 
 way, but he never seemed aware that he himself was 
 always the aggressor. Among other things, he tells 
 his lordship, %I had the honour to be trusted, esteemed, 
 and, much more than I deserved, valued, by the best 
 king England ever saw, and yet whose judgment I 
 cannot undervalue, because he gave his lordship " 
 {i.e., Lord Haversham) " his honour and his dignity ; 
 which was, some time before, as mean as mine. But 
 Fate, that makes footballs of men, kicks some men 
 upstairs and some down ; some are advanced without 
 honour, others suppressed without infamy ; some 
 
Electioneering. 123 
 
 are raised without merit, some are crushed without 
 crime ; and no man knows by the beginning of 
 things whether his course shall issue in a peerage 
 or a pillory." Which nobody can deny. But it is 
 much better that things were as they were ; that John 
 Thompson, who was nobody in particular, should be 
 made Baron Thompson of Haversham, and bask in 
 the smiles of prosperity ; and that his antagonist, 
 instead of blossoming into Lord Defoe, or Baron 
 Defoe of Newington, should have done his term 
 at Newgate. 
 
 "The Hymn to Peace" (Jan. 10, 1706) is a long 
 Pindaric suggested by the movement in both Houses 
 of Parliament against the faction cry of the Church 
 being in danger. To us it is chiefly interesting on 
 account of the peeps it gives into Defoe's personal 
 history. The following, for example, is distinctly 
 touching, and reminds, in respect to substance, of the 
 well-known gem " My Mind to me a Kingdom is." 
 Peace never visits Defoe. Says he : 
 
 " When to the world thou mak'st a short return. 
 Me only thou hast scorned to shun ; 
 Me thou revisitest not ; but storms of men. 
 Voracious and unsatisfied as death. 
 Spoil in their hands and poison in their breath. 
 With rage of devils hunt me down, 
 And to abate my peace, destroy their own. 
 Brought up in teaching sorrow's school. 
 In peace and patience I profess my soul ; 
 Am master of my mind. 
 And there the heaven of satisfaction find." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 TO AND FROM SCOTLAND. 
 
 32.— THE " MELANCHOLY STORY " OF DEFOE'S EMBARRASSMENTS. 
 —HE PLACES HIS AFFAIRS IN THE HANDS OF THE BANK- 
 RUPTCY COMMISSIONERS. 
 
 Works : 83. — Remarks on the Bill to Prevent Frauds committed by Bankrupts. 
 
 84. — An Essay at Removing National Prejudices against a Union with Scot- 
 land. Part I. 4th May, 1706. 
 
 85.— Ditto. Part II. 
 
 86. — An Essay at Removing National Prejudices against a Union with 
 England. Nov., 1706. 
 
 87. — A Fourth Essay at Removing National Prejudices. Dec, 1706. 
 
 88. — A Fifth Essay at Removing National Prejudices. 
 
 89. — Two great Questions considered. Being a Sixth Essay at Removing 
 National Prejudices. Jan., 1707. 
 
 Early in 1706 was brought into Parliament a 
 Bill entitled " An Act to Prevent Frauds com- 
 mitted by Bankrupts " ; the acceptance of which, 
 both by his writings and personal solicitations, Defoe 
 did all in his power to bring about, and for one 
 reason, because he hoped himself to be largely bene- 
 fited by it. ]fi his Review he pointed out the im- 
 perfections of the law as it at present stood, describing 
 the imprisonment without bail, or distinction of cir- 
 cumstances, and the power of creditors to punish a 
 debtor with life-long imprisonment for claims which 
 could never be paid, as barbarous and inhuman. He 
 also alludes to his own grievous losses from fraudulent 
 debtors, and insists that a distinction should be made 
 between those who are fraudulently bankrupt and those 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. I 25 
 
 who become bankrupt through no fault of their own. 
 To Defoe's gratification the Bill passed, and, on April 
 1 8th, he published an able pamphlet dealing with 
 the whole subject, and entitled, " Remarks on the 
 Bill to Prevent Frauds committed by Bankrupts." 
 His enemies said this was all very well, but why 
 did he not practise what he preached ; to which he 
 replied that he had practised what he preached, and in 
 the following letter to Mr. Fransham (May 24, 1706), 
 who inquired how these objectors were to be best 
 answered, he describes the ground upon which he 
 took his stand : — 
 
 " I am sorry to see you assaulted about my Integrity, and wonder 
 you should expect any man can be persuaded to believe a man 
 honest whom they lose by. 
 
 " I appeal to all the World, and in it to my worst Enemies for 
 these articles of my Honesty, and let any man in Trade shew better 
 if they can. 
 
 " i" If my Disaster was not from plain known inevitable causes 
 w'"" human wisdom could not foresee nor human power prevent. 
 
 " z'"'' If I did not first leave off early according to my advice now 
 to others, nay while my Estate was sufficient to pay all men their full 
 demand. 
 
 " s""*" If I did not immediately ofter a full surrender of all I had 
 in the \\'orld in Satisfaction to my Creditors. 
 
 " 4'"'^ If after they had driven me to all extremities till all was 
 consumed and I had not 5^ in the World but by Providence and my 
 own Industry in the World I began to rise again I did not pay every 
 one according to my utmost ability. 
 
 " 5"'''' If notwithstanding this it has not cost me ;^5ooo since I 
 have been in these Troubles to maintain my Liberty to work for 
 them and to defend myself against such as would have all their Debt 
 before others and indeed before I could get it.'' 
 
 Fransham having asked whether, besides reducing 
 his debts from ^17,000 to ;^5,ooo, as declared in 
 his letter to Lord Haversham, he had likewise paid 
 
126 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 some people at Yarmouth in full, as had been re- 
 ported, he answers : — 
 
 "As to people paid at Yarmouth I cannot but admire you should 
 suffer yourself to be prevail'd upon to bring that as a proof of my 
 honesty w"" is a snare laid for me that iinding some people paid 
 more than others they may haue room to complain and pretend to 
 take out a Commission of Bankrupt to recover it again. 
 
 " The thing is true in Fact, and as true that these people to 
 whom I have been so particular are now the only people who pursue 
 me so close that / must at last I doubt quit the kingdom unless 
 reliev'd by this late Act of Parliament in w''' I am not yet sure that I 
 shall find neither. 
 
 " I have not time to enlarge on this melancholy story, ■uf'^ is 
 ■berhaps the severest ever you heard. I desire to submit, but methinks 
 people that call themselves protestants should be content to take all 
 a man have and not pursue him to death." 
 
 Defoe's case was, indeed, a hard one. He had 
 been in retreat (as he tells us in his Review for 
 August 23, 1706) fourteen years — that is, from 1792, 
 the year of his bankruptcy — with jeopardy, broils, 
 and most of the time in banishment from his family. 
 They have since seen him, he says, "stripped naked 
 by the government, and the foundations torn up on 
 which he had built the prospect of paying debts and 
 raising his family ; and yet now, when by common 
 reasoning they ought to believe the man has not bread 
 for his children, have redoubled their attacks, with 
 declarations, executions, escape warrants, and God 
 knows how many engines of destruction ; as if a 
 gaol and death would pay their debts ; as if money 
 was to be found in the blood of the debtor, and 
 they were to open his veins to find it." 
 
 Taking advantage of the new Act, Defoe now 
 surrendered to the commissioners who had been 
 appointed under it. 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 12/ 
 
 He gave up all he possessed, with full accounts 
 of the balance of his affairs ; beginning at his first 
 business misfortunes, fourteen years previous, and in- 
 cluding the completion of his ruin in prison. After 
 four severe examinations on oath — in which the 
 bitterness of the lawyer opposed to him was so 
 great, that Defoe told him it had " in it all the 
 Villainy of abstract Malice " — the commissioners 
 appear to have been fully satisfied with his conduct, 
 as they refused to listen to a witness who proposed, 
 on payment of expenses only, to prove that Defoe 
 was then possessed of an estate of ^400 per annum. 
 
 The question now began to be discussed as to the 
 advisability of the union of the Parliaments of England 
 and Scotland, a project that had always been caressed 
 by William III. ; and commissioners empowered to 
 examine the question were appointed by the Queen. 
 They first met on i6th April, 1706; and the 4th 
 of May Defoe, who heartily favoured the project, 
 was ready with " An Essay at Removing National 
 Prejudices against a Union with Scotland "; and 
 between that date and January, 1707, five other 
 essays dealing with the subject of the Union came 
 from his pen. 
 
 33. -MRS. VEAL .AND THE "JURE DIVINO."— BEN'JAMIX BRAGG, 
 HIS SMARTNESS {5TH JULY, 1706). 
 
 Works : go. — A Plea for Nonconformists. By Thomas de Laune. Preface by 
 Defoe. 
 91. — -A Sermon preached by Defoe. 
 92. — Mrs. Veal. 
 93. — "Jure Divino," a Poem. 
 
 On the 6th of June, 1706, Defoe reprinted, with a 
 preface by himself, a work entitled " A Plea for the 
 
1 2 8 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Nonconforhiists," written twenty- three years previous 
 by Thomas de Laune, a Baptist schoolmaster, who for 
 its production had been tried by Judge Jeffreys, and 
 had died in prison. 
 
 Next we find him writing a jeu cC esprit on the 
 subject of a benefit night at Drury Lane on behalf of 
 a fund to renovate a build,ing, recently a meeting- 
 house, to be used as an Episcopal chapel of ease. 
 This performance was advertised in the Daily Courant 
 of June 1 8, 1706, as the tragedy oi Hamlet, Prince of 
 Denmark, with singing and an entertainment. An 
 article in the Review ridiculing the incongruity of 
 linking church and playhouse having tickled the town, 
 Defoe decided to reprint it, which he did, under the 
 title of " A Sermon preached by Mr. Daniel Defoe, on 
 the fitting up of Dr. Burgess's late Meeting House." 
 Defoe would have had no quarrel with plays or play- 
 houses had the stage been pure ; it was the immoral 
 character of the performances that so excited his indig- 
 nation. Later on, when the Universities of Oxford 
 licensed a company to play in that city, Defoe attacked 
 the theatre a second time. 
 
 We are now to consider that toothsome morsel, 
 " The Ap{iarition of Mrs. Veal," published 5th July, 
 1706, concerning which, perhaps, more nonsense has 
 been talked than of any other of Defoe's productions. 
 One ridiculous notion concerning it has been knocked 
 on the head by Mr. Lee, and I hope to be able 
 myself to give its quietus to another. First, as to 
 the story itself 
 
 Mrs. Veal, "a modern gentlewoman of about thirty 
 years of age," subject to fits and an unkind father, had 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. I 29 
 
 an intimate friend named Mrs. Bargrave, who was 
 afflicted with an even more common complaint, a 
 worthless husband ; and the two ladies would " often 
 condole each other's adverse fortunes, and read to- 
 gether ' Drelincourt upon Death ' " — a popular reli- 
 gious work that was in its third edition — ' and other 
 good books." Owing to the removal of Mrs. Bargrave 
 to Canterbury, and other circumstances, the two friends 
 did not meet for two years and a-half ; but on the 
 8th of September, 1 705, just as " the clock struck 
 twelve at noon," a knock came to Mrs. Bargrave's 
 door, and who should the visitor turn out to be but 
 Mrs. Veal, " in a riding habit." Asked in, Mrs. Veal 
 " sat her down in an elbow chair," and then ensued a 
 friendly conversation, amid which she reminded Mrs. 
 Bargrave of old times, " and what comfort, in parti- 
 cular they received from Drelincourt's Book of Death, 
 which was the best, she said, on that subject ever 
 written." At her friend's request, Mrs. Bargrave went 
 up stairs and fetched " Drelincourt," whereupon, said 
 Mrs. Veal : " Dear Mrs. Bargrave, if the eyes of our 
 faith were as open as the eyes of our body, we should 
 see numbers of angels about us for our guard. The 
 notions we have of heaven now are nothing like what 
 it is, as Drelincourt says ; therefore be comforted 
 under your afflictions, and believe that the Almighty 
 has a particular regard to you ; and that your afflic- 
 tions are marks of God's favour ; and when they have 
 done the business they are sent for, they shall be 
 removed from you. And, believe me, my dear friend, 
 believe what I say to you, one minute of future happi- 
 ness will infinitely reward you for all your sufferings." 
 J 
 
130 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 After more in a similar strain, spoken in so 
 pathetic and heavenly a manner that Mrs. Bargrave 
 wept several times, Mrs. Veal requested her friend to 
 write a letter requesting Mr. Veal, her brother, to give 
 funeral rings to such and such, and two pieces of gold 
 to her cousin Watson. This extraordinary request 
 led Mrs. Bargrave to imagine that Mrs. Veal was 
 about to go into a fit, consequently she drew near, in 
 order to be able, if necessary, to render assistance ; 
 and with the desire to get rid of the morbidity of the 
 conversation, took hold of Mrs. Veal's "gown-sleeve 
 several times, and commended it." After observing 
 that it was a " scowered silk and newly made up," 
 Mrs. Veal returned to the subject of the previous con- 
 versation, and renewed her request, adding, " though 
 it seems impertinent to you now, you will see more 
 reason for it hereafter"; and a few minutes later Mrs, 
 Veal took her departure. 
 
 This all occurred, as we said, on the 8th of 
 September, Saturday, but a few days after, upon 
 making inquiries for Mrs. Veal, Mrs. Bargrave dis- 
 covered, to her surprise, that Mrs. Veal was dead, 
 and that her escutcheons were making ; that, in 
 fact, she Iftd died on Friday, the 7th of September, 
 at noon, exactly twenty-four hours before she had 
 appeared to Mrs. Bargrave. That Mrs. Bargrave 
 actually had seen the deceased, Mrs. Veal, and talked 
 with her, and that it was no fancy of hers, is proved, 
 first, by the ingenuousness of Mrs. Bargrave, and, 
 secondly, from the fact that no one, as it transpired, 
 except Mrs. Veal and Mrs. Watson, knew that the 
 gown referred to was "scowered." In short, Mrs. 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. I3I 
 
 Bargrave had seen and conversed with the apparition 
 of Mrs. Veal. The most striking feature of the 
 narrative, however — its minute circumstantiality — it 
 is impossible to convey in a brief summary. To 
 enjoy that, recourse must be had to the original. 
 
 Never, perhaps, has a story been so misunder- 
 stood as this apparition of Mrs. Veal. The idle 
 tradition that it was written to promote the sale of 
 Drelincourt's work on "The Fear of Death," has been 
 conclusively disposed of by Mr. Lee, who proves 
 that when "Mrs. Veal" appeared " Drelincourt " 
 was already a popular work in its third edition, 
 and, furthermore, that Mrs. Veal's recommendation, 
 contrary likewise to tradition, did not have any 
 appreciable effect on the sale of " Drelincourt." 
 
 These traditions, which arose from the fact that 
 the printer of " Drelincourt " was permitted to reprint 
 Defoe's pamphlet in the fourth edition of " Drelin- 
 court," deceived even so acute a critic as Sir Walter 
 Scott. " Drelincourt," which long continued popular, 
 was subsequently printed sometimes with and some- 
 times without " Mrs. Veal." 
 
 But there is another erroneous notion concerning 
 " Mrs. Veal " that requires to be dealt with, and that 
 is the assumption that the narrative is a fiction. 
 Whoever will read the story, saj's Sir Walter Scott, 
 " as told by Defoe himself, will agree that, could the 
 thing have happened in reality, so it would have been 
 told." But the extraordinary thing is that nobody 
 should have inquired whether it was not true, that is 
 to say, whether a lady of Defoe's acquaintance, to 
 whom he gives the name of Mrs. Bargrave, did not 
 J 2 
 
132 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 tell him, and in good faith, this story ; and that such 
 was certainly the case, no one who reads carefully 
 Defoe's works on " Magic and Apparitions," can 
 possibly doubt. Defoe, as we shall show, when 
 dealing with those books, believed firmly in appari- 
 tions ; he had had stories told him which there was 
 no getting over, and this of Mrs. Bargrave's was 
 one of them. 
 
 Says Defoe, " I asked Mrs. Bargrave several times 
 if she was sure she felt the gown ? She answered 
 modestly, ' If my senses be to be relied on, I am sure 
 of it.' " Moreover, Mrs. Bargrave had no interest in 
 making anybody believe the story. 
 
 In other words, in order to understand " Mrs. 
 Veal " we must, first of all, take into consideration 
 Defoe's character, and, secondly, transpose ourselves 
 into the early eighteenth century, a time when almost 
 everybody believed in apparitions, for not only did 
 Defoe believe in the apparition of Mrs. Veal but his 
 readers believed in it too. A careful study of the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth century writers on magic 
 and spiritualism, such as Glanvil, Reginald Scot, Dr. 
 Cotta, and Defoe himself, has forced upon me that 
 this, and this only, is the correct interpretation of 
 " Mrs. Veal," that, in short, it is a true story put in 
 Defoe's inimitable style, and that the case of Mrs. 
 Bargrave, whose veracity no one wishes to doubt, 
 must be placed in the same category as Professor 
 Huxley's well-known case of Mrs. A. {See §^88 
 and 89.) 
 
 On the 20th of July Defoe published his great 
 satire, as some have called it, the " Jure Divino," 
 
THE LOOKING-OVER-SHOULDER PORTRAIT. 
 
 (^Frontispiece to ^* A T?'iie Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True-hortu 
 Englishman" — ind Edition^ 170SO 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 1 33 
 
 Upon which he had been engaged on and off ever 
 since his release from Newgate, and which apparently 
 he always regarded as his masterpiece. To-day, how- 
 ever, this voluminous work — extending (like " Paradise 
 Lost") to twelve books — is a thing forgotten. In 
 connection with its publication occurred a scandalous 
 piece of dishonesty. Benjamin Bragg, a London 
 publisher, actually had the meanness as well as the 
 unprincipledness to bribe a pressman in the office 
 where " Jure Divino " was being printed to steal 
 copies of the sheets as they were successively printed, 
 by which he was able to issue the whole at the same 
 time that the genuine edition was issued. That, in 
 all conscience, was delicious enough, but now comes 
 the coating of almonds. Bragg actually had the cool 
 impudence to inform the public that this pirated 
 edition of his was "to be sold for the benefit of 
 the author." We cannot say that we feel much 
 drawn towards " Mr. Benjamin Bragg, at the Black 
 Raven." 
 
 Mr. Saintsbury happily describes the "Jure 
 Divino " as " a poetical argument in some 10,000 
 terribly bad verses." 
 
 34.— THE "JURE DIVINO" PORTRAIT.— THE FIVE PORTRAITS OF 
 
 DEFOE. 
 
 Of the word-portrait of Defoe that appeared in 
 the London Gazette of loth January, 1703, we have 
 already spoken, but for convenience of reference we 
 will again quote it. He is described as — 
 
 " A middle-aged, spare man, about forty years old. of a brown 
 complexion, and dark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig ; a 
 
134 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 hooked nose, a sharp chin, gray eyes, and a large mole near his 
 mouth." 
 
 Of portraits of him in the ordinary sense of the 
 word, there appear to be in existence as many as five 
 original ones,* namely : — 
 
 (i). The Portrait by Taverner, engraved by Vandergucht, pre- 
 fixed to the collection of Defoe's works in July, 1703. {See § 20.) 
 
 (2). The Looking-over-Shoulder Portrait. 
 
 (3). The Laudatur et Alget Portrait, prefixed to "Jure Divino," 
 fol. 1706 (also described as by Taverner and Vandergucht); 1706, 
 age 47. This forms our frontispiece. 
 
 (4). The Oval, prefixed to the folio edition of Defoe's " History 
 of the Union of Great Britain," engraved by W. Skelton; 1709, 
 age 50. 
 
 (S). An Oval, by Medland. 
 
 No. I has already been described {\ 20). In 
 respect to No. 3, Mr. Wilson observes : — 
 
 " It varies considerably from that prefixed to his works. Instead 
 of his name it has the appropriate motto from Juvenal : Laudatur 
 et Alget.\ It is engraved by Vandergucht, and represents him in 
 the costume of the times, but without the severity of countenance 
 that distinguishes his former portrait. There is also a print of him 
 before the spurious edition of ' Jure Divine,' but it is badly executed 
 and without the engraver's name.'' 
 
 In his letter to Fransham of May 24, 1706, after 
 mentioning that "Jure Divino" is ready, and asking 
 how many copies Fransham will want, Defoe ob- 
 serves : — 
 
 " There is also a picture of your humble servant prepared at the 
 request of some of my friends, who are pleased to value it more than 
 it deserves, but as it will cost a shilling I shall leave it free for those 
 that please to take or leave it.'' 
 
 * A portrait by Kneller, said to be of Defoe, is described in Notts 
 and Queries for July 17, 1882. It now belongs to the Marquis of Bute 
 but there is doubt as to its authenticity. 
 
 f He is praised, yet not cherished. 
 
THE OVAL PORTRAIT. 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 135 
 
 Of recent portraits of Defoe, one of the best is that 
 which forms the frontispiece to the " Life of Defoe," 
 by Wilson. 
 
 The following interesting note is from Noble's 
 " Continuation of Grainger," vol. ii., p. 305 (published 
 1806):— 
 
 "I have a curious print of Defoe, one of George Bickham's 
 medleys, which is entituled ' The False Brethren.' Defoe is repre- 
 sented in the pillory, with his face caricatured and his warts greatly 
 enlarged. Below he is in his actual state, seated in his study with a 
 book in his hand, in which is written ' Resistance lawful.' Before 
 him is the Pope, in pontificalibus ; behind him the devil, horned, 
 with ass's gars, and his clawed hand upon Daniel's shoulder. The 
 Knave of Clubs on one side, and the Knave of Hearts on the other. 
 Below, Oliver Cromwell, and a Whig and Tory wrestling. Under 
 the two last, as well as under the ' deformed head in the pillory,' are 
 verses, as there are 'on the Calves' Head Feast,' and in a large oval 
 at the bottom, in the centre. On the left side, at the bottom, is a 
 card inscribed ' The Whig's Medley,' by G. B. [George Bickham], 
 engraver, mdccxu.'' 
 
 George Bickham died May 4, 1758, aged 74. 
 
 35.— SECRET SERVICE IN SCOTLAND.— THE UNION (OCT., 1706— 
 DEC, 1707).— " YET ALIVE IN SPITE OF SCOTCH MOBS, SWEDISH 
 MONARCHS, OR BULLYING JACOBITES." 
 
 Works ; 94. — A Letter to a Friend. 
 
 95. — The Dissenters in England vindicated. Jan., 1707. 
 
 96.— Caledonia, a Poem. 
 
 97. — Revietv, vol. iii. 
 
 98.— A Short View of the present state of the Protestant Religion in 
 
 Britain. 
 99.— A Voice from the South. May, 1707. 
 100.— A Modest Vindication of the Present Ministry, 
 loi.— An Historical Account of the Bitter Sufferings of the Episcopal 
 
 Church in Scotland. 
 102.— Defoe's Answer to Dyer's scandalous News Letter. Aug., 1707. 
 
 On the nomination of Harley and Lord Godolphin, 
 Defoe now had the honour to be employed by the 
 
136 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Queen " in several honourable though secret services." 
 The nature of these services he never divulged ; but 
 there is no doubt that one was his mission to Scotland 
 to promote the Union ; and he had the happiness, he 
 tells us, to discharge himself in all these trusts to the 
 satisfaction of both Harley and Godolphin. Having 
 kissed her Majesty's hand, he set out in October for 
 Scotland.* 
 
 His two essays at " Removing National Prejudices 
 against the Union," written for the English people, were 
 now followed up by four additional essays for the same 
 purpose, addressed to the people of Scotland (Nos. 86, 
 87, 88, 89). 
 
 The Scots did not want the Union, and they 
 were encouraged in their opposition to it by the 
 English Jacobites, who possessed the people "with 
 a multitude of wild chimeras." The Duke of 
 Hamilton, who was the most conspicuous for his 
 opposition to the whole project, became the especial 
 darling of the Edinburgh mob, who followed his 
 coach every day " with blessings and prayers " ; 
 whilst the Duke of Queensberry, the leader of the 
 opposite party, was " insulted with stones, dirt, and 
 curses." Tney attacked the house of the Unionist 
 Sir Patrick Johnston with "sledges, or great ham- 
 mers," and but for the timely appearance of the 
 gua'rd, he would have "been a second De Witt."t 
 
 In his letter to Fransham of 28th December, 
 1706, Defoe describes the Scottish Parliament as 
 going on with their work, "just as Nehemiah did 
 
 * Notes and Queries, 29 Oct., 1870. f Defoe. 
 
u)nitt 
 
 0^ 
 
 {From Wilsons ^' Li/e of Dejoe^' published 1830.) 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 137 
 
 with the wall of Jerusalem, with the sword in one 
 hand and the mattock in the other." 
 
 The town was practically in the possession of the 
 rabble, who went roving up and down, " breaking the 
 windows of the members of Parliament, and insulting 
 them in their coaches." " They put out all the lights, 
 that they might not be discovered ; and the author of 
 this " (Daniel Defoe) " had one great stone thrown at 
 him, for but looking out of a window; for they suffered 
 nobody to look out, especially with any lights, lest they 
 should know faces and inform against them." In 
 short, though the mob kept up high jinks, they didn't 
 want any headaches in the morning ; and Daniel, it is 
 to be supposed, after that, kept his head away from 
 the window. 
 
 At last matters got so bad that the Lord Provost 
 was obliged to send out a battalion of guards, who 
 took post in all the avenues of the city, with the 
 result that the houses of the rest of the Unionists 
 were saved. " The rabble were entirely reduced by 
 this, and gradually dispersed ; and so the tumult 
 ended." 
 
 The first article of the Union, which virtually 
 decided the whole measure, was carried in the 
 Scottish Parliament by a majority of 33 votes (116 
 for, 83 against), and Defoe saw " one significant 
 omen of the future good success of the treaty," in 
 that it " was voted on the most remarkable day for 
 public deliverance that ever happened in this island " ; 
 that is to say on the 4th November (1706), the 
 anniversary of William's landing at Torbay. 
 
 Then ensued a pamphleteering duel between 
 
138 The Life of Daniel Defoe.. 
 
 Defoe and Mr. James Webster, minister of the 
 Tolbooth Church in Edinburgh, a divine who, after 
 having- been in favour of the Union, for some reason 
 or other turned round and not only attacked it, but 
 dealt some nasty thrusts at the English Dissenters. 
 In "The Dissenters in England Vindicated" (Jan., 
 1707) Defoe "treated his opponent with the utmost 
 tenderness and civility " ; that is to saj', he exas- 
 perated him almost to madness- by his impertur- 
 bability, and the depth with which he made his 
 incisions. Somehow, bodies of divinity never could 
 get on with Defoe. Mr. Webster's answer was as 
 fiery, rash, and abusive as Defoe's had been cool, 
 feeling and polite. 
 
 Then it was Defoe's turn, and in .his " Short 
 View of the Present State of the Protestant Religion 
 in Britain," he discusses all the points at issue be- 
 tween Webster and himself, deprecates the abusive 
 language of his opponent, and poses in his favourite 
 character of the blessed martyr. All this, is amusing 
 to a degree, but let nqt Defoe be suspected either of 
 seeing through the joke himself, or of insincerity in 
 advocating the Union. The completion of the latter 
 was a thing *lery near his heart, and he believed that 
 it would result in good for both kingdoms. Finding 
 the Scots hard to convince in prose, he now tried the 
 effects of his lyre, and broke out into " Caledonia : a 
 Poem in Honour of Scotland and the Scots nation," 
 a performance with which the indefatigable Orpheus, 
 despite the unmelodiousness of his strains, seems to 
 have quite charmed the land of cakes ; but he who 
 strives to please, generally does please, and soft 
 
To AND FROM Scotland. 139 
 
 blandishments are mostly acceptable, whether in a 
 voice resembling the notes of a nightingale, or a 
 voice that might have belonged to a brown bear or 
 a peacock. 
 
 Despite the unpleasant habits of Edinburgh mobs, 
 Defoe had quite a delightful time of it both in Auld 
 Reekie and Scotland generally. By the Duke of 
 Queensberry, Her Majesty's High Commissioner, who 
 entertained him at Drumlanrig Castle, he was treated 
 with every consideration and honour; and he con- 
 tracted friendships with Lord Buchan, Lord Belhaven 
 (an opponent of the Union), and other persons of dis- 
 tinction. Daniel Defoe was just then much in request. 
 
 The Union a fait accompli, Defoe writes and 
 circulates in. Scotland a pamphlet, reprinted from 
 his Review, entitled " A Voice from the South " — 
 a recommendation of harmony and "brotherly cor- 
 respondence between all sorts of Protestants in 
 the whole island." Meantime his reviews appear 
 every other day with the regularity of clock-work, 
 his essays consisting of all manner of subjects, 
 from laudation of the Union to an inquiry as to 
 the colour of the devil. Indeed, he is so taken with 
 Scotland that in November he is considering the 
 advisability of settling there altogether, with his 
 wife and family.* 
 
 It passed the wit of the High-flying mind to under- 
 stind how a man in Scotland, 400 miles away, could 
 write reviews published every other day in London ; 
 so it gave out in its malevolence that they were not 
 written by Defoe at all, a libel which caused the latter 
 
 * Review., Nov. i6. 
 
14° The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 — always on the qui vive^ — " to assure the world, that 
 no person whatever has, or ever had, any concern in 
 writing the said paper, entitled the Review, than the 
 known author D. F. That wherever the author may. 
 be, the papers are wrote with his own hand, and the 
 originals may be seen at the printers." 
 
 But, if his enemies gave him annoyance, his friends 
 began to prick him up too. They had had Scottish 
 affairs ad nauseam, and they complained "that the 
 fellow could talk of nothing but the Union, and had 
 grown mighty dull of late." 
 
 In February (1707), Defoe is lashing Lord Haver- 
 sham again, in a pamphlet (published in April) called 
 " A Modest Vindication of the Present Ministry ; from 
 the Reflections published against them in a late 
 printed paper, entitled the Lord Haversham's Speech, 
 etc." ; and his lordship, who, besides vilifying the 
 Ministry, had aspersed the memory of the man 
 (William III.) to whom he owed so much, richly 
 deserved all he got* But Defoe did other work 
 in Scotland besides helping to cement the Union, 
 writing reviews, and fustigating blatant ingrates. He 
 told the Scots how to improve their coal trade ; he 
 speaks of contracting for English merchants for Scots 
 salt to the value of above ^10,000 per annum; and 
 he originated or gave an impetus to the Scotch linen 
 trade, being the means of setting over a hundred 
 families to work at it. 
 
 * Lord Haversham and those like him Defoe compared to dogs that 
 bark at the moon : " They make a noise and look up ; but the beauteous 
 planet shines on, and suffers no eclipse from theii: rage. The glorious 
 and immortal memory of the King will shine to the end of time." 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 14I 
 
 His next publication was a refutation of the 
 charge made by his old opponent Lesley, in his 
 " Rehearsals," against the Established Church in 
 Scotland, that they had cruelly persecuted Episcopal 
 ministers there. Determined that it should be crammed 
 down the High-flying throat, Defoe gave it a Jacobite 
 title: " An Historical account of the bitter sufferings, 
 etc., of the Episcopal Church in Scotland," with the 
 result that your High-flier, smelling valerian, straight- 
 way possesses himself of it, when he finds to his 
 infinite disgust that it is not valerian at all, and that 
 the bitter sufferings of the Episcopalians exist only in 
 the vapouring mind of one Lesley. 
 
 An article in the Review commenting on the 
 unaccountable conduct of the King of Sweden 
 (Charles XH.) in remaining "inactive in Saxony 
 with an army capable of turning the scale of 
 Europe," and also on the treatment of the Livonians 
 by Sweden, having given offence to his Swedish 
 Majesty, the Swedish ambassador received instruc- 
 tions to complain to the English Government. Dyer's 
 News-Letter added gratuitously that the " Queen's 
 messengers were in search of Defoe, who was to be 
 bound hand and foot and surrendered to the Swedes," 
 with the result of a spirited and defiant tract, entitled 
 " De Foe's Answer to Dyer's Scandalous News- 
 Letter," in which the fact is gloried in that no English 
 subject can be punished except by a jury of equals. 
 
 As may be gathered from the last of the preserved 
 letters to Fransham, Defoe left Scotland in the middle 
 of December, 1707. The letter is dated Gains- 
 brough, December 20. In it he says : — 
 
142 The Lif& op Daniel Defoe. 
 
 " I take this occasion to let you know that your old Friend and 
 humble Serv' is yet jlive in Spite of Scotch Mobs Swedish Monarchs 
 or Bullying Jacobites and is going to London to shew his Face to the 
 worst of his Enemies and bid them defiance." 
 
 36.— "LITTLE LORD GODOLPHIN " (FEB., 1708, JUNE, 1708).— DEATH 
 OF DEFOE'S FATHER (FEB., 1706-7). 
 
 Works: 103. — The Union Proverb, "If Skiddaw," &c. 
 104. — Review, vol. iv. 
 
 In the meantime, Robert Harley, who, with a 
 view to increasing his power, had been fomenting the 
 discontents of the Whigs and coquetting with the 
 Tories, had got himself into difficulties. The Duke 
 of Marlborough was particularly incensed against him, 
 and insisted upon his dismissal. At first, the Queen, 
 whose chief confidante was now Mrs. Masham, 
 Harley's friend, refused her consent, but, presently, 
 owing to gross negligence on the part of Harley in 
 the custody of his papers, the contents of some of 
 which got to the French Court, she found herself 
 compelled to yield. This was in February (1708), 
 and Defoe now looked upon himself as lost, taking it 
 for granted that "when a great officer fell, all who 
 came in by^is interest fall with him." Harley, how- 
 ever, hearing of Defoe's " resolution never to abandon 
 the fortunes of the man to whom he owed so much," 
 urged his follower to think rather of his own interest 
 than of any romantic obligation. "My Lord Treasurer," 
 said Harley, " will employ you in nothing but what is 
 for the public service, and agreeably to your own 
 sentiments of things ; and, besides, it is the Queen you 
 are serving, who has been very good to you. Pray 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. I43 
 
 apply yourself as you used to do ; I shall not take it 
 ill from you in the least." To Godolphin — ^" Little 
 Lord Godolphin," on account of his stature — Defoe 
 accordingly applied himself, was by him introduced a 
 second time to Her Majesty and to the honour of 
 kissing her hand, and obtained " the continuance of 
 an appointment which Her Majesty had been pleased 
 to make him in consideration of a former special 
 service he had done." 
 
 On the prospect of a threatened invasion from 
 France at this time, Defoe published a short tract, 
 entitled the " Union Proverb," viz. : — 
 
 " If Skiddaw has a cap, 
 Scruffell wots full well of that." 
 
 That is to say if Skiddaw in England is capped with 
 clouds it will presently rain on Scruffell, just on the 
 other side of the Solway, in Scotland. What is true 
 of these mountains, argues Defoe, is true of the coun- 
 tries in which they are situated. What is bad for 
 England is bad for Scotland. Whether in times of 
 peace or times of war, they should be united. 
 
 As, on February 25, 1706-7, probate was granted 
 to Defoe on the will of his father, it may be assumed 
 that Mr. James Foe died early in this year. Mr. Foe, 
 who was baptised on 13th May, 1630, would be 
 seventy-six years of age. For a time he lived in 
 Throgmorton Street, but during the last few years of 
 his life he had been in lodgings at the sign of " The 
 Bell," in Broad Street. 
 
 The will was executed on March 20th, 1705. Mr. 
 Foe directed that all just debts were to be paid, and 
 
144 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 that his body was to be burled at the discretion of his 
 executor, but at a charge not exceeding £10. He 
 left to his granddaughter, EHzabeth Roberts, ;^20 ; to 
 a Mr. John Marsh, ;^2o; and to his cousin, John 
 Richards, such money as Richards owed him before 
 the 1st of November, 1704. His grandson, Benjamin 
 Foe, was to have the testator's gold watch, now in the 
 possession of his mother ; and the silver watch, " now 
 in his possession," was left to his grandson, Francis 
 Bartham. A granddaughter, Anne Davis, was to 
 have a bed, furniture, and drawers. .^100 was to be 
 paid to his grandson, Daniel Foe, at the age of 
 twenty-one. The remaining part of the estate was 
 given to this Daniel Foe's five sisters, to be divided 
 amongst them by their father, Daniel Foe, the 
 testator's son and sole executor ; but in case Defoe 
 or his wife should by any accident be at any time so 
 distressed as to stand in need of any part of the legacy 
 hereby given unto their children for the subsistence, 
 education, or clothing of their said children, then 
 E)efoe or his wife might make use of it for those 
 purposes, and it should be allowed by the children as 
 so much money paid to them on account of the 
 legacies. * 
 
 Among the last recorded acts of James Foe is 
 his signing a testimonial, in 1 705, to the character of 
 a servant girl, named Sarah Pierce, who had lived 
 two years in his service. He says he should not have 
 recommended her to Mr, Cave, " that Godly minister, 
 had not her conversation been becoming^ the Gospel." 
 
 Possibly towards the end of the same year in 
 which Defoe lost his father occurred the marriage of 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 145 
 
 Daniel, his eldest son, who could not have been older 
 than twenty-one ; all we know of the younger Daniel's 
 wife is that her name was Dorothy, and that she 
 bore her husband a son, named Daniel, christened at 
 Clerkenwell, January i, 1708-9. This child must 
 have died young, as the father gave the same name 
 to another child (by his second wife) sixteen years 
 after. Dorothy Defoe died before 1720. 
 
 37.— HISTORY OF THE UNION, AND THIRD AND FOURTH VISIT TO 
 SCOTLAND, &c. (JUNE-SEPT., 1708, AND AUG. AND SEPT., 1709). 
 
 Works; 105. — The Scots Narrative examined, igtli Feb. , 1709. 
 106. — Review, vol. v. 3rst Mar. , 1709. 
 107. — History of tile Union. 
 
 108. — Answer to a Paper concerning Mr. De Foe. 
 109. — A Reproof to Mr. Clarlc. 
 
 no. — A Commendatory Sermon, preaclied 4tli Nov., 1709. 
 III. — Review^ vol. vi. 23rd Mar., 1710. 
 
 Early in 1708, shortly after the change in the 
 Ministry, news came of the gathering of the French 
 expedition under De Fourbin at Dunkirk, with a 
 view, it was suspected, of trying to effect a landing 
 in Scotland ; and about the same time Defoe was 
 despatched to Edinburgh on an errand which was 
 " far from being unfit for a sovereign to direct or an 
 honest man to perform." It is said that his object 
 was to inquire, in behalf of the Government, " on what 
 amount of support the invaders might rely in the 
 bitterness prevailing in Scotland after the Union." 
 The French expedition, however, made no attempt 
 to land, and sailed back to Dunkirk without accom- 
 plishing anything. 
 
 Whilst on his way to Scotland (1708) his "travelling 
 K 
 
146" The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 occasions " led him to Coventry, where the horse 
 of the gentleman who was travelling ^with him falling 
 lame, it was substituted for another, obtained of one 
 Mayo. The hire was paid down, and a further sum 
 agreed upon for the purchase, in case the horse was 
 not returned. Defoe's companion, having decided to 
 keep the horse, remitted the money to Coventry, but 
 Mayo, owing to a dispute about the price, declined to 
 receive it. Defoe's enemies, ever on the alert for 
 scandal, required nothing further ; and, although Defoe 
 was in no wise connected with the affair, issued some 
 time after a pamphlet entitled, " A Hue and Cry after 
 Daniel Defoe and his Coventry Beast . . '. London, 
 1 71 1," in which it was declared that Defoe had hired 
 " a horse of one Mayo, which he took to Scotland ; 
 and that neither the animal nor the hire of it had 
 been heard of since." 
 
 At the time the French fleet appeared, several 
 persons who were known to be in the interest of the 
 Pretender, and others whose loyalty was suspected, 
 were ordered to be apprehended, among the latter 
 being Lord Belhaven. The only reason for his 
 lordship's j.rrest was that he had been a most bitter 
 opponent of the Union, and as opponents of the 
 Union were mostly rabid Jacobites, ergo, argued 
 the Government, Lord Belhaven was a rabid Jacob- 
 ite. In a letter to Defoe, written early in the year, 
 his lordship showed that he took it greatly to heart 
 in " that he should be suspected in a cause he had 
 always abhorred " ; and when Defoe visited him in 
 the Castle of Edinburgh he complained still more 
 bitterly. After pointing out that the misfortune in 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 1 47 
 
 having been so ardent an opponent of the Union 
 was the cause of the trouble, and that doves who 
 consort with crows are likely birds to be netted, 
 Defoe " endeavoured to calm his lordship's spirit," 
 and declared that there would be no difficulty in 
 establishing his innocence. Just before Lord Bel- 
 haven departed from Edinburgh, Defoe again waited 
 on him to wish him good journey ; but though his 
 lordship was more cheerful outwardly, he suffered 
 inwardly, and had resolved on self-destruction. This 
 was on June 14th, and a few days later he was found 
 dead. In the Review, v., 177 — 180, in compliance 
 with the last request of the deceased, Defoe cleared 
 his lordship's reputation. 
 
 In the autumn of the following year Defoe again 
 visited Scotland, staying apparently about two months. 
 
 38.— ■■ HIGH-CHURCH DARLING, SACHEVERELL" (FEB. 27, 1710). 
 
 Works ; 112. —Letter from Captain Tom to the Mob. nth Mar., 1710. 
 113.— A Speech without Doors. 19th Ap., 1710. 
 
 114. — Instructions from Rome in favour of the Pretender, nth May, 1710. 
 115. — An Essay upon Publick Credit. 23rd Aug., 1710. 
 116. — A Word against a New Election. Oct., 1710. 
 117. — A New Test of the Sense of the Nation. 12th Oct., 1710. 
 118. — An Essay upon Loans. 21st Oct., 1710. 
 
 On the 5th of November, 1709, Dr. Sacheverell 
 preached before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, at 
 St. Paul's Cathedral, his famous sermon upon " Perils 
 Among False Brethren," in which he denounced the 
 Revolution as an unrighteous change, maintained the 
 duty of punishing Dissenters, and called on the people 
 to defend the Church, which he declared to be in 
 imminent danger. The sentiments in it were, in 
 K 2 
 
148 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 fact, precisely those of Defoe's " Shortest Way." 
 Defoe had put into words what a High-flier thought, 
 and would have said had he dared ; but now here 
 was a High-flier actually daring, and meaning what 
 he said. It matters not to us whether the sermon 
 was Sacheverell's own production, or whether, as 
 rumour said, it sprang from the brain of Dr. Atter- 
 bury. Its effect was extraordinary ; the whole nation 
 was in a turmoil. 
 
 As a foil against the onslaught of Sacheverell, 
 Defoe had recourse to ridicule, a weapon which he 
 handled only clumsily, for the one thing needful to 
 make ridicule really effective — the gift of humour — 
 he sadly lacked. Nothing that Defoe ever wrote 
 made us laugh heartily, though he was a man who 
 was almost constantly in good humour, and often 
 tells what he is pleased to call " a merry tale " ; but 
 these merry tales, even when they have a little 
 buffoonery in them, do not always provoke even a 
 smile. The merriest tale that Defoe ever wrote 
 might be read in church during a dull sermon with- 
 out the slightest fear of being provoked to indecorum. 
 Very unwi^ly, the House of Commons resolved on 
 Sacheverell's impeachment. During the trial, which 
 took place in Westminster Hall, and lasted more 
 than a fortnight, the whole city, one might almost 
 say the whole country, was in an uproar. The mob 
 attended the doctor's carriage every day from his 
 lodgings in the Temple to Westminster Hall, huzza- 
 ing and pressing to kiss his hand ; and during the 
 evenings^employed themselves in wrecking meeting- 
 houses and hooting before the residences of the Whig 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 1 49 
 
 Ministers. On the 22nd of March (1710) Sacheverell 
 was brought in guilty, and enjoined not to preach 
 again for three years. This was considered by the 
 mob and the High Church party as equivalent to 
 an acquittal, and further riotings took place. 
 
 Nobody, as Defoe said, could think or talk about 
 anything but the trial. Even the ladies, who, as a 
 rule, were not particularly hot ver politics, caught 
 the contagion. " Indeed, they have hardly leisure 
 to live, little time to eat and sleep, and none at all 
 to say their prayers. Even the little boys and girls 
 talk politics. Little miss has Dr. Sacheverell's pic- 
 ture put into her Prayer Book, that God and the 
 Doctor may take her up in the morning before 
 breakfast." 
 
 Among the few letters of Defoe that have been 
 preserved is one dated Newington, 7th April, 17 10, 
 warning Lord Wharton against a " scandalous priest 
 of Leeds," named Cooper, who was soliciting pre- 
 ferment ; but if Lord Wharton took any notice of 
 Defoe's "true account of y'= morals and manners of 
 this man," there wasn't much chance of his getting it.* 
 
 39.— THE S. WAGES ARRIVE.— ■' ET ERIT MIHI MAGNUS APOLLO."— 
 "HEY, BOYS, UP GO WE!" 
 
 Those who had denounced Sacheverell went 
 about in peril of their lives. No fewer than fifteen 
 threatening letters were sent to Defoe ; three times 
 he was beset and waylaid; and his friends bade 
 him remember Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, and stay 
 
 * This letter is in ^\'ilson iii., 121. 
 
15° The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 indoors. But all this bullying had little effect on 
 him. " My brief resolution," he says, " is this i 
 while I live, they may be assured I shall never 
 desist doing my duty in exposing the doctrines 
 that oppose God and the Revolution : such as pas-^ 
 sive submission to tyrants, and non-resistance in 
 cases of oppression. If those who are at a loss for 
 arguments are resolved to better their cause by 
 violence and blood, I leave the issue to God's provi- 
 dence ; and must do as well with them as I can. 
 As to defence, I have had some thoughts to stay- 
 at home by night, and by day to wear a piece of 
 armour on my back : the first, because I am per- 
 suaded these murderers will not do their work by 
 daylight ; and the second, because I firmly believe 
 they will never attempt it fairly to my face. 
 
 " Upon the whole, as I am going on in what I 
 esteem my duty, and for the public good, I firmly 
 believe it will not please God to deliver me up tO' 
 this bloody and ungodly party ; and, therefore, shall 
 still go on to expose a bigoted race of people, in order 
 to reclaim and reform them, or to open the eyes of 
 the good oeople of Britain, that they may not be 
 imposed upon. Whether in this work I meet with 
 punishment or praise, safety or hazard, life or death, 
 Te Deiim laudamus " — the great refrain, notice : Te 
 Delist /audamus. 
 
 The extraordinary peril in wliich Defoe found 
 himself placed at this time seems to coincide with 
 the arrival of the savages on Crusoe's island. The 
 savages arrived just twenty-three years after Crusoe's 
 landing ; and the trial of Sacheverell occurred twenty- 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. I5I 
 
 three years after Defoe had taken his strange 
 vow of silence. 
 
 The opportunity appearing a suitable one, Defoe 
 now reprinted his " Shortest Way with Dissenters," 
 adding to the title-page, " Taken from Dr. Sache- 
 verell's Sermon and others" ; and on December 15th 
 he re-issued " De Laune's Plea " with the following 
 title : " Dr. Sacheverell's Recantation ; or, the Fire of 
 St. Paul's quickly quenched by a Plea for the Non- 
 conformists. London, 1709." A pamphlet that ap- 
 peared about this time, "The New Wonder; or, a 
 Trip to St. Paul's," which according to the title-page 
 is by Defoe, was probably only passed off as his by 
 the printer to make it sell — a trick that was then but 
 too common. Nor had Defoe any hand in another 
 contemporary pamphlet that has been attributed to 
 him — " The High Church Address to Dr. Henry 
 Sacheverell." 
 
 Tracts which about this time he did write were : 
 " A letter from Captain Tom to the Mobb now raised 
 for Dr. Sacheverell" (nth March, 17 10), the object 
 of which was to prevent further destruction of pro- 
 perty by the wild followers of the Doctor ; "A Speech 
 without Doors," combating the Doctor's arguments 
 re non-resistance ; and " Instructions from Rome in 
 favour of the Pretender" (nth May), a tract with the 
 same object, only written with more violence. In the 
 Review, he taunted the Doctor with being unable to 
 answer him. " Let him do this," said Defoe, '' et erit 
 mild magnus Apollo'' The efforts of Defoe, how- 
 ever, did little good ; " even if he had possessed a pen 
 like Juvenal, to sting with the keenest satire," it 
 
152 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 would have been used in vain ; for the Whigs were 
 unpopular, and in June the Queen, who bore no love 
 to them either, dismissed the Earl of Sunderland. 
 
 When the news flew through the country that Sun- 
 derland had fallen, people comprehended that ' ' the 
 Sacheverell jig" had led to something. It reached 
 Harley when he was making merry with some friends 
 at his place in Herefordshire. " The game is up ! " 
 he cried, springing from the table. Instantly the order 
 was given for the horses to be got ready, and away he 
 went for London. Nor were his expectations falsified. 
 The fall of Sunderland was followed by that of 
 Godolphin ; and in August Harley and his friends 
 once more entered upon the enjoyment of the sweets 
 of office — all this, too, after poor Lord Cowper, as his 
 diary records, had devoted his best tokay, " good but 
 thick," to the much-to-be-desired Whig conciliation. 
 
 After Godolphin's displacement Defoe waited on 
 him, and " asked his lordship's direction what course 
 he should take," with the result of a reply resembling 
 the one Harley had given on a similar occasion : 
 " That he (Defoe) was the Queen's servant, and 
 that what had occurred need make no difference to 
 him." Thus Defoe " was providentially cast back 
 upon his original benefactor," Harley, who had now, 
 as we have seen, turned Tory, though in reality only 
 a lukewarm Tory. 
 
 On 23rd August, 1 710, Defoe published "An 
 Essay upon Public Credit," a tract suggested by the 
 financial depression that had been occasioned by the 
 change of Government ; and on October 21st a sup- 
 plement with the title, "An Essay upon Loans." 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 153 
 
 Poinding that Harley was bent upon moderation, Defoe 
 thought that he could consistently support him, and in 
 the elections that followed he counselled the nation to 
 elect, not Whigs only, but moderate men of no matter 
 which party^advice which brought on him the charge 
 of being a turncoat. Apparently, however, he did 
 what was best, considering the circumstances. That 
 it happened likewise to be what was best for his own 
 interests will be regarded by the charitable as only a 
 curious coincidence. That affection for Harley, how- 
 ever, pulled him, if not a long way, a certain distance, 
 may be taken for granted. In the great election fight 
 that then ensued, Sacheverell was successful all along 
 the line ; and it was now to be, as Defoe had feared, 
 "a Tory Parliament, a Tory Ministry, a Tory peace, 
 a Tory successor, and Hey, doys, up go we ! " 
 
 40.— DEFOE'S FIFTH VISIT TO SCOTLAND.— A PASSAGE AT ARMS 
 WITH SWIFT. —A TREATY TO ABSTAIN FROM SHYING MUD 
 (NOV., 1710. TO MARCH, 1711). 
 
 Works: 119. — Edinburgh Courant. ist Feb. , 1711. 
 120. — Atalantis Major. Probably Feb. , 1711. 
 
 In the month of November, 1710, Defoe left his 
 home and family on another journey to Scotland, but 
 whether on a mission from the Government or to 
 escape his creditors we are not told. On December 
 13, 1 7 10, as appears from the Public Records of 
 Edinburgh, a contract was entered into " between 
 David Fearn, advocate, and Daniel De Foe, about 
 printing and publishing a newspaper called Tke Post- 
 man." The Review was continued as usual, and the 
 copy transmitted regularly to London for publication. 
 
154 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 On the 1st of February, 171 1, the Corporation of 
 Edinburgh empowered Defoe to publish the Edin- 
 burgh Courant, in the room of Adam Booge, deceased, 
 but probably this newspaper soon passed into other 
 hands. The only pamphlet written by Defoe at 
 this time " is an amusing piece of banter," entitled 
 " Atalantis Major, Printed in Olreeky, the chief city 
 of the north part of Atalantis Major," the occasion 
 whereof being "the election of the sixteen Scotch 
 representative Lords, and their rage at the oaths they 
 had to take as members of the British Parliament." 
 
 Owing to the frequency of his visits to Scotland, 
 Scotch expressions, as might be expected, are often 
 in Defoe's mouth. In the " Use and Abuse," for 
 example, he observes, " If men will defile themselves, 
 as the Scots say, no man can dight them " ; and he 
 quotes the Scottish proverb — 
 
 " Titty, Tatty, Kitty, Katty, 
 False to ea man, false to au men " '; 
 
 he talks of " muckle thief devil," and in his " History 
 of Magic " he describes the Scottish caude (drawer in 
 a tavern) as inquiring, "What's your honour's wull, 
 sir?" 
 
 Defoe and Swift being on opposite sides in politics, 
 it is not to be expected that much love would be lost 
 between them, nor is it surprising, considering the 
 way warfare was carried on in the Augustan age, that 
 the attacks were of a very personal nature. It is 
 more than probable, if all particulars of the fray were 
 known, that it was Defoe who struck first blow ; but 
 the earliest notification we get that the two are at 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. I 55 
 
 loggerheads is in 1708, when Swift, in his pamphlet, 
 entitled " A Letter from a Member of the House of 
 Commons in Ireland to a Member of the House of 
 Commons in England, concerning the Sacramental 
 Test," observes, " one of those authors (the fellow that 
 was pilloried, I have forgot his name) is indeed ,so 
 grave, sententious, dogmatical a rogue, that there is no 
 enduring him." 
 
 England in 1894 does not forget Defoe's name, 
 but neither does it forget Swift's. That they fought 
 on different sides — that they were not friends — is 
 nothing to us. We love and honour both. Their 
 very mention is pleasant music, and a welling-up of 
 deep affection from the innermost recesses of the 
 heart. 
 
 But we return to the fray. In No. 16 of the 
 Examiner Swift adds more fuel to the strife by calling 
 Defoe and Tutchin " stupid, illiterate scribblers and 
 idiots." Defoe at first made no reply; but Swift, in 
 subsequent Examiners, continuing in the same strain, 
 Defoe took upon himself to reply, and {Review vii., 
 454, 455)* gave his adversary a little more than he 
 had received. He was not so very ignorant, he said, 
 seeing that he could speak live languages, though he 
 did not write a bill over his door, or set up Latin 
 quotations on the front of his paper. His father, it 
 was true, had neglected one element in his education, 
 for he had not taught him the language of Billings- 
 gate. In the fine art of swearing and using the foul 
 language of the street with the ease of a porter or a 
 carman, he confessed himself Swift's inferior. He 
 
 * Revici^- vii. was published 22nd Mar., 1711. 
 
156 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 had no objection to fighting a rascal, but calling a 
 man one was not in his line. Then follows a com- 
 ment on Swift's expression, a " scurrilous gentleman," 
 a heterogeneity which Defoe confessed he had never 
 met with, and could not for the life of him form an 
 idek of what it was like. 
 
 This taunt of lack of learning, however, continued 
 all his life to give Defoe annoyance ; and in one of 
 his papers in Applebees Journal, whilst dealing with 
 the subject of "learning," he shows his soreness by 
 giving a very complete account of his attainments in 
 languages, science, history, and geography, finishing 
 up each sentence with the words, " Yet this man 
 was no scholar." Even in his last important work, 
 "The Compleat English Gentleman," written in 1729, 
 the subject is again recurred to. 
 
 In 171 1 Swift and others of the coterie to which 
 he belonged weire writing, like Defoe, on the side of 
 Harley ; but, according to Oldmixon, Harley " paid 
 Defoe better than he did Swift, looking on him as 
 the shrewder head of the two for business. Writing 
 on the same side, however, did not render the two 
 authors a bit more amicable. Swift made several 
 subsequent* attacks on Defoe, which the latter as 
 often replied to, dubbing him on one occasion, in 
 allusion to the Wood's Copper Coinage affair, the 
 " Author of brains and brass." 
 
 A curious letter of Defoe's, showing the literary 
 manners of the times, which bears date Newington, 
 17th June, 1 7 10, is preserved in the British Museum 
 (Harl. MSS. No. 7001, fol. 269). The letter is 
 written to Mr. J. Dyer, of Shoe Lane, who was then 
 
To AND FROM Scotland. 157 
 
 employed by the Tory leaders in circulating Tory 
 literature ; and in it Defoe declares his readiness to 
 make with Dyer " a fair truce of honour," viz., " that 
 if what either party are doing, or saying, that may 
 clash with the party we are for, and urge us to speak, 
 it shall be done without naming cither's name, and 
 without personal reflections ; and thus we may differ 
 still, and yet preserve both the Christian and the 
 gentleman." Defoe concludes by wishing Dyer 
 success in all things, " your opinions of government 
 excepted." 
 
 Dyer, it is worth noting, conducted his News- 
 letter on a rather ingenious principle. The copies, 
 instead of being written quite alike, we're varied 
 according to the tastes of the persons they were 
 meant for. Previous to sending to a fresh coffee- 
 house, he used to inquire what sort of people 
 frequented it, and, on getting an answer, " would 
 send such news as would fit them." But in time 
 so little credit got to be attached to what Dyer 
 said that Addison made Honest Vellum, a character 
 in one of his plays, believe his master to be living, 
 "because the news of his death was first published 
 in Dyer's Letter." 
 
 41.— GUISCARD STABS HARLEY (8th MAR., 1711).— "NO MAN HAS 
 TASTED DIFFERING FORTUNES MORE": ACTEON. 
 
 Works: 121. — Revieiv, vol. vii. 22nd March, 1711. 
 
 122. — Eleven Opinions about Mr. Harley. 14th May, 1711. 
 123. — Secret History of the October Club. 
 124. — Do., part ii. 
 
 125. — Essay on the South Sea Trade. 6th Sept., 1711. 
 126. — Reasons why this Nation ought to put a speedy end to this expensive 
 War. 
 
158 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Works : 127. — Armageddon. 
 
 128, — The Balance of Europe. 
 
 129. — An Essay on . . , a Good Peace. 
 
 i30.^Reasons why a Party among us, etc. 
 
 I3r. — The Felonious Treaty. 
 
 132. — Essay on the History of Parties. 
 
 133. — Conduct of Parties in England. 
 
 134. — The Present State of Parties in Great Britain. 
 
 135. — Reasons against Fighting. 
 
 136. — Review, vol. viii. 2gth July, 1712. 
 
 On the 8th March, 1711, occurred the daring 
 attempt of the Marquis de Guiscard to assassinate 
 Harley, an event that added very greatly to Harley's 
 popularity. April 21st, 171 1, saw the publication of 
 Defoe's " Secret History of the October Club," a 
 tract written for the purpose of holding up to 
 execration a coterie of extreme High-fliers, who, 
 under the name of the October Club, held their 
 meetings at the Bell Tavern in Westminster ; and 
 on May 14th he published a defence of Harley, 
 
 with the title " Eleven Opinions about Mr. H y ; 
 
 with Observations." 
 
 On the 24th May, Harley, who had daily risen 
 in favour of the Queen since the attempt at his 
 assassination, and who enjoyed the support of most 
 of the Tories, was raised by Her Majesty to the 
 peerage byp the title of Earl of Oxford and Mor- 
 timer ; and on the 29th of the same month he was 
 made Lord High Treasurer. 
 
 A letter written by Defoe on May 29th, 171 1, to 
 the Earl of Buchan shows that he was understood 
 at this time to have considerable influence with the 
 Ministers. Lord Buchan had requested Defoe to 
 plant his interest with Harley. Nothing, however, 
 could be done just then, owing to " the wound of 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. I 59 
 
 the assassin " ; but Defoe promised to watch for a 
 favourable opportunity.* 
 
 In 171 1 we first hear of the scheme for trading 
 on a large scale in the South Seas, a concern that 
 subsequently led people into such wild courses and 
 involved half the nation in ruin. The scheme was 
 suggested by Harley in the hope of its being able 
 to provide funds required for carrying on the war, 
 and Defoe, who even so early as the time of King 
 William had had similar plans in his brain, not only 
 gave the suggestion his cordial support, but embodied 
 his opinions in a pamphlet, published on the 6th of 
 September (1711): "An Essay on the South Sea 
 Trade." The beginning of the South Sea scheme 
 was honourable enough ; the end of it — the South 
 Sea Bubble, as it came to be called — is known of 
 all men. 
 
 The great aim and desire of the Tories, now that 
 they had got into power, was to bring about a peace 
 with France ; and, after certain preliminaries, M. 
 Mesnager was sent privately to England empowered 
 to ascertain the views of the English Ministers; and 
 Matthew Prior, the poet, proceeded on a similar errand 
 to France. The support Defoe gave to the Ministry, 
 which he did both in his reviews and in pamphlets, 
 caused those who were adverse to the Government to 
 repeat the charge of inconsistency, and they "wondered 
 what sovereign medicine had been since applied to his 
 
 eyes, and by how much gold they had been rubbed" 
 
 an insinuation that he repelled with indignation. The 
 
 * See Noics and Queries, 26th Jan., 1884, where the letter is given in 
 full. 
 
i6o The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 first of his pamphlets in support of the peace is entitled 
 " Reasons why this Nation ought to put a speedy end 
 to this expensive War" (Oct. 6, 17 n). This, falling 
 into the hands of M. Mesnager, so delighted him that 
 he had it translated into French and circulated in the 
 Netherlands. Moreover, in order to secure Defoe's 
 services for the future, he tried the effect of a bribe. 
 " To facilitate the thing," says Mesnager, " I caused 
 an hundred pistoles to be conveyed to him, as a com- 
 pliment for that book, and let him know it came from 
 a hand that was as able to treat him honourably as he 
 was sensible of his service." Defoe, however, though 
 he kept the pistoles as a "compliment for the book" 
 he had written, was not to be bought ; for, continues 
 Mesnager, " I missed my aim in the person, though 
 perhaps the money was not wholly lost ; for I after- 
 wards understood that the man was in the service of 
 the State, and that he had let the Queen know of the 
 hundred pistoles he had received ; so I was obliged 
 to sit still, and be very well satisfied that I had not 
 discovered myself to him, for it was not our season 
 yet. 
 
 On the 30th of October appeared " Armageddon ; 
 or, the neSfessity of carrying on the war, if such a 
 peace cannot be obtained as may render Europe safe 
 and trade secure," and two days later the tract "The 
 Balance of Europe," in which Defoe gives it as his 
 opinion that the peace of Europe would more likely 
 be secured by handing over Spain to King Philip. 
 About November 27th he issues " An Essay at a 
 Plain Exposition of that Difficult Phrase, a Good 
 Peace," in the introduction of which he defends his 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. l6l 
 
 own position ; and on November 29th he could show 
 " Reasons why a Party among us, etc., are obstinately 
 bent against a Treaty of Peace." By-and-by John 
 Howe, M.P. for Gloucestershire, rakes up an old 
 grievance against King William, whose memory he 
 reproached on account of the Partition Treaty — the 
 Felonious Treaty, as he called it — which caused Defoe, 
 ever tender on the. subject of his late master, to enter 
 the lists with "The Felonious Treaty," etc., etc., in 
 which he defended the conduct of William in words 
 which he had "from his Majesty's own mouth." 
 
 Up to this point Defoe- had been able to sail with 
 Harley and the Tories, for the watchword had been 
 "Moderation," and he had hoped that, thanks to the 
 prestige of Harley, moderation would continue to be 
 practised ; but it was not so. Finding themselves in 
 power, the Tories and High-fliers were unable to 
 resist the temptation of making use of it, or rather of 
 abusing it, and on their first opportunity they brought 
 in again their Bill for the Prevention of Occasional 
 Conformity ; and, in order to secure its passage through 
 the Lords, took the novel step of creating twelve new 
 peers in one day. Nor did Harley and the Whig 
 members of the Government offer any particular 
 opposition. 
 
 Deserted by their friends, the Dissenters, with the 
 exception of a few, including Defoe, abandoned all 
 hope ; and even Defoe was sometimes despondent. 
 He says in one of his reviews, " The measure will 
 infallibly ruin many hundreds of Dissenting families, 
 or cause them to act against their consciences for 
 bread, which, I think, is one of the worst kinds of 
 
 L 
 
1 62 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 persecution." Applications to Harley were useless. 
 Harley wished to remain in power ; the Tories only 
 could keep him in power, ergo he must please the 
 Tories. As a last effort against the Bill, Defoe, on 
 the 22nd of December, published a pamphlet in which 
 he begged the Queen to make use of her right of 
 veto: "An Essay on the History of Parties," etc. 
 But neither was that of any avail, for the same day 
 she gave her assent, and the Bill became law. 
 
 Defoe's tract, " The Conduct of Parties in Eng- 
 land," was followed^ on the 17th of May by "The 
 Present State of Parties in Great Britain," a large 
 work upon which he had been engaged at inter- 
 vals over eight years. The last chapter consists of 
 advice to the Dissenters " as to the best course to 
 be adopted in their present depressed condition." 
 To this succeeded a dissertation on the Peace 
 question, his "Reasons Against Fighting" (June 7, 
 1712). 
 
 On July 29th, 1 71 2, was finished the eighth volume 
 of \(\?, Review . In the preface, which is of the greatest 
 interest, he gives " a retrospect of the whole work, the 
 treatment it has received during its progress of more 
 than eighf years, including many particulars of his 
 past life, and the existing state of his circumstances." 
 He had expected to make enemies, he said, by 
 speaking plain, nor had he been deceived ; but it 
 was certainly hard that he should so often have 
 been ill-treated by his friends. 
 
 " I am now," says he, " hunted 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 genuine sense of what I write, 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 1 63 
 
 against fair arguing, against all modesty and sense ; condemned by 
 common clamour as writing for money, for particular persons, by 
 great men's directions, and the like ; every tittle of which, I have the 
 testimony of my own conscience, is abominably false, and the accusers 
 must have the accusation of their own consciences that they do not 
 know it to be true.'' 
 
 After a careful examination of his own thoughts, 
 desires, and designs, he found " a clear, untainted 
 principle, and consequently an entire calm of con- 
 science." And having looked iv, he looked 7ip. He 
 would submit, "with an entire resignation," to what- 
 ever might happen to him. He fully believed that 
 Heaven would yet deliver him " from the power of 
 slander and reproach ; "' but even if not, he would still 
 say, as he had so often said, Te Deiun latidamus ! 
 
 " I have gone," he adds, " through a life of wonders, and am the 
 subject of a vast variety of providences ; I have been fed more by 
 miracle than Elijah when the ravens were his purveyors. I have, 
 some time ago, summed up the scenes of my life in this distich : — 
 
 No man has tasted differing fortunes more, 
 And thirteen times I have been rich and poor. 
 
 " In the school of affliction I have learnt more philosophy than at 
 the academy, and more divinity than from the pulpit; in prison I 
 have learnt to know that liberty does not consist in open doors, and 
 the free egress and regress of locomotion. I have seen the rough 
 side of the world as well as the smooth : and have, in less than half 
 a year, tasted the difference between the closet of a king and 
 the dungeon of Newgate. I have suffered deeply for cleaving to 
 principles." 
 
 By none was he so basely betrayed as by those 
 
 whose families he had preserved from starving. 
 
 " Fame," he says further on, "would talk me up for I 
 
 know not what of courage, ; and they call me a fightino- 
 
 L 2 
 
164 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 fellow." But if he is bold, he says, it is because his 
 cause is a just one : " Truth inspires nature ; and, as 
 in defence of truth no honest man can be a coward, so 
 no man of sense can be bold when he is in the wrong. 
 He that is honest must be brave." 
 
 In defence of truth he could dare to die. 
 
 " I question whether there is much, if any, difference between 
 bravery and cowardice, but what is founded in the principle they are 
 engaged. for. Truth makes a man of courage, and guilt makes that 
 man a coward. 
 
 " I have a large family — a wife and six children, who never want 
 what they should enjoy or spend what they ought to save. Under 
 all these circumstances, and many more, my only happiness is this : 
 I have always been kept cheerful, easy, and quiet, enjoying a perfect 
 calm of mind. If any man ask me how I arrived to it, I answer him, 
 in short, by a constant, serious application to the great, solemn, and 
 weighty work of resignation to the will of Heaven." 
 
 42.— THE ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER SELKIRK.— THE MEETING 
 IN BRISTOL OF SELKIRK AND DEFOE. 
 
 The memory now reverts to the child, Alexander 
 Selkirk, whom we left crowing in his cot at Largo. 
 Grown to be a youth, a desire possessed him to follow 
 the sea ; but, although his mother favoured the idea, 
 his father«)pposed it. Wild and restless of control, 
 young Selkirk daily kicked against the authority of the 
 home, and elsewhere his conduct was equally wild. In 
 August, 1695, he was cited to appear before the kirk 
 session for making a disturbance in church ; but when 
 the kirk session met they found themselves powerless 
 to do anything except to insert in their record: 
 "August 27th. — Alexander Selcraig called out; but 
 did not appear, having gone to sea." For six years he 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 165 
 
 roved the ocean — probably in the company of some 
 band of buccaneers — and then came home again, more 
 reckless and boisterous thai> ever. A ridiculous inci- 
 dent that ought to have been passed over originated 
 in the house a disgraceful quarrel. Andrew, a half- 
 witted brother, having brought in a can full of salt 
 water, Alexander took a drink of it through mistake, 
 and then beat Andrew for laughing at him. The 
 father and another brother, John, coming to Andrew's 
 assistance, Alexander attacked them both ; and 
 John's wife, who had followed her husband, found 
 Alexander gripping both old Selkirk and her 
 husband ; and in the scuffle she too received blows. 
 For this, in accordance with a decree of the kirk 
 sessions, Alexander was obliged to stand up in church 
 in front of the pulpit, where he made " acknowledg- 
 ment of his sin in disagreeing with his brothers, and 
 was rebuked in the face of the congfre^ation for it, 
 and promised amendment in the strength of the Lord, 
 and so was dismissed." 
 
 This was on Sunday, November 30, 1701. Selkirk 
 remained at Largo during the winter, but in the spring 
 of 1 702 he again set sail, this time with the celebrated 
 buccaneer, Dampier. Dampier's expedition, the object 
 of which was to plunder French and Spanish vessels, 
 consisted of two ships, the St. George, commanded by 
 Dampier himself, and the Cinque Ports, commanded 
 by Charles Pickering, with Thomas Stradling for 
 lieutenant and Selkirk for sailing master. The 
 second mate of the St. George was William Funnel, 
 who wrote a narrative of the voyage. Before long, 
 Pickering died, and Stradling, a man of ferocious and 
 
1 66 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 quarrelsome temper, succeeded him. On the loth 
 of February, 1 704, the two vessels were off the coast 
 of Juan Fernandez, west of Chili in South America, 
 an island of cabbage-trees and pimentoes, sea-lions, 
 turtles, and wild goats. "The sea-lions, if hard 
 pressed, raise their bodies on their fore-fins and face 
 you with their mouths wide open ; so that we used to 
 clap a pistol to their mouths and fire down their 
 throats." Juan Fernandez is about the size of the 
 island of Bute. Its hills, which have for soil a loose 
 black earth, besides being " very rotten," are honey- 
 combed with excavations made by " a sort of fowl called 
 the puffin." A sail coming in sight, the buccaneers 
 gave chase to it, but without success ; and after a 
 fruitless attempt on Santa Maria, a town of Peru, 
 where they hoped to find a quantity of gold, and the 
 capture of a valuable prize laden with food, Dampier 
 and Stradling quarrelled and separated. Stradling 
 returned to Juan Fernandez, where, owing to a dis- 
 agreement with him, Selkirk now signified his inten- 
 tion of remaining ; arid no opposition being offered, 
 he and his effects were rowed ashore. When, how- 
 ever, he saw the boat returning, the horrors of his 
 situation Vividly presented themselves ; and, rushing 
 into the surf up to the middle, he stretched out his 
 hands towards his comrades, and implored them to 
 come back and take him on board again. The only 
 answer was a jeer. The boat reached the ship, 
 the ship spread her sails, and Selkirk was alone on 
 his island. 
 
 Unable to abandon the hope that Stradling would 
 relent and come back for him, the unhappy Selkirk 
 
To AND FROM ScOTLAXD. l6j 
 
 found himself chained to the beach : and even when 
 gnawed with hunger, rather than go in search of fruits 
 and other products of the woods, he contented himself 
 with shell-fish and seal's flesh, and whatever else he 
 could obtain without removing inland. He hated 
 even to close his eyes. Often he cursed the folly that 
 had brought him to this terrible solitude, and some- 
 times, starting up in agony, he -yvould resolve on 
 suicide. Voices spoke to him both in the howHngs 
 of the sea in front and in the murmur of the woods 
 behind. The shore was creatured with phantoms. 
 Then — cooling his fevered brain — came sweet visions 
 of his childhood, the home at Largo, his mother, the 
 fields he had rambled in, the words he had heard in 
 the old kirk, thoughts of God. 
 
 His mind more at ease, he now sought to render 
 his residence on the island more endurable. Cutting 
 down pimento wood, he built two huts, one a sleeping- 
 room, the other a kitchen. He obtained fire Indian- 
 fashion, by rubbing together two pieces of pimento. 
 Overhauling his stores, he found clothing and bedding, 
 a firelock, a pound of gunpowder, a hatchet, a knife, a 
 kettle, a Bible, some other religious works, a book or 
 two on navigation, and his mathematical instruments. 
 To these must be added a flip-can, holding about two 
 quarts, made of brown stoneware, glazed, with in- 
 scription and posy, of the kind with which your roaring 
 old buccaneer delighted to decorate his belongings — 
 
 " Alexander Selkirk, this is my one, ^ 
 * * * * 
 
 When you take me on board of ship. 
 
 Pray fill me full with punch or flip." 
 
1 68 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 This can, his firelock, his chest, and a cocoa-nut shell 
 cup which he made, are still, or were until recently, in 
 the possession of descendants of the family. 
 
 Every day he watched the horizon for sails. 
 Every morning he read a portion of Scripture, sang 
 a psalm, and prayed, speaking aloud in order to 
 preserve the use of his voice. He had never before 
 
 A CAVE IN JUAN FERNANDEZ. 
 {From a photograph lent by .Mr. W. H. G. U'eU, K.X.) 
 
 been so gooc^ a Christian. Turtles, crawfish, turnips, 
 parsnips, cabbage palm, goat-flesh, radishes, and Avater- 
 cresses formed his food. When his powder failed, he 
 chased the wild goats on foot, and by dint of practice 
 became so fleet that he could run them down ; and he 
 kept a small stock, tamed, round his dwelling. When 
 his clothes wore out, he clad himself in skins. Annoyed 
 by rats, which had taken to tasting his toes when he 
 was asleep, he caught and tamed some cats. To 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. 1 69 
 
 amuse himself, he taught his cats and some of his 
 goats to dance ; and, anxious that, in the event of his 
 dying in soHtude, his having lived there might not be 
 unknown to his fellow creatures, he carved his name 
 on a number of trees. 
 
 Several times he saw vessels passing the island, 
 and two anchored beside it ; but discovering the 
 strangers to be Spaniards, and therefore enemies, he 
 feared to make himself known. Once when hunting 
 the wild goat he fell down a precipice, and lay 
 stunned for twenty-four hours ; but though invalided 
 for three days, he sustained no permanent injury. 
 The whole island was now familiar to him, with 
 its appearances and productions at various seasons. 
 Though partly reconciled to his fate, he would never- 
 theless occasionally indulge in the sad reflections 
 made familiar to us by Cowper's poem, in which the 
 solitary buccaneer is represented as at first saying — 
 
 " I am monarch of all I survey. 
 
 My right there is none to dispute ; 
 From the centre, all round to the sea, 
 I am lord of the fowl and the brute ; " 
 
 but afterwards, when a full sense of his utter loneliness 
 came upon him — a loneliness to which the loneliness 
 of an anchorite was even the busy world — 
 
 " O solitude ! where are the charms 
 That sages have seen in thy face ? 
 Better dwell in the midst of alarms. 
 Than reign in this horrible place." 
 
 In the meantime, only ill-luck had attended the 
 Cinqiie Ports, Selkirk's old ship, and its companion 
 the St. George. The former was wrecked, and though 
 
170 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Stradling and a few of his crew escaped, they ulti- 
 mately fell into the hands of the Spaniards, and out 
 of the knowledge of history. The St. George was 
 taken by the Dutch, and " Dampier returned naked 
 to his owners, with a melancholy relation of his 
 misfortunes, occasioned chiefly by his own strange 
 temper.'' The merchants who had employed Dampier 
 now prepared for another marauding expedition, and 
 fitted out two vessels, the Duke and the Duchess, 
 over whom they put Captain Woodes Rogers, a man 
 of ability and prudence. Dampier, who could not 
 be entrusted with the command, sailed as pilot. On 
 the 31st of January, 1709, after cruising along the 
 Brazilian and Chilian coasts, they bore for Juan 
 Fernandez in order to take in water, and here, to 
 their surprise, they found "a man clothed in goat 
 skins, who looked wilder than the first owners of 
 them." At first Selkirk was so overcome with joy 
 that he could not speak, but after a time he tendered 
 explanations ; and, by Dampier's recommendation, 
 the post of mate having been offered him, he gladly 
 accepted it and came on board. His feat of running 
 down the goats caused general astonishment. " His 
 way of living," says Rogers, "and continual exercise 
 of walking and running, cleared him of all gross 
 humours, so that he ran with wonderful swiftness 
 through the woods and up the rocks and hills. We 
 had a bull-dog, which , we sent with several of our 
 nimblest runners to help him in catching goats, but 
 he distanced and tired both the dopf and the men, 
 caught the goats, and brought them to us on his 
 back." In the middle of February, 1709, the Duke 
 
THE HOUSE OF MRS. DAMARIS DANIEL, IN WHICH DEFOE MET SELKIRK. 
 (From a photograph hy T. Protheroe, 35, Wine Street, Bristol.) 
 
To AND FROM SCOTLAND. IJI 
 
 and the Dtuhess set sail from the island, and in a 
 short time took two prizes, to one of which Selkirk 
 was appointed the command. The rest of the voyage 
 of the Duke and the Duchess was chiefly taken up with 
 sacking more coast towns, and in the beginning of 
 171 1 these "good Christian pirates," as Defoe would 
 have called them, who listened to the Church of 
 England service regularly and piped to prayers before 
 every action, set sail for England, which, however, 
 they did not reach till October. Of the plunder — 
 one hundred and seventy thousand pounds — taken 
 during this successful expedition, the share allotted 
 to Selkirk seems to have been about eight hundred 
 pounds. 
 
 As soon as his singular story was made known 
 in England, Selkirk became an object of curiosity, 
 and was visited bj' a great number of persons. Defoe, 
 ever on the qtii vive for what was odd and unusual, 
 and what he fancied could be turned to account, made 
 a journey from London to Bristol apparently for the 
 express purpose of seeing him. The date of this 
 journey is not known, but it was probably late in 
 171 1 or early in 1712. The interview occurred in 
 the house of a friend of Defoe's named Mrs. Damaris 
 Daniel, who lived in a corner house in St. James's 
 Square (Bristol), the corner originally opposite the 
 entrance from the Barton. St. James's Square, which 
 contains some fine examples of houses in the Queen 
 Anne style, and was occupied only by wealthy families, 
 was begun about 1707, consequently Mrs. Daniel's 
 house at the time Defoe visited it must have been 
 only recently built. The result of the meeting was 
 
172 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 that Selkirk, as he subsequently told Mrs. Daniel, 
 placed in Defoe's hands all his papers. When Defoe 
 commenced his famous " Robinson Crusoe," which 
 was founded on these papers, it Is impossible to 
 say, but the probability is that nothing was done, or 
 very little, before his great illness of 171 5, when his 
 tongue was loosed, and when he would be struck 
 with the remarkable analogy between the isolated 
 life of Selkirk on his island in the Pacific and 
 the isolated life of Daniel Defoe in the island of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 For the charge that Defoe surreptitiously appro- 
 priated the papers of Selkirk, there is no foundation 
 whatever. They were handed over by Selkirk simply 
 as a matter of business. Not that it is likely that 
 Defoe gave much for them. Defoe himself made no 
 use of them, nor got anything whatever out of them, 
 till eight years after.* 
 
 Selkirk ' was subsequently interviewed by another 
 literary big-wig, Sir Richard Steele, who, on the 3rd 
 of December, 1713, occupied the twenty-sixth number 
 of the Englishman with an account of the information 
 he had elicited. 
 
 In 1 7 1 2«Captain Rogers published an account of the 
 
 expedition with the title "A Cruising Voyage Round 
 
 the World, . . . Containing," among other things, " An 
 
 account of Alexander Selkirk's living alone four years 
 
 and four months in an Island"; and several other 
 
 accounts of Selkirk's adventures also got abroad. 
 
 * For the papers from which these facts are gleaned I am indebted 
 to Mr. Richard Champion Rawlins, a descendant of Francis Rogers, 
 one of the twelve merchants of Bristol who fitted out the Duhe. and the 
 Duchess. 
 
To AND PJiOJf SCO'/'LAXD. l^ ^ 
 
 The subsequent history of Selkirk, thouoh in no 
 way concerning- Defoe, may be briefly stateck In 
 the spring of 171 2 he returned to his native Largo, 
 where he stayed about three years, when he ran 
 away to London with a young girl named Sophia 
 Bruce, in whose favour in 171 7 he made a will. 
 Apparently Sophia Bruce died shortl)' after, for 
 
 SELKIRK AND HIS 1-AMILV. 
 (/■>,.«/ '■ Piv-'/./ciic-L- Pi'sfl.ircJ." I 
 
 Selkirk marrietl a Frances Candis ; who, after his 
 death in 1723, laid claim to, and was awarded, his 
 property. In 1S85 a bronze statue of Selkirk was 
 erected at Largo. 
 
 The original accounts of Selkirk are four in 
 number — 
 
 (i) Captain ^\'oodes Rogers's book, 17 12. 
 
 (2) ''A Wiyage to the South-Sea Trade, and round the AVorld ; 
 
 wherein an account is given of ]\Ir. Alexander Selkirk, 
 etc." By Cooke, lyr 2, 
 
 (3) " Providence Displayed ; or a ^'ery surprising account of one 
 
 Mr. Alexander Selkirk, etc. . . . ^\■ntten by his own 
 
174 The Life of Daniel Defoe: 
 
 hand." A quarto tract of twelve pages, compiled from 
 Rogers and Cooke. Selkirk had no hand in it. 
 (4) Further particulars concerning Selkirk are to be gleaned from 
 The Englishman, Dec. 3, 1713, and from the voyages of 
 Funnell, Shelvocke, Anson, and Ulloa. 
 
 Complete accounts of Selkirk's life, in which the 
 particulars of the foregoing are condensed, appeared 
 subsequently. Such are : — 
 
 (i) "Providence Displayed," etc. By Isaac James. 
 With a Map of the Island, and twenty-four Wood-cuts. 
 This work also contains accounts of other persons left 
 on uninhabited islands, as William the Mosquito Indian, 
 Serrano, and Ephraim How. Bristol, 1800. 
 
 (2) " The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk, 
 etc." By John Ho well Edinburgh, 1829. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 AT HALIFAX (AUG. TO DEC, 1712). 
 
 43.— AT THE SIGN OF THE ROSE AND CROWN. 
 
 Works: 137. — Inquiry into the Real interest of Princes. i8th Sept. 1712. 
 138. — A Seasonable Warning and Caution. 1712. 
 139. — Hannibal at the Gates. 
 140. — A Strict Enquiry (The Hamilton-Mohun duel). 1713. 
 
 Although Defoe was so much occupied with 
 literature, he still continued to be connected with 
 commercial concerns; and about 1712 he was in 
 partnership in some trading speculation with a Mr. 
 Ward, mercer and draper of Coleshill in Warwick- 
 shire. But, like most other trading concerns that 
 Defoe embarked in, it ultimately came to grief, 
 and both Defoe and Ward lost considerably. We 
 are reminded again by it, however, that Defoe was 
 all his life connected with trade. He did not 
 abandon the merchant when he put on the poet 
 and the pamphleteer, or even when, long after, he 
 stood forth as a full-blown novelist and an historian. 
 We have proof that as late as 1726, seven years 
 after Crusoe was published, he was engaged in 
 mercantile pursuits. [Sir § 88.) 
 
 The course in politics which Defoe had taken 
 had raised up against him, as we have seen, a host 
 of enemies ; and had he been blamed only for what 
 
i76 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 he did write, he would have had reason enough to 
 feel uncomfortable. But that was not all ; as on 
 former occasions, he got blame, too, for things he 
 did not write. He says : " Whenever any piece 
 comes out which is not liked, I am immediately 
 charged with being the author ; and very often the 
 first knowledge I have had of a book being pub- 
 lished has been from seeing myself abused for 
 being the author of it in some other pamphlet 
 published in answer to it." At last he was so dis- 
 gusted that he resolved not to set pen again to 
 paper any more that year, except to write his 
 reviews ; and in order to put himself out of the 
 reach of the malice of his enemies, he took a jour- 
 ney "to Halifax in Yorkshire," where he stayed till 
 December. 
 
 We are told that he resided " in the Back 
 Lane at the sign of the Rose and Crown " ; and 
 that he was known " to Dr. Nettleton, the physi- 
 cian, and the Rev. Nathaniel Priestley, of Ovenden, 
 who had the charge of the then Trinitarian Presby- 
 terian congregation assembling at the Northgate 
 Chapel, Halifax." 
 
 Whilst at Halifax, observing the insolence of the 
 Jacobite party, and how they insisted openly on the 
 Pretender's rights, he " set pen to paper again " by 
 writing " A Seasonable Caution " ; and, to open the 
 eyes of the poor ignorant country people, " gave away 
 this all over the kingdom, as gain was not intended." 
 On the 30th of December he published another tract 
 of similar tendency, entitled " Hannibal at our Gates " ; 
 and early in the next year he endeavoured to prove. 
 
At Halifax. 177 
 
 in " A Strict Enquiry into the Circumstances of a 
 late duel," that the quarrel between the High Tory 
 Duke of Hamilton and the Whig Lord Mohun, fatal 
 to both, had resulted from a private quarrel — politics, 
 contrary to Tory insinuations, having had nothing 
 to do with it. 
 
 44.— THE MAN THAT BLOWS HOT AND COLD WITH THE SAME 
 BREATH (FEB. AND APRIL, 1713). 
 
 WORKS: 141. — Reasons against the Succession of the House of Hanover. 21st Feb., 
 
 1713- 
 142. — And what if the Pretender should come? 26th Mar., 1713. 
 143. — An Answer to a Question that nobody thinks of — viz., What if the 
 
 Queen should die? 26th Mar., 1713. 
 
 In continuance of his purpose of circumventing the 
 designs of the Jacobites, Defoe in February, March, 
 and April wrote three more tracts : 
 
 1. " Reasons against the Succession of the House 
 of Hanover." 
 
 2. " What if the Pretender should come ? " 
 
 3. " What if the Queen should die ? " 
 
 In the first, whose title, like the tract itself, is 
 ironical, is an amusing picture of the national broils, 
 which disturbed even the peace of the household : — 
 
 "You please to listen to your cook-maids and footmen in your 
 kitchens ; you shall hear them scolding and swearing and scratching 
 and fighting among themselves ; and when you think the noise is 
 about the beef and the pudding, the dish-water or the kitchen-stuff, 
 alas ! you are mistaken ; the feud is about the more mighty affairs of 
 the government." 
 
 It was the same in the storey above the kitchen — 
 the shop — where the 'prentices, instead of posting their 
 books, "fight and rail at the Pretender and the House 
 
 M 
 
178 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 of Hanover." Even in the next storey — among the 
 family — it is no better: "the ladies, instead of their 
 innocent diversions, are all falling out one among 
 another" : — 
 
 " If the chamber-maid is a slattern, and does not please, hang her, 
 she is a jade ; or I warrant she is a High-flier ; or on the other side, 
 I warrant she's a Whig ; I never knew one of that sort good for any- 
 thing in my life. Nay, go up to your very bedchambers, and even in 
 bed the man and wife shall quarrel about it. People ! — people ! 
 What will become of you at this rate ? " 
 
 The following quotation, from this tract has been 
 supposed to contain the mainspring of most of Defoe's 
 political actions, and to explain the apparent want of 
 consistency with which he is often blamed : — 
 
 " Learned men say some diseases in Nature are cured by anti- 
 pathies, and some by sympathies ; that the enemies of Nature are 
 the best preservatives of Nature ; that bodies are brought down by 
 the skill of the physician, that they may the better be brought up ; 
 made sick to be made well ; and carried to the brink of the grave in 
 order to be kept from the grave. For these reasons, and in order to 
 these things, poisons are administered in physic, and amputations in 
 surgery ; the flesh is cut that it may heal ; an arm laid open that it 
 may close with safety ; and those methods of cure are said to be the 
 most certain, as well as most necessary in those particular cases ; 
 from whence it is become a proverbial saying in physic, ' Desperate 
 diseases must have desperate remedies.' Now, it is very proper to 
 inquire in this case, whether the nation is not in such a state of 
 health at this time that the coming of the Pretender may not be of 
 absolute necessity, by way of cure of such national distempers as 
 now afflict us, and that an effectual cure can be wrought no other 
 way. If upon due inquiry it should appear that we are not fit to 
 receive such a Prince as the successor of the house of Hanover is, 
 that we should maltreat and abuse him if he were here ; and that 
 there is no way for us to learn the true value of a Protestant suc- 
 cessor so well as by tasting a little what a Popish Pretender is, and 
 feeling something of the great advantages that may accrue to us by 
 the superiority of a Jacobite party ; if the disease of stupidity has 
 
At Halifax. 179 
 
 so far seized us that we are to be cured only by poisons and 
 fermentations ; if the wound is mortified, and nothing but deep inci- 
 sions, amputations, and desperate remedies, must be used; if it 
 would be necessary thus to teach us the worth of things by the 
 want of them ; and there is no other way to bring the nation to its 
 senses ; why, what can be then said against the Pretender ? Even 
 let him come, that we may see what slavery means ; and may 
 inquire how the chains of French galleys hang about us, and how 
 wooden shoes are to walk in ; for no experience teaches us so well 
 as that we buy dearest and pay for with the most smart.'' 
 
 These tracts met with " so much approbation 
 among- persons sincere for the Protestant succession, 
 that they were sent all over the kingdom," about 
 seven editions being printed ; and Defoe protests that 
 even if the Elector of Hanover had given him a 
 thousand pounds to promote the Protestant succession 
 and to make the interest of the Pretender odious and 
 ridiculous, he could have done nothing more effectual 
 to these purposes than writing these pamphlets. 
 
 But, unfortunately, Defoe, by his efforts to cool 
 the warlike spirit of the time, had offended the leading 
 Whigs ; and, "anxious to vent their malice on a writer 
 who had now become the object of their hatred," they 
 seized the opportunity to have their revenge on him. 
 
 William Benson, a Whig writer, commenced, at 
 his own cost, a prosecution, and thus the most bitter- 
 opponent of the Pretender was charged with the worst 
 kind of Jacobitism. The printer of the pamphlets 
 being threatened, " gave information upon oath against 
 Defoe as the author," and Lord Chief Justice Parker 
 granted a warrant for his apprehension. 
 
 " Mr. Defoe," says the hostile Flying Post, written by Ridpath, 
 " having taken precautions to make his house at Newington as secure 
 M 2 
 
i8o The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 to him as was necessary for a man in his circumstances, his Lord- 
 ship's officers were forced to take constables, and a great many- 
 other persons to their assistance ; and with much difficulty and 
 hazard got into the house, and secured him, and brought him from 
 thence to town." 
 
 This was on a Saturday, and Defoe remained in 
 the custody of the tipstaff till the following Tues- 
 day, when bail to the amount of eight hundred 
 pounds being offered and accepted he was set at 
 liberty. ' 
 
 A spiteful contemporary pamphlet, written in 
 reference to these proceedings, and entitled "Judas 
 Discovered," calls Defoe "an animal who shifts his 
 shape oftner than Proteus, and that goes backwards 
 and forwards like a Hunted Hare ; a thoroughpaced, 
 true-bred Hypocrite, an High Churchman one day and 
 a rank Whig the next : like the man in the Fable, he 
 blows Hot and. Cold, with the same breath." 
 
 Prompted by consciousness of innocence, Defoe 
 defended himself in the Review^ where, however, he 
 made the mistake of referring indiscreetly to the 
 conduct of the Lord Chief Justice. When the case 
 came on, his lordship caused the reviews to be pro- 
 duced in court, and declared that they were "very 
 insolent libels against him in particular, and also 
 against the laws of England." The other judges 
 concurred in this opinion, and the court was unani- 
 mous that the books for which Defoe was bound over 
 were scandalous, wicked, and treasonable libels. 
 
 It was in vain that Defoe protested that the books 
 were written ironically. Sir Thomas Powis, one of 
 the judges, " with learned arguments," proved to the 
 
At Halifax. 181 
 
 satisfaction of himself and his brother dispensers of 
 justice, that the books had not been written ironically ; 
 so Defoe was sent to Newgate to await his trial. His 
 fate at this moment was indeed a hard one. To write 
 pamphlets in the interest of the Hanoverian succes- 
 sion, and then to be put into prison for favouring the 
 Pretender was enough to exasperate any man. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IN. LOB'S POUND AGAIN (COMMITTED APRIL 22, 
 PARDONED NOV. 20, 1713). 
 
 4S.— TWO VIPERS TANGLED INTO ONE.— THE END OF THE 
 i?£K/£H^.-THE-SCRIBLERUS CLUB. 
 
 Works : 144. — Essay on the Treaty of Commerce with France. May, 1713. 
 
 145. — Considerations upon the Eighth and Ninth Articles of the Treaty oi 
 
 Commerce and Navigation. 2nd June, 1713. 
 146. — Review, vol. ix. nth June, 1713, 
 
 147. — Some Thoughts upon the Subject of Commerce with B'rance. 
 148. — A General History of Trade. Aug. and Sept. , 1713. 
 
 In the meantime, on nth April, 1713, the treaty 
 of peace, which had so long been under discussion, 
 was signed at Utrecht. In respect to the share 
 Defoe had in bringing it about, Mr. Lee observes: 
 " His attachment to the Earl of Oxford was a 
 snare, so far as his gratitude for past favours im- 
 posed silence on those points of polity which he 
 could not -apf»rove; and this forbearance brought 
 upon him all the odium of being retained to ex- 
 pound the views of ministers. He served them 
 by smoothing the way to peace ; but he disapproved 
 of the terms upon which it was concluded, and ex- 
 pressed his disapprobation in the Review, even at 
 the risk of displeasing Lord Oxford. He acquiesced, 
 however, in the peace, when it was accomplished, 
 as a good subject bound by a national obligation." 
 
In Lob's Pound Again. 183 
 
 But the truth is, Defoe was not satisfied with 
 either of the pohtical parties. Trimming, dodging, 
 and intriguing were characteristic of both. To him 
 they were only, to use Shelley's phrase, " two vipers 
 tangled into one." If the Tories were bent on per- 
 secuting the Dissenters, and would have welcomed 
 back the Pretender, the Whigs had acquiesced in 
 the persecution of the Dissenters, and had per- 
 secuted the man who was the Pretender's most 
 bitter opponent. Defoe had given up contending 
 for parties ; now he contended only for principles. 
 
 In May appeared his tract "An Essay on the 
 Treaty of Commerce with France," in which he 
 shows himself to be on the topics of trade a cen- 
 tury and a half in advance of general public opinion. 
 " He believed that international reduction and aboli- 
 tion of duties would increase trade, cheapen com- 
 modities, promote national and individual prosperity, 
 and become the most powerful guarantee of a lasting 
 peace. To use the modern phrase, Defoe was the 
 first and foremost advocate of ' Free Trade.' " * 
 
 The 2nd of June saw the publication of his pamphlet, 
 " Considerations upon the Eighth and Ninth Articles 
 of the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation." 
 
 On nth June, 1713, after a publication extend- 
 ing over more than nine years, he relinquished his 
 Review. As it had commenced in Newgate, so it 
 finished in Newgate, for Defoe was still a prisoner. 
 The later numbers had dealt less with French 
 affairs, and more with English Trade and Politics ; 
 his motto being : " England, bad as she is, is yet a 
 
 * Lee. 
 
184 The Life of Damel Defoe. 
 
 reforming nation."* When we remember that this 
 important and voluminous work was the offspring 
 not of an editor and a numerous staff, but of the 
 brain and pen of one man, who during those nine 
 years did so riiany notable things besides, the feel- 
 ing uppermost is one of wonder. "There were 
 giants in the earth in those days." 
 
 Some allusion has already been made to several 
 of the more famous of Defoe's literary contem- 
 poraries. These had now formed themselves into 
 two coteries ; one the immortal Scriblerus Club, which 
 met in the rooms of Dr. Arbuthnot at St. James's 
 Palace, and the other that nameless circle that 
 worshipped at the shrine of Addison at Button's 
 Coffee House. Though not primarily political socie- 
 ties, the members of the first were all Tories, if 
 not Jacobites, those of the latter Whigs. 
 
 Of Addison and his satellites we have no occasion 
 to say anything, but the Scriblerus Club — owing to the 
 intense animosity of most of its members against 
 Defoe — requires some attention. 
 
 The heart and soul of the society was its founder, 
 the manly, learned, lovable, genial, humane, and witty 
 Dr. Arbuthnot,^whose sweet face, if such an adjective 
 be permissible in connection with the male sex, would 
 alone have drawn folk to him. Shuffling in gait, 
 owing to a cruel internal malady, he " could do every- 
 thing but walk." A more distinguished, but scarcely 
 more amiable, member of the fraternity was " Dr. 
 Martin," as they called him, because " a martin is a 
 sort of swallow, and so is a swift " — sharp-featured 
 
 * Review ill., 6oz. 
 
In Lob's Pound Again. 185 
 
 and blue-eyed — one whom even his most intimate 
 friend, Pope — another member — never quite knew 
 how to take. To these were joined the Dragon 
 (Harley), Lord BoHngbroke, Congreve, Dr. Parnell, 
 too fond of claret — a complaint then rather common — 
 who, before Pope arose, outdid all other bards "a 
 bar's length " ; Bishop Atterbury, with his head per- 
 petually on the nod, too fond of the Pretender ; and 
 the Shaver, Erasmus Lewis, Under-Secretary of State, 
 too fond of ombre, who, instead of turning up at our 
 meetings, "sneeks off to some warm house, wins money 
 and convinces the ladies from whom he wins it that 
 they are highly obliged to him." Lewis's sight subse- 
 quently failed him, but he never grew so blind but that 
 he could see "the pips on the cards." It will never 
 be known how much the world owes to these meetings. 
 The witty memoirs of Martin Scriblerus, chiefly from 
 the pen of Arbuthnot, have not only great intrinsic 
 value, but they divide with Defoe's " Consolidator " 
 the palm of having suggested " Gulliver's Travels " 
 Arbuthnot's " John Bull," many of Pope's poems, and 
 some of Gay's, all owe improvements to criticisms in 
 Dr. Arbuthnot's sanctum, and some pieces which we 
 are in the habit of attributing to one man were, 
 perhaps, more correctly, the work of three or four. 
 The lovely ballad, "'Twas when the seas were 
 roaring," for instance, may safely be attributed to the 
 conjunction of Gay, Arbuthnot, and Pope. With the 
 exception of Lord Oxford (Harley), the members of 
 the club had an extraordinary animus against Defoe ; 
 partly, no doubt, because he was a Whig, more because 
 he was a Dissenter, but most of all because they were 
 
1 86 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 so self-conceited as to believe that nothing was good 
 outside their own narrow precincts. To Swift's hatred 
 of Defoe we have already several times referred. Just 
 before the termination of Defoe's great newspaper, 
 Gay observed, " The poor Review is quite exhausted, 
 and grown so very contemptible that, though he has 
 provoked all his brothers of the quill, none will enter 
 into a controversy with him. The fellow, who had 
 excellent natural parts, but wanted a small foundation 
 of learning, is a lively instance of those wits who, as 
 an ingenious author says, will endure but one skim- 
 ming" (" Present State of Wit," 1711). Gay, it will 
 be noticed, attacks Defoe much in the same stvle as 
 Swift had done ; only he is patronising rather than 
 spiteful. But Gay was a fat man, ergo more amiable. 
 To the passage at arms between Defoe and Pope we 
 shall refer later on. 
 
 Some time in June, 171 3, Defoe delivered himself 
 of " Some Thoughts upon the Subject of Commerce 
 with France," and in the beginning of August he 
 commenced another work, which presented itself in 
 four fortnightly numbers, with the title of " A General 
 History of Trade." 
 
 46.— MERCA-TOR «ND DEFOE'S PARDON (NOV. 20TH, 1713— 26TH MAY, 
 1713).— STEELE AND SWIFT AGAIN 
 
 Works: 149. — Whigs turned Tories. 1713. 
 150. — Union and no Union. 1713. 
 151. — A Letter to the Dissenters. 3rd Dec, 1713. 
 152.— The Scots Nation and Union Vindicated. Mar., 1714. 
 153.— A View of the Real Danger of the Protestant Succession. April, 1714. 
 154. — Reasons for Impeaching the Lord High Treasurer. April, 1714. 
 155. — The Remedy worse than the Disease. 9th June, 1714. 
 156. — Mercator. 26th May, 1713 — 20th July, 1714. 
 
 For several years Defoe had desired to conduct 
 a periodical that should be entirely taken up with the 
 
In Lob's Pound Again. 187 
 
 subject of trade, and now that peace had been declared 
 the favourable moment seemed to have arrived ; so, in 
 conjunction with others, he started a paper called 
 Mercator, or Commerce Retrieved. Each number of 
 Mercator consisted of one leaf small folio, and it 
 was continued every Tuesday, Thursday, and Satur- 
 day until the 20th of July, 1714. Defoe denied 
 being the author — that is, conductor or editor of 
 this paper — and said that he had not power to put 
 what he would into it. But as Professor Minto 
 observes : 
 
 " Every number bears traces of his hand or guidance ; Mercator 
 is identical in opinions, style, and spirit with the Review, differing 
 only in the greater openness of its attacks upon the opposition of 
 the Whigs to the Treaty of Commerce." 
 
 The comments of Defoe's enemies on Mercator 
 are amusing. 
 
 " This paper " — Mercator — says Boyer, in his " Life of Queen 
 Anne," " was soon after discovered to be the production of an ambi- 
 dextrous mercenary scribbler, Daniel De Foe, employed by the Earl 
 of Oxford, who for this dirty work allowed him a considerable weekly 
 salary." 
 
 Oldmixon,* writing on the same subject, observes : 
 
 " Foe, as well as the Lord Treasurer, had been a rank Presby- 
 terian, and their genius was so near akin that Harley could not but 
 take him into his confidence as soon as he got acquainted with him. 
 He was adored and caressed by that mighty statesman, who gave 
 him, as that mercenary said himself, to the value of one thousand 
 pounds in one year. Foe's business was only to puzzle the cause by 
 mercantile cant and bold sophistry." 
 
 But all this time, be it remembered, Defoe was 
 in prison. Harley, however, had not forgotten him, 
 
 * " History of England," vol. iii., p. 519. 
 
1 88 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 and on November 29th (17 13) there came for hini 
 a pardon passed under the Great Seal. 
 
 The pamphlet "Whigs turned Tories" (17 13) was 
 written with a view of inducing " all Whigs as well as 
 Hanoverian Tories " to lay aside their " uncharitable 
 heats," and to unite their forces in order to 'circum- 
 vent the plans of those " Jacobite, Popish, and 
 conforming Tories," whose chief aim and hope was 
 to bring in the Pretender. " Union and no Union," 
 Defoe's next tract, was an inquiry into the grievances 
 of the Scots, who considered that by the imposition 
 of the Malt Tax and other violations of the Treaty 
 of Union, they had been unfairly used. Defoe 
 admits that they had some cause for complaint, but 
 insists that disaffection against the Union is confined 
 only to a few. 
 
 In " A Letter to the Dissenters" (3rd Dec, 1713), 
 he chastises his fellow religionists for uniting with 
 their political enemies, the "old Ministry," in order 
 to overthrow the Ministry in power, and warns them 
 that unless they desist further disabilities will be 
 forced upon them. 
 
 On January 19th, 1 714, Steele published a pamphlet, 
 entitled " The^risis," advocating the Hanoverian suc- 
 cession, for which — such was the bitterness of party 
 spirit — he was expelled from the House of Commons. 
 Swift replied to it, and ridiculed it in his " Pubilc Spirit 
 of the Whigs," described as " a very clever and bitter 
 reply to ' The Crisis ' " ; and in March Defoe, with much 
 warmth, answered the portions of Swift's pamphlet 
 relating to Scotland and the Union, in a tract called 
 " The Scots Nation and Union Vindicated," 
 
In Lobs Pound Again. 189 
 
 etc., followed shortly after by "A View of the 
 Real Danger of the Protestant Succession," in which 
 he insisted that the Ministry were to be trusted, and 
 that those who desired the Hanoverian succession had 
 no cause to fear — a tract whose natural successor was 
 " Reasons for Impeaching the Lord High Treasurer, 
 and some other of the Present Ministry," a production 
 which, instead of being an attack on Harley, as its title 
 suggested, was in reality a defence. Defoe is ready 
 enough to admit that if Harley wished to endanger 
 the Protestant succession he would deserve to be im- 
 peached, 'but insists that Harley did not wish it. 
 
 Your High-flier now brings in a Bill " to prevent 
 the growth of Schism, and for the further security of 
 the Church of England, as by law established " — a 
 measure framed for the express purpose of persecuting 
 Dissenters and bringing back the state of affairs that 
 had existed under the Act of Uniformity. Having 
 passed the Tory House of Commons, it was duly sent 
 up to the House of Lords. Then the pamphleteers 
 set to work. Steele had a tract against it, and on 
 June ,9th Defoe published another, " The Remedy 
 Worse than the Disease ; or. Reasons against passing 
 the Bill for preventing the Growth of Schism," etc. 
 
 Despite opposition, the Bill, which had passed the 
 Commons on June ist, was acquiesced in by the Lords 
 on the 15 th, and received the royal assent ten days 
 afterward. It is only fair to Harley to say that he did 
 his best to prevent his Tory colleagues from bringing 
 in this Bill, and that, when brought in, he endeavoured 
 to modify it; but he was powerless. A few months later, 
 after the accession of George I., the Act was repealed. 
 
190 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 To the Tatler, Spectator, and Guardian of Steele, 
 side by side with whom we have just seen Defoe 
 fighting, there are a, number of friendly references in 
 the Review — 
 
 " There is not a man in this nation," says Defoe (Vol. viii., 
 No. 82), " that pays a greater veneration, to the writings of the in- 
 imitable Spectator than the author of the Review , and that not only 
 for his learning and wit, but especially for his applying that learning 
 and wit to the true ends for which they are given, viz., the establish- 
 ing virtue in, and the shaming vice out of, the world." 
 
 There is also an interesting reference to Steele in 
 Mercator, in which Steele's views on trade are opposed. 
 Says Defoe : — 
 
 " The Guardian is now entered into the dispute ; and who shall 
 be able to stand before the Guardian 1 The Guardian has so many 
 better talents that it can be no detracting from him to say that the 
 knowledge of trade is not of the number of his acquisitions." 
 
 Addison, in his contribution to the same discussion, 
 a pamphlet called " The Trial and Conviction of Count 
 Tariff," adopted a very different style. He classed the 
 Mercator and the Examiner together, hinted at the 
 fear occasioned by the word pillory, and called Mer- 
 cator " a false, shuffling, prevaricating rascal." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 NEWINGTON. 
 
 47.— DEATH OF QUEEN ANNE (iST AUG., 1714).— SAMUEL TUFFLEY 
 MAKES HIS WILL (28TH OCT., 1714). 
 
 Work ; 157. — The Flying Post. 27th July, 1714—2151 Aug., 1714. 
 
 The cord that bound Harley and his followers to the 
 extreme Tories, which had so long been strained, at 
 last snapped, and the late nominal friends were now 
 open enemies. In the manceuvering that succeeded, 
 Bolingbroke and the Tories obtained the ascendancy, 
 and on the 27th of July Harley was ousted from office ; 
 but before the Tories were able to win to themselves any 
 real advantage, an event occurred which frustrated all 
 their plans — namely, the death of the Queen, on 
 August 1st (1714). 
 
 A few days previous, on July 20th, Defoe's paper, 
 Mercator, had been discontinued ; but a week later 
 we find him launching a new venture, The Flying Post, 
 written for William Hurt, the printer, who had 
 previously published Ridpath's paper of the same 
 name. 
 
 On the 22nd of October, 1714, Samuel Tuffley of 
 Hackney, brother of Defoe's wife, made his will. 
 
 To Daniel Defoe and his children one guinea each was left to buy 
 rings, and there were a few other small bequests; but the bulk 
 of the estate — lands, tenements, goods, etc. — was left in trust 
 
192 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 for and to the only use of his dear sister Mary Defoe, the wife 
 of Daniel Defoe, and for and to her disposing and appointment 
 absolutely and independently of her husband, or of any claim or 
 demand which he or anyone claiming by, from, or under him by 
 right of marriage or otherwise might have or made to the same ; the 
 intent being that Mary Defoe after the testator's decease, notwith- 
 standing her marriage, might fully receive and enjoy the effects of 
 the estate as universal heir, with full power to sell, dispose, and 
 transfer as far as the trust above mentioned would possibly admit. 
 The trustees were to account to her or to her assigns for all the pro- 
 fits of the estate and to none other, and to pay her or her assigns 
 every six months, or oftener if she required, all the profits; and a 
 receipt under her hand was to be a sufiScient discharge to the trustees, 
 without requiring a receipt under her husband's hapd. The trustees, 
 or two of them, were at any time, at her request, given under her 
 hand and seal, to sell or make over for such considerations as she 
 agreed to, any part or all of the estate. And if she affixed her hand 
 and seal to any deed of sale with the trustee, it should be a good 
 and sufficient sale although her husband were then living, and the 
 purchase money was to be paid to the trustees in trust for her. If 
 Daniel Defoe died, then, and immediately after his death, this trust 
 was to expire, and Mary to enter upon all the estate in her own right 
 and name. And as her children might suggest that the trust was 
 made in order to preserve the estate for them, Tuffley expressly 
 declared that his will was that the estate should be preserved for the 
 sole use of his sister, to be used and disposed of to such persons as 
 she thought fit; and if she thought fit to bestow any part on the 
 children, his will was that she should give the greatest share "to 
 such of them as behave with the greatest tenderness, duty, and 
 affection, both to their father and to herself, declaring that if any of 
 the said children shall behave undutifully, disobediently, or disre- 
 spectfully, either to their said father or mother, and continue obsti- 
 nately to do so without humbling themselves to their parents and 
 obtaining their pardon, he requested that " to such not one shilling 
 of my estate shall be given, my desire being as much as in me lies 
 that the said children should be kept in an entire dependance upon 
 their said father as well as their mother, declaring that it is not from 
 distrust of or disrespect to their said father that this my will is made 
 in this manner." 
 
 Mary Defoe was to make a will or disposition of 
 
Ne WINGTON. 193 
 
 all the estates within two months after Tuffley's 
 decease. 
 
 48.— THE LORD ANGLESEY AFFAIR.— "THE WHITE STAFF" AND 
 "FRIDAY." 
 
 Works : 158.— Advice to the People of Great Britain. 7th Oct., 1714. 
 159. — A Secret History of One Year. 1714. 
 160.— The Secret History of the White Staff. Oct. , 1714. 
 161. — Do. part ii. 
 162. — Do. part iii. 
 
 In his labours on the Flying Post, Defoe again 
 came into collision with the law. Bolingbroke had 
 recently despatched the Tory Earl of Anglesey on 
 a mission to Ireland. But scarcely had the earl 
 landed at Dublin when news came of the Queen's 
 death, and he returned to act as one of the Lords 
 Regent. In the Flying Post Defoe declared that the 
 object of the journey to Ireland had been " to new 
 model the forces there, and particularly to break no 
 less than seventy of the honest officers of the army, 
 and to fill up their places with the tools and 
 creatures of Con. Phipps,* and such a rabble of 
 cut-throats as were fit for the work that they had 
 for them to do." 
 
 The allegation was probably true, but Anglesey 
 at once took action against it as a scandalous libel. 
 Brought before the Lords Justices in August (17 14), 
 Defoe was committed for trial, but shortly after 
 liberated. Though again in hot water, Defoe did 
 not allow his pen to be idle. His " Advice to the 
 People of Great Britain" (7th Oct., 1714) is simply 
 to be good Christians and to be loyal to King 
 
 * Sir Constantine Phipps. 
 N 
 
194 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 George. His " Secret History of One Year," that 
 is the first after the Revolution, is one more tri- 
 bute to the memory of King William ; a subject 
 upon which Defoe,' whenever hard up for copy, 
 could always fall back. The "Secret History 
 of the White Staff" (Oct., 17 14) — a vindication of 
 the policy of Harley — generally attributed to Defoe, 
 has been the subject of a good deal of argument. Mr. 
 George Chalmers says : " There can be no doubt that 
 Defoe was not the author ; for he solemnly asserts by 
 his Appeal in 171 5, that he had written nothing since 
 the Queen's death." Mr. Walter Wilson, who avoids 
 expressing any opinion of his own as to the authorship, 
 says : " It is certain that Defoe had the credit of 
 it at the time." Mr. Lee, who vainly endeavours 
 to wriggle away from Defoe's renunciation of having 
 written the work, declares that it affords " internal 
 evidence " sufficient to justify the decision that he was 
 the author. Perhaps the real truth is that it was 
 written by his collaborator, the personage who in 
 "Robinson Crusoe" is called Friday; for that Defoe 
 had a collaborator, one who acted for him much 
 as Maquet and others acted for Dumas, is pretty 
 evident. Q^foe, . indeed, admits as much in his 
 " Serious Reflections." He says — 
 
 "The story of my man Friday, and many more most natural 
 passages observed here, are all historical and true in fact. It is most 
 real that I had . . . such a servant, a savage, and afterwards a 
 Christian, and that his name was called Friday, and that he was 
 ravished from me by force, and died in the hands that took him, 
 which I represent by being killed ; this is all literally true, and, 
 should I enter into discoveries many alive can testify them. His 
 other conduct and assistance to me also have just references in all 
 
Newington. 195 
 
 their parts to the helps I had from that faithful savage in my real 
 solitudes and disasters." 
 
 As Professor Minto says — 
 
 " If Defoe had a real man Friday, who had, learnt all his arts 
 till he could practise them as well as himself, the fact might go to 
 explain his enormous productiveness as an author.'' 
 
 This partnership between Defoe and Friday, 
 however, must have closed before 1720, when were 
 written the " Serious Reflections," in which Defoe 
 speaks of Friday's death. It could therefore have 
 been only in his political writings that Defoe had 
 the help of a collaborator, or at any rate of this 
 collaborator. 
 
 49.— SECOND LONG ILLNESS.— HOW DEFOE TURNED HIS FIT OF 
 APOPLEXY TO ACCOUNT.— THE QUAKER PAMPHLETS.— AND 
 KEIMER THE PRINTER (NOV., 1714— JAN., 1715). 
 
 Works : 163. — An Appeal to Honour and Justice. Jan., 1715. 
 
 164. — A Reply to a Traitorous Libel entitled " English Advice to the Free 
 
 holders of England." 29th Jan. , 1715. 
 165. — A Friendly Epistle, etc., from one of the People called Quakers to 
 
 Thomas Bradbury. 
 166. — The Family Instructor. 31st Mar., 1715. \See^ 51.] 
 167. — A Sharp Rebuke from one of the People called Quakers to Henry 
 
 Sacheverell, the High Priest of Andrew's, Holbourn. 
 i68. — A Seasonable Expostulation unto . . the Duke of Ormond 
 
 By the same Friend that wrote to Thomas Bradbury. 31st 
 
 May, 1715. 
 
 About the ist of October, 17 14, was finished 
 a pamphlet entitled an " Appeal to Honour and 
 Justice. ... By Daniel Defoe. Being a True 
 Account of his Conduct in Public Affairs." His 
 principal reason for desiring men to know precisely 
 what his conduct had been was a presentiment that 
 he had not long to live. 
 
 " By the hint of mortality, and by the infirmities of a life of 
 sorrow and fatigue, I have reason to think I am. not a great way 
 N 2 
 
196 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 from, if not very near to, the great ocean of eternity, and the time 
 may not be long ere I embark on the last voyage. Wherefore, I 
 think I should have even accounts with this world before I go." 
 
 In this pamphlet he explains the principles upon 
 Avhich he had acted during the whole of his political 
 life, dwelling particularly upon the much-criticised 
 course he had taken in respect to the Treaty of 
 Utrecht. He says that he had never liked the 
 Treaty ; but, he continues — ' 
 
 " When it was made, and could not be otherwise, I thought our 
 business was to make the best of it, and rather to inquire what 
 improvements were to be made of it, than to be continually ex- 
 claiming at those who made it. While I spoke in this manner, 
 I bore infinite reproaches from clamouring pens of being in the 
 French interest, being hired and bribed to defend a bad peace, 
 and the like." 
 
 A short time after — about the middle of Decem- 
 ber — he was struck down with a fit of apoplexy, 
 and for a time was in so dangerous a condition that 
 his life was despaired of. The illness lasted six 
 weeks. At the conclusion of the " Appeal," which 
 was issued the first week of January, the publisher 
 mentioned the circumstance of the author's illness, 
 explaining that the pamphlet was consequently in- 
 complete, anS adding — 
 
 " If he recovers, he may be able to finish what he began ; if not, 
 it is the opinion of most that know him that the treatment which he 
 here complains of, and some others that he would have spoken of, 
 have been the apparent cause of his disaster." 
 
 But, as Professor Minto observes — 
 
 "There is no sign of incompleteness in the Appeal; and the 
 conclusion by the publisher, while the author lay ' in a weak and 
 
Newington. 197 
 
 languishing condition, neither able to go on nor likely to recover, 
 at least in any short time,' gives a most artistic finishing stroke to it." 
 
 The happy idea, indeed, had occurred to Defoe to 
 turn the apoplexy to account. 
 
 " With grave anxieties added to the strain of such incessant toil, 
 it is no wonder that nature should have raised its protest in an 
 apoplectic fit. Even nature must have owned herself vanquished, 
 when she saw this very protest pressed into the service of the 
 irresistible and triumphant worker."* 
 
 Early in January had appeared a powerfully written 
 pamphlet by Bishop Atterbury, entitled " English 
 Advice to the Freeholders of England," written 
 with a view to influencing the approaching elections. 
 Among the numerous answers to this pamphlet, 
 which has been described as " treasonable against 
 the king," and libellous upon the whole body of 
 the Whigs, appeared one by Defoe, " A Reply to 
 a Traitorous Libel, etc.," published on January 29th, 
 whilst, probably, he was still in his sick chamber. 
 Atterbury's pamphlet is denounced as a " mixture 
 of party fury with notorious slander and forgery." 
 
 During this illness Defoe was visited by a Quaker, 
 whose kindness made a great impression on him, and 
 he never after neglected an opportunity of speaking 
 well of the religious body to which the good man 
 belonged. And they deserved to be spoken well of, 
 for at this exciting period, when all England was 
 in a ferment, when even the pulpits were made to 
 answer the purpose of hustings, the Quaker body 
 alone advocated temperance and Christian charity. 
 Like Defoe, they cried " Peace, peace ! " 
 
 * Professor Minto. 
 
198 The Life of Daniel. Defoe. 
 
 Among the pulpit fulminators was an eminent 
 Dissenting minister named Thomas Bradbury, and 
 in order . to reprove Mr. Bradbury, without giving 
 offence, Defoe wrote a pamphlet, in the style "and 
 manner of a Quaker, which he published on February 
 19th, a little after his recovery. It is entitled, "A 
 Friendly Epistle by Way of Reproof from One 
 of the People called Quakers, to Thomas Bradbury, 
 a Dealer in Words " — London : S. Keimer ; and in 
 it Defoe tells Bradbury that preaching men like him 
 ought rather to move their people and their brethren 
 to forbear and forgive one another than to move and 
 excite them to severities. Referring to Bradbury's 
 recommendation of the new administration, which 
 included the Duke of Marlborough and others, Defoe 
 says, " I must lead thee by the hand, not by the nose, 
 Thomas — others have done thee that office already." 
 
 The Quaker fraternity, however, afraid lest in the 
 excited state of the nation this pamphlet might bring 
 them into trouble, published, on March 5th, in the 
 London Gazette, and on March 7th, in the Daily 
 Courant, an advertisement disowning, it, in which they 
 stated their belief that it was written by an adversary 
 of theirs, " -v^iereby to vent his own invectives against 
 the Government in our name, and to expose us to the 
 displeasure thereof, and the censure of sober people." 
 Nor is it surprising that, the Quakers were anxious 
 to be free from all suspicion of blame, for they had 
 no desire for a repetition of the persecutions of the 
 previous reigns. 
 
 Defoe, however, pleased with his new rdle as a 
 child with a toy, still continued to play the Quaker, 
 
Ne wington. 1 99 
 
 and the same year published two more pamphlets : 
 " A Sharp Rebuke ... to Henry Sacheverell " (no 
 date), and " A Seasonable Expostulation . . . unto 
 . . . the Duke of Qrmond " (May 31st), both of 
 which, like the first, were printed by Samuel Keimer, 
 of Paternoster Row. In the former he charges "the 
 High Priest of Andrew's, Holbourn," as he calls 
 Sacheverell, with being in league with the Pretender ; 
 and in the latter, though with less warmth of lan- 
 guage, he expostulates with Ormond, whose vanity 
 was leading him to encourage Jacobite mobs. 
 
 In reference to Defoe's partiality for the Quakers, 
 it may be noticed that there is a good Quaker lady in 
 " Roxana," and Quakers are much to the fore in 
 "Captain Singleton." 
 
 When a few years later (1718) Keimer, the printer 
 of these tracts, got into trouble, Defoe showed himself 
 a true friend. Keimer was printer of the Weekly 
 Jotirnal, and on account of certain paragraphs in it 
 relatinsf to the execution of Hall and Paul, he was 
 committed, by warrant from Lord Townshend, to the 
 Gatehouse, of the horrors whereof he gives a graphic 
 account in his tract, written while he was in prison, " A 
 Brand Pluck'd from the Burning," etc., which contains 
 the following reference to, and letter from, Defoe : — 
 
 " My outward wants encieasing, I wrote to several of my former 
 acquaintance for relief, but with little success except from one who 
 had known the different stations of life from the closet conversation 
 of a King and Queen to the fatiguing difficulties of a Dungeon, who 
 with his welcome kindness sent me the following lines : — 
 
 " ' Mr. Keimer, 
 " ' I have your Letter : The account you give of your hardships 
 is indeed very moving ; the relief I have been able to give you has 
 
200 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 been very small; however, I have repeated it by the same kind 
 messenger. 
 
 " ' Of all your Letter, nothing pleases me so much as to find you 
 hint something of your being touch'd with a sense of breaking in 
 upon principle and conscience : God grant the motion may be 
 sincere. Afflictions do not rise out of the dust : They seem to 
 leave God himself no other room but that of vengeance to deal 
 with them who are neither better'd by mercies or afflictions. The 
 time of sorrow is a time to reflect, and to look and see wherefore 
 he that is righteous is contending with you. Only remember .that 
 he is not mocked. Nothing but a deep, thorough, unfeigned, sincere 
 humiliation is accepted by him. God restore you to your health, 
 liberty, and prosperity, and, last of all, to his blessing and favour. 
 
 " ' Shall I recommend a sincere prayer put up to heaven, tho' in 
 verse, by one I knew under deep and dreadful afflictions ? I'll 
 write you but a few of them : — 
 
 " ' " Lord, whatsoever troubles rack my breast, 
 Till sin removes too, let me take no rest ; 
 How dark soe'er my case, or sharp my pain, 
 Oh, let not sorrow cease and sin remain. 
 
 " ' " For Jesus' sake, remove not my distress 
 Till thy Almighty Grace shall repossess 
 The vacant Throne, from whence my crimes depart. 
 And make a wiUing captive of my heart." 
 
 " ' These are serious lines, tho' Poetical. It's a prayer I doubt 
 few can make : But the moral is excellent ; if afflictions cease and 
 cause of afflictions remain, the Joy of your Deliverance will be short. 
 
 " ' I have sent you the printed paper you wrote for I should 
 
 be glad to render you any service within my power, having been 
 always perhaps more than you imagin'd 
 
 " ' Your sincere Friend and Servant' "* 
 
 The two stanzas Defoe quotes are a Christian 
 paraphrase from PHny (Ep. vii., 26). 
 
 Keimer subsequently emigrated to America, and 
 mention of him occurs in FrankHn's "Autobiography." 
 
 * Commanicated to 'Notes and Queries, 8th May, 1869, by Jamea 
 Crossley. 
 
Ne WINGTOAT. 2 O I 
 
 50.— END OF THE LIFE OF SILENCE (19TH DEC, I7i4).-CRUS0E , 
 LEAVES HIS ISLAND (19TH DEC, 1687). 
 
 This great illness of Defoe's was the turning-point 
 in his life. It marked the end of his period of silence. 
 As he lay helpless on his couch, and death stared him 
 in the face, his thoughts would naturally be led more 
 particularly to the world beyond the grave. He 
 would review his past, and ask himself whether his 
 conduct had been such as could be defended. In 
 summing up his political actions he would see little 
 to regret ; in business matters he would see that he 
 could easily have acted with greater discretion ; but 
 when he came to his wife and family a feeling of 
 uneasiness must have come over him. He had been 
 guilty of no act of what could rightly be called cruelty 
 to them ; he had supplied them with the wherewithal 
 to provide themselves with the comforts of life ; he 
 had taken care that his children should be well 
 educated, but he had lived apart from them ; he had 
 not spoken to them, or scarcely spoken to them, for 
 many, many years — to his wife for more than twenty- 
 eight years. To repeat again his words, " it was their 
 ill-behaviour to him at first " that " was the occasion of 
 it ; for they treated him with provoking language, 
 which frequently put him into indecent passions and 
 urged him into rash replies." There is no doubt that 
 the cause of the vexatious conduct of Mrs. Defoe was 
 her husband's recklessness in business, and the great 
 losses that in consequence ensued. Defoe himself 
 admits that thirteen times he was rich and poor. What 
 did that mean to his family ? Defoe nowhere admits 
 
202 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 that any blame lay upon himself. Mrs. Defoe would 
 see with other eyes. Defoe heaped up fortune after 
 fortune. His splendid genius, like the magician in 
 the Arabian tale, turned to gold everything it touched ; 
 but, as happened in the tale too, it required nothing 
 more than the breath of some malignant afrit — whom, 
 with care, he could generally have kept at a distance — 
 to turn the beautiful yellow gold back again into dross. 
 Some light is thrown on Defoe's disastrous methods 
 of handling money by the conduct of his son-in-law, 
 Mr. H. Baker, with the manuscripts left by whom I 
 shall deal with exhaustively in their proper place. 
 Mr. Baker could never get at the bottom of Defoe. 
 "Your father," he tells his sweetheart, "loves to hide 
 himself in mists " ; but the most significant passage is 
 this : " Ruin and wild destruction sport around him, 
 and exercise their fury on all he has to do with " — a 
 passage suggested by Defoe's refusal to come to terms 
 with Baker concerning Sophia's portion. As the con- 
 text shows, the words " ruin and wild destruction " had 
 reference specially to the destruction of Baker's peace 
 of mind by Defoe's obstinacy ; but they also point to 
 an intimate knowledge by Baker of Defoe's whole 
 history, foimhad Baker's knowledge of Defoe been such 
 as to warrant confidence in him, he would have 
 accepted Defoe's promise, married Sophia at once, 
 and been saved much heart-burning. But the fact is. 
 Baker knew Defoe too well ; he knew that in the great 
 Daniel's unsanded fingers the house at Newington, the 
 lands at Colchester, the gardens and the coaches, were 
 as slippery as so many eels, and that something more 
 was required than either Daniel's word or his bond. 
 
Newington. 203 
 
 But we go back to Defoe's reference to the great 
 silence : " He took this severe way to punish himself 
 for being provoked, and to punish them " (his wife and 
 children) " for provoking him. But the severity was 
 unjustifiable ; it ruined his family and broke up his 
 house. His wife could not bear it ; and, after endea- 
 vouring by all the ways possible to alter his rigid 
 silence, went first away from him and afterwards away 
 from herself, turning melancholy and distracted. His 
 children separated, some one way and some another 
 way, and only one daughter, who loved her father 
 above all the rest, kept with him ; tended him, talked 
 to him by signs, and lived almost dumb, like her 
 father, nearly twenty-nine years with him ; till, being 
 very sick and in a high fever — delirious, as we call it, 
 or light-headed — he broke his silence, not knowing 
 when he did it, and spoke, though wildly at first. He 
 recovered of the illness afterwards, and frequently 
 talked with his daughter, but not much, and very 
 seldom to anybody else. 
 
 " Yet this man did not live a silent life with respect 
 to himself. He read continually, and wrote down 
 •many excellent things, which deserved to have 
 appeared in the world ; and was often heard to pray 
 to God in his solitudes very audibly, and with great 
 fervency ; but the injustice which his rash vow, if it 
 was a vow of silence, was to his family, and the 
 length he carried it, was so unjustifiable another way, 
 that I cannot say his instructions could have much 
 force in them." 
 
 This great illness of Defoe's commenced, as we 
 have said, in the middle of December, 1714, and, 
 
204 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 according to my calculation in § 7, the exact date 
 when Defoe terminated his period of silence was 
 December 19th. Crusoe had left his island ! Twenty- 
 eight years two months and nineteen days he had 
 lived in his solitude. Twenty-eight years two months 
 and nineteen days Defoe had lived a life of silence. 
 And as, even after his deliverance, Crusoe did not 
 long content himself at home, so Defoe, even after 
 his tongue had been loosed, talked " not much, and 
 very seldom to anybody." Like his contemporary 
 Addison, he was, life through, more or less a silent 
 man ; though, in congenial circles, as we- learn from 
 his own pen, he could be sociable; but the silence 
 of Addison was loquacity itself compared with the 
 silence of Defoe. 
 
 As a great change had come over the mind of 
 Defoe, we should naturally expect to see indications 
 of it in his next work ; and we do — indications of 
 the most marked character. 
 
 51.— THE FAMILY INSTRUCTOR, VOL. I. (aiST iMAR., 1715). 
 
 This work was the first volume of his long- 
 popular bode of dialogues for young people, " The 
 Famiily Instructor." He had sold the work during 
 his convalescence, with the stipulation that the name 
 of the author should be concealed, " lest some men, 
 suffering their prejudices to prevail even over their 
 zeal for public good, might be tempted to 'lay the 
 imperfections of the author of this book as a 
 stumbling-block in the way of those who might 
 otherwise receive benefit by it." Mr. Matthews, 
 
Newingtoiv. 205 
 
 the purchaser and publisher, employed the Rev. S. 
 Wright, an eminent Presbyterian minister, to write 
 an introduction. " The Family Instructor " is in 
 three parts — "I., Relating to Fathers and Children; 
 II., To Masters and Servants ; III., To Husbands and 
 Wives." 
 
 In the preface Defoe professes " to have a firm 
 belief that he was not without a more than ordinary 
 presence and assistance of the divine spirit" in the 
 performance of the task, and there is no doubt that 
 it has been the means of doing a deal of good. 
 
 No one should sit down and attempt to go 
 straight through it. A better plan would be to read 
 a portion out aloud to one's family once or twice a 
 week, and no doubt that is how it has been most 
 used. Not that we agree with all Defoe's opinions ; 
 nor would anyone. His illness, though it had loosed 
 his tongue, had somewhat narrowed his soul. He 
 had always been a man of religion, putting that 
 before everything else. At all times the fear of 
 God had been before his eyes ; but now he was to 
 go a step further, and his household was henceforth 
 to be conducted on lines rigidly Puritanical. But 
 times and customs have changed since then. I hope 
 that in the nineteenth century we love and honour 
 the Deity as much as they did in the eighteenth ; 
 but we no longer insist that our young people " shall 
 not stir out of doors after church," that playbooks 
 shall be burnt, and the playhouse tabooed. 
 
 Card-playing — the vice of the age — drinking, and 
 swearing are sternly, and properly, condemned. It 
 will be no alleviation to a parent's sorrow, observes 
 
2o6 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Defoe, to say, after a child is ruined, " I used those 
 diversions moderately and kept myself within com- 
 pass ; it was but very seldom I used an ill- word ; I 
 played at cards but very moderately, and never for 
 money; I seldom drank, hard." In Defoe's own 
 house there was family prayer every morning and 
 every night, and the crucial importance of this in- 
 stitution is over and over again insisted upon. The 
 converted father in the dialogue requires his daughter 
 " to use more modesty in her dress and conversation," 
 and " to wear no more patches," and to lay by her 
 " foolish romances and novels," whereupon, having no 
 intention of so doing, " she flings upstairs in a rage." 
 This was very wrong, but one sympathises with her 
 just a little when her mother took her "good collec- 
 tion of plays, all the French novels, all the. modern 
 poets, Boileau, Dacier, and a great many more," and 
 flung them on the fire, especially as in place of them 
 she was given the "Practice of Piety" and "The 
 Whole Duty of Man," both very excellent reading, 
 but of which, even on a Sunday, it is possible to have 
 too much. Says the girl, " I have learnt a great deal 
 of good from a play." Replies Defoe, with all the 
 old Puritan narrowness, " But might you not have 
 learnt more from the Scriptures ? " On the other 
 hand, it must be admitted that many of the plays then 
 to be had were mixed with " much lewd, vicious, and 
 abominable stuff." In the fifth dialogue we get a 
 description of a Sunday in a strict household, such as 
 Defoe's was : " The young ladies are obliged to be 
 downstairs half an hour after nine in the morning,,' 
 ready dressed." Then follow prayers, and soon after. 
 
Newington. 207 
 
 they all go away, either to the church or to the meeting- 
 house ; but whichsoever it is, they are almost sure to 
 meet together after sermon, . sometimes at the very 
 door, and then, children and servants, not one stirs 
 from home. In the evening the head of the family 
 " calls them all together, reads to them in some good 
 books, and then sings psalms, and goes to prayers ; 
 when that is over, they go to supper, then they spend 
 an hour perhaps, or two, in the most innocent and the 
 most pleasant discourse and conversation imaginable — 
 it is always about something religious — and then 
 everyone retires to their apartment, and the young 
 ladies spend their time in their closet devotions, till 
 they go to bed." 
 
 The feeling uppermost after reading this is pity 
 for the "young ladies." It was religion gone mad. 
 Still, better that than the profanity and utter careless- 
 ness prevalent in so many households. 
 
 In dialogue six, it is mentioned prettily that while 
 the family were at prayers, when there was any 
 word that the mother thought the child ought to 
 remember particularly, she would touch his cheek ; 
 and then, after prayers were over, she would tell him 
 why she did so, and how that sentence was proper for 
 him to remember and to make use of for himself. It is 
 the little touches like this which render " The Family 
 Instructor" so charming, and which show that with all 
 its Puritanical stiffness, Defoe's religion was of the 
 right sort — that it was genuine, and sprang from the 
 heart. The chief blemish of the book is the excessive 
 severity which the father shows to his unrepentant 
 son. It was Nebuchadnezzar over again : " Their 
 
2g8 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 houses shall be made a dunghill." But that is human 
 nature ;• and Defoe was nothing if not in earnest. 
 
 Some of the scenes in "The Family Instructor," 
 which was, doubtless, written as well for the instruc- 
 tion of Defoe's own family as for the edification of 
 the public, are laid in the grounds of his house at 
 Newington, which, like the house in the narrative, 
 had a fine garden, with a close behind, in which may 
 or may not have been " a row of lime trees." 
 
 Defoe's youngest child, Sophia, was at this time 
 fourteen, just at an age when the female mind was 
 ensnared by millinery, plays, and patches. How old 
 his other daughters, Hannah, Henrietta, and Maria 
 were we do not know. It may be merely a coin- 
 cidence, but it is noteworthy that while the eldest 
 daughter in the narrative repents and becomes recon- 
 ciled to her father, the eldest son continues in his 
 obstinacy to the end ; and it is painful to remember 
 that both Defoe's sons caused their father a great deal 
 of sorrow. 
 
 52.— CHARLES XII. OF SWEDEN.— THANKS TO A DREAM, OR HOW 
 DEFOE GOT OUT OF THE ANGLESEY SCRAPE QULY 12, 1715). 
 
 WoEi# 169.— History of the Wars of Charles XII. of Sweden. 
 
 Defoe's next publication, " The History of the 
 Wars of His Present Majesty Charles XII., King 
 of Sweden" (6th July, 1715), was compiled in part 
 from the items of news in the Review. What the 
 " Scots Gentleman in the Swedish Service," who 
 figures on the title-page as the author, had to do 
 with the book, beyond helping to make It sell, we 
 
Newington. 209 
 
 have no means of ascertaining. That he was a 
 myth is unlikely. As we have already shown, 
 Defoe, whenever possible, got his information first 
 hand, and the majority of the facts here dealt with 
 may well have been derived from a "Scots Gentle- 
 man in the Swedish Service." That Defoe was 
 perfectly acquainted with all the tricks of the pro- 
 fession, and that he did not neglect to avail himself 
 of them ; that indeed his own ingenuity invented 
 some very pretty new ones, we readily admit ; but 
 he was far more scrupulous in such matters than 
 some would have us believe. Five years later 
 (21st May, 1720)-, after the death of Charles, Defoe 
 republished this work with an appendix carrying 
 the story on up to date. 
 
 Ever since the previous August, Defoe had 
 been at large upon his recognisances for the article 
 relating to the Earl of Anglesey. On the 12th 
 July, 171 5, he was brought to trial at the Court 
 of King's Bench. As he had acknowledged the 
 authorship, nothing remained for the court to decide 
 but whether or not he had broken the law, and 
 what punishment should be inflicted. But though 
 brought in guilty, sentence was deferred. How at 
 last he got out of this scrape, we are informed by 
 himself in that portion of his "Serious Reflections" 
 which relates to the phenomena of dreams, and the 
 beliefs in premonition by dreams, and silent hints 
 by God in the daytime — a very favourite subject 
 of his, as we have already noticed. He says — 
 
 " I know a man who made it a rule always to obey these silent 
 hints, and he has often declared to me that when he obeyed them 
 O 
 
2IO The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 he never miscarried ; and if he neglected them, or went on contrary 
 to them, he never succeeded ; and gave me a particular case of 
 his own, among a great many others, wherein he was thus directed. 
 He had a particular case befallen him, wherein he was under the 
 displeasure of the Government, and was prosecuted for a misde- 
 meanour, and brought to a trial in the King's Bench Court, where 
 a verdict was brought against him, and he was cast ; and times 
 running very hard at that time, against the party he was of, he was 
 afraid to stand the hazard of a sentence, and absconded, taking care 
 to make due provision for his bail, and to pay them whatever they 
 might suffer. In thfs circumstance he was in great distress, and no 
 way presented unto him but to fly out of the kingdom, which, being 
 to leave his family, children, and employment, was very bitter to 
 him, and he knew not what to do ; all his friends advising him not 
 to put himself into the hands of the law, which though the offence 
 was not capital, yet in his circumstances seemed to threaten his utter 
 ruin. In this extremity he felt one morning (just as he had awaked, 
 and the thoughts of his misfortune began to return upon him) — I say 
 he felt — a strong impulse darting into his mind thus : WRITE A 
 LETTER TO THEM. It spoke so distinctly to him, and as it 
 were forcibly, that as he has often said since, he can scarce persuade 
 himself not to believe but that he heard it ; but he grants tnat he 
 did not really hear it, too. However, it repeated the words daily 
 and hourly to him, till at length walking about in his chamber where 
 he was hidden, very pensive and sad, it jogged him again, and he 
 answered aloud to it, as if it had been a voice, WHOM SHALL 
 I WRITE TO? It returned immediately, WRITE TO THE 
 JUDGE " [Lord Chief Justice Parker]. " This pursued him again 
 for several days, till at length he took his pen, ink, and paper, and 
 sat down to write, but knew not one word of what ,he should say, 
 but, dabitur M hac hora, he wanted not words: It was immediately 
 impressed on his 'mind, and the words flowed upon his pen in a 
 manner that even charmed himself, and filled him with expectations 
 of success." The letter was so strenuous in argument, so pathetic in 
 its eloquence, and so moving and persuasive, that as soon as the 
 judge read it, he sent him word he should be easy, for he would 
 endeavour to make that matter light to him ; and in a word never 
 left, till he obtained leave to stop the prosecution, and restore him to 
 his liberty and to his family." 
 
Newington. 2 I I 
 
 53.— A GOVERNMENT SPY.— THE LETTERS TO MR. DE LA FAYE. 
 
 WoHKS : 170. — Hymn to the Mob. 14th July, 1715. 
 
 171. — View of the Scots Rebellion, "The '15." 
 
 17Z. — A Trumpet Blown in the North. loth Nov., 1713. 
 
 173. — ^An Account of the Great and Generous Actions of James Butler (Duke 
 
 of Ormond). 
 174. — Some Account of the Two Nights' Court at Greenwich. Early in 
 
 1616. 
 175. — Some Considerations on a: Law for Triennial Parliaments, 
 176. — ^The Alteration in the Triennial Act considered. 
 
 The country was now all in an upset on account 
 of what Is generally called "The '15," the attempt 
 of the Pretender to seize the English throne ; and 
 Defoe's next three effusions, as might be expected, 
 have reference to it. "A Hymn to the Mob" is a 
 history of the mobs of all times, and a denunciation 
 of those which just then were making the streets of 
 London such scenes of disorder. The strains of 
 Defoe did not get more dulcet as he advanced in 
 years. Even the atrocities of Tate and Eusden are 
 more tolerable than the " Hymn to the Mob." 
 
 On the 1 5th of October he very sensibly returns to 
 prose again with " A View of the Scots Rebellion," in 
 which he shows how the plans of the Highlanders 
 could be circumvented ; and on November loth he 
 poses once more as a Quaker, and addresses a pamphlet 
 to the rebel Earl of Mar, with the title, " A Trumpet 
 Blown in the North," etc. 
 
 We have seen that Lord Chief Justice Parker pre- 
 vented further proceedings against Defoe ; but he did 
 more. He sought an interview with Lord Townshend, 
 the Secretary of State, and represented to him that 
 Defoe was a staunch supporter of King George, 
 o 2 
 
212 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Townshend received the deserter, or the supposed 
 deserter, with open arms, and thus was Defoe restored 
 to his old Whig love. Townshend's next thought was 
 how to make the best of his new ally, and it occurred 
 to him that it would be good policy if— the recon- 
 ciliation with the Government being concealed — Defoe 
 could remain in the enemy's camp as a Government 
 spy. Jacobite journals had of late published numbers 
 of seditious and treasonable articles, which had done 
 the Government damage. If Defoe were to worm 
 himself into the confidence of these journalists — which 
 he could easily do, on account of his supposed anta- 
 gonism to the Government — and counteract their 
 designs by intercepting or taking, the sting out of 
 treasonable papers, it was evident that the Government 
 could be materially assisted. Townshend, therefore, 
 inqu-ired whether Defoe would do this — whether, in 
 short, he would be a Government spy. Defoe con- 
 sented, and on these broad conditions engaged himself 
 in Lord Townshend's service. Whether he is to be 
 blamed or not, different persons will have different 
 opinions. If it is dishonourable to be a_ spy, Defoe's 
 conduct cannot be defended ; if it is not dishonourable, 
 let no stonaB be cast at him. He wrote during this 
 period nothing " contrary to his conscience, or to the 
 principles which had directed his whole life." The 
 arrangements with Lord Townshend are stated by 
 Defoe in six letters written by him to Mr. De La Faye 
 between April 12 and June 13, 1718. Whether Defoe 
 had at first any fixed remuneration does not appear ; 
 but at the end of 17 16, when Townshend went out of 
 office, he received an appointment, " with promise of 
 
Ne WINGTON. 2 I 3 
 
 further allowance as service presented." Apparently 
 this appointment was held till 1726. 
 
 About the end of 1715 Defoe published a prose 
 satire, entitled, " An account of the Great and Generous 
 actions of James Butler (late Duke of Ormond)," in 
 which he shows that Ormond, who was the occasion of 
 rioting at Oxford and other disturbances, and who had 
 recently fled to the Continent to avoid the consequences 
 of his treasonous actions — had attained popularity, not 
 on account of his Jacobitism, but through his " vanity, 
 ambition, and the prodigal squandering of a princely 
 fortune." " Some Account of the Two Nights' Court 
 at Greenwich" (published early in 17 16) is a history 
 of the frustration of the Jacobite plans at the time of 
 the landing of King George. 
 
 This production Defoe — "that prostituted tool of 
 the Ministry," as Boyer calls him — followed by two 
 ■pamphlets (Nos. 175 and 176) in support of the 
 measure for establishing Septennial Parliaments, which 
 was introduced as a bulwark against the J acobite agi- 
 tations, and which passed both houses on the loth of 
 April, 17:6. 
 
 t,i,.~MF.RCURIUS POUTICUS (MAY, 1716, TO SEPT. i72o)-and 
 DORMER'S NEWS LETTER (JUNE, 1716, To AUG., 1718). 
 
 Works : 177. — Merourius Politicus. 
 
 178. — Dormer's News Letter. 
 
 179 — Memoirs of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 180.— Count Patkul. 
 
 Previous to the time when Defoe linked himself to 
 Townshend, he had announced his works as beinor 
 written by the author of " The True-born English- 
 man", or the author of the Review ; but subsequendy, 
 
214 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 owing to the nature of his connection with the Govern- 
 ment, he deemed it expedient to issue them either 
 anonymously or pseudonymously. With two trifling 
 exceptions, observes Mr. Lee, " Daniel Defoe never 
 appeared again before the world, as an author, in his 
 proper person, nor laid any public claim to pro- 
 ductions of his own pen that were so popular as to 
 have passed through half-a-dozen editions within less 
 than a month." This is true, but the public rarely failed 
 to recognise his hand; for though he- hid his name, he 
 took no pains to disguise his style. Nor was he ever 
 displeased at being detected. He took it as a 
 compliment. 
 
 He now set himself in good earnest to fulfil his 
 engagement with the Government, and as a com- 
 mencement- established (May, 1716) a monthly 
 periodical, Mercurius Politicus, which was always 
 to be kept (mistakes excepted) to pass as a Tory 
 paper, and yet be so managed that it could give, no 
 offence to the Government. Each number of this 
 periodical consists of an octavo pamphlet of nearly 
 a hundred pages. Defoe was connected with it till 
 1720, and probably longer. In June (1716) we find 
 him, with tte approbation of Townshend, becoming 
 part-proprietor and manager of the red-hot Tory and 
 High Church Dormer s News Letter, a piece of 
 business that was the more acceptable to the Govern- 
 ment from the fact that News Letters were not 
 printed or published in the usual way and openly 
 sold, but were only transcribed by hand, and sent 
 by post to all subscribers. He was connected with 
 Dormers till 171 8, and perhaps later. It "still 
 
Newington. 215 
 
 seemed to be Tory, so as to amuse the party, and 
 prevent their setting up another violent paper." 
 What time during the next nine months could be 
 spared from bamboozling the Tories was devoted to 
 writing a volume of four hundred and fifty pages, 
 entitled "Memoirs of the Church of Scotland," a 
 work which was published April 26th, 1717. 
 
 Early in 171 7 the Government discovered that 
 the Jacobites were making preparation for another 
 rebellion, and in consequence of secret information 
 a raid was made upon the residence of Count 
 Gyllenborg, the Swedish Ambassador, with the result 
 of the discovery of a damning correspondence between 
 him and Baron Goertz, a distinguished Swedish 
 Ambassador abroad. In consequence, there arose 
 throughout England a feeling of intense animosity 
 against the King of Sweden, and it occurred to 
 Defoe to revive the account of the King of Sweden's 
 barbarity nine years previous to a nobleman named 
 Count Patkul, which he did, in a pamphlet published 
 in April with the following tide : " A short narra- 
 tive of the life and death of John Rhinholdt, Count 
 Patkul, a nobleman of Livonia, who was broke alive 
 upon the wheel in Great Poland anno 1707. To- 
 gether with the manner of his execution : Written 
 by the Lutheran minister who assisted him in his 
 last hours. Faithfully translated out of a High 
 Dutch manuscript, and now published for the in- 
 formation of Count Gyllenbor'g's English friends." 
 Mr. Lee is uncertain whether this is a translation 
 or an original composition, but inclines to the latter, 
 because it refers to, and quotes nearly four pages 
 
2i6 The Life of Danjel Defoe. 
 
 from, Defoe's former work on the " Wars of Charles 
 XII." 
 
 SS-— "FRIDAY" WRITES THE MINUTES OF THE NEGOTIATIONS OF 
 MONSIEUR MESNAGER (17TH JUNE, 1717). 
 
 Works; iSi. — Minutes, etc., of Mesnager. 
 
 182. — A Declaration of Truth to Benjamin Hoardley (another Quaker 
 Pamphlet) 
 
 We have seen how, In 171 1, M. Mesnager, the 
 French ambassador, had endeavoured to corrupt 
 Defoe with a hundred pistoles, and how the plot 
 had failed. On the 17th of June, 17 17, appeared 
 a pamphlet entitled " Minutes of the Negociations of 
 Monsr. Mesnager at the Court of England towards 
 the clos.e of the last reign," the object of which was 
 to defend Harley, Lord Oxford, whose trial was to 
 commence on the 24th of that month. Now the 
 publication of this work is one of the most interest- 
 ing events in the life of Defoe, for though the book 
 contains abundance of evidence of Defoe's finger in 
 it, yet, when charged with writing it by his enemy 
 Boyer, he declares point blank in MerciLrius 
 Politicus for 1717 (pp. 471-3) that he was "not 
 the author or the translator of the said book," that 
 he had " no* concern in it," and that he " did never 
 see it, other than its outside, in the bookseller's 
 shop." He further, says — 
 
 '' Mr. Boyer has also now published, the titles of a great many 
 Books and Pamphlets, which he charges me with writing (no less 
 than Fourteen in number), but is so unfortunate in his Spleen, that 
 of all the Number, there is but one that I was sole Author of, not 
 above three that I ever had any Hand in, and five or six that I never 
 saw in my Life." — Mercurius Foliticus for 17 17, pp. 471-3 (July). 
 
Ne WINGTON. 217 
 
 In a letter to Notes and Queries, February 12,, 
 1870, Mr. Lee, after giving five proofs that Defoe 
 was connected with " Mesnager," says : — 
 
 " If Defoe did not write ' Mesnager's Minutes,' who did ? Had 
 he a ' double,' oir an imitator never heard of or suspected by him- 
 self, his friends, or his numerous enemies, and yet holding all his 
 political principles, thinking the same thoughts, and clothing them 
 in precisely the same peculiar phraseology, having the same grati- 
 tude towards the Earl of Oxford, and continuing faithful to him 
 throughout his imprisonment?" 
 
 And Mr. Crossley, as great an authority on Defoe as 
 Mr. Lee, inquires similarly — 
 
 " Who was the contemporary who imitates so well his style and 
 manner of writing, as it cannot be denied that some of the tracts 
 repudiated by Defoe bear strong traces of his pen ? " 
 
 Mr. Lee inquires whether Defoe had a " double," 
 but he forgets that Defoe himself declared that he did 
 have a "double," a collaborator, a "Friday"; and it 
 is impossible to get out of this difficulty respecting 
 Mesnager except by assuming that "Friday" wrote 
 it — and wrote it without Defoe's assistance, though, 
 doubtless, at his suggestion. 
 
 Other works that Defoe disclaimed authorship of, 
 and that contain the impress of his hand, are : " The 
 Balance of Europe," 1711; "Armageddon," 1711; 
 "Mercator"; "Secret History of the White Staff," 
 1714 ; and the two tracts on " Triennial Parliaments." 
 
 The Whig party were now having it all their own 
 way : it was given out that the Occasional Conformity 
 Act and the Schism Act were to be repealed. To 
 smooth the way for this course. Dr. Hoardley, Low 
 Church Bishop of Bangor, preached a sermon on 
 
2i8 " The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 " The Nature of the Kingdom or Church of Christ," 
 which caused Defoe, who approved the Bishop's 
 doctrine, to write another Quaker tract, in which he 
 roguishly advises the Bishop to go one step further — 
 to come out from the Church, lay down his " painted 
 vestments and profane trinkets," and unite himself 
 with the Society of Friends. 
 
 56.— MIST AND HIS JOURNAL (24TH AUG., 1717).— DANCING OVER 
 BROKEN GLASS. 
 
 WOKK : 183. — The Weekly Journal ; or, Saturdays Post {Mist's]. 
 
 How Defoe worked Mercurius Politicus and 
 Dormer s News Letter for the Government we have 
 already seen. Lord Townshend, who went out of 
 office in December, 1716, had been succeeded by 
 Lord Sunderland, who " was pleased to approve and 
 continue " Defoe's previous service ; and with his 
 lordship's approbation, Defoe put the Government 
 under still further obligat/ions by connecting himself, 
 " in the disguise of a translator of foreign news," with 
 the Tory journal of Mr. Nathaniel Mist, the organ 
 of the Pretender's interest. Defoe had no share in 
 the property of Mist's Journal, and "therefore no 
 absolute power to reject improper communications ; 
 but he trusted to the moral influence he should be 
 able to acquire and maintain over Mist, who had 
 no suspicion that the Government was indirectly con- 
 cerned in the matter." In his account of these various 
 transactions, Defoe thus sums up his duties : — ■ 
 
 " Upon the whole, however, this is the consequence, that by this 
 management, the Weekly Journal (Mist's) and Dormer's Letter, as 
 
Ne wington. 2 1 9 
 
 also the Mercurius Politicus, which is in the same nature of manage- 
 ment as t\ie Journal, will be always kept (mistakes excepted) to pass 
 as Tory papers, and yet be disabled and enervated so as to do no 
 mischief or give any offence to the Government." 
 
 The correspondents and supporters of Mist's were 
 " Papists, Jacobites, and enraged High Tories, a gen- 
 eration whom," says Defoe, " I profess, my very soul 
 abhors." In the performance of his duty he was 
 compelled to hear traitorous expressions against the 
 King, and " to take scandalous and villainous papers, 
 and keep them by him, as if he would gather materials 
 from them to put into the news, but really with a view 
 to suppressing them. Thus," concludes Defoe, " I bow 
 myself in the House of Rimmon." He says that this 
 work was not only far from pleasant, but also danger- 
 ous ; and dangerous it truly was, for the possibility 
 constantly stared him in the face that he might be 
 found out, and that Mist or his friends Atterbury, 
 Ormond, Bolingbroke, and Mar might discover how 
 the wind really lay, which, as we shall see by-and-by, 
 they in the end did. But, with all its dangers, 
 Defoe loved it. Ticklish business of one kind or 
 another he was engaged upon the whole of his life. 
 To dance over broken glass, on the edges of preci- 
 pices, on the thinnest of ice, were feats that his soul 
 revelled in ; and though over and over again he came 
 to grief, yet he never could wean himself from the 
 delight. He was a sphinx, a jack-o'-lantern, a 
 mystery. He delighted to encircle himself in a mist. 
 He had as many faces as Garrick, and which was the 
 real Defoe none of his contemporaries could make up 
 their minds. Mist' sj^ourna/, with which Defoe became 
 
2 20 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 connected about the 24th of August, 17 17, consisted of 
 six pages small folio. In No. 68, published on the 29th 
 of March, 17 18, an important improvement was effected 
 in the paper. Each number, in addition to its pre- 
 vious contents, presented an essay or communication 
 on some subject of public interest, written in the form 
 of a letter— generally by Defoe— and addressed to 
 Mr. Mist, but signed with any letter or name that 
 might, for the appearance of variety, occur at the 
 moment. This practice was presently adopted by 
 other papers, and the articles which were placed at the 
 commencement of each number shortly after became 
 distinguished by the title of "Letters Introductory." 
 The writers of such letters became dignified with the 
 title of Author, as, for example, " Mist's Author," 
 " Applebee's Author." * Thus it may be claimed for 
 Defoe that he was the originator of that mighty 
 agency of modern times, " the leading article." For 
 his services on Mist's Journal Defoe was paid "after 
 the rate of twenty shilling a week." f 
 
 S1-—THE WHITEHALL EVENING POST. —"TUKT NOTORIOUS 
 INSIGNIFICANT ANIMAL MIST AND' HIS SCANDALOUS 
 AUTHOR DANIEL FOE." 
 
 Works : 184. — ^'Curious Little Oration. 
 
 185.— Memoirs of Public Transactions in the Life and Ministry of his Grace 
 
 the D. of Shrewsbury. 
 186.— The Case of the War in Italy Slated. 
 187. — Memoirs of the Rev. Daniel Williams, D.D. 
 188. — The Family Instructor, vol. ii. 
 i8g. — The Whitehall Evening Post. 
 igo. — A Friendly Rebulje to one Parson Benjamin. loth Jan., 1719. 
 
 The death of the Duke of Shrewsbury', early in 
 1 7 18, suggested an account of that nobleman's life, or 
 
 * Lee. t State Papers. See The Athenaum, z6th August, 1893. 
 
NeWINGTON. 221 
 
 rather of his pubHc transactions (185) ; and scarcely 
 was Defoe's ink dry before he was ready with " The 
 Case of the War in Italy Stated" — a pamphlet dealing 
 -with the complications between Spain and Austria. 
 
 Between April and June (1718), Lord Stanhope 
 having succeeded Lord Sunderland, Defoe addressed 
 a series of six letters to Mr. Charles de la Faye, one 
 of the secretaries under Lord Stanhope, to explain his 
 ■connection with M.\si' a Journal, and it is from these 
 that the facts in this singular episode in Defoe's life 
 have been gleaned. 
 
 Early in 1718 Defoe had dealings with the famous 
 and infamous publisher, Edmund Curll, who goes down 
 to posterity as having added a new word to our lan- 
 guage and invented a new sin — the sin of Curllicism, 
 defined by Defoe as " writing beastly stories, and then 
 propagating them by print." " In the four years past," 
 added Defoe, " more beastly unsufferable books have 
 been published by this one offender than in thirty 
 years before by all the nation." 
 
 The tall, thin, white-faced figure of Edmund 
 Curll, with its goggle-eyes and splay-feet, was a 
 familiar sight in the streets of London ; and stories 
 were told of translators in his pay " lying three in a 
 bed at the 'Pewter Platter Inn' in Holborn," "how 
 he and they were for ever at work deceiving the 
 public," of his penuriousness, which would never allow 
 indulgence in drink, much as he craved it, and of the 
 nauseous greed with which he did indulge at another's 
 expense — " drinking every day till he was quite blind, 
 and as incapable of self-motion as a block." Along- 
 side with " the most filthy and ribald works that were 
 
222 The Life of Daniel Defoe. ^ 
 
 ever issued," Curll, who had piously erected a Bible 
 over his shop as a sign, kept a very large stock of 
 religious works ; and memoirs of celebrated divines 
 was a speciality of his ; consequently, upon the death 
 of the Rev. Daniel Williams, D.D., a distinguished 
 Presbyterian minister, he requested Defoe, a friend 
 of Dr. Williams, to write the deceased clergyman's 
 memoirs. 
 
 Defoe describes Curll as " odious in his person, 
 scandalous in his fame; he is marked by nature, for 
 he has a bawdy countenance, and a debauched mien, 
 his tongue is an echo, of all the beastly language his 
 shop is filled with, and filthiness drivels in the very 
 tone of his voice."* An unsavoury man in an un- 
 savoury den. Defoe had dealings with a good many 
 publishers, but with none whom he liked less than 
 Edmund Curll. 
 
 The " Memoirs of Daniel Williams " was followed 
 by a second volume of "The Family Instructor," 
 which owed its origin to the popularity attained by 
 the first volume, now in its fourth edition. The first 
 part of the new volume relates to family breaches and 
 their obstruction of religious duties, the second, " to 
 the great mistake of mixing the passions in the 
 managing and correcting of children." Says Defoe, 
 " The same desire of doing good, which moved the 
 first part, has been sincerely the occasion of a second"; 
 and he believed that, as on the former occasion, he 
 had had the presence and assistance of God. The 
 same remarks that were offered in respect to the first 
 volume apply to this one. It requires to- be taken 
 
 * Defoe, in Mist's Journal, 5th April, 1718. 
 
Newington. 223 
 
 in doses. As in its predecessor, the prevailing vices 
 of the time are unsparingly denounced. There is a 
 whip for people who get " as drunk as a wheelbarrow," 
 for those who in waspish moods unjustly beat their 
 children, and for those who indulge in the fashionable 
 " Poison me ! " and other foolish expletives. Perhaps 
 the most interesting figure in the book is the coloured 
 man, Toby, who, like his more famous successor in 
 " Robinson Crusoe," gets converted ; and there is a 
 sea captain in it. 
 
 " The Family Instructor " marks a stage in Defoe's 
 development. At first he was a pamphleteer, then in 
 " The Family Instructor" he ventures on a series of 
 thin stories, with a huofe amount of moralizinsf. The 
 edifice was presently to be capped with such produc- 
 tions as " Robinson Crusoe," " Moll Flanders," and 
 " Captain Singleton," with plenty of story and only 
 just enough moralizing for the average sinner to take 
 with comfort. 
 
 The change that had come over Mist's paper 
 did not pass unnoticed by the contemporary press. 
 The racy political articles against the Government 
 that had been so palatable to the extreme Tories 
 had now given place to tomfooleries about a 
 " Floating Island," " The Destruction of the Island 
 of St. Vincent," etc., papers bantering the customs 
 of the day after the manner of the Tatler and 
 the Spectator, or "diverting stories," such as Defoe 
 delighted in, about a thief robbing a Quaker's house 
 by way of the chimney and getting off scot free by 
 representing himself as the devil ; of a physician set 
 upon by thieves, who, because he had no money, 
 
2 24 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 obliged him by way of punishment to take his own 
 medicine, etc. etc. 
 
 Read's (Whig) Joitrnal in particular rallied Mist 
 on the change, concluding its taunt by declaring 
 that Mist's wings were clipped and that he only 
 fluttered about like a wounded bird ; and subse- 
 quently, when the secret as to Defoe's connection 
 with Mist had leaked out, Read's had a good deal 
 of abuse to heap upon " that notorious, insignificant 
 animal Mist " and " his scandalous author, Daniel 
 Foe." 
 
 But not only was Mist taunted by the Whigs; 
 his friends the Tories were also exasperated against 
 him, and, owing to the pressure they brought to 
 bear, violent articles against the Government again 
 began to appear in its columns. It was in vain 
 that Defoe endeavoured to suppress these things, 
 in vain that he represented that it was dangerous 
 to do more than rally the Whigs and admit foolish 
 and trifling things in favour of the Tories. " This," 
 he told Mist, "is the only way to preserve your 
 paper, and keep yourself from jail, and unless you 
 will keep measures with me, and be punctual in 
 these things, I will not serve you any further, or 
 be concerned any more in your paper" — a serious 
 threat enough, seeing that it was entirely owing to 
 Defoe's skill that the large circulation of the paper 
 was kept up. With Defoe pulling on one side and 
 the Jacobites on the other, poor Mist led a dog's 
 life of it ; but the Jacobites pulled the strongest, 
 and in October appeared in the Journal a letter 
 signed Sir Andrew Politick, which gave offence to 
 
Ne wing ton. 225 
 
 the Government. The premises of Mist were 
 searched for the letter, " a seditious libel was found 
 hid in the ceiling, all the persons on the premises 
 were seized, and Mist on hearing the news sur- 
 rendered and was taken into custody."* When 
 examined on November ist before Lord Stan- 
 hope and Mr. Craggs, Mr. Mist declared falsely 
 that Defoe was the author of the offensive letter ; 
 but as his lordship was in Defoe's secret, no 
 harm resulted. A few days later, owing to the in- 
 fluence of Defoe, Mist obtained a discharge ; he 
 was, however, none the more willing to agree to 
 Defoe's terms, so they separated. Read's Journal 
 on the 6th of December maliciously insinuates that 
 the separation was owing to a quarrel about money. 
 
 What strange adventures could untwist 
 Such true-born knaves as Foe and Mist ? 
 They quarrelled sure about the pelf. 
 For Dan's a needy, greedy elf. 
 
 But whatever else Read's Journal did, it never 
 flattered the great Daniel. When the hawkers 
 roared about the streets a dismal elegy which 
 gave out that Defoe had lately hanged himself 
 at Newington, Read's very kindly contradicted the 
 report, but added "though that scurrilous fellow has 
 no superfluity of grace, loyalty, and common 
 honesty, yet has he just wit enough not to be- 
 friend the hangman, by becoming a felo de se, 
 which he knows would be the ' Shortest Way ' to 
 the devil." No doubt in George's day the skins of 
 
 * See Athmaum, 26th Aug. '93. 
 
226 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 journalists were thick and t6ugh, but few - could 
 have been assailed with more virulence than Defoe. 
 Nor need it be wondered at, for he was provoking 
 to the very last degree. He took it for granted 
 that his antagonists were all rogues, knaves, or 
 thieves, and that he himself was Daniel Immacu- 
 latus. He was continually outwitting them, con- 
 tinually getting the whip hand of them; and while 
 they were swearing blue murder, he was either as 
 cool as a cucumber or as merry as a grig. If he 
 did at times have the "hippo," as he calls it, he 
 never let them see it. 
 
 The way, too, he talked of his own doings, 
 works, and sufferings, also riled them. Indeed, of 
 blowing his own trumpet and parading his own 
 experiences he was never tired. " He had all the 
 vaingloriousness of exuberant vitality,"* and the 
 recital of his own adventures exhilarated him as a 
 country walk on a fine day in April does a pent- 
 up student. That he outdistanced his fellow 
 penmen too in their own arts was also a source 
 of annoyance. When we hear of the sly methods 
 used nowadays by so many for puffing themselves 
 into notice and for keeping their name before the 
 public, we are apt to think our own age contrasts 
 badly with that of the Augustans, who, we inno- 
 cently imagine, rose to eminence merely by virtue 
 of their greatness ; but . it was not so. As a 
 master in the art of puffery, Defoe could give 
 points to any penman of the present day or to any 
 publisher. He wrote letters to himself, saying that 
 
 * Professor Minto. 
 
Newington. 227 
 
 his paper " was the best and most sensible of all 
 newspapers " ;* he referred to himself as " the well- 
 known Daniel Defoe " ; he wrote books anonymously 
 with a preface signed by his own name, recom- 
 mending the books as all that was admirable, and 
 praising them to the skies. If it answered his 
 purpose, he corrected himself, quoted himself, vitu- 
 perised himself. He never lost an opportunity of 
 forcing down people's throats that he was a man 
 of importance. He took care to keep them per- 
 petually in remembrance that he had written " The 
 True-born Englishman," and it was not his fault if 
 the public forgot that he had hob-a-nobbed with 
 King -William and had been received into favour 
 and rewarded by Queen Anne. 
 
 In short, if Defoe's literary contemporaries did 
 not love him, we have not far to go to seek the 
 reasons. The hind runners in a race do not usu- 
 ally make themselves hoarse with applauding the 
 victor ; the spectators do, however, and Defoe had 
 his full share both of applause and roses. 
 
 In the meantime he had started another paper. 
 The Whitehall Evening Post, a tri-weekly, consist- 
 ing of two leaves small quarto. The first number 
 appeared on Sept. i8th, 1718, and he continued to 
 be connected with it until June, 1720. 
 
 Finding that the circulation of his paper had 
 rapidly gone down, Mist now sought out dnd 
 put himself again into the hands of Defoe who 
 resumed the control of the paper, on his own 
 
 * Set the attack on Defoe in The Half-Penny Post for i6th April, 
 1720. 
 
 P 2 
 
2 28 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 absolute terms, in the beginning of January, 1719; 
 or, as Read's puts it, Daniel had " now again under- 
 taken the dirty work of penning Mist's Journal." 
 
 We have already seen that Defoe was intimately 
 connected with Norwich {\ 27), where resided his 
 friends John Fransham and other "topping Dis- 
 senters " ; and the connection of the Defoes with 
 that city was now to be made stronger by the 
 marriage, with a Norwich person, of Benjamin, the 
 novelist's second son. 
 
 The following is the entry in the register of 
 St. Helen's, Norwich — 
 
 "Benjamin De Foe of Stoke Newington in the county of 
 Middlesex singleman and Hannah Coates of St. George of Cole- 
 gate in the City of Norwich singlewoman were married the twenty- 
 second of Septembe', 1718." 
 
 Benjamin Defoe and his wife appear to have 
 resided for a time at Norwich ; for in the register 
 of the Octagon Chapel appears the following entry 
 of the birth of their first child — 
 
 " Benjamin son of Benjamin De Foe gent, and Hannah his wife, 
 of St. George of Colegate, was baptized 6 June, 17 19." 
 
 No one of the name of De Foe was rated in 
 the parish of St. George of Colegate in 17 18 or 
 1 7 19, but that of the widow Coates occurs before 
 and after these dates. 
 
NOVELIST AND HISTORIAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 THE ADVENTURE SERIES. 
 
 58.— WILD WICKED ROBINSON CRUSOE (PUBLISHED 25TH APRIL, 
 1719).— DEATH OF ADDISON {i7TI-I JUNE, 1719). 
 
 Work : 191. — Robinson Crusoe (Part I.). 
 
 Defoe was now in his sixtieth year. He had 
 already accomplished an enormous amount of work. 
 He had written scores of pamphlets, conducted half a 
 dozen newspapers, and published several books, some 
 of them very voluminous — to say nothing of his 
 exertions in other fields — but the work he had so far 
 got through was as nothing compared with the labours 
 he was now to commence. His output during his 
 last decade is unparalleled in the history of literature ; 
 and it now lies with us to unfold the chronicle of this 
 enchanting period — to tell how he turned out story 
 after story, and history after history, some of them of 
 the highest, and all of very high, merit — three, four, 
 and even five in a year. For the rate at which he 
 worked, and the amount and value of the work he 
 turned out, no author, English or foreign, can compare 
 with him, save only perhaps Balzac ; and even Balzac, 
 
230 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 prodigious as were his toils, compares with him only 
 feebly, for at the time Defoe was producing his 
 wonderful series of novels he was also writing political 
 pamphlets and conducting three or four newspapers^ — 
 a monthly of nearly one hundred pages, a weekly, a 
 tri-weekly, and, during part of the time, a daily. But 
 nothing is more delectable to your dexterous charioteer 
 than driving six horses abreast. Whether or not the 
 great stories of Defoe which we have now to consider 
 come within the bounds of fiction depends upon how 
 the word fiction is defined. Defoe would not have it that 
 any of them were fiction. "Crusoe," he said, was an 
 allegory; "Moll Flanders," "Colonel Jack," "Single- 
 ton," the " Journal of the Plague," and the " Memoirs 
 of a Cavalier," are declared to be true histories — that 
 is to say, a collection of authenticated facts in an 
 artistic setting. A novel or a romance, as the terms 
 are usually accepted, he considered as not worth 
 writing and a waste of time to read. In the " Family 
 Instructor" "novels and romances" are categoried 
 with plays and songs "and such like stuff." 
 
 The first, and thanks to his felicity in the choice 
 of a subject, the greatest of his stories was the famous 
 " Robinson iCrusoe," founded on the adventures of 
 Alexander Selkirk, from whom, as we have narrated, 
 Defoe, about 17 12, obtained papers. The resem- 
 blances between the adventures of Selkirk and those 
 of Crusoe are so patent that no one reading the two 
 narratives can help noticing them. To take only a 
 few : Selkirk, like Crusoe, built two huts, employed 
 himself " in reading, singing psalms, and praying ; so 
 that he said he was a better Christian while in this 
 
FRONTISPIECE TO THE FIRST EDITION OF "ROBINSON CRUSOE." i 
 
The Adventure Series. 231 
 
 solitude than ever he was before." Selkirk cut on 
 trees the time of " his being left and continuance there," 
 and Crusoe had his post with notches. Selkirk, like 
 Crusoe, was pestered with cats, some of which became 
 tame, and " when his clothes wore out, he made him- 
 self a coat and cap of goat skins." There were no 
 venomous or savage creatures either on Selkirk's 
 island or Crusoe's, " nor any other sort of beasts 
 but goats." 
 
 After Captain Woodes Rogers had taken Selkirk 
 on board, the sailors persisted in calling him " the 
 governour," in allusion to his government of the island 
 where his " right there was none to dispute " ; and 
 Robinson Crusoe was called so when there were other 
 Englishmen on his island. 
 
 These resemblances alone would suggest that 
 Defoe had Selkirk's narrative in mind, but this is not 
 all. Not only did Defoe get from Selkirk the idea of 
 Crusoe, but there is every probability that he was 
 indebted to him, or rather to him and Captain Rogers, 
 for the idea of Friday, too. 
 
 ■ " ' Captain Dampier,' says Rogers, ' talks of a Moskito Indian 
 (William) that belonged to Capt. Watlin, who being a-hunting in 
 the woods when the captain left the island, lived here three years 
 alone, and shifted much in the same manner as Mr. Selkirk did, 
 till Captain Dampier came hither in 1684, and carried him off. . . . 
 But whatever there is in these stories, this of Mr. Selkirk I know 
 to be true.' " 
 
 But if there are resemblances between the narra- 
 tives, there are also striking enough dissimilarities. 
 Crusoe's island was in the Caribbean Sea, and 
 Selkirk's in the Pacific ; Selkirk went on his island 
 
232 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 voluntarily, Crusoe was shipwrecked ; Crusoe's island, 
 unlike Selkirk's, contained no cabbage-palms or pi- 
 mento trees, which to Selkirk were so great a boon. 
 No savages troubled Selkirk; he did not have a 
 Friday ; and he stayed on his island only four and a 
 half years, whereas Crusoe's solitude lasted twenty- 
 eight years. 
 
 These dissimilarities, however, are probably inten- 
 tional ; at the same time, it is quite possible that Defoe 
 may have been indebted for some of his ideas to the 
 adventures of others ; for stories of shipwrecked 
 mariners and marooned buccaneers were in those days 
 by no means uncommon, and at least two persons 
 have been put forward in rivalry to Selkirk as proto- 
 types of Robinson Crusoe. The first of these is Peter 
 Serrano, whose story is told in Garcilasso's " History 
 of Peru," translated into English by Sir Paul Rycaut, 
 and published in 1688; — that is, about twenty years 
 before the issue of " Robinson Crusoe." Mr. W. T. 
 Lynn, however, in Notes and Queries for October 13, 
 1888, thus comments : — 
 
 " It is difficult, indeed, to see any connection between it and the 
 story of ' Robinson Crusoe.' The shipwreck in both is really almost 
 the onlyi circumstance common to the two. The island on which 
 Serrano is stated to have been thrown is one of the litde islets called 
 frorii him Serrano Islands, which are, indeed, in the Caribbean Sea; 
 but in the western part of it, nearly midway between Jamaica and the 
 mainland, and very far from the mouth of the Orinoco. They are, 
 as Garcilasso describes Serrano's island, almost destitute of water, 
 wood, or grass, and very different from the island imagined to have 
 been tenanted by the immortal Robinson. Serrano, if the narrative 
 be true, lived on this island seven years — three alone and four with 
 another who was afterwards shipwrecked in the same way." 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE 
 
 AND 
 
 Strange Surprizing 
 
 ADVENTURES 
 
 O F 
 
 ROBINSON CRUSOE, 
 
 Of TORIC, Mariner: 
 
 Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, 
 all alone in an un-inhabited Ifland on the 
 Coafl: of America, near the Mouth of 
 the Great River ofOROONoauEj 
 
 Havipg been caft on Shore by Shipwreck, where- 
 "^in all the Men perifhed buc himfclf. 
 
 WITH 
 
 An Account how he was at laft as flrangely deli- 
 vcr'd by PYRATES. 
 
 Written by Himfetf. 
 
 LONDON: 
 Printed for W. T a y l or a: tiie Ship in Pater-Noffer- 
 How. MDCCXIX. 
 
 TITLE-PAGE TO THE FIRST EDITION OF "ROBINSON CRUSOE.' 
 
The Adventure Series. 233 
 
 Another writer in Notes and Queries (I.M.P., 
 31st March, 1888) urges the claims of the second pre- 
 tender, the hero of a work by the German novehst, 
 Grimmelshausen. He says : — 
 
 " Grimmelshausen does not work out his story in great detail, as 
 Defoe did, but in many ways he anticipates him. The coincidences 
 are interesting. 
 
 " His hero is wrecked on an uninhabited island in the tropics, 
 rich in vegetation, with a warm climate and a periodical rainy season. 
 He builds himself a house, and has, further, a cave to retire into. 
 He makes clothes for himself of the skins of penguins and other 
 birds. He keeps a register of time by cutting notches on a stick. 
 He experiences an earthquake. He moralises on the uselessness of 
 some money which he gets. The island is visited by a ship, the 
 captain of which offers to take him away. There is a visit from 
 savages in boats, who carry him off. There is a very strong religious 
 element introduced into the story. 
 
 " In one point there is a marked difference. Grimmelshausen 
 deals largely with the supernatural, which Defoe does not." 
 
 The title of Defoe's work was no doubt suggested 
 by the name of one of his companions at Newington 
 Academy, Mr. Timothy Cruso, who became a dis- 
 tinguished Dissenting minister. He is buried in 
 Stepney Churchyard, but the stone, which had a Latin 
 inscription, is gone. Mr. Cruso came from Norwich, 
 with which city, as we have seen, Defoe himself was 
 much connected. 
 
 Between 16 10 and 1669 four members of the 
 Norwich family of Cruso were admitted to Gonville 
 and Caius College, Cambridge ; and it is interesting 
 to note that there used to be a well-known family of 
 the name at Leek, in Staffordshire, whose motto was 
 —a play upon the name — " Sub Cruce." 
 
 The following is a brief outline of the story of 
 
234 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Defoe's great work, with alf the dates, which I am 
 careful to give, because I believe it to be, as Defoe said, 
 an allegory of the life of its author. Born at York on 
 September 30, 1632, Crusoe, at the age of nineteen, 
 ran away from home and embarked on a ship bound 
 for London. This was on September i, 1651 — his 
 fatal day — and about a fortnight later the ship was 
 wrecked in Yarmouth Roads. The crew escaped in a 
 boat, and from Yarmouth Crusoe made his way to 
 London, where he embarked with a Guinea captain. 
 This, his first great voyage, was a successful one, and 
 upon his return he found himself possessor of some 
 .2^260. He now set out on a second voyage, but had 
 the misfortune to be captured, on September i, 1653, 
 his fatal day, by a Turkish rover, and was carried to 
 Sallee, where for two years, he worked as a slave. On 
 December 19, 1655, he escaped from Sallee with a 
 Moresco named Xury, and was shortly after picked up 
 by a Portuguese trader and carried to Brazil, where he 
 resided for four years as a planter. 
 
 On the fatal ist of September, 1659 — exactly 
 eight years after he: had first left Hull, and six 
 years after he had been taken to Sallee — he went 
 on board a^hip bound for Africa for the purpose of 
 obtaining slaves to work in his plantations, but was 
 shipwrecked and thrown on an uninhabited island 
 near the mouth of the Orinoco. This was on Sep- 
 tember 30, 1659, his birthday. His age was twenty- 
 seven. These coincidences of days struck Crusoe, 
 and had he been superstitiously inclined he would, he 
 said, have had reason to look upon them with a great 
 deal of curiosity. Doubtless there were similar in 
 

 THE REV. TIMOTIIV CRUSO, DEFOE'S FELLOW STUDENT AT NEWIN'GTON 
 ANT) SUr.SEQUENTLY A DISTINGUISHED DISSENTING MINISTER. 
 
The Adventure Series. 235 
 
 Defoe's own history ; at any rate, he always had an 
 eye to coincidences of the kind, as witness the parallels 
 he adduces in his " History of the Plague." From the 
 wreck Crusoe obtains many useful things, including 
 provisions ; and on his island he finds grapes and 
 turtles, and shoots goats. He makes chairs and other 
 articles of furniture; sets up a tent in front of a cave 
 and fortifies it, calling the place his castle ; he experi- 
 ences an earthquake, is taken ill, recovers ; makes an 
 excursion into the interior of his island, indulges 
 in a " monarch of all I survey " soliloquy, and erects a 
 bower in the middle of the island. He next makes a 
 journey right across his island, where he finds innumer- 
 able turtles and also a vast number of fowls of many 
 sorts ; whilst on the south side of the island he had 
 found only three turtles in the year and a-half he had 
 been there. Just as the north of the island was agree- 
 able to Crusoe, so Scotland proved a land of clover 
 to Defoe. Says Crusoe : " I confess this side of the 
 country was much pleasanter than mine, yet I had not 
 the least inclination to remove ; for as I was fixed in my 
 habitation, it became natural to me, and I seemed all 
 the while I was here to be as it were upon a journey, 
 and from home." So Crusoe's headquarters continued 
 to be at his castle in the south, just as Defoe's con- 
 tinued to be in London. He now grew corn, baked 
 pottery, and made a canoe, too big to be moved ; 
 which brought him to the end of his fourth year. 
 Next he makes a smaller canoe, in which he attempts 
 a voyage round his island, and nearly loses his life. 
 Then occurred the incident of his astonishment at 
 hearing himself addressed by what appeared to be 3 
 
236 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 human voice, but which turned out to be that of his 
 parrot. He rears goats, is alarmed at seeing a footprint 
 in the sand, and fortifies more strongly his dwelling. 
 The savages visit his island, and for two years he con- 
 fines himself almost exclusively to his own quarters — 
 namely, his castle, his bower, and his enclosure in the 
 woods. He then discovers a cave or grotto, "which 
 was perfectly dark" and in which he saw " two broad 
 shining eyes" of a creature which turned out to be a 
 dying goat — an Hibernianism that exposed him to the 
 arrows of the critics. In the twenty-third year of his 
 residence on the island — it was the month of December 
 — the savages came ; they departed, however, without 
 troubling him. On the i6th of May of his twenty- 
 fourth year occurred the second arrival of the 'savages, 
 and the annexation of Friday. Later on, Crusoe and 
 Friday slaughter many of the savages, and rescue 
 Friday's father and a Spaniard. A mutinous crew of 
 an' English ship having landed on the island, Crusoe 
 and his friends assist the captain, the mutineers are 
 suppressed and left on the island, and Crusoe and 
 Friday sail for England (19 Dec, 1687).* 
 
 In "Robinson Crusoe" there is no woman, nor do 
 petticoats ^ntrammel in any of Defoe's works except 
 those in which a woman is the chief character, as " Moll 
 Flanders " and " Roxana." ' There is no woman in 
 " The Memoirs of a Cavalier," in the " History of the 
 Plague," or in " Captain Singleton " — no woman, or 
 none to speak of, even in " Colonel Jack," notwith- 
 standing that he was married five times. 
 
 The book that was to bring sueh great fame tO' 
 
 * See. footnote in § 7. 
 
The Adventure Series. 237 
 
 Defoe was now ready for the press, but, according to 
 tradition, it was with) very great difficulty he got it 
 published. The incident is thus pictured by Mr. 
 Francis Espinasse, and with probable accuracy : — 
 
 " In the winter of 17 19 there might be seen issuing from a large 
 white house in Church-street, Stoke Newington, hurrying to the 
 booksellers' shops, and bustling in and out of them, a ' middle- 
 sized spare man ' of 60 or so, ' of brown complexion, with a hooked 
 nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth,' 
 carrying an MS. in his pocket or in his hand. From Lombard- 
 street to Catherine-street, Strand — from Little Britain to Westminster 
 Hall (inside which in those days booksellers plied their trade) — the 
 middle-sized spare man offered his ' copy ' for publication, but in 
 vain. The whole ' metropolitan trade ' would have nothing to do 
 with it, when in a lucky hour he turned his steps to the Ship, in 
 Paternoster Row. Mr. William Taylor, more descerning than his 
 neighbours, 'accepted the manuscript,' and on the 23rd of April, 
 1 7 19, registered his right to the whole property in it, in the books of 
 the Stationers' Company. Presently appeared a moderately-sized 
 octavo volume of 364 pages, which the world still fondly cherishes, 
 and the contents of its title-page ran as follows : — ' The Life and 
 Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, 
 Mariner : who lived Eight and Twenty Years all alone in an Un- 
 inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the 
 Great River Oroonoque ; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, 
 wherein All the Men perished but himself With an Account 
 how he was at last as strangely delivered by Pyrates. Written by 
 himself London. Printed for W. Taylor at the Ship in Paternoster 
 Row, 1 7 19.' " 
 
 The publisher cleared a thousand pounds by the 
 venture ; whether Defoe got anything by it or not is 
 unrevealed. 
 
 " Edition after edition was called for so rapidly, that several 
 printers had to be employed to set up the new work. Spurious 
 abridgements of it followed — in one of which, Mr. Thomas Gent, 
 printer, of York, the author of the curious autobiography, has 
 confessed to a share-;— and Mr. Taylor began a bill in Chancery 
 
238 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 against a certain ' T. Cox at the Amsterdam Coffee House,' who 
 had printed another of them ; an angry controversy ensuing." 
 
 Indeed, even in this short time Crusoe was already 
 " famed from Tuttle Street to Limehouse-hole " ; and 
 there was not an old woman that could go the price of 
 it, but bought it and left it "as a legacy, with the 
 ' Pilgrim's Prog'ress,' the ' Practice of Piety,' and ' God's 
 Revenge Against Murther,' to her posterity."* 
 
 Dibdin, in the "Library Companion," 1824, says 
 that " Robinson Crusoe " " first greeted the public eye 
 in the sorrily-printed pages of The Original London 
 Post, or Heathcotes Intelligence, from No. 125 to 
 No. 289 inclusive, the latter" (error, it should be 
 "former" not latter) "dated October 7th, 1719. Of 
 this extraordinary periodical production, the only copy 
 with which I am acquainted is in the library of the 
 Right Hon. Thomas Grenville." 
 
 But this is incorrect. " Robinson Crusoe " was 
 issued by Mr. Taylor six months before it appeared 
 in the London Post. Heathcote was only one of the 
 many who pirated it. That it did appear in this form, 
 however, is exceedingly interesting — for, in all pro- 
 bability, " Robinson Crusoe " was the very first novel 
 that appe*ed as a serial or feuilleton. 
 
 Not long after the issue of " Robinson Crusoe," 
 Mr. William Taylor died, leaving behind him two 
 very desirable properties ; and, curiously enough, his 
 executor, Mr. Innys, the bookseller in St. Paul's 
 Churchyard, had an eye to one, and his other executor, 
 Mr. Osborn, of Cornhill, an eye to the other. The 
 
 * Gildon. 
 
• The Adventure Series. 239 
 
 one property, the business in Paternoster Row, Mr. 
 Osborn wanted for his prospective son-in-law, Thomas 
 Longman, the founder of the present firm of Messrs. 
 Longmans, Green and Co. ; the other property, the 
 one that Mr. Innys wanted, was none other than Mr. 
 Taylor's widow, who was attractive, not only on 
 account of her portion (thirty thousand pounds), but 
 also on account of her personal charms, and her 
 amiable manners ; for to do Mr. Innys justice, though 
 he had no objection to a good round sum, yet, like 
 Ricardo, in Middleton's play, he liked a good round 
 widow better. And each had his desire. Tom Long- 
 man, in consideration of a sum of two thousand odd 
 pounds, got the shop, and presently married pretty 
 Mary Osborn; and Mr. Innys led to the altar his 
 buxom widow ; so all, like a well-constructed fairy 
 tale, ended with bonfire and fireworks. , 
 
 Few books have received more praise than 
 " Robinson Crusoe." " Was there ever anything 
 written by mere man," asked Dr. Johnson, " that 
 was wished longer by its readers, except " Don 
 Quixote," " Robinson Crusoe," and the " Pilgrim's 
 Progress ? " " Robinson Crusoe," says Marmontel, 
 " is the first book I ever read with exquisite plea- 
 sure ; and I believe every boy in Europe might 
 say the same thing." Sir Walter Scott could name 
 " no work more generally read or more universally 
 admired " ; and in the opinion of the Rev. Stopford 
 Brooke " it equals ' Gulliver's Travels ' in truth- 
 ful representation, and excels them in invention." 
 M. Alphonse Daudet puts Defoe at the head 
 of all the standard English writers of fiction, 
 
240 ■ The Life of Damiel Defoe. 
 
 pronouncing him to be England's national author. 
 "Even Shakspere," he asserts, "does not give 
 so perfect an idea of the English character as 
 Defoe. Robinson is the typical Englishman par 
 excellence, with his adventuresomeness, his taste for 
 travel, his love of the sea, his piety, his com- 
 mercial and practical instincts. And what an artist 
 he is — Defoe ! What effects of terror there are in 
 ' Robinson ' — the foot of the savage on the sand ; 
 and then his dramatic gift— the return of Robinson 
 to the island, and the parrot still screaming, ' Robin 
 Crusoe ! Robin Crusoe ! ' If I were condemned to 
 a long period of seclusion, and were allowed only 
 one book to read, I would choose ' Robinson.' It 
 is one of the i&^ works of fiction that may be 
 considered as nearly immortal as any written thing 
 can be." Equally enthusiastic in the praise of 
 " Robinson Crusoe " is another eminent Frenchman, 
 M. Zola, but it would be easy to fill volumes with 
 laudatory passages. Is not every reader of it its 
 panegyrist ! 
 
 On the 17th of June, 1719, about two months 
 after the publication of " Crusoe," died at Holland 
 House, i% his forty-eighth year, Defoe's celebrated 
 contemporary, Joseph Addison. 
 
 59.— THE DAEMON OF DEFOE. 
 
 The "consideration of "Crusoe" brings again 
 forcibly before us that deep-seated belief of Defoe's 
 that he was accompanied, as Socrates and other fine 
 or devout souls are said to have been, with a good 
 spirit or daemon, which afforded him wise counsel 
 
The Adventure Series. 241 
 
 on all trying occasions. {See ^ 9.) It was Defoe's 
 belief that on extremely great and important occa- 
 sions, the Holy Spirit itself guided and directed 
 him ; but that in the multitudinous occasions of 
 minor consequence he was indebted to the daemon. 
 Shortly after discovering that his island had 
 been visited by savages, Crusoe fell into reflecting 
 what his situation would have been if, when he 
 discovered the print of a man's foot, he had 
 " instead of that, seen fifteen or twenty savages," 
 and found them pursuing him. 
 
 "This," says he, "renewed a contemplation which often had 
 come into my thoughts in former times, when first I began to see 
 the merciful dispositions of Heaven, in the dangers we run through 
 in this life ; how wonderfully we are delivered when we know nothing 
 of it ; how, when we are in a quandary, a doubt or hesitation whether 
 to go this way or that way, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when 
 we intended to go that way : nay, when sense, our own inclination, 
 and perhaps business, has called us the other way, yet a strange im- 
 pression upon the mind, from we know not what springs, and by we 
 know not what power, shall overrule us to go this way, and it shall 
 afterwards appear that had we gone that way which we should have 
 gone, and even to our imagination ought to have gone, we should 
 have been ruined and lost. Upon these, and many like reflections, 
 I afterwards made it a certain rule with me, that whenever T found 
 those secret hints or pressings of mind, to doing or not doing anything 
 that presented, or going this way or that ivay, I never failed to obey the 
 secret dictate; though I knew no other reason for it than such a 
 pressure, or such a hint, hung upon my mind. I could give many 
 examples of the success of this conduct in the course of my life." 
 
 The further instances to which he refers, there is 
 no need to mention here ; suffice it to say that the idea 
 permeates the whole of the book. Nor were Defoe's 
 critics slow to perceive it ; Gildon, the most bitter of 
 them, flourishing it as a proof of Defoe's irreligion. 
 Q 
 
242 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 " These daemons which attend men, are not," 
 argues Defoe, "the spirits of the departed; they are 
 spirits that have never been embodied." Dealing, in 
 his " History of Apparitions," with the communi- 
 cations of these spirits, he says — 
 
 " By this silent converse all the kind notices of approaching evil 
 or good are conveyed to us, which are sometimes so evident, and 
 come with such an irresistible force upon the mind, that we must be 
 more than stupid if we do not perceive them ; and if we are not 
 extremely wanting to ourselves, we may take such due warning by 
 them as to avoid the evils which we had notice of in that manner, 
 and to embrace the good that is offered to us. Nor are there many 
 people alive who can deny but they have had such notices, by which, 
 if they had given due attention to them, they had been assisted to 
 save themselves from the mischiefs which followed." 
 
 "And on the other hand," he observes, "people 
 are forewarned of things which are for their good." 
 And to clinch his argument, he says — 
 
 " Now by what agency must it be that we have directions for 
 good or foreboding thoughts, of mischiefs which attend us, and 
 which it is otherwise impossible we should know anything of, if 
 some intelligent being who can see into futurity had not conveyed 
 the apprehensions into the mind, and had not caused the emotion 
 which alarms the soul." 
 
 Over and over again, in " The History of 
 Apparitions," he reiterates this belief of his in " an 
 appointed, deputed sort of stationary spirits in the 
 invisible world." The spirits having given the hint 
 — to speak plainly they are not able — then man has 
 to do his part, namely to raise his eyes to Heaven 
 and ask " for direction and counsel from that hand, 
 who alone can both direct and deliver." 
 
The Adventure Series. 243 
 
 60.— BARON GOERTZ (MAY, 1716). 
 
 Works : 194. — Baron Goertz. 
 
 195. — A Letter to the Dissenters. 
 
 196. — The Anatomy ot Exchange Alley. 
 
 Our eye now turns once more to the en- 
 chanted land of Sweden. The great Charles was 
 back in his native land after his romantic and 
 disastrous adventures in Turkey ; but he had 
 scarcely got home when a quarrel arose between 
 him and George I. of England. George had in 
 17 16 bought from the King of Denmark, the Duchy 
 of Bremen, which Charles claimed as his own.. The 
 thoughts of the Swedish king turned towards war, 
 and he instructed his minister to intrigue with the 
 Jacobites in this country. {Sec § 54.) Then was 
 suggested the mighty scheme, which suited only 
 too well the vastness of Charles's ambition. Make 
 terms with the Czar, said Goertz, by surrendering 
 the Baltic provinces of Sweden, then conquer 
 Norway. This done, land in Scotland and replace 
 the House of Stuart on the Throne of England. 
 
 Charles resolved to carry it all through. He 
 purchased peace with the Czar, he burst into 
 'Norway; but early in 17 18, whilst, with all his cha- 
 racteristic impetuosity, besieging Fredrickshall, he 
 was killed by a musket shot. 
 
 " His fall was destined to a barren strand, 
 A petty fortress, and a dubious hand. 
 He left a name at which the world grew pale, 
 To point a moral or adorn a tale.'' 
 
 When Baron Goertz heard of the fatal event, he 
 exclaimed : " The bullet that has killed the king 
 Q 2 
 
244 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 has killed me too." And his words were literal, 
 for he shortly after fell a victim to popular rage 
 and resentment. He was executed on the nth of 
 February, 17 19. Defoe comments on the event in 
 Mist's Journal for March 21, and a few weeks 
 later, about May, he enlarged this account into a 
 pamphlet, to which a portrait of the baron was 
 prefixed. 
 
 Two more tracts on other subjects followed in 
 quick succession, "A Letter to the Dissenters," 
 deploring the spread of Unitarianism among the 
 Nonconformists, and counselhng those, who could not 
 agree in doctrine, at any rate to avoid unseemly 
 quarrelling ; and '.' The Anatomy of Exchange 
 Alley," a denunciation of the wicked practices of 
 Stock-jobbers, a subject that he had often dealt with 
 both in journal and pamphlet. 
 
 61.— "ROBINSON CRUSOE," PART II. (20TH AUG., 1719J. 
 Work : 192. — Robinson Crusoe (Part II.). 
 
 The favourable reception accorded to " Robinson 
 Crusoe," which had run through four editions in the 
 short spate of three months, encouraged Defoe to' 
 continue the subject, and on the 20th of August he 
 published a second volume with the title of " The 
 Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; Being the 
 second and last part of his life, and of the strange 
 surprising accounts of his travels round three parts of 
 the globe. Written by himself. To which is added 
 a Map of the World, in which is delineated the 
 voyages of Robinson Crusoe." 
 
The Adventure Series. 245 
 
 It has been said, and truly, that the second part of 
 " Robinson Crusoe " is inferior to the first ; that when 
 Crusoe peopled his island with Spaniards, English 
 pirates and Caribbees, the charm of it was gone. But 
 though there is nothing in the second part to corre- 
 spond with the striking idea of Crusoe's isolation, let 
 it not be imagined that the master had lost his hand. 
 The fascination of style is the same, and passages 
 quite as fine as those in the first, if not finer, are 
 scattered up and down its pages. Take, for example, 
 the golden words on idleness and industry. The 
 English merchant says to Crusoe : — 
 
 " If you will put one thousand pounds to my one thousand 
 pounds, we will hire a ship here, the first we can get to our minds. 
 You shall be captain, I'll be merchant, and we'll go a trading voyage 
 to China ; for what should we stand still for ? The whole world is 
 in motion, rolling round and round ; all the creatures of God, 
 heavenly bodies and earthly, are busy and diligent : why should we 
 be idle ? There are no drones in the world but men ; why should 
 we be of that number ? " 
 
 The beginning of the book finds Crusoe married 
 and settled down in England, where he and Friday 
 dwelt contentedly for seven years. Indeed, finding 
 his wife dead set against his going abroad again, 
 Crusoe bought a farm in Bedfordshire and resolved to 
 remain in England all his life. But in the midst of 
 his felicity he had the misfortune to lose his wife ; and 
 finding the only tie that bound him to England snapt, 
 he, in his sixty-first year, took to roving again, and in 
 company with Friday set out to visit his old island. 
 On the way he rescues the shipwrecked crew of a 
 French ship, one of the passengers of which, a French 
 priest, accompanies him on the voyage. 
 
246 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 The story of Crusoe's second stay on the island, 
 however, which lasted but twenty-five days, takes up 
 only a portion, considerably less than half, of the 
 book. It was merely one episode in a series of 
 adventures. After quitting the island, Crusoe visits 
 Madagascar, where Tom Jeffry, one of the crew, met 
 his end ; Tonquin, where occurred the incident of 
 the scattering of a party of enemies with hot pitch ; 
 China, for whose fortifications and army he had such 
 a sovereign contempt ; and Siberia, where he destroyed 
 a great Tartar idol, and hob-a-nobbed with an exiled 
 Russian prince. Nor does the interest anywhere flag, 
 for even when almost home Crusoe runs a narrow 
 escape of being killed by a party of Kalmucs ; and 
 one is heartily glad when, on the loth of January, 
 1705, the hoary-headed old wanderer gets safe back 
 to London. 
 
 The verisimilitude that . is so prominent in the 
 first volume of "Crusoe" is as much in evidence in 
 the second. The thoroughly bad fellow, Will Atkins, 
 who was " scarce worth hanging," does not meet with 
 a violent end, as a less clever writer would have 
 managed it, but by force of circumstances becomes 
 a reform^ character and an influence for good all 
 round. When the five Englishmen choose wives, he 
 who has first choice does not. pick the best favoured. 
 
 " He that drew to choose first went away by himself to the hut 
 where the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he chose ; 
 and it was worth observing, that he who chose first took her that 
 was reckoned the homeliest and oldest of the five, which made 
 mirth enough among the rest ; and even the Spaniards laughed at 
 it ; but the fellow considered better than any of them, that it was 
 

 
 < s 
 
 O -2 
 
 ^ 
 
 o ^ 
 
 
 vi"iy;- 
 
 
The Adventure Series. 247 
 
 application and business they were to accept assistance in, as much 
 as in anything else ; and she proved the best wife of all the parcel." 
 
 And it did not turn out that the two good men had 
 good wives and the three bad men bad ones. Oh no! 
 
 "As it often happens in the world (what the wise ends of God's 
 providence are, in such a disposition of things, I cannot say), the 
 two honest fellows had the two worst wives : and the three repro- 
 bates, that were scarce worth hanging, that were fit for nothing, and 
 neither seemed born to do themselves good, nor any one else, had 
 three clever, diligent, careful and ingenious wives." 
 
 Those prominent features in Defoe's character — 
 a firm belief in, and trust in, the goodness of Provi- 
 dence ; and the idea of the daemon are as much to 
 the fore as in the first part. Take, for example, 
 Crusoe's remarks concerning the wisdom of the 
 Spaniards in planting a grove round his old bower. 
 
 " This was excellently well contrived : nor was it less than what 
 they afterwards found occasion for, which served to convince me, 
 that as human prudence has the authority of Providence to justify 
 it, so it has doubtless the direction of Providence to set it to work ; 
 and if we listened carefully to the voice of it, I am persuaded we 
 might prevent many of the disasters which our Uves are now, by 
 our own negligence, subjected to." 
 
 62.— 'IHE ACRIMONIOUS ATTACK ON "ROBINSON CRUSOE" BY 
 GILDON (28TH SEPT., 1719).— CRITICISMS ON "ROBINSON CRUSOE." 
 
 It was not to be expected that a work could 
 reach the popularity that " Robinson Crusoe " did 
 without arousing a good deal of jealousy, and pro- 
 vokino- attacks from Defoe's multitudinous enemies ; 
 for thouo^h the work was issued anonymously, the 
 public instantly fathered it on the right sire. The 
 
248 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 most acrimonious of these critics was Charles 
 Gildon, a gifted writer, who found out some very 
 weak places in Defoe's armour. Gildon's pamphlet, 
 published on the 28th of September, is entitled, 
 " The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of 
 
 Mr. D De F , of London, Hosier, who 
 
 has lived above fifty years by himself, in the king- 
 doms of North and South Britain. The various 
 shapes he has appeared in, and the Discoveries he 
 has made for the benefit of his country. In a 
 Dialogue between Him, Robinson Crusoe, and his 
 man Friday. With remarks serious and comical 
 upon the life of Crusoe. Qui vuit decipi, decipiahir." 
 The title and dialogue occupy nineteen pages, then 
 follows an epistle to Daniel Defoe, occupying 
 twenty-nine pages, and lastly there is a postscript 
 of nineteen pages referring to the second volume. 
 Mr. Lee holds that this pamphlet has "nothing to 
 recommend it but the title " ; Defoe, however, 
 evidently thought otherwise, for he made alterations 
 in subsequent editions in deference to Gildon's 
 criticisms. 
 
 "How could Crusoe," inquires Gildon, "fill his 
 pockets with biscuits when he was naked ? " So 
 in the next edition Defoe was careful to put his 
 protigi in breeches. But the enemy was not 
 appeased even then. "The pocket of a seaman's 
 breeches," said Gildon, "is no bigger than a 
 tobacco pouch, it couldn't hold any biscuits." 
 
 Gildon also wanted to know how it was that 
 Crusoe had no clothes, though he had brought 
 great quantities from the ship ; and how Crusoe 
 
The Adventure Series. ' 249 
 
 was able to see the goat's eyes in the cave when 
 it was pitch dark ; and how the Spaniards were able 
 to give Friday's father an agreement in writing, 
 when they had neither paper nor ink. 
 
 These blunders and others like them, it may be 
 urged, were mere oversights, which could easily be 
 put right in subsequent editions, as, indeed, some of 
 them were ; but it is ridiculous to abuse the critic 
 for laying his finger on them. 
 
 Then again, Defoe certainly made a mistake in 
 causing Xury to speak broken English. As Gildon 
 justly observes : " Crusoe might speak broken 
 Arabic, but Xury would have no motive to speak 
 broken English." 
 
 But Gildon's hardest hitting is when he finds 
 fault with Defoe for representing going to sea as 
 an act of wickedness, or, at any rate, of intense 
 folly. "Our sailors," says Gildon, "are the nation's 
 glory, yet here is this Defoe employing all the 
 force of his little rhetoric to dissuade and deter all 
 people from going to sea " ; and Gildon would be 
 glad to know " whether the profession of a York- 
 shire attorney is more innocent and beneficial to 
 mankind that that of a seaman." 
 
 " Duty to parents, too, is all right," he continues, 
 "but blindly submitting to all their commands, whether 
 good or bad, rational or irrational, is to make children 
 slaves and exclude all manner of free agency. Crusoe 
 was eighteen, and quite old enough to choose for 
 himself" Gildon points out pertinently, moreover, 
 that " storms are not sent to deter men from naviga- 
 tion," and that " you don't go to Guinea ' to see the 
 
250 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 world by travel ' among negroes." A score of other 
 criticisms are equally just, though, perhaps, Gildon 
 need not have said them with so much spitefulness. 
 A hornet, however, is always a hornet, and Gildon 
 was a particularly vicious one. 
 
 But though many of his charges are just, on the 
 other hand, a number of them are exceedingly 
 frivolous, as when he finds so much fault with Crusoe 
 for speaking so well of the French priest, which, it is 
 argued, sounds ill in the mouth of a Protestant ; and 
 when he cavils about Crusoe's daemon, "who gene- 
 rally gave him notice and warning of any evil that 
 threatened him." But in spite of these ineptitudes, 
 in spite, too, of the malevolence of the author, or, 
 perhaps, by virtue of it, this pamphlet is very 
 delightful to read side by side with Crusoe, at the 
 end of which it might, not inappropriately, be bound.* 
 In fine, because we admire Defoe and Crusoe, we 
 are not going to follow our predecessors in the 
 biographical office, and call Gildon a carping fool. 
 
 t'i. — THE DAILY POST AND " DICKORY CRONKE" (14TH OCT., 1719).— 
 DEFOE AND THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 WoEKS : i^ — The Daily Post. 
 
 198. — The Dumb Philosopher (Dickory Cronke): 14th Oct. , 1719. 
 
 On the 4th of October (17 19) Defoe was to the fore 
 with yet another venture in the way of a newspaper : 
 The Daily Post, which consisted of a single leaf small 
 folio, one side news, the other advertisements. At 
 
 * Gildon's guess that Defoe's great story is an allegory is also 
 interesting, especially as his tract was written twelve months before 
 Defoe's declaration in " Serious Reflections." 
 
The Adventure Series. 251 
 
 the same time, be it remembered, he was conducting 
 Mercurius Politicus~-a. monthly periodical. Mist's 
 'Journal — a weekly, and The Whitehall Evening Post 
 — a tri-weekly. He seems to have used the Daily Post 
 " for such occasional letters and communications, from 
 his own pen, as he was desirous of placing before the 
 public without any delay."* We noticed, some pages 
 back, a treaty between Defoe and Dyer not to shy 
 mud at each other ; a similar compact was now made 
 between Defoe and Read, each promising to raze out 
 " scandalous epithets " relating to the other which 
 occurred in letters of their correspondents. 
 
 The 14th of October was marked by the issue of 
 " Dickory Cronke," a thick pamphlet, whose fuller 
 title runs : — " The Dumb Philosopher, Or Great 
 Britain's Wonder. Containing (i) a faithful and 
 very surprising account how Dickory Cronke, a 
 . tinner's son in the county of Cornwall, was born 
 dumb, and continued so for 58 years, and how some 
 days before he died he came to his speech ; with 
 memoirs of his life and the manner of his death," 
 etc. The isolated state of Cronke, who, through his 
 malady, was shut out from intercourse with mankind 
 has caused the book to be styled, " The Little Robin- 
 son Crusoe." Mr. Lee interestingly remarks of the 
 heroes of these two books : — 
 
 " Both were reflective, religious men, and wrote meditations. The 
 first and second volmnes of ' Crusoe ' were written in the same year 
 as Cronke, and the latter is interposed, in point of time between the 
 second and third volumes of ' Crusoe.' There is the same atmo- 
 sphere of truth surrounding all the details of both, so that the reader 
 lives in the reality of each story, and scepticism itself is set at 
 
 * Lee. 
 
252 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 defiance. In ' Crusoe ' the author has declared that the history of 
 his own life is allegorically enclosed ; and, though I will not posi- 
 tively affirm that portions of his inner life are contained in Cronke, 
 yet I believe so. It is noticeable that Cronke's life is made to begin 
 about the same time as Defoe's — to terminate at the author's age 
 when writing this book ; and that, like himself, Cronke had a fit of ' 
 apcJplexy." . , 
 
 To the veneration of Defoe for the Church of 
 England several references have been made in these 
 pages ; but the following, which occurs in " Dickory 
 Cronke," coming as it does from one of the staunchest 
 of Dissenters, is noteworthy even among the utterances, 
 of so catholic a spirit as that of Defoe. I would 
 observe, however, that it was written at a time when 
 the Dissenters were disgracing themselves by unseernly 
 quarrels, and when many were embracing TJnitarianism. 
 "The Church of England," says Defoe, "is doubtless 
 the great bulwark of the ancient catholic and apostolic 
 faith all over the world — a Church that has all the 
 advantages that the nature of a Church is capable of 
 From the doctrine and principles of the Church of 
 England we are taught loyalty to our prince, fidelity to 
 our country, and justice to all mankind ; and therefore 
 I look upon this to be one of the most excellent 
 branches of the Church universal. It stands, as 'twere, 
 in a parerifhesis, between superstition and hypocrisy." 
 
 On the 29th of March, 1720, occurred the second 
 marriage of Defoe's eldest son, Daniel, which is thus 
 entered in the register of Aske's Hospital : — 
 
 "1720.— Defoe and Webb. Daniel De Foe of St. Michael's, 
 Cornhill, and Mary Webb of St. Mary, Aldermanbury, were married 
 Mar. 29, 1720, in Esq. Aske's Chapel, at Hoxton, from the A.B. of 
 
 Cant. 
 
 " P. Henry Vaughan. ' 
 
The Adventure Series. 2^2> 
 
 A child born to " Nathaniel " (evidently a mistake 
 for Daniel) Defoe and Mary his wife was buried in 
 November, 1720, Its name was Tuffley, after its 
 grandmother. 
 
 64.— DUNCAN CAMPBELL AND THE GHOST OF DOROTHY 
 DINGLEY. 
 
 WOKKS : 199. — Charity slill a Christian Virtue. 
 
 200. — The King of Pirates, Captain Avery. 
 
 201. — The Chimera. 
 
 202. — Duncan Campbell. 
 
 203. — Mr, Campbell's Pacquet. 
 
 On the ignorance, folly, and tyranny of Justices of 
 the Peace in those times Defoe is frequently found 
 pouring the vials of his wrath ; and he was never 
 more justified in doing so than when, on 16th October, 
 1719, in a tract entitled "Charity still a Christian 
 Virtue," he took up the cudgels against two of them in 
 behalf of a persecuted clergyman named Hendley. 
 Mr. Hendley had taken the children of St. Anne's 
 (Aldersgate) charity school to Chiselhurst, where he 
 preached a sermon and collected the alms of the con- 
 gregation on their behalf, when lo ! our petty justices 
 " proceeded against the clergyman and those of the 
 committee who collected in church, as beggars and 
 vagrants, rogues and vagabonds, and committed them 
 them for trial, at the next assizes at Rochester, where 
 by a mockery of justice they were fined, and left to 
 seek a remedy by Writ of Error." Defoe, however, 
 castigates not only the justices of the peace, but also 
 the judge and jury ; and the names of all concerned are 
 recorded in full " for the admiration of posterity." 
 Proceedings were afterwards taken against the two 
 justices for disturbing and interrupting divine service 
 
254 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 in Chislehurst Church ; but owing to the death of 
 Mr. Hendley they escaped the punishment which would 
 certainly have been meted out to them, and their 
 reckoning was left to be settled in another world. 
 
 "Captain Avery" (published loth December, 
 1 7 19) is one of those narratives of personal bravery, 
 surprising encounters, and hairbreadth escapes which 
 Defoe had now begun to take so much delight in 
 describing. The full title is "The King of the 
 Pirates ; Being an account of the famous enterprises 
 of Captain Avery, the Mock King of Madagascar. 
 With his rambles and piracies." But, , wild rover of 
 the sea as he was. Captain Avery carried quite a 
 respectable amount of the salt of religion in his con- 
 stitution ; he and his brother freebooters were strictly 
 honourable among one another, and when asked who 
 they were gave as a reply, "good, honest Christian 
 pirates." Among Captain Avery's experiences was a 
 visit to Juan Fernandez, where his men hunted goats, 
 took in water, and remained twenty-two days ; but no 
 mention is made either of Alexander Selkirk or 
 Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 Defoe's " Chimera" (end of 1719) deals with the 
 Mississipi Scheme of John Law, and prophesies the 
 crash, which ultimately came in July the following 
 year, spreading ruin throughout the whole of France. 
 To the " Chimera " succeeded " Duncan Campbell." 
 
 A celebrated fortune-teller of London, Duncan 
 Campbell, professed to be, and probably was, deaf 
 and dumb. He possessed rare natural powers, im- 
 proved by habit and by practice ; but his reputation 
 was chiefly founded on his claim to the faculty of 
 
The Adventure Series. 255 
 
 second sight. The Spectator (No. 560) says of 
 him : " The blind Tiresias was not more famous in 
 Greece than this dumb artist has been for some 
 years past in the cities of London and Westminster." 
 The quickness of his sight and the delicacy of his 
 touch were extraordinary. He could play upon the 
 violin with great exactness, and tuned it by putting 
 the Instrument between his teeth. He was an ex- 
 pert in the art of self-defence, and especially at 
 fencing. On one occasion a pistol was fired close 
 to his ear, but he neither started nor betrayed any 
 symptom of surprise. He was so much resorted to 
 by persons who desired him to tell their fortunes, 
 that he gained a great deal of money ; but owing 
 to his extravagant habits, it soon slipped from his 
 fingers. Thinking this personage a suitable subject 
 for his pen, Defoe composed, and published on the 
 30th of April, 1720, a work with the following title, 
 "The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. 
 Duncan Campbell, a gentleman who, though deaf 
 and dumb, writes down any stranger's name at first 
 sight, with their future contingencies of fortune. 
 Now living in Exeter Court over against the Savoy 
 in the Strand." 
 
 The work was so successful, that a second 
 edition appeared in the same year, with several 
 illustrations, including a portrait of Campbell, 
 engraved by Vandergucht. 
 
 On the 1 8th of June appeared "Mr. Campbell's 
 Pacquet," consisting of three parts, the first two 
 being poems by various persons with which Defoe 
 Jiad nothing to do. But the third, " An Account 
 
256 , The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 of a most Surprising Apparition, sent from Laun- 
 ceston in Cornwall ; attested by the Rev. Mr. 
 Ruddle,* Minister there," is certainly from his pen; 
 though why it was included in the "Pacquet" is a 
 mystery, for it has nothing whatever to do with 
 Campbell. The substance of this story, which 
 belongs to the same category as the " Apparition 
 of Mrs. Veal," is as follows : A Mr. Ruddle, after 
 preaching a funeral sermon over a lad who had 
 died under singular circumstances, was accosted by 
 a gentleman, who declared that he had a son who 
 was in the same strange way as the deceased had 
 been. Would Mr. Ruddle visit the lad.? Mr. 
 Ruddle consented, and the boy, whose name was 
 Sam, declared that a woman named Dorothy 
 Dingley, who had "died about eight years since," 
 had been in the habit of meeting him on his way 
 to and from school, morning and evening, in a field 
 called the Higher Broom-Quartils. " Then," con- 
 tinued the boy, " I changed my way, and went to 
 school the under Horse Road, and then she always 
 met me in the Narrow Lane, between Quarry Park 
 and the Nursery, which was worse." The thing 
 became a terrible trouble to him. Night and day, 
 sleeping and waking, the shape was ever running in 
 his mind, and he declared that his misery was 
 insupportable. 
 
 Mr. Ruddle then proposed that they should 
 go and see the "spectrum" together, which they 
 
 * Mr. Ruddle was of Caius College, Cambridge, M.A., 1662 ; Vicar 
 of Launceston, 1664-gg; and Vicar of Altarnon, near Launceston, 
 1679-99. He died in 1699, and is buried in Launceston Church. 
 
The Adventure Series. 257 
 
 accordingly did next morning ; but though both saw 
 the ghost, they had no communication with it. 
 The next three weeks a sickness in his family kept 
 Mr. Ruddle at home ; but he " studied the case, 
 resolving by the help of God to see the utmost." 
 In subsequent visits to the field, though he often 
 addressed the spirit, he could get no reply ; but 
 on Thursday, 28th of July, 1665, he persisted in 
 speaking to it " until it spake again," and gave him 
 satisfaction. " But," continues the reverend gentle- 
 man, " the work could not be finished at this time 
 wherefore the same evening, an hour after sunset, 
 it met me again near the same place, and after 
 a few words on each side, it quietly vanished, and 
 neither doth appear since, nor ever will any more, 
 to any man's disturbance." In short, the good 
 man had prevailed on Dorothy Dingley to keep to 
 her grave. 
 
 The same remarks that were made in respect 
 to Mrs. Veal apply to Dorothy Dingley. Defoe 
 evidently received the story from someone whose 
 word he thought could be relied on ; and being a 
 firm believer in ghosts and apparitions, he put it 
 into writing without any misgivings. Several ver- 
 sions of the story got abroad. One appears in 
 C. S. Gilbert's " History of Cornwall," 1820, another, 
 " The Botathen Ghost," in the prose works of the 
 Rev. R. S. Hawker, of Morwenstow. 
 
 Another tract connected with Campbell's name 
 — that Defoe may have been the author of — is 
 " The Friendly Daemon," being an account of a 
 cure wrought upon "that famous deaf and dumb 
 
 R 
 
258 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 gentleman, by a familiar spirit that appeared to 
 him in a white surplice, like a cathedral singing 
 boy." London, 1726. 
 
 65.— "THE MEMOIRS OF A CAVALIER" ,(20TH MAY, 1720). 
 WOKK : 204. — The Memoirs of a Cavalier. 
 
 " The Memoirs of a Cavalier " has elicited ad^ 
 miration from critics of all opinions. " As a model of 
 historical work of a certain kind," says Mr. Saintsbury, 
 " it is hardly surpassable, and many separate passages 
 • — accounts of battles and skirmishes — have never been 
 equalled except by Mr. Carlyle." Mr. Lee calls it 
 " one of the finest military memoirs extant in any 
 language." 
 
 The stupid notion that " The Memoirs of a Cava- 
 lier " is purely a work of fiction has now long been 
 exploded. That Defoe was a very great man goes 
 without saying, but he was not a god, and it would 
 have required a mind with little less than divine 
 powers to have invented so minute and circumstantial 
 a narrative as " The Memoirs of a Cavalier." Of 
 course, the fact that Defoe himself declared that the 
 work was not fiction weighed little in the estimation 
 of the sapient early critics. They had got it into their 
 dense understandings that nothing that Defoe wrote 
 was true ; and when they came to the " Cavalier " 
 they wondered, not how on earth a man could write 
 such a production out of his own head, but how it was 
 that Lord Chatham accepted it as genuine history. 
 The fact, so obvious to us, that Lord Chatham was 
 was right, and that the work is genuine history, 
 
The Adventure Series. 259 
 
 never entered into their minds. History, thank 
 Heaven, is not all written the same way. There's 
 Macaulay's way and Carlyle's way, there's Froude's 
 way and J. R. Green's way, and there's Defoe's 
 way. Doubtless, moreover, there will be numerous 
 other ways which time will bring to the birth — for 
 the great subject admits of an infinite variety of 
 treatment. Some extol Macaulay, others Carlyle, 
 and so on ; but the true and faithful student will 
 find it in his heart to admire all. Defoe thought 
 fit to write his great histories in the first person ; 
 and as the gain from an artistic point of view, and 
 in verisimilitude, is very great, he was perfectly 
 justified in so doing. The foundation of "The 
 Memoirs of a Cavalier " was, as Defoe tells us — 
 and we have no reason to doubt his statement — a 
 manuscript that got among the plunder taken by a 
 Parliamentarian cavalry officer, at or after the fight 
 at Worcester. Defoe, to use his own expression, 
 was very fond of "rummaging among old records."* 
 The writer of the manuscript, who was likewise 
 the hero of the book, is supposed to have been 
 Andrew Newport, second son of Richard Newport 
 (afterwards Lord Newport) of High Ercoll, Salop. 
 
 The work easily divides itself into two parts, 
 the first detailing the service of the Cavalier on 
 the continent under " Gustavus Adolphus, the 
 glorious King of Sweden " ; and the second, his 
 adventures in the army of King Charles I. of 
 England. 
 
 That Defoe took great liberties with his manuscript, 
 
 * See Review, iv., 513. 
 
26o The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 and that in order to heighten the lights and deepen ' 
 the shadows, he borrowed facts from other sources is 
 as certain as that he dished up the whole in his own 
 inimitable style. But notwithstanding the circum- 
 stantial character of the work and the minuteness of 
 its detail, or, perhaps we might say better, in con- 
 sequence of it, Defoe was a great bungler; even 
 Shakspere was not guilty of more anachronisms. 
 For example, Defoe was exceedingly anxious that 
 the public should believe the Cavalier to be a real 
 personage, yet, whilst in the preface it is shown that 
 the manuscript could not possibly have been con- 
 tinued by the Cavalier after 1651 (the date of the 
 battle of Worcester), nevertheless the narrative itself 
 ends after, the Restoration of 1660. Then, aofain, we 
 wonder where a Cavalier scribe of the time of 
 Charles I. could have got his information from about 
 "The Tale of the Tub," the "Observator," and 
 "Jure Divino." These phenomena would lend colour 
 to the opinion that the whole thing is fiction, only 
 they are more than counterbalanced by something 
 else. The Cavalier's great hatred of the Scots would 
 in itself be quite sufficient to prove that Defoe was 
 expressing ^not his own sentiments, but those of 
 another. Defoe would not have reminded the Scots 
 that by selling their king they had branded themselves 
 with eternal infamy, or have called them " these cursed 
 Scots." " In style and diction," observes Mr. Lee, 
 " there are occasionally whole paragraphs that scarcely 
 afford a trace of Defoe's pen. His mind as well as 
 his hand is much more perceptible in the latter part 
 of the book than the former ; and, as he was better 
 
The Adventure Series. 26 t 
 
 acquainted with the geography and physical character 
 of his own country than that of Germany, this part 
 of the narrative is often very characteristic of his 
 genius." Possibly this is true, but the first half of the 
 " Memoirs of a Cavalier " is immeasurably superior to 
 the second. Fighting under the banner of such a 
 leader as Gustavus Adolphus is as joyous as the 
 inaction under so poor a creature as Charles I. is 
 dispiriting. Oh, one feels, to be trailing a pike again 
 under Sir John Hepburn ! Oh, to be back at the 
 Lech, where Gustavus withstood Tilly — where the 
 gods hurled rocks at one another. If we are to read 
 about a battle, let it be one in which there is good 
 generalship and stubborn fighting on both sides. 
 And Defoe, as in imagination he frittered away his 
 time in King Charles's camp, felt it, too. " My old 
 hero, the glorious Gustavus Adolphus used to say 
 an enemy reduced to a necessity of fighting is half 
 beaten." Now and again, it is true, one gets cheered 
 up a bit, as, for example, by the deeds of the garrison 
 at Newark, " brave, old, rugged boys, fellows that, 
 like Count Tilly's Germans, had iron faces," or the 
 brisk reply of our intrepid commander, Sir Marmaduke 
 Langdale, " A soldier ought never to suppose he shall 
 be beaten." The courage, too, of Lord Fairfax, 
 though our enemy, we cannot but admire, and when 
 in the enemy's camp as a hostage we are generous 
 enough to compliment him on his actions, and 
 especially to compare him to Gustavus Adolphus, 
 whereupon " he would blush like a woman, and be 
 uneasy, declining the discourse," which reminds of 
 Gustavus even more. 
 
262 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 66.— "captain singleton" (4th june, 1720). 
 
 Work : 205.— Captain Singleton. 
 
 Defoe now set aboiit another story on something- 
 the same lines as " Robinson Crusoe," entitHng it, 
 " The Life, Adventures, and Piracies of the famous 
 Captain Singleton : containing an account of his being 
 set on shore in the Island of Madagascar"" etc. Like 
 " Robinson Crusoe," " Captain Singleton " is in two 
 parts. In the first we read how little Bob Singleton, 
 who had been trepanned when a child, was sold to a 
 gipsy. At twelve he went to sea, and after several 
 adventures found himself in a Portuguese ship on his 
 way to Lisbon. His master dying there, he engaged 
 himself as cabin-boy in a Portuguese vessel bound for 
 India. Degraded as he had become, the wicked 
 conduct of his shipmates filled him with horror. At 
 Goa he escaped the Inquisition by turning Catholic, 
 being no less willing to suit his religion to circum- 
 stancss than Crusoe was. When the vessel reached 
 Madagascar, on its homeward journey, a mutiny broke 
 out among the seamen, and twenty-seven of them; 
 including Singleton, were left on shore. After 
 various adventures, the mutineers embarked in a 
 Paraguay and made for the mainland of Africa. A 
 description is then given of the marvellous journey 
 from Mozambique across the great unknown continent 
 of Africa to its western coast, a truly extraordinary 
 piece of work, for, though writing one hundred and 
 fifty years before the explorations of Livingstone, 
 Baker; and Grant, and one hundred and seventy 
 before the discoveries of Stanley, so carefully had 
 
The Adventure Series. 26 
 
 o 
 
 J)efoe studied the geography of Africa and the reports 
 of various adventurers that there is scarcely anything 
 he says that modern discovery has been able to throw 
 discredit on ; this, too, at a time when the centre of 
 Africa was to the generality of men unknown, and, 
 when on their maps of it geographers, as Dean Swift 
 has it, put "elephants for want of towns." He 
 describes the great Lake Nyassa and its entotirage 
 as follows : — 
 
 " It was the ninth day of our travel in this wilderness, when we 
 came to the view of a great lake of water. . . . The next day we 
 came to the edge of this lake, and, happily for us, we came to it at 
 the south pomt of it ; so we passed by it, and travelled three days 
 by the side of it, which was a great comfort to us, because it 
 lightened our burthen, there being no need to carry water when we 
 had it in view. And yet, though there was so much water, we found 
 but very little alteration in the desert." 
 
 There were no trees, neither was there any grass 
 or herbage, except a broad flat thistle, though without 
 any prickle, which the buffaloes ate eagerly. 
 
 But Defoe's allusion to the mighty lake that feeds 
 the Nile^the Victoria Nyanza — is more extraordinary 
 still, for it was only a few years ago that the question 
 of the source of the Nile was finally settled by Mr. 
 Stanley. Defoe's account is as follows : — 
 
 " In three days' march we came to a river, which we saw from 
 the hills, and which ,we called the Golden River ; and we found it 
 ran northward, which was the first stream we had met with that did 
 so. It ran with a very rapid current, and our gunner, pulling out 
 his map, assured me that this was either the river Nile, or ran into 
 the great lake out of which the river Nile was said to take its 
 beginning." 
 
 The river flowing north was the Lualaba, which, 
 as we now know, thanks to the discoveries of Stanley, 
 
264 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 does not, as Defoe supposed, and as, I believe, Mr. 
 Stanley himself once supposed, flow into the Victoria 
 Nyanza. It is the commencement of the Congo or 
 Livingstone, 
 
 Having at length reached the western coast, 
 Singleton separated himself, from the rest of his 
 companions, and, embarking at Cape Coast Castle, 
 returned to England with " a glorious sum of 
 money," thus ending the first part of his adventures. 
 
 In England he fell into bad company, spent his 
 money in "all kinds of folly and wickedness," and, 
 when it was gone, shipped on a voyage to Cadiz. 
 A plot to seize the vessel having failed, he trans- 
 ferred himself to a companion ship, where he again 
 plotted, and this time with success. Having chosen 
 a man named Wilmot as captain, the mutineers put 
 to sea, and before long captured a Spanish sloop, 
 which they manned for a privateer and gave the 
 command to Singleton. Success and riches followed, 
 and after two years the sloop was sold, and Singleton 
 and his crew transferred themselves to a Spanish 
 frigate of thirty-eight guns. Again they took nume- 
 rous prizes, on one of them being a Pennsylvanian 
 Quaker named William Walters, who henceforth 
 figures largely in the story ; but a difference having 
 arisen between Singleton and Wilmot, the two parted 
 company, and Wilmot carried off all the spoil, thus 
 leaving Singleton to go over all his labours again. 
 Nothing daunted, however, with his frigate carrying 
 four hundred men and forty-four guns he again 
 tried his luck, William the Quaker bearing him 
 company. Once more fortune proved kind, and 
 
The Adventure Series. 265 
 
 again he grew rich. After a time Singleton, who, 
 owing to the conversation of the Quaker, felt him- 
 self visited with prickings of conscience, entered 
 upon the resolve to reform and to make reparation 
 for some of his deeds of violence; and the story 
 ends with the marriage of Singleton to a fair 
 Quakeress, William's sister. As Mr. Lee points 
 out, Defoe was quite justified in introducing a 
 Quaker pirate. " Few men had better studied, or 
 more highly respected, the body of Friends, called 
 Quakers," than Defoe ; " but there were undoubtedly 
 in the reigns of Queen Anne and George I. pro- 
 fessed Quakers, such as we know nothing of now. 
 London had several who kept taverns, one who 
 was an owner of race-horses, that ran for wagers 
 on Banstead Downs ; and several Quakers were 
 transported for burglaries and highway robberies." 
 
 bj.—APPLEBEE'S /OURNAL—aUMMARV OF DEFOE'S JOURNALISTIC 
 WORK.— THE BURSTING OF THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE. 
 
 Works : 206. — AppMeis. 
 
 207. — The Director, 
 
 208. — Complete Art of Painting— a Poem. 
 
 209, — A Vindication of tlie Honour and Justice of Parliament against the 
 
 Speech of John A , Esq. 
 
 210. — A Collection of Miscellany Letters, selected out of Mist's. 
 
 In June, 1720, Mr. Mist was in trouble again. 
 The Roman Catholic Elector Palatine had recently, 
 owing to British interference, been induced to leave 
 off persecuting his Protestant subjects. Mist's con- 
 tinental correspondents, who were Roman Catholics, 
 having resented and reflected upon this interference. 
 Mist was unwise enough, contrary to the advice of 
 
266 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Defoe, to insert their contributions, with the result 
 of the presentation of the matter before the House 
 of Lords ; and Mist, being apprehended, was 
 committed to the King's Bench to await his trial. 
 Defoe, however, notwithstanding his vexatioa on 
 account of Mist's indiscretion, appears to have 
 carried on the paper during his colleague's imprison- 
 ment. The rupture between them, however, was 
 only doctored and not healed ; for Defoe, though 
 he did not abandon Mist's, now joined himself to 
 another periodical, Applebees Original Weekly Journal. 
 Applebees, as it was familiarly called, which had 
 been established about six years, was published ort 
 Saturdays, and consisted of three leaves small 
 folio. In principles, though loyal to the House of 
 Hanover, it was mildly Tory.; 
 
 To the inauguration of the South Sea Scheme 
 we have already made allusion. That it became 
 popular, and that the success that attended it in- 
 duced the formation of a number of rival companies 
 is a matter of history. Change Alley for many 
 weeks was a perfect babel with the cries of the 
 advocates of the various " Hubble" Bubbles." Even 
 kitchen-maids, shoe-makers, and tavern-drawers had 
 caught the infection: everybody was puffing or 
 listening to the claims of this or that fraudulent 
 company ; everybody was buying or selling stock. 
 But at the request of the South Sea Company^ 
 Parliament now put its foot on all these petty 
 schemes ; the Act for the suppression of which 
 came into operation on June 24, 1720. Defoe's first 
 contribution to Applebee's. describes the changed 
 
The Adventuhe Series. 267 
 
 condition of affairs in town, owing to the enforcement 
 of the Act. The cobbler had returned to his stall, 
 the tavern-damsel to her customers, the small-coal 
 man to his small coal, the chimney-sweep to his 
 chimneys, and the barber to his stubbly chins. In 
 short, equilibrium had been restored. The same 
 dumber of the paper contained the following item 
 of news : " Yesterday at noon, South-Sea Stock was 
 1,000." Shortly after, the chairman of the Com- 
 pany and some of the principal directors sold out. 
 Then people grew suspicious, the stock began to 
 fall, and those who had been so eager to buy were 
 now ipore eager to sell. On August 27th it had 
 fallen to 800, on September 12th to 400. It still 
 fell, and thousands were ruined. A glance down 
 the columns of the newspapers of the day sufficiently 
 informs of the state of things that followed. A 
 Suffolk knight hangs himself, a mercer in Bedford 
 Street, Covent Garden, throws himself " out of a 
 window two pair of stairs backwards," " a noted 
 banker in the Strand, of great credit," fails and 
 goes into the Mint, " a merchant in Crutched- 
 Fryers shoots himself in his chamber " ; but these 
 were only a few out of tens of thousands of 
 sufferers. 
 
 "At this juncture, Defoe and some with whom he acted, thought 
 it desirable to commence a paper which should be devoted to the 
 discussion of the financial evils under which the nation was suffering, 
 and the best means of restoring public credit. The first number of 
 this paper appeared on the 5th of October, 1720, with the title The 
 Director. It was written by Defoe, and published by W. Boreham. 
 every Wednesday and Friday; but had, probably, only a brief 
 
 * Lee 
 
268 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 "The Compleat Art of Painting," by M. du 
 Fresnoy, which in 1720 Defoe translated into"English 
 verse, broken into short sections, for T. Warner, 
 the publisher, was probably intended merely as a 
 memoria technica for young students. 
 
 Applebees Journal being the last newspaper to 
 which Defoe was a contributor to any great extent, 
 this is a fitting place to sum up his journalistic 
 labours. 
 
 He had relinquished his Review in 171 3, after 
 a publication extending over more than nine years. 
 
 In May, 1716, he commenced Mercurius Politicus, 
 a monthly periodical, which he continued till 1720, 
 and probably much longer. 
 
 In June, 17 16, he was offered, and accepted, a 
 share in Dormer s News-Letter, a manuscript paper. 
 His connection with it lasted till August, 1718, 
 
 His connection with Mist's Journal commenced 
 apparently in August, 1 7 1 7, and continued till October, 
 1724, having lasted, with interruptions, over seven 
 years. 
 
 In September, 17 18, he set on foot the Whitehall 
 Evening Post, with which he was connected till 1720, 
 
 In 1 7 19 'he established the Daily Post, his con^ 
 nection with which lasted till April, 1725. 
 
 His connection with Applebees Journal com- 
 menced on June 25, 1720, and continued till 12th 
 March, 1726. 
 
 68,— THE "SERIOUS REFLECTIONS" (ROBINSON CRUSOE, PART IIF.) 
 (6th AUG., 1720), 
 
 As the splendid reception of the first part of 
 "Robinson Crusoe" encouraged Defoe to write a 
 
The Adventure Series. 269 
 
 second, so the scarcely less flattering reception of 
 the second impelled him to write a third, with title- 
 page as follows : " Serious Reflections during the Life 
 and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe : with 
 his vision of the Angelic World. Written by himself. 
 London. Printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship and 
 Black Swan in Paternoster Row, 1720." 
 
 Besides a preface by Defoe, which is signed 
 "Robinson Crusoe," the book also contains a preface 
 by Taylor, the publisher. 
 
 "The success,'' says Mr. Taylor, "the two former parts have 
 met with has been known by the envy it has brought upon the 
 editor, expressed in a thousand hard words from the men of trade ; 
 the effect of that regret which they entertained at their having no 
 share in it. And I must do the author the justice to say that not a 
 dog has wagged his tongue at the work itself, nor has a word been 
 said to lessen the value of it but which has been the visible effect of 
 that envy at the good fortune of the bookseller." 
 
 Nor, thought Mr. Taylor, could the success of 
 the third volume be less than that of its prede- 
 cessors : "while the parable has been so diverting, the 
 moral must certainly be equally agreeable." To the 
 biographer of Defoe, and the student of English 
 literature generally, this " Serious Reflections " is 
 a dish toothsome in the extreme, for it enables to 
 get closer to the writer than anything else that Defoe 
 penned ; but the general reader has seen nothing 
 in it to admire. Where millions have read Crusoe 
 Part L, and thousands Crusoe Part IL, only units 
 have ever even heard of Crusoe Part III. 
 
 The work consists " mainly of meditations on 
 Divine Providence in times of trouble, and discourses 
 on the supreme importance of honest dealing " ■ but 
 
270 The LiPE of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 by far the most interesting feature is its declaration 
 that the story of "Robinson Crusoe" is an allegory 
 of Defoe's own life. As, however, we have gone 
 into this subject' thoroughly in previous sections, we 
 need do no niore here than to repeat Defoe's declara- 
 tion in it, that " Robinson Crusoe," even down to the 
 minutest particulars, is a picture of his own ex- 
 periences — 
 
 " The adventures of Robinson Crusoe are one whole scheme of a 
 real life of twenty-eight years, spent in the most wandering, desolate, 
 and afflicting circumstances that ever man went through, and in which 
 I have lived so long in a life of wonders, in continued storms, fought 
 with the worst kind of savages and man-eaters; by unaccountable 
 surprising incidents, fed by miracles greater than that of the ravens ; 
 suffered all manner of violences and oppressions, injurious reproaches, 
 contempt of men, attacks of devils, corrections from Heaven, and 
 oppositions on earth j have had innumerable ups and downs in 
 matters of fortune, been in slavery worse than Turkish, escaped by 
 an exquisite management, as that in the story of Xury and the boat 
 of Sallee; been taken up at sea in distress, raised again and depressed 
 agairi, and that oftener perhaps in one man's life than ever was 
 known before; shipwrecked often, though more by land than by 
 sea. In a word, there's not a circumstance in the imaginary story 
 but has its just allusion to a real story, and chimes part for part, 
 and step for step, with the inimitable Life of Robinson' Crusoe." 
 
 When as'ked why, if he had such a regard for the 
 strict and literal, truth he did not tell his history in his 
 own person, Defoe replied that he wrote ■ for the 
 instruction of mankind, for the purpose of recom- 
 mending " invincible patience under the worst of 
 misery ; indefatigable application and undaunted 
 resolution under the greatest and most discouraging 
 circumstances," and that he did not believe that any 
 other method would so well effect the purpose. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CRIMINAL AND TOPOGRAPHICAL SERIES. 
 
 69.— MIST IS PILLORIED.— HE IS VISITED IN PRISON AND CHEERED 
 BY HIS "JUDICIOUS, LEARNED, AND MERRY FRIEND," DANIEL 
 DEFOE. 
 
 We now return to Mr. Nathaniel Mist, whom we left 
 in prison awaiting his trial. Brought, on 3rd Decem- 
 ber, 1720, before Lord Chief Justice Pratt at Guildhall, 
 "for having scandalously reflected on His- Majesty's 
 seasonable interposition in favour of the Protestants 
 abroad," Mr. Mist was found guilty. The judgment 
 pronounced upon him on the 13th of February, 1721, 
 was as follows : — " That he stand twice in the pillory, 
 at Charing Cross, and the Royal Exchange ; pay a 
 fine of ^50 ; suffer three months' imprisonment in 
 the King's Bench, and give security for his good 
 behaviour for seven years." Unable either to pay 
 the fine or to give the required secvirity, Mr. Mist 
 remained in prison ; and, while there, aggravated his 
 offence by permitting two articles, one reflecting on 
 the King, and the other against Marlborough, to 
 appear in his journal. Upon his refusing to mention 
 the names of the writers of the articles, the House 
 of Commons committed him to Newgate. He was 
 to have been tried on the 9th of October, but owing 
 to a severe illness, induced by the unhealthiness of 
 
272 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 his cell, the matter was postponed till the next 
 sessions. In the meantime, Defoe, acting the part 
 of a true friend, continued his oversight of the 
 journal. 
 
 Downcast on account of his pecuniary difficulties, 
 caused by the expenses of his prosecution, fines, fees, 
 and absence from business. Mist looked about for 
 sources of relief, and just as he was pondering the 
 advisability of publishing selections from the Journal, 
 by subscription, in came Defoe ; or as Mist puts it, 
 "a judicious, learned, and merry friend (as good 
 luck would have it) made me a seasonable visit. 
 The gentleman finding me in a very pensive posture, 
 reproached my want of fortitude very frankly, and 
 was very liberal in exhortations, supported by argu- 
 ments drawn from history, philosophy, and religion, 
 to bear my misfortune patiently." But Defoe was 
 ready with something more than cheering words ; he 
 heartily endorsed Mist's proposal concerning the 
 selections, and promised to write the dedication 
 himself, and to superintend their publication. Of 
 the articles in this work, published 9th January, 1722, 
 thirty-two were by Defoe. In the meantime (9th 
 December, 1721) Mist had been brought up for 
 trial, but rit) evidence being offered against him he 
 was discharged. " There can be little or no doubt, 
 from his own words some years later, that the 
 influence of Defoe with the Government had 
 much to do with this merciful termination of Mist's 
 imprisonment." * 
 
 * Lee. 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 273 
 
 70.— defobvs son benjamin in trouble (14thaug., 1721). 
 
 The bursting of the South Sea Bubble had not 
 only set all England in a ferment, but it had excited 
 those who had been swindled to loud cries of 
 vengeance on the directors. Parliament, however, 
 though willing to mete out punishment, was inclined 
 to act with clemency. This course provoked a yell 
 of indignation ; and among the newspapers that cen- 
 sured the merciful proceedings of Parliament was 
 the London Journal, in which, about the middle 
 of August (172 1), appeared "a scandalous and 
 seditious libel." 
 
 On the same day "Mr. Wilkins, the printer, 
 and Mr. Peele, the publisher," were taken up, but 
 admitted to bail ; and on the 14th of August 
 Benjamin Norton, Defoe's second son, who was 
 author or responsible editor of the paper, and 
 putative writer of the article, was committed to 
 Newgate. At the same time that this libel appeared 
 Daniel Defoe was writing eloquent pseudonymous 
 articles in Applebees in support of the proceedings 
 of Parliament, from which it has been concluded that 
 father and son were just then not on friendly terms. 
 
 Defoe had evidently foreseen that his son would 
 get into trouble, for in one of his articles which 
 dealt with libels he tried to show that the authors 
 of libels were, as a rule, more foolish than malicious. 
 He thought the law on libels ought to be amended, 
 and observes : 
 
 " The indictment is loaded with the usual adverbs — seditiously, 
 maliciously, or traitorously and seditiously, and the like — when 
 
2 74 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 perhaps the unhappy scribbler has had no sedition, or treason, or 
 malice in his head, and the indictment ought only to have said 
 greedily, covetously, and avariciously, the man having had no design 
 at all but merely to get a penny, and perhaps to buy him bread." 
 
 Apparently Defoe had warned and cautioned his 
 son without effect : and this " Essay on Libel " seems 
 to have been written in the hope that the punish- 
 ment which, like Damocles' sword, hung over the 
 young scribbler might be avoided. 
 
 By-and-by we learn from Read's Journal that 
 Benjamin " was admitted to bail before Mr. De 
 la Faye, himself being bound by recognisance in 
 the sum of one thousand pounds, and his two 
 sureties in the , sum of five hundred pounds each, 
 for his appearnce at the King's Bench Bar on the 
 first day of the term." In Applebees Journal of 
 August 26 Defoe again attempts to help his son, 
 and declares in respect to the publisher and printer 
 of the London Journal — 
 
 '"Tis known that the young Defoe was but a stalking-horse and 
 a tool, to bear the lash and the pillory in their stead, for his wages ; 
 that he was the author of the most scandalous part, but was only 
 made sham proprietor of the whole to screen the true proprietors 
 from justice." 
 
 Of course it was not known at the time that the 
 writer in Applebees was the father, who indeed took 
 every precaution possible to keep his connection 
 with that journal secret. As " nothing is recorded 
 in the public prints as to any further proceedings 
 having been taken against B. N. Defoe," it is 
 probable " that, out of consideration for his father, 
 the Ministry forbore the preparation of any indictment 
 and discharged the son from his recognisances." 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 275 
 
 71.— the great criminal series. 
 
 Mr. Lee has been at considerable pains to ex- 
 plain Defoe's motives for writing that great series of 
 stories of criminals which includes " Moll Flanders," 
 " Colonel Jack," and " Roxana," and with which we 
 have now to deal ; and he considers it his duty to 
 defend Defoe. But I do not see either that 
 Defoe's motive requires any explanation, or Defoe 
 himself any defence. Curious, prying, inquisitive ; a 
 never-tiring hunter after anecdotes which he is ever 
 pouring from his full treasury ; one who loved to 
 wonder, and to make wonder ; one who had studied 
 life in the nealing-arches of Dallow's glass-house, 
 in Rosemary Lane, and in the palace of King 
 William of commendable but obtrusive memory, in 
 the dungeons of Newgate and in the country- 
 house of Sir John Fagg ; a man whose passion for 
 the odd, the wild, the bizarre, the startling and the 
 marvellous, peeps out in everything he said or did ; 
 it was nothing but natural that he should dip his 
 pen, in order to write the narratives of some of 
 the extraordinary characters who had crossed his 
 path ; that he should have perpetrated : " Moll 
 Flanders," "Colonel Jack," "Rob Roy," "Roxana," 
 "Bizeau," "Jack Sheppard," and "Jonathan Wild." 
 He wrote them because his imagination had been 
 excited, and because he simply could not help writing 
 them. It is very lamentable, no doubt, but the lives 
 of great criminals are, as a rule, much more entertain- 
 ing reading than the lives of great divines. That, 
 however, is a law of nature for which Defoe is in 
 s 2 
 
276 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 no wise responsible. Nobody failed more miserably 
 than Defoe himself when he tried to write the 
 life of a good man ; as for example, the Memoirs 
 of Daniel Williams, D.D. Let it then at once 
 be admitted that Defoe wrote these tales because 
 they were extraordinary tales, because he had been 
 excited by the recital of them, and because he 
 enjoyed telling them. He told them, however, in 
 the right way, one of their raisons d'Hre being his 
 desire to lead the fallen and depraved to see not 
 only the error ,but the folly of their ways, and to 
 entice them to paths of virtue and honesty. In- 
 stead 'of treating sin flippantly, and presenting 
 great rogues as heroes, as did so many writers, 
 Defoe took upon himself to impress upon his 
 readers how intensely wretched is the career of 
 even the most prosperous rogue, and how vastly 
 better it is to live in the narrowest circumstances, 
 than to be surrounded with wealth gotten by 
 wickedness. But he also points out that it is not 
 sufficient for the criminals themselves to reform, 
 the whole country must reform ; and instead of 
 upholding laws that tend to the manufacture of 
 criminals a§d the spread of vice, a Christian people, 
 such as the English plume themselves on being, 
 should abolish those laws, and not rest satisfied till 
 a far better state of affairs has been arrived at. 
 That he exhibits vice in its native deformity, with- 
 out being sentimentalised is perfectly true, and that 
 his rogues get punished is true also; but Defoe 
 feels for them. There is good in the worst character 
 he draws, and when he is able to do so, as for 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 277 
 
 example when he describes characters under fic- 
 titious names, he not only spares them from the 
 gallows, but, when he consistently can, considerately 
 furnishes them — after repentance, of course — with a 
 competency in their old age. 
 
 And if Defoe is not to be castigated for think- 
 ing fit to write the lives of thieves and harlots, 
 neither is it fair to charge him with being coarse. 
 "Moll Flanders," "Colonel Jack," and " Roxana " 
 are not books for the drawing-room table, but neither 
 are "Hamlet," "Gulliver's Travels " (unexpurgated), 
 " Tom Jones," " Joseph Andrews," or " Tristram 
 Shandy." Defoe belonged to an age when a spade 
 was called a spade. Had he lived at the present 
 day, he would doubtless have used a decent peri- 
 phrasis. He did not wittingly offend : indeed, he 
 prided himself on the purity of his page ; and his 
 contemporaries, ever ready as they were to pick 
 holes, never once preferred against him the charge 
 of coarseness. 
 
 Much of the material upon which Defoe based 
 his stories, was no doubt obtained during his im- 
 prisonment at Newgate ; where although, as he was 
 confined only for having published a libel, he would 
 not be compelled to associate with his fellow 
 prisoners, the criminals, yet it is quite certain 
 that he was not the man to lose such fair oppor- 
 tunities for studying a class in which he was 
 always so much interested; and it is known that he 
 often kept manuscripts, intended for the press, by him 
 for years. His "Tours" lay in MS. nearly forty 
 years ; his tract " Advice to All Parties," three years 
 
■278 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 {see § 30) ; and " Crusoe," probably four years. " The 
 Present State of Parties in Great Britain " took, 
 him, on and off, eight years {see § 41); and "Jure 
 Divino," three years. As Mr. Lee has shown, however, 
 Defoe owed a great deal of his 'knowledge of the 
 criminal classes to his connection with Applebees — 
 
 "Mr. John Applebee, the proprietor of The Original Journal, 
 carried on the general business of a printer in Water Lane, White- 
 friars. He might also with propriety be designated the ofificial printer 
 of Newgate, for from his office were issued the printed papers of the 
 ordinary — as to the conduct of the condemned felons under his 
 spiritual care — and their confessions, if any. The last dying speeches 
 of criminals were known to be correct if Mr. Applebee's name was 
 printed on the papers ; and in any extraordinary case, with the 
 consent of the, condemned, the narrative of his life was taken from 
 his own lips, or any paper he had written was given to Mr. Applebee, 
 and embodied in a pamphlet, often printed before, but published 
 immediately after, the execution. For these purposes, Mr. Applebee, 
 or any one authorised to represent him, had access to the prisoners 
 in Newgate during all the six years that Daniel Defoe was con 
 nected with the management of The Original Journal. 
 
 " A short experience would suffice to convince Defoe that the 
 largest proportion of these papers and books circulated among the 
 criminal population, and were read with great avidity. An examina- 
 tion of the lowest class of thieves' literature of the time, printed in 
 other offices, shows that successful highwaymen and burglars were 
 exalted into heroes, whose great deeds were more held up as 
 examples of imitation than as warnings to be avoided ; and even 
 those who had expiated their crimes upon the scaffold were objects 
 of highest admiration when they ' died game.' If any such became 
 penitents, they were execrated as sneaks and cowards. No point 
 of morality was ever touched upon in these stories." 
 
 72.— MOLL FLANDERS (27TH JANUARY, 1722). 
 Work: 211. — Moll Flanders. 27th Jan., 1722. 
 
 This extraordinary narrative, which is styled by 
 Mr. Saintsbury " the most remarkable example of 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 279 
 
 pure realism in literature," which is regarded by 
 Charles Lamb as of no inferior interest to " Robinson 
 Crusoe," and by Mr. A. B. Walkley, as a finer novel 
 than "Crusoe," "because more subtle, more complex,"* 
 was published on 22nd January, 1722. There is no 
 doubt that almost all its features are taken from real 
 life. The early scenes are laid in Colchester, a town 
 with which Defoe was much connected. 
 
 Though born in wretchedness and thrown helpless 
 on the world, Moll Flanders had the good fortune to 
 get into a family where she was carefully brought up 
 and educated, and all went well till her n^'stress's 
 eldest son fell in love with her and ruined her. 
 By and by Moll married her mistress's second son, 
 who soon died. Her next husband was a Colchester 
 draper with stylish tastes ; consequently, for a time they 
 lived like the quality and indulged in such luxuries 
 as a drive to Oxford and Northampton in a coach and 
 six. When her husband went bankrupt and absconded, 
 Moll removed to the Mint in London, where her 
 supposed fortune and the charms of her person 
 brought her a third time into wedlock. With her 
 husband, a sea captain, she goes out to Virginia, 
 only to discover, to her horror, that she has married 
 her brother, or rather half-brother. She returns to 
 England, and after an intrigue with a gentleman at 
 Bath, unites herself to a north-country fortune hunter, 
 who pretended to be a landed gentleman. The unim- 
 portant fact that two of her former husbands were 
 still living, of course, did not weigh with her. Her 
 new husband, the fortune hunter, on discovering that 
 
 * Daily Chronicle, yth Feb., 1892. 
 
28o The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Moll is possessed of only a few pounds, betakes himself 
 to his old calling, namely, the road, whilst his spouse, 
 after a few genuine tears, hies to London, and by and 
 by gets married, at Little Brickhill, in the lace country 
 of Buckinghamshire, to a respectable and well-to-do 
 bank clerk, with whom she lived happily till his death, 
 when, falling into poverty, she took to thieving. Her 
 exceptional run of luck lasted twelve years, but in 
 the end she was landed in Newgate, where she found 
 herself in company of her fourth husband, the high- 
 wayman. At Newgate she began to reform, and not 
 before it was high time. She and her husband 
 proceed to Virginia in the same vessel. In Virginia 
 they prosper and grow rich, and spend the remainder 
 of their years " in sincere penitence." 
 
 " Moll Flanders " was the Bible, the one book, of 
 an old apple-woman whom George Borrow (the story 
 is in " Lavengro ") found on London Bridge. The old 
 crone had, very literally, apotheosised Moll into " Our 
 Blessed Mary " Flanders. " There have been more 
 imposing religions," observes Mr. Walkley, " with far 
 less literary justification." 
 
 Professor Minto will have it that it is only 
 in some re§ipects "that 'Moll Flanders' is, as a 
 novel, superior to ' Robinson Crusoe.' Moll is a 
 more complicated character than the simple, open- 
 minded, manly mariner of York ; a strangely- 
 mixed compound of craft and impulse, selfishness 
 and generosity — in short, a thoroughly bad woman, 
 but made bad largely by circumstances. In tracing 
 the vigilant resolution with which she plays upon 
 human weakness, the spasms of compunction which 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 281 
 
 shoot across her wily designs, the selfish after- 
 thoughts which paralyse her generous impulses, her 
 fits of dare-devil courage and uncontrollable panic, 
 and the steady current of good-humoured satisfaction 
 with herself which makes her chuckle equally over 
 mishaps and successes, Defoe has gone much more 
 deeply into the springs of action and sketched a 
 much richer page in the natural history of his 
 species than in ' Robinson Crusoe.' " 
 
 The weakness of the book, he points out, is that it 
 " is not firmly organised round some central principle 
 of life," and he complains that it has no " heart and 
 members." 
 
 " Compared with ' Robinson Crusoe,' ' Moll Flan- 
 ders ' is only a string of diverting incidents, the lowest 
 type of book organism, very brilliant while it is fresh 
 and new, but not qualified to survive competitors for 
 the world's interest. There is no unique creative 
 purpose in it to bind the whole together ; it might be 
 cut into pieces, each capable of wriggling amusingly 
 by itself." 
 
 Attention may here be drawn to a very common 
 trick of Defoe's, practised for the purpose of giving 
 verisimilitude to his narrative, and that is the trick of 
 pretended ignorance. When Moll is sailing for Vir- 
 ginia, the ship, she says, "came to anchor in a little 
 bay, near a river, whose name I remember not, but 
 they said the river came down from Limerick, and 
 that it was the largest river in Ireland." In " Crusoe," 
 Book I., Xury shoots a creature "like a hare, but 
 different in colour, and longer legs " ; and in " Crusoe," 
 Book II., the hero refers to a certain seaport, the name 
 
282 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 of which " I may perhaps spell wrong, for I do not 
 particularly remember it, having lost this, together 
 with the names of many other places set down in a 
 little pocket-book, which was spoiled by the water by 
 an accident." 
 
 Another interesting feature of the book is the light 
 it throws on the importance at that time of the lace 
 trade, the centre of which was Olney, or, as Defoe in 
 his " Tours " calls it, " Ouldney." 
 
 When Moll Flanders was married at Little Brick- 
 hill to her fifth husband, the bank clerk, " finding it 
 was a lacemaking town," she gave to her bridesmaid 
 "a good suit of knots, as good as the town would 
 afford," and to the girl's "mother a piece of bone 
 lace for a head " ; and whilst she was at the inn at 
 Brickhill she heard that " the coaches were robbed at 
 Dunstable Hill, and ;^56o in money taken ; besides 
 some of the lace merchants that always travel that way 
 had been visited too." But lace being a commodity in 
 much demand; and fetching high prices, it was often 
 •carried off, not only by highwaymen but also by shop- 
 lifters and other petty thieves. Moll herself, after she 
 became an . " artist," as she prettily terms it, " made 
 a venture qj? two among the lace folks," and once 
 ■' carried off a piece of bone lace, worth six or seven 
 pounds, and a paper of thread " ; on another occasion 
 she filches a parcel of lace " worth nearly ;^20 " ; but 
 her greatest prize in the lace way was when she cap- 
 tured £2>'^o worth of Flanders lace which was " lodged 
 in a private house." Flanders lace, however, being 
 prohibited, she' on this occasion made a virtue of her 
 peccadillo, and divided her spoil with the custom-house 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 283 
 
 ofificer. Among Moll's captures were thirty-guinea 
 watches, sixty-guinea periwigs, and once she even 
 helped herself to a horse ; these trifles, however, were 
 by the way — the mainstay of her calling was lace. 
 
 To students, of course, expurgated editions are 
 the devil ; but it is desirable that others nowadays 
 besides students should have the opportunity of read- 
 ing Defoe's great work. 
 
 The nearest thing we know to an expurgated 
 " Moll Flanders " is in the " Selections from Defoe's 
 Minor Novels " (Percival and Co.), edited by Mr. 
 George Saintsbury. This is a charming little book 
 • — a book to love — and should be in the hands of every 
 admirer of Defoe. One could wish, however, that 
 instead of two extracts from " Moll" four or five had 
 been given ; in fact, almost all of it. 
 
 As a proof that Defoe's time was now valuable, 
 let it be noted that on the loth of April, 1721, he 
 paid a fine of five pounds to be excused from 
 serving parochial offices in Stoke Newington. 
 
 73.— CHARACTERISTICS OF DEFOE'S STYLE.— THE AMORPHOUSNESS 
 OF His WRITINGS. 
 
 About " fame's great antiseptic style," as the 
 term is usually understood, Defoe troubled himself 
 but little. He put his thoughts into the same 
 homely, unaffected dress when he wrote them as 
 when he spoke them. Matter, he took it, was 
 almost everything ; manner but very little. If in 
 his political pamphlets he could drive an argument 
 home he was satisfied ; if in his fictions he succeeded 
 
284 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 in proving to his reader that it was all true, there 
 was an end of it. 
 
 But though he troubled himself so little about 
 what may be called the trivialities of style, its great 
 essentials he always endeavoured to bear in mind, 
 and he tells us in his " Compleat English Gentle- 
 man" what his ideal style was. It should be 
 "manly," he says, "and poHte, free and plain, 
 without foolish flourishes and ridiculous flights of 
 jingling bombast, or dull meannesses of expression 
 below the dignity of the subject." As an English 
 man of letters, it is natural that he should have 
 been proud of the medium in which he was privi- 
 leged to express his thoughts. 
 
 " As in all languages," says Defoe, " there is 
 a beauty of style, a cadence and harmony in the 
 expression, so in the English much more than any 
 other vulgar speech in the world. The late Earl 
 of Roscommon, the most exact writer and the best 
 judge of polite language in his time, confirms my 
 opinion, and I need no better a testimonial. Speak- 
 ing of the French, which was boasted of at that 
 time as a polite and beautiful language, he says — 
 
 ' For -v^o did ever in French authors see 
 The comprehensive Enghsh energy ? 
 The weighty bulHon of one sterUng line, 
 Drawn to French wire would thro' whole pages shine.'" 
 
 In the article in the Daily Chronicle (17th 
 February, 1892), already quoted, Mr. A. B. Walkley 
 deals skilfully with a feature in Defoe's writings 
 which some have disallowed, namely, their amor- 
 phousness. 
 
Criminal and Topograpbical Series. 285 
 
 "However much," says Mr. Walkley, "we may praise Defoe's 
 writings, however much — which is not always the same thing — we 
 may enjoy them, we cannot choose but regret that he had not more 
 leisure to be brief. His great, his gigantic literary qualities, his gift 
 of narrative, his verisimilitude, his racy vocabulary, his inimitable art 
 of vivid presentation went hand in hand with a lack of all sense of 
 proportion, measure, restraint, form." 
 
 Mr. Walkley traces this amorphousness of Defoe's 
 to "two distinct causes — one external, and related to 
 the workaday aims of Defoe the man ; one internal, 
 and involved in the technical method of Defoe the 
 artist. For artist, and great artist, as he was, 
 Defoe was a born tradesman, always writing for 
 the market, always keeping a steady eye on the 
 main chance. Writing was with him a business 
 before it was an art. Each of his books was intended 
 to meet a certain demand." 
 
 When Defoe's hosiery business went wrong, and 
 he found political pamphleteering more profitable, he 
 took to pamphleteering. Subsequently, seeing a " good 
 opening " in journalism, " he straightway became the 
 most industrious, the most prolific of journalists." 
 Believing that he saw a chance of making an honest 
 penny " out of the demand for stories of adventure," 
 he produced " Robinson Crusoe," and the success of 
 " Crusoe " led to further stories. 
 
 One "might trace the same origin — the policy of 
 ' put money in thy purse ' — for all the rest of his 
 novels. Obviously this principle — ;the principle not 
 of saying something because he had something to 
 say, but of selling something which the public 
 wanted to buy — was fatal to anything like artistic 
 form. The length of the work was conditioned, ijot 
 
286 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 by its subject, but the state of the market. 
 Here, then, was the first cause of the amorphous 
 character of Defoe's writing. 
 
 " The second cause, if more subtle, is no less un- 
 mistakable. The quintessence of Defoe's art was 
 its verisimilitude, the object of which he never lost 
 sight, and which no writer before or since has ever 
 so fully attained, was to ' lie like truth.' Now 
 nothing gives the stamp of truth to art like a certain 
 artlessness, a trick of digression, prolixity, ends left 
 loose, and edges ragged. Defoe's narrative is like 
 life itself; and life is, above all things, amorphous. 
 From the technical point of view, nothing could be 
 worse than the ' construction ' of Defoe's novels : 
 they invariably neglect the Aristotelian precept that 
 a work of art should have a beginning, a middle, 
 and an end. ' Robinson Crusoe ' does not end : 
 it tails off. The conclusion of ' Moll Flanders,' 
 after the heroine's reprieve, is a miserable anti- 
 climax. What could be more dilatory, more tediously 
 undramatic than the latter part of ' Roxana ' ? 
 
 " And yet one would not wish these books other- 
 wise constructed, for their very artistic faults are, in 
 in a sense, qualities, their discontinuity, their dScousUi 
 their alternate slackening and hurrying of pace, 
 their digressions, their garrulity, their level tracts of 
 commonplace give them the very air of truth. 
 
 " Defoe knew what his public wanted, and saw 
 that they got it. The novel-reading taste of that 
 day, like the novel itself, was in its infancy. What 
 is the question which the child, now as then, puts 
 to its nurse, on being' told its first f^iry tale? 'Is 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 287 
 
 it true ? Did it really happen ? ' The reading 
 public, under the first George (and, indeed, long 
 afterwards) were as little children. They could not 
 be induced to take an interest in a story unless 
 they were persuaded that it was true. Indeed, it is 
 highly probable that they would have thought a 
 work of professed fiction an absolutely wicked thing. 
 In Defoe's time theatrical audiences were prepared, 
 no doubt, to swallow the lie for the lie's sake; but 
 the theory of ' I' art pour I' art ' was as yet quite 
 unknown to the novel-reader. Nor would Defoe 
 himself — quite apart from any thought of his readers 
 — have accepted it. For Defoe was essentially a 
 man of his time : a true John Bull, an out-and-out 
 Philistine, to whom the idea of art as an end in 
 itself, as something purged of all moral purpose, 
 would have seemed nonsensical affectation. The 
 modern notion that the be-all and end-all of litera- 
 ture qua literature is to give pleasure, would have 
 been scouted by him as immoral. ' The character of 
 a good writer,' he says, ' wherever he is to be found, 
 is this — viz., that he writes so as to please and serve 
 at the same time.' In his ' Serious Reflections ' 
 on ' Robinson Crusoe ' he has very plain language 
 on story-telling merely to amuse. ' This supplying 
 a story by invention is certainly a most scandalous 
 crime. It is a sort of lying that makes a great 
 hole in the heart, in which by degrees a habit of 
 lying enters in.' 
 
 " There is no reason to doubt Defoe's sincerity 
 in the utterance of these edifying sentiments : he 
 supposed, in perfect good faith, that not only 
 
288 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 ' Robinson Crusoe ' but his histories of ' Captain 
 Singleton,' of ' Moll Flanders,' of ' Roxana,' and 
 of ' Colonel Jack,' stood excused as conveying ex- 
 cellent moral lessons. For us they need, of course, 
 no such excuse. We enjoy them for their splendid 
 literary quality : their directness, their force, their 
 naively unconscious glorification of the will-to-live. 
 They describe the seamy side of things, the adroit 
 expedients of adventurers, the essential humanity of 
 rascals and demireps, with the hearty gusto of a 
 man insatiably curious, determined to touch life at 
 all points, calling nothing common nor unclean." 
 
 74.— " RELIGIOUS COURTSHIP" (20TH FEB., 1722). 
 
 " Twenty-four days," to use Mr. Lee's expression, 
 " after the world had received the story of the 
 coarse lewdness of ' Moll Flanders,' Defoe pre- 
 sented the world with the sweet domestic influences 
 of ' Religious Courtship.' " 
 
 For this work both Mr. Wilson and Mr. Lee 
 professed unbounded admiration. To say that I 
 too enjoyed reading it would be untrue. A little 
 of the p#wder of "admirable unsectarian morality," 
 as Mr. Lee calls it, in a large spoonful of the 
 preserve of fiction could be put up withj but 
 when, as in the case of " Religious Courtship," there 
 is a heaped-up spoonful of this "admirable unsec- 
 tarian morality," relieved by only the thinnest streak 
 of preserve, one makes wry faces. 
 
 The full title of the work is " Religious Court- 
 ship : Being Historical Discourses on the Necessity 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 289 
 
 of Marrying Religious Husbands and Wives only. 
 As also of Husbands and Wives being of the 
 same Opinions in Religion with one another." 
 
 The thin, weak story on which this huge mass 
 of morality hangs, is as follows : A merchant has 
 three daughters. The hand of the youngest is 
 asked in marriage by a rich young gentleman, 
 whom on account of his indifference to religion 
 the young lady refuses. The merchant is angry; 
 but the girl, believing herself to be in the right, 
 insists on breaking the match off, and tells her 
 , lover the reason. The young gentleman, struck by 
 some words she had let fall, is led to make in- 
 quiries on the subject of religion, and after a time 
 becomes a professed and an actual Christian. Some 
 years later the young people are thrown into each 
 other's company again, and the one hindrance to 
 their union having been removed, the young man 
 is again allowed to pay his addresses, and they 
 marry with loud applause — so finishing Part I. 
 Part n. is the history of the second sister, who 
 unwisely marries a Roman Catholic, an affectionate 
 and a considerate husband, who, nevertheless, 
 owing to " his little idolatrous tricks and endea- 
 vours to win her over to his faith," causes her 
 continual pain, which is intensified when, after his 
 death, she discovers that, according to his will, her 
 two boys are to be brought up Roman Catholics. 
 
 With the lessons Defoe sought to convey one 
 finds little fault, though his views on this and kin- 
 dred subjects were narrow. A person of real Chris- 
 tian principles could scarcely expect to find much 
 
 T 
 
290 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 happiness in the life-long company of one who neither 
 knows nor cares anything about religion ; and, as a 
 rule, no doubt, it is best for Protestants to mate with 
 Protestants. But, unlike Mr. Lee, I did not, when 
 reading this book, " become interested in the welfare 
 of" the merchant's family, I was not "carried along" 
 — I forced myself — "through the history of its 
 members." I did not "share their happiness," and 
 I was not " as a friend, touched with their cares and 
 anxieties." Those I did sympathise with were the 
 numerous young persons of both sexes whose pious 
 parents have forced them to read it ; and numerous 
 they must have been, for even so early as 1789 it 
 had reached its twenty-first edition, and there have 
 been many editions since. 
 
 Uninviting, however, as the book is as a story, 
 it is invaluable as throwing light on the character of 
 Defoe. The merchant was Defoe himself, the three 
 daughters were his own three daughters, for whose 
 edification, as well as for the edification of others, the 
 book was written. The youngest, Sophia, was then 
 nineteen. Defoe ever had the welfare of these 
 lovable and lovely girls at heart, and perhaps it 
 was the ■s^ry fact that he was so much, in earnest that 
 caused him to make the book so dry. Whilst reading 
 it, one can fancy Defoe himself talking to his girls. 
 We hear him saying, " Well, child," " Ay, my girl," 
 and we hear them reply, " Nay, sir," " Oh, sir," " You 
 speak truly, sir," in the charming, stiff, old, respectful 
 way with which the youth of the last century addressed, 
 their seniors. 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 291 
 
 7S.— THE MAN OF GOD. 
 
 Then, again, "Religious Courbship " forces once 
 more upon our recollection that Defoe was, above all 
 things, the Man of God. The dialogues that form the 
 greater part of it might have been written by Bunyan, 
 Rowland Hill, Dr. Watts, Legh Richmond, or Hannah 
 More. The following, for example, is not from " The 
 Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," but from the incident 
 of the "poor labouring man" of Hampshire ("Religious 
 Courtship ") who taught the way of salvation to the 
 vich young gentleman who had been refused the hand 
 of the merchant's youngest daughter : — 
 
 " In his way, he necessarily went by a poor labouring man's 
 door, who, with a wife and four children, lived in a small cottage on 
 the waste, where he (the gentleman) was lord of the manor ; as he 
 passed by he thought he heard the man's voice, and stepping up 
 close to the door, he perceived that the poor, good, old man was 
 praying to God with his family ; as he said afterwards, his heart 
 sprung in his breast for joy at the occasion, and he listened eagerly 
 to hear what was said. The poor man was, it seems, giving God 
 thanks for his condition, and that of his little family, which he did 
 with great affection, repeating how comfortably they lived, how 
 plentifully they were provided for, how God had distinguished them 
 in his goodness, that they were alive, when others were snatched 
 away by disasters ; in health, when others languish with pain and 
 sickness ; had food, when others vvere in want ; at liberty, when 
 others were in prison ; were clothed and covered, when others 
 were naked and without habitation ; concluding with admiring and 
 adoring the wonders of God's providence and mercy to them, who 
 had deserved nothing." 
 
 The young squire who heard this " was confounded 
 and struck, as it were, speechless." "What's this 
 man thus thankful for ? " he asked. " Why, my dogs 
 live better than he does in some respects, and is he 
 
292 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 on his knees adoring infinite goodness for his enjoy- 
 ments ! " 
 
 Three things, says Defoe, ought not to be want- 
 ing in any man — to wit, " a reverence of God, a sense 
 of religion, and a profession, at least, of the duty we 
 all owe to our Maker." 
 
 The following are a few more of his shorter say- 
 ings, taken haphazard : — 
 
 " To compare what we receive with what we deserve will make 
 anybody thankful." 
 
 "As the Spirit of God will assist those whose hearts are 
 towards Him, so we must pray that we may be taught to pray." 
 
 " Earnest desires are really prayers in their nature ; sincere 
 wishes of the heart for grace are prayers to God for grace ; prayer 
 itself is nothing but those wishes and desires put into words." 
 
 " Mental petition is prayer as well as words, and is, perhaps, the 
 best-moved prayer and the best-expressed in the world." 
 
 " A little religion makes a man a churl, but a great deal teaches 
 him to know himself, and to be a gentleman." 
 
 " A religious life is the only heaven upon earth." 
 
 It is interesting likewise to learn that the Scrip- 
 tures which gave Defoe most comfort were : " Blessed 
 are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness," 
 etc. ; and " The longing soul shall be satisfied." 
 
 As a guide to conduct in life, he also recommends 
 such texts as Phil, i., 9, 10 : "That your love may 
 abound in knowledge and all judgment. That ye may 
 approve things that are excellent. That you may be 
 sincere without offence " — a text which, as he points 
 out, combines wisdom and learning, solid judgment, 
 and the honesty and open-heartedness of a true 
 gentleman ; and Col. iv., 8 : "Whatsoever things are 
 honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, think 
 of these things." The practice of such advice, says 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 293 
 
 Defoe, results in a gentleman and a Christian ; and it 
 was by endeavouring to carry out such precepts that 
 Defoe became what he actually was — a true Christian 
 and a real gentleman. 
 
 The incidental references to the ladies drinking 
 chocolate in a morning, etc., and the bustle that sur- 
 rounds one of maids, footmen, and chariots, suggests 
 that at the time Defoe was writins: this book his 
 worldly circumstances still continued to be easy. 
 
 The appendix concerns servants, and to judge by 
 its contents Defoe and his wife must have been 
 plagued with cooks who couldn't cook a potato, 
 and chambermaids who couldn't " make mantuas, 
 cut hair, or clear-starch " — with a set, in fact, of 
 " very scoundrel, idle jades." If, thought Defoe, the 
 custom prevailed for mistresses to give signed certifi- 
 cates when servants left them, a much better state of 
 things would inevitably ensue. 
 
 76.— "THE JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE" AND "CARTOUCHE." 
 
 Works : 213. — A Journal of the Plague. 17th March, 1722. 
 
 213 (a).— Due Preparations for the Plague. 1722. (Omitted from Mr. Lee's 
 
 List.) 
 214. — Cartouche. 27th April, 1722. 
 
 As we have noticed, there was only a space of 
 twenty-four days between the publication of " Moll 
 Flanders " and " Religious Courtship " ; and now only 
 twenty- five days were to intervene before the issue of 
 another work — and that a work of the first order — 
 namely, the " Journal of the Plague Year," suggested 
 by the pestilence which had just been ravaging France. 
 The full title of this particular publication is: "A 
 
294 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Journal of the P,lague Year : being observations or 
 memorials of the most remarkable occurrences, as well 
 public as private, which happened in London during 
 the last great visitation in 1665. Written by a citizen 
 who continued all the while in London." Of personal 
 reminiscences Defoe could have furnished on.ly few, 
 seeing that at the time of the Great Plague he was no 
 more than five years old ; but he must have conversed 
 with many who had witnessed its horrors ; he must 
 often have listened open-mouthed to the stories of its 
 speaking sights and moving sounds — of the cross- 
 marked houses and the tumbrils of cor'pses, the dread 
 cries of, " Throw out your dead ! " the rakers with 
 their horns, the conjurers with their fantastical dresses, 
 the grass growing in the kennels ; of the faithful 
 ministers who remained to tend their flocks, "charging 
 death itself on^ his pale horse." In order to give a 
 vraisemblance to the narrative — or rather the history, 
 for that it is veritable history there is not the least 
 doubt — it is put into the mouth of a worthy saddler, 
 who lived " without Aldgate, midway between Aldgate 
 Church and Whitechapel bars, on the left hand or 
 north side of the street." Defoe is nothing if not 
 precise. ^ 
 
 Another work of Defoe's on the same subject 
 is the " Due Preparations for the Plague," a small 
 volume of two hundred and eighty-two pages, pub- 
 lished the same year (1722). It was this narrative, 
 part of which describes the vicissitudes of two 
 families exposed to the Great Plague, that formed 
 the basis upon which Mr. Harrison Ainsworth 
 erected his well-known story, " Old St. Paul's." 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 295 
 
 The " Due Preparations for the Plague " was omitted 
 by Mr. Lee from his catalogue by accident. (See 
 Notes and Queries, ist May, 1869, and after.) 
 
 For some time previous, Defoe's articles on 
 foreign affairs in several of his journals had dealt 
 with a subject which was just then on the lips of 
 everyone — the trial and execution of the notorious 
 French robber and murderer, Cartouche ; and on 
 the 27th of April (1722) he issued a thick pamphlet 
 entitled " The Life and Actions of Lewis Dominique 
 Cartouche, etc. Translated from the French." What 
 " translated from the French " precisely means, it is 
 not of much use to conjecture. Possibly Mr. Lee 
 is right in supposing that Defoe's only authorities 
 were the French News- Letters which he translated 
 for the journals, in " which case " it would have 
 been more correct had he stated that it was trans- 
 lated with licence, " the way in which Defoe did 
 almost everything." 
 
 Lewis Dominique Cartouche, the Jack Sheppard 
 of France, began his rogueries at an early age, and 
 soon gathered round him a gang of accomplices, 
 one of the most desperate of whom was a scoundrel 
 called La Magdalene. 
 
 Among the more original of their devices, one 
 was to attend church, where "they picked pockets 
 of watches with their real hands, whilst they held 
 up counterfeit hands made of wax with gloves on 
 them, pretending to be saying their prayers." 
 
 La Magdalene, who was the first to pay the 
 penalty for his crimes, died by the water-ruff— that 
 is to say, "he had a kind of ruff tied about his 
 
296 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 neck, which went up above his eyes, and was so 
 contrived as to hold water. They poured water 
 into this ruff by pints at a time, which he was 
 obliged to swallow as fast as he could to prevent 
 his being suffocated. He was overcome by the 
 eighth pint he had drunk." 
 
 The punishment reserved for Cartouche was to 
 be broken on the wheel ; but meantime the romance 
 of his career had drawn upon him the curiosity of 
 all Paris. Ladies visited him in prison, the "gravers 
 went to work on his portrait," and — -hei'e comes a 
 pleasant Defoe-ism — " little poets made ballads upon 
 him." His end is thus described : — 
 
 " When Cartouche arrived at the fatal place and beheld four 
 wheels and two gibbets surrounded by soldiers on foot and on 
 horseback, he looked stedfastly upon the tragical spectacle without 
 speaking a word. But when he turned about and saw the hangman 
 and his servants preparing themselves for the work, and disposing 
 the instruments of his execution in order, it startled him, and he 
 could not forbear saying so as to be heard, ' 'Tis a dismal prospect.' " 
 
 77.— THE PROPERTY AT COLCHESTER (1722). 
 
 Defoe seems to have been in some way or other 
 connected «with Colchester for several years past. 
 As we have seen, the early scenes in " Moll 
 Flanders " are laid in this town. It was at Col- 
 chester she was left by a " crew of those people 
 they call gipsies or Egyptians.' Here she was 
 taught " to spin worsted, which is the chief trade 
 of that city " ; here she grew up into womanhood, 
 and married — first the younger son of the lady of 
 the house, and afterwards "an amphibious creature," 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 297 
 
 a gentleman draper. Thirty years later, when 
 " Moll " visits the town in the capacity of an "artist," 
 she remarks — " It was with no little pleasure that I 
 saw the town where I had so many pleasant days; 
 and I made many inquiries after the good friends I 
 had once had there " ; nor would it be rash 
 to conclude that Colchester had pleasant memories 
 for Defoe too. 
 
 FACSIMILES OF THE THREE SIGNATURES TO A DEED CONCERNING DEFOE's 
 ESTATE AT COLCHESTER. 
 
 The Rev. William ■ Smithies, Rector of St. 
 Michael's, Mile End, within the liberties of the 
 borough of Colchester, and a valued friend, now 
 negotiated, on behalf of Defoe, a lease for ninety-nine 
 . years of an estate called " Severallo, or Kingswood 
 Heath," which included Tubbiswick and Brinckley 
 Farms, the whole of it the property of the Mayor 
 and commonalty of the town. The rent of it was to 
 be / 1 20 yearly. The estate, however, was purchased 
 not for Defoe himself, but for his daughter, Hannah, 
 whom a few months previous he had temporally 
 endowed with stock in the South Sea Company, 
 
298 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 " purchased when it was depressed below its intrinsic 
 value, after the bursting of the bubble." The lease 
 of Kingswood Heath was granted on August 6th, 
 1722, and for it Defoe was to pay _^ 1,000, namely, 
 the first moiety of ;^5oo at Michaelmas, 1722, and 
 the second moiety at Michaelmas, 1723; but when 
 the second moiety became due, Defoe was short of 
 cash, consequently the lease had to be mortgaged to 
 one Mary Newton for ^200, which, with its interest, 
 was not paid off till four years later, on the 1 3th of 
 November, 1727. The investment turned out a good 
 one, for the value of the estate improved rapidly, and 
 " Hannah Defoe lived upon her income in respectable 
 gentility until her death, in 1759, when she left her 
 property to a son of her sister Henrietta." What 
 Defoe did for his other children we do not know. 
 Maria, his eldest daughter, was about this time 
 married to a person of the name of Langley, Hen- 
 rietta and Sophia, his other daughters, w^ere as yet 
 unmarried, the latter being only twenty-one. 
 
 78.— "COLONEL JACK," "PETER THE GREAT," AND "ROB ROY." 
 
 WOKKS : 215. — Colonel Jack. 
 216. — Peter the Great. 
 
 217. — Rob Roy. 
 
 Next makes his bow, the truly honourable Colonel 
 Jack, who was born a gentleman, put 'prentice to a 
 pickpocket, was six-and-twenty years a thief, and 
 then kidnapped, etc. Just as Defoe had in "Moll 
 Flanders " portrayed the life of a female convict, so 
 now he did the same for a male convict, and again 
 he mingles instruction with amusement. The book was 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 299 
 
 written — and in this, too, there was a resemblance to 
 << Moll "—with the hope that it would come into the 
 hands of even the vilest, " Every wicked reader," 
 runs the preface, "will here be encouraged to a 
 change, and it will appear that the best and only good 
 end of a wicked and misspent life is repentance. 
 That in this, there is comfort, peace, and oftentimes 
 hope ; and, that the penitent shall be returned like 
 the prodigal, and his latter end be better than his 
 beginning." 
 
 " Colonel Jack " is an unequal book. Says Mr. 
 Saintsbury : — 
 
 "There is hardly in 'Robinson Crusoe' a scene equal, and 
 there is consequently not in English literature a scene superior, to 
 that praised by Lamb— the scene where the youthful pickpocket 
 first exercises his trade, and then for a time loses his ill-gotten 
 (though, for his part, he knows not the meaning of the word ill-gotten) 
 gains. But great part of the book, and especially the latter portion, 
 is dull." 
 
 As we have seen, Defoe had published four 
 
 works relating to the history of Sweden, namely, 
 
 "Charles XII." (1715), "Count Patkul " (1717), 
 
 "Baron Goertz" (1719), and "Memoirs of a 
 
 Cavalier" (1720), all of which, though on the whole 
 
 impartial, exhibit a bias in favour of the interests 
 
 of Sweden; but in this year, 1723, we find him 
 
 producing a " Life of Peter the Great," the King 
 
 of Sweden's great rival, which is decidedly Russo- 
 
 phile. The hero is now the Czar, whose good 
 
 qualities are extolled, and whose excesses and 
 
 cruelties are for the most part passed over. The 
 
 publication of this book is one of the strongest 
 
 proofs that Defoe did, as he said he did, compile 
 
300 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 his works from original manuscripts. " Charles 
 XII." is represented as being written by "a Scots 
 gentleman in the Swedish service," " Count Pat- 
 kul " by the Lutheran minister who assisted him 
 in his last hours, " The Memoirs of a Cava- 
 lier," by an English gentleman who served in the 
 army of Gustavus Adolphus. The manuscripts 
 of these three would naturally exhibit a bias in 
 favour of Sweden ; and Defoe, with whom verisi- 
 militude was the first law of literature, would not 
 be the man to remove this bias. On the other 
 hand the " British ofificer in the service of the 
 Czar," whom Defoe credits with having written his 
 " Life of Peter the Great," would, not unnaturally, 
 see things chiefly from a Russian point of view. 
 "The Wars of Charles XII.," in short, is the 
 Swedish version, " The Life of Peter the Great " 
 the Russian version, of the great conflict between 
 these mighty potentates. 
 
 From Peter the Great to the Scottish Rob 
 Roy the cry is not a far one ; both were un- 
 principled thieves, and though the former has a 
 more respectable reputation, the latter, from all 
 accounts^ was the more righteous man. " The 
 Highland Rogue, or the memorable actions of the 
 celebrated Robert Mac Gregor, commonly called 
 Rob Roy," was published on 5th October, 1723. 
 Defoe's own life was a romance ; and in the actions 
 of this daring devil, he saw resemblance to the 
 dash and rush of his own strange career. Defoe him- 
 self was but a Rob Roy, a Jack Sheppard, with 
 more grace. But everyone is, or ought to be, an 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 301 
 
 adventurer. In a world that is all turmoil, change, 
 unrest, war, every man must dare ; and though we 
 may deprecate the crimes of great rogues, it is not 
 in human nature not to admire their audacity. 
 
 According to the preface, " it is not a romantic 
 tale that the reader is here presented with, but a 
 real history ; not the adventures of a ' Robinson 
 Crusoe,' a ' Colonel Jack,' or a ' Moll Flanders,' 
 but the actions of the Highland Rogue ; a man 
 that has been too notorious to pass for a mere 
 imaginary person." And in the Daily Post for the 
 8th of February of the same year, the expression 
 appears "as mere a romance as 'Robinson Crusoe,'" 
 from which it may be concluded that now that his 
 Crusoe was a success, Defoe took as a compliment 
 rather than otherwise the popular verdict that it 
 was a romance. We would notice, however, that it 
 was a peculiarity of Defoe to speak disparagingly 
 of his recently published fictitious or semi-fictitious 
 narratives, yet to assert that the book that was 
 being given to the public was itself real history. 
 Sir Walter Scott's famous novel of the same name 
 was considerably indebted to Defoe's pamphlet. 
 
 79.— "ROXANA" (14TH MARCH, 1724). 
 Work; 218. — Roxana. 
 
 In " Moll Flanders " Defoe had depicted the 
 courtesan of middle-class life, in " Roxana," pub- 
 lished on March 14, 1724, we have the portraiture 
 of a courtesan flourishing among the aristocracy ; 
 but the aim of the writer continues the same. 
 
302 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 namely, " to describe human nature as it is, for 
 the purpose of contrasting it with what it should 
 be." 
 
 The complete title of the work is : " The 
 Fortunate Mistress : or a History of the Life and 
 vast Variety of Fortunes of Mademoiselle de Beleau, 
 afterwards called The Countess de Wintselsheim, in 
 Germany. Being the Person known by the Name 
 of the Lady Roxana, in the time of King Charles II." 
 
 " ' Roxana,' " says Mr. Saintsbury, " is, on the whole, the least 
 good of Defoe's minor novels, though there are good things in it ; 
 and it is one of the most puzzling. Its title-page speaks of the 
 heroine as having" been known as Roxana ' in the time of Charles 
 the Second,' and there are passages which directly point to the king 
 and to the Duke of Monmouth ; yet the opening words tell us that 
 she only came to England in 1683, and the next page that she was 
 then but ten years old. Moreover, in the latter part there are huge 
 episodes and digressions which square very ill with the rest. Roxana 
 is a cold-blooded creature, the most disagreeable of Defoe's heroines, 
 without a touch of the natural and healthy animalism which redeems 
 Moll Flanders, and with much more than Moll's scheming and 
 calculation." 
 
 The latter portion of the book, owing to .the 
 numerous digressions (possibly interpolations), is 
 " nearly unreadable, and the bad ends to which both 
 maid aifd mistress come, though sufficiently well- 
 deserved, are deferred too long, and brought on with- 
 out dramatic propriety." Charles Lamb considered 
 the best part of " Roxana" to be the story relating to 
 her daughter Susannah, which according to tradition 
 was left out of the second edition owing to a " foolish 
 hypercriticism " of Defoe's friend Southefne. It 
 appears, however, in most subsequent editions. 
 
 It was upon this part of Roxana's history that 
 
^^O^/ie^eM^^z^Ti^ J^OXAJVA 
 
 {^Frontispiece to Defoe's Novel.) 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 303 
 
 Godwin founded his tragedy of Fawkener, acted and 
 printed in 1807, with a prologue by Lamb. 
 
 The following is a brief outline of the story. The 
 daughter of a French refugee of fortune who had fled 
 to London, Roxana was beautiful and accomplished. 
 With a dowry of two thousand pounds, she married an 
 " eminent brewer," a handsome man, a good sportsman, 
 but a fool ; and her unhappy experiences lead her to 
 give very sensible advice to marriageable girls : " No 
 fool, ladies, at all, no kind of fool, whether a mad fool 
 or a sober fool, a wise fool or a silly fool ; take any- 
 thing but a fool ; nay, be anything, be even an old 
 maid, the worst of nature's curses, rather than take up 
 with a fool." " With this thing called a husband " she 
 lived in good fashion for eight years, and became the 
 mother of five children. Having " no genius to busi- 
 ness," her husband permitted himself to be ruined, and 
 then left her to do as she could. The children she 
 sent to their father's relations, " who were very sub- 
 stantial people," and then poverty was her snare, 
 " dreadful poverty ! " Besides this, she was young, 
 handsome, and vain of her beauty ; consequently, the 
 landlord of her house, a man of wealth, found her a 
 comparatively easy conquest. .Says Roxana : " As it 
 was a new thing, so it was a very pleasant thing to be 
 courted, caressed, embraced, and high professions of 
 affection made to me, by a man so agreeable and so 
 able to do me good." In short, Roxana's husband 
 was more to blame than Roxana herself. He had 
 never been to her the husband that a woman yearnino- 
 for affection required ; he had been only a fool. Up to 
 this point Roxana has our sympathy, but no further. 
 
304 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Her "gentleman " and she arid her maid, Amy, go to 
 France, where the gentleman gets killed. Though 
 she really loved him and her distress was unfeigned, 
 nevertheless she soon found consolation in a Parisian 
 prince whom she knew as the Count de Clerac, and 
 with whom she lived in great splendour. Some years 
 after, seized with compunction on account' of his irregu- 
 larities, the prince severed his connection with her. 
 Meantime she had accumulated wealth, and taking the 
 advice of a Paris merchant, who rendered her valuable 
 assistance, she quitted France. Off the coast of 
 Holland, she and Amy experience a terrific storm — 
 one of the best scenes in the book. At Amsterdam 
 she again meets her Paris merchant, who wishes to 
 m-arry her ; but, preferring freedom to matrimony, she 
 refuses. Crossing over to England, she sets up a fine 
 establishment, gives banquets to distinguished com- 
 panies, including King Charles H. and the Duke of 
 Monmouth, and excites universal admiration by her 
 dancing in a rich Turkish costume. Breaking up her 
 fine establishment, she lodges with a Quakeress who 
 lived in a court in the Minories. She marries her 
 Paris merchant, who had followed her to England. 
 He purchases a foreign title, and salutes her as the 
 Countess de Wintselsheim. But, though prosperous, 
 she is ever accompanied by the torments of a guilty 
 conscience. 
 
 " At length, in the decline of life, the children she 
 had so long deserted trace her out, by a chain of 
 events as singular as they are delightfully told," and 
 establish their relationship. Roxana's whole life is 
 laid bare, her husband becomes alienated from her, 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 305 
 
 and after his death she loses her all in speculation. 
 She dies in jail. 
 
 Mr. Saintsbury thus happily compares " Roxana " 
 with " Moll Flanders " : 
 
 "Both are triumphs of novel writing. Both have subjects of 
 a rather more than questionable character, but both display the 
 remarkable art with which Defoe handles such subjects. It is not 
 true, as is sometimes said, that the difference between the two is the 
 difference between gross and polished vice. The real difference is 
 much more one of morals than of manners. Moll is by no means 
 of the lowest class. Notwithstanding the greater degradation into 
 which she falls, and her originally dependent position, she has been 
 well educated, and has consorted with persons of gentle birth. She 
 displays throughout much greater real refinement of feeling than 
 the more high-flying Roxana, and is at any rate flesh and blood, if 
 the flesh be somewhat frail and the blood somewhat hot. Neither 
 of the two heroines has any but the rudiments of a moral sense ; but 
 Roxana, both in her original transgression and in her subsequent 
 conduct, is actuated merely by avarice and selfishness — vices which 
 are particularly offensive in connection with her other failing, and 
 which make her thoroughly repulsive. The art of both stories is 
 great ; and as regards the episode in ' Roxana ' of the daughter 
 Susannah is consummate ; but the transitions of the later plot are 
 less natural than those in ' Moll Flanders.' It is only fair to notice 
 that while the latter, according to Defoe's more usual practice, is 
 allowed to repent and end happily, Roxana is brought to complete 
 misery ; Defoe's morality, therefore, required more repulsiveness in 
 one case than in the other."* 
 
 80.— "THE GREAT LAW OF SUBORDINATION CONSIDERED " 
 (4TH APRIL. 1724). 
 
 Work : 219. — The Great Law of Subordination Considered. 4th .\pril, 1724. 
 
 Only three weeks after the publication of " Rox- 
 ana " the press was turning out another extensive 
 work of Defoe's, " The Great Law of Subordination 
 
 * " Encyclopsedia Britannica." 
 U 
 
3o6 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 considered : or, the Insolence and Unsufferable 
 Behaviour of Servants in England duly inquired 
 into," a subject that he had already touched upon 
 in the appendix of " Religious Courtship." " The 
 Great Law," though only a book to be skimmed, 
 contains some very passable anecdotes, and flings 
 interesting light on the manners and customs of 
 the times. 
 
 Defoe throws off with some remarks on the 
 treatment of women. He was not of opinion, he 
 says, " that if there was a bridge over the narrow 
 seas all the women in Christendom would run over 
 into England." The indifferent treatment women 
 then met with he attributes to the recent spread 
 of drunkenness, which made so many men " grow 
 rigid, surly, cruel, tyrannic, and outrageous." Among 
 the meaner sort, wife-beating had grown quite com- 
 mon. " To hear a woman cry murther now, scarce 
 gives any alarm ; the neighbours scarce stir at it, 
 and if they do, and if they come out in a fright 
 and ask one another what's the matter, the common 
 answer is only thus : ' 'Tis nothing, neighbour, but 
 such a one beating his wife.' ' Oh, dear/ says the other, 
 ' is that all ? ' and in they go again composed and easy." 
 
 But if England was the purgatory of wives it was 
 the paradise of servants, whose "insolence and' un- 
 sufferable behaviour" are then dilated upon. Maid- 
 servants, men-servants, field labourers, all were past 
 praying for, and Defoe could say with a "late 
 author " — 
 
 " The lab'ring poor, in spite of double pay. 
 Are saucy, mutinous and beggarly." 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 307 
 
 "They work till they find a few shillings jingle and chink in 
 their pockets, but then, as if they could not bear that kind of music, 
 away they go to the alehouse, and 'tis impossible to bring them to 
 work again while they have a farthing of it left. 
 
 " But servants," he remarks, " go to London. London, like the 
 ocean that receives the muddy and dirty brooks, as well as clear 
 and rapid rivers, swallows up all the scum and filth of the country. 
 It is a common jest put upon country girls, when we see them 
 come up to London in the carriers' waggons and on the pack horses, 
 viz., to ask them if they have been churched before they came from 
 home ; nor is there anything unreasonable in the question, as things 
 go now in the country, when work is so plenty and wages so high ; 
 for who would come away to London to go to service, if things were 
 all well at home." 
 
 Then follows an anecdote : — 
 
 " I have for some years been concerned in a large public building 
 in the country, where we kept a great many other servants, as also 
 horses and carts, constantly employed ; among the rest we kept an 
 old servant, whose name was Wright, in constant work, though paid 
 by the week. ... It happened one morning that a cart being 
 broken down upon the road,, at some distance from the house, this 
 old man was fetched to repair it where it lay ; while he was busy at 
 his work, comes by a countryman that knew him, and at some 
 distance salutes him with the usual compliment, ' Good morrow. 
 Father Wright : God speed your labour ; ' the old fellow looks up at 
 him, for he did not see him at first, and with a kind of pleasant 
 surliness answered, ' I don't care whether He does or no, 'tis day- 
 work.'" 
 
 81.— "TOUR THROUGH GREAT BRITAIN" (22ND MAY, 1724). 
 
 Works : 220.^ — Tour Through Great Britain, vol. i. 
 221. — Tour Tiirough Great Britain, vol. ii. 
 222. — Tour Through Great Britain, vol. iii. 
 
 Most of the material for " A Tour Through the 
 
 Whole Island of Great Britain" was obtained, not, as 
 
 Mr. Lee supposed, in 1723, but some forty years 
 
 previous — during the five years that succeeded 
 
 u 2 
 
3o8 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Monmouth's rebellion, 1684 — 1688. To the journeys 
 which Defoe took at that time we have already 
 alluded (§ 8). We noticed that with " Camden's 
 Britannia" as his guide, and "an ancient gentleman" 
 of his acquaintance as his companion, he travelled " in 
 three or four several tours, over the whole island," 
 critically observing, and carefully informing himself 
 of everything worth observing in all the towns and 
 counties through which he passed, and that avoiding 
 the error of previous travellers, who could see nothing 
 to admire, except the houses of the gentry, he inquired 
 into the customs of the common people as well, and 
 informed himself as to their manner of living and 
 their employment; and we called him the J. R. Green 
 of Topography. But though the notes taken during 
 these tours, which covered a period of " near four 
 years," formed the principal material upon which 
 Defoe founded the present work, still he had 
 frequently travelled over the island since, and every 
 journey would necessarily increase .his store of know- 
 ledge. In England he had made as many as seven- 
 teen large circuits, or separate journeys, and three 
 general tours through the whole country ; and as 
 regards %otland, not only had he travelled critically 
 over a great part of it, but he had lived there. The 
 north part of England, and the south part of Scotland, 
 he had viewed "five several times over; all which is 
 hinted here, to let the readers know what reason they 
 will have to be satisfied with the authority of the 
 relation." 
 
 The work was comprised in three volumes, the 
 first of which contained a plate of the siege of Col- 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 309 
 
 Chester. The second volume, which was not published 
 till 8th June, 1725, contains a map of England and 
 Wales by Herman Moll, the Royal geographer. The 
 third, which relates to Scotland, was issued on 13th 
 August, 1726; thus closing the account "of a tedious 
 and very expensive five years' travel." The editions 
 of this work issued after Defoe's death are much 
 mutilated and spoilt. 
 
 These Tours of Defoe are among the most charming 
 of his works. By means of them we are able to 
 transport ourselves to a time when all the great towns 
 were in the south, and when Yorkshire and Lanca- 
 shire were supplied with their manufactured goods 
 from Norwich ; when London was adding unto itself 
 " a little city of buildings, streets, and squares at the 
 west end of Hanover and Cavendish Squares"; when 
 the lace trade was flourishing in Buckinghamshire, the 
 bay trade in Essex, when Stourbridge Fair was " not 
 only the greatest in the whole nation, but in the 
 world," when Wanstead House was in its glory, and 
 ere Dunwich had been swallowed up by the sea ; when 
 Bury, Bath, and Tunbridge were health-resorts, and 
 when Norfolk turkeys obligingly came on foot in 
 droves of from three hundred to a thousand to supply 
 the London market. 
 
 Some of the stories Defoe tells are rather tall ones, 
 nor does the fact of their reception from hearsay in 
 any way excuse him, for the rogue evidently enjoyed 
 them ; as, for example, that about the unwholesome- 
 ness of the Essex marshes which carried off the 
 women, "insomuch that all along this country it was 
 very frequent to meet with men that had had from 
 
3IO 
 
 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 five or six to fourteen or fifteen wives ; nay, and some 
 more. And I was informed that in the marshes on 
 the other side of the river, over against Candy, there 
 was a farmer who was then living with the iive-and- 
 twentieth wife, and that his son, who was but about 
 thirty-five years old, had already had about fourteen." 
 Notice the "about." Defoe had this only "by report, 
 
 defoe's house at stoke newington. 
 
 though from good hands, too." " The reason for the 
 disappearance of the women he learnt was this, that 
 the men Deing bred in the marshes themselves and 
 seasoned to the place, did pretty well with it, but 
 that the women, whom they obtained from the hilly 
 country, to which they always resorted when they 
 wanted a fresh wife, not being used to the damp air," 
 presently changed their complexion, got an ague or 
 two, and seldom held it above half a year, or a year 
 at most. And then, said Defoe's informer, " we go to 
 the uplands again and fetch another." It is only fair 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 3 1 1 
 
 ''^vJS^JSS^^ 
 
 rlffASUT£ GtOTHIOS 
 
 to Defoe to say that he found out afterwards, and put 
 it on record, that one of his informers had " fibbed a 
 
 little." 
 
 82.— DEFOE AT HOME.-MR. BAKER (1724). 
 
 Some years previous Defoe had built himself, in 
 Church Street, Newington, "a very handsome house, 
 as a retirement from 
 London." Had Mr. 
 Henry Baker, whose 
 words we are using, 
 said "a large house, 
 almost a mansion," it 
 would have been nearer 
 the mark. A hand- 
 some exterior it had 
 not, though it was no 
 uglier than the gener- 
 ality of houses built 
 under Anne and the 
 first George. It was 
 square in plan, the 
 walls, which were of 
 red brick and very 
 thick, being raised, as 
 the fashion then was, 
 so as to conceal the roof; it had deep window-seats, 
 curious cupboards in recesses, and massive bolts and 
 locks to its doors ; and at the side was a spacious 
 coach-house with stables, Mr. Defoe, like Dick Steele 
 and other Augustans, having a very great weakness 
 for "a chariot." The garden, with its "green walk" 
 and other pleasure grounds, which covered four acres. 
 
 .¥ket 
 
 PLAN OF DEFOE S GROUNDS AT STOKE 
 NEWINGTON. 
 
312 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 were bounded on the south by Pawnbroker's Lane, 
 and on the west by Hussey's Lane. On the site 
 of Defoe's house and grounds is now a street, appro- 
 priately called Defoe Road, but the long massive 
 brick wall dividing the grounds from Hussey's Lane 
 is still standing ; and Hussey's Lane — running from 
 Church Street to Oldfield Street — can still be tra- 
 versed. The exact time when this house was built 
 is not known, but he was living in it in 1724, when 
 it was described as "newly built." 
 
 This was the happiest period of Defoe's life. 
 Well-to-do and famous, he lived in a fine house 
 with a magnificent garden. His wife is hardly 
 mentioned, but his three lovely daughters, Hannah, 
 Henrietta, and Sophia, were at once their father's 
 pride and joy. 
 
 " They were admired for their beauty, their 
 education, and their prudent conduct." The person 
 and manners of Sophia in particular are spoken of 
 by her lover in strains of the highest eulogium — 
 though that is only natural, and does not prove 
 that her charms eclipsed those of her sisters. But 
 not only had Defoe a fine house, a beautiful 
 garden, awd three lovely daughters, he had also a 
 magnificent library, and when he was not amusing 
 himself with his garden he was engaged " in the 
 pursuit of his studies, which he found means of 
 making very profitable." Indeed, we are not for a 
 moment to suppose that it detracted from the plea- 
 sure of Defoe's reading to know that every half 
 hour so spent was so many portraits of King 
 George in the pockets of his great flapped waistcoat. 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. xi 
 
 j^o 
 
 A virtuoso, or, as we should now say, an an- 
 tiquary, Defoe was rarely happier than when studying 
 old MSS., and, like other Georgian bookworms, 
 he delighted to turn up Ave Maria Lane in order 
 to get into Paternoster Row, where "the first shop 
 on the left hand was the famous Mr. Bateman's, a 
 shop well known for old and scarce books of 
 learning and antiquity in most languages."* And 
 they were all fish that came into Defoe's net : — 
 
 " The studious geographer and the well-read 
 historian," says he, " travels not with this or that 
 navigator or traveller, marches with not this or that 
 general, or making this or that campaign, but he 
 keeps them all company ; he marches with Hannibal 
 over the Alps into Italy, and with Caesar into Gaul 
 and into Britain ; with Belisarius into Africa, and 
 with the Emperor Honorius into Persia. He fights 
 the battle of Granicus with Alexander, and of Actium 
 with Augustus ; he is at the overthrow of the great 
 Bajazette by Tamerlain, and of Tomombejus and 
 his Mamalukes by Selymus ; he sees the battle of 
 Lepanto with Don John, the defeat of the Spanish 
 Armada with Drake ; with Adrian he views the 
 whole Roman Empire, and, in a word, the whole 
 world; he discovers America with Columbus, con- 
 quers it with the great Cortez, and re-plunders it 
 with Sir Francis Drake. 
 
 " Nothing has been famous or valuable in the 
 world, or even the ruins of it, but he has it all in 
 his view ; and nothing done in the world but he 
 has it in his knowledge, from the siege of Jerusalem 
 
 * " The Compleat English Gentleman." 
 
314 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 to the siege of Namur, and from Titus Vespasian 
 to the greater King William : he has it all at the 
 tip of his tongue." 
 
 It is true that Defoe was sixty-five years of 
 age, and it is also true that he was troubled with 
 the gout and the stone, which sornetimes obliged 
 him to absent himself from company, but, as the 
 poet Cowper says, "a man must have something," 
 and, all things being taken into consideration, Defoe 
 might fairly look upon himself in that year (1724) 
 as a decidedly happy man. 
 
 In the cultivation of his garden he took particular 
 pleasure, garden planning and horticulture having 
 always been favourite pursuits of his. It will be 
 remembered that Queen Mary consulted him when 
 she laid out the garden at Hampton Court. 
 
 His "servant," Friday — his supposed collabora- 
 tor — " a savage, and afterwards a Christian," had 
 been dead for some time. He was taken from 
 Defoe by force, and "died in the hands that took 
 him." Nor had he now his parrot, which used to 
 sit upon his finger, lay its bill close to his face, and 
 talk, calling him by his name. Jonathan, however, 
 Defoe's g-p-dener, seems to have been very much in 
 his master's confidence. 
 
 When the great man walked abroad, he carried 
 a "little stick not strong enough to correct a dog, 
 a sword sometimes, perhaps, for decency," which, 
 "can do no hurt anywhere but just at the tip of it, 
 called the point. And what's that in the hand of a 
 feeble author ? " 
 
 On his finger he wore a moufning ring, " given 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 315 
 
 at the funeral of Mr. Christopher Love, a Presby- 
 terian minister, beheaded anno 1653, for the horrid 
 phanatic plot, contrived for the bringing in, as they 
 then called him, Charles Stuart, and the restoring 
 of Monarchy." Mr. Love was possibly a friend of 
 Defoe's father. 
 
 Of the minor troubles of life, Defoe had about 
 the same share as any other mortal. Sometimes 
 his neighbour's horses broke into his grounds ; and 
 once, which was worse, he caught his neighbour's 
 servant turning them in, with the result that he put 
 the horses into the pound. This caused Defoe's 
 neighbour to swear both at Defoe and Defoe's man, 
 William. When the quarrel was made up, a diffi- 
 culty arose with William, who, enraged at being 
 sworn at, resolved to have the law of the neigh- 
 bour. Defoe having declared that the matter should 
 be proceeded with no further, and William proving 
 obstinate, nothing remained but dismissal ; and con- 
 cludes Defoe : "I would not stir from him till he 
 had stripped my livery off and put on his frock, 
 and went off" ("Great Law of Subordination"). 
 And serve him right, thought Defoe ; but the un- 
 prejudiced reader will sympathise just a little with 
 William. 
 
 The only relic of Defoe, besides the manuscripts 
 of some of his books, known to be in existence is 
 his seal, which is in the possession of the Rev. H. 
 Defoe Baker, Rector of Thruxton, Hants. On it 
 are engraved the arms which appear under Defoe's 
 portrait in "Jure Divino": Per chevron engrailed, 
 gules and or, three griffins passant counterchanged. 
 
3i6 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 In some engravings of Defoe, the arms are repre- 
 sented slightly different. 
 
 Defoe's character we have already pretty minutely 
 sketched, but one or two features of it still remain 
 to be mentioned or dilated upon further. His 
 charitableness is again impressed upon us by the 
 grateful words of a certain Thomas Webb, who, in 
 1724, had lost his wife. "And poor distressed I, 
 left alone," says Webb, "and no one to go and 
 speak to save only Mr. Defoe, who hath acted a 
 noble and generous part towards me and my poor 
 children. The Lord reward him and his with the 
 blessings of upper and nether spring, with the 
 blessings of his basket and store." 
 
 Defoe was temperate in his habits : unlike so 
 many of his contemporaries, he never drank to 
 excess. He did not smoke or take snuff. He 
 considered smoking as "conducive to intemperate 
 drinking " ; and in his younger days, thanks to a 
 fine constitution, he rarely troubled the doctor. The 
 theatre, the ball-room, and the card-table were to 
 him the very devil. In manly sports and athletic 
 exercises he had always found an . attraction ; nor 
 was there •wanting in him the Puritan love of horse- 
 play ; and his reputation for swordmanship wa^ 
 always a protection to him. In that "frenzy of the 
 tongue," as he puts it, called swearing he could see 
 " neither pleasure nor profit." He loved a good 
 tale and a merry jest; but "low-prised wit," in- 
 dulged in at the expense of decency and morals, 
 his soul abhorred. His talk, when he was excited,, 
 was pungent with witticisms ; but he was in the 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 317 
 
 habit of repeating favourite quotations with too 
 
 great frequency, as, for example, the passage from 
 
 Rochester — 
 
 " A woman's ne'er so ruined but she can 
 Revenge herself on her undoer, man.'' 
 
 Defoe had not been settled long in his new- 
 house before Mr. Henry Baker came on the scene : 
 a young man of twenty-six, who, from a bookseller's 
 apprentice, had risen to be a teacher of deaf mutes, 
 and was making himself famous. 
 
 Born in 1698, and at an early age "left by an 
 unhappy father to a relentless world," there was a 
 time when Henry Baker "knew not which way to 
 turn for bread, destined," it seemed to him, "to all 
 the ills of poverty, to pining want, and ill-endured 
 contempt, to misery and ruin." At the age of 
 fourteen he was placed with Mr. John Parker, 
 bookseller, in Pall Mall, with whom he stayed seven 
 years. On April 26th, 1720, after he had left Mr. 
 Parker, he went to stay with a relative named Mr. 
 John Forster, an eminent attorney who lived at 
 Enfield. "This gentleman," says Baker, "having a 
 daughter, Jane, born deaf and dumb, and at that 
 time eight years old, Heaven put into my thoughts 
 a method of teaching her to read, write, understand, 
 and speak the English language." Upon hearing 
 the proposal that his daughter should be taught, 
 Mr. Forster begged Baker to make a trial, and the 
 result exceeded the expectations of both. Another 
 
 daughter. Amy, and a son of Mr. Forster's 
 
 who were likewise deaf and dumb — were after- 
 wards placed under Mr. Baker's care, and received 
 
3i8 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 the same benefits. Subsequently, other pupils were : 
 placed under his charge, a number of them being 
 children of the nobility ; and having in his youth 
 felt the pinch of poverty, he acted with prudence 
 and foresight, and took care of his money. He 
 was niore than prudent, however, he was over 
 anxious. But those who have known poverty often 
 are. An enthusiastic lover of nature, he prosecuted 
 his studies of animal and plant life with unwearied 
 diligence, as the manuscripts, illustrated with elabor- 
 ate drawings, left behind him, abundantly testify ; 
 and two volumes of verse published in 1725 and 
 1726 remind that he was also ambitious for the 
 laurels of the poet. Such was the young man who 
 now became intimate with the Defoes, and found 
 the society of Mr. Defoe's daughters, especially the 
 youngest, so very agreeable. 
 
 83.— THE CALAIS MURDERS AND JACK SHEPPARD (AUG.— OCT., 1724). 
 
 Works : 223. — A Narrative of the Proceedings in France, &c. (Bizeau and Le 
 Febvre). 
 224. — History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard. 
 225. — A Narrative of all the Robberies, Escapes, etc., of John Sheppard. 
 
 Defoe'^ tract, " A Narrative of the Proceedings in 
 France for Discovering and Detecting the Murderers 
 of English Gentlemen, September 21, 1723, near 
 Calais," etc., etc., may be regarded as a supplement 
 to " Cartouche." After that great thief had paid the 
 penalty of his crimes, the band of miscreants of which 
 he was the head was broken up into a number of 
 smaller parties, which carried on their rascalities in 
 different parts of France, and earned for them- 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 319 
 
 selves the name of Cartoucheans. One of these 
 ■gangs, under the leadership of two robbers, named 
 Joseph Bizeau and Peter Le Febvre, set upon and 
 murdered, near Calais, four Englishmen, named 
 Lock, Seabright, Mompesson, and Davies, together 
 with their servants. One of the servants, however, 
 Robert Spindelow, though pierced through with many 
 wounds and left for dead, recovered, and not only 
 so, but furnished evidence sufficient to bring two of 
 the murderers to justice. Defoe, ever on the alert 
 for the unusual and the tragic, seems to have had an 
 interview with Spindelow, and wrote, as if from 
 Spindelow's mouth, a full account of the affair — in 
 Applebees for November 2, 1723. The statements in 
 the tract so correspond with those in Applebees that 
 Mr. Lee considers Defoe "had no reason for saying 
 it was a translation, except that it might thus appear 
 better authenticated." It must be noted, however, 
 that the account of the murders at Calais occupies orjly 
 a small portion of the book, the rest being taken up 
 with a general history of the Cartoucheans. 
 
 Whilst the exploits of Cartouche were still fresh 
 in the memory of Frenchmen, the English were put 
 into excitement with the escapades of a still more 
 extraordinary robber — the notorious Jack Sheppard — 
 to whose credit, however, be it mentioned, that, unlike 
 Cartouche, he was not a murderer. The earlier feats 
 of Sheppard, his escapes from the round-house in 
 St. Giles's and the new prison in Clerkenwell, may 
 be passed over. 
 
 Being retaken by Jonathan Wild, he was com- 
 mitted to Newgate, where he was visited, among- 
 
320 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 others, by the representative of Applebees, namely, 
 Mr. Defoe, who, apparently, "seconded the efforts of 
 the ordinary to impress his mind with a proper sense 
 of religion." This, at any rate, is certain, Sheppard 
 felt himself under great indebtedness to Mr. Applebee 
 (Defoe). Having made his escape from the Con- 
 demned Hold of Newgate, on the 31st of August, 
 Sheppard was thenceforth the talk of London. This 
 extraordinary feat was managed in the following way. 
 From the Condemned Hold in which Sheppard had 
 been incarcerated, to the lodge of the prison — the 
 part to which the public were admitted — communicated 
 a dark passage by means of which prisoners could 
 approach to the lodge and converse through a hatch 
 with any they pleased. The hatch was protected by 
 long thick spikes set six inches apart. At the end of 
 the day, while the turnkeys and some friends were 
 drinking together at a table at the far end of the lodge, 
 there entered two of Sheppard's female associates, 
 Edgworth Bess and Mrs. Maggot, who, as they talked 
 with Jack, were hidden from the turnkeys by a pro- 
 jection of the wall. Whilst this precious pair, as had 
 been arranged, made great cries and lamentations, 
 Jack busieiJ himself with a watch-spring saw, and with 
 such good will that the spike was presently in twain. 
 The women, still keeping up their lamentations, pulled 
 his slender form through ; and slipping on a " night- 
 gown, which concealed his irons," Jack escaped. Five 
 days after he had the impudence to write a letter 
 to the hangman, to which he added, as a postscript, 
 " Pray my service to Mr. Ordinary and Mr. Applebee." 
 Captured again, however, he was once more placed in 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 321 
 
 durance ; and owing to more attempts to escape, was 
 " carried up to an apartment called the Castle, in the 
 body of the jail ; a place of equal, if not superior 
 strength to the Condemned Hold, and there chained 
 to the floor." Then occurred the most extraordinary 
 feat of all. 
 
 "On Thursday night," writes Defoe {Applebeels, Saturday, 
 October 17th), "John Sheppard found means to unchain himself 
 from the staples fixed in the strong room called the Castle, in 
 Newgate, twisting and breaking some of the small irons, and 
 unlocking a great horse padlock. He got off his hand-cuffs, and 
 then, with the help only of an iron bar, which he found in the 
 chimney, broke through a nine-foot wall into a strong room, the 
 locks whereof (having not been opened in ten years) he broke 
 and got farther to another door belonging to the chapel, then 
 forced the locks and bolts of that also. In all, he broke through 
 six strong rooms where people had formerly been confined, but had 
 not of late been in use, and got up to the top of the jail, then 
 descended from thence, by two blankets tied together, on the top of 
 a turner's house next to Newgate, broke through without being 
 heard by any therein, let himself out at the street door, at about 
 one yesterday morning, and so made an entire escape." 
 
 On the 19th of October Defoe published " The 
 History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard," 
 a pamphlet which passed through three editions in 
 three weeks ; and a few days later Sheppard, who 
 was still at large, wrote Defoe a letter, which was 
 left at Mr. Applebee's house in Blackfriars " by a 
 person like an ostler." It ran as follows : — 
 
 "Mr. Applebee, — This with my kind love to you, and pray give 
 my kind love to Mr. Wagstaff (the Ordinary) ; hoping these lines 
 will find you in good health, as I am at present ; but I must own 
 you are the loser for want of my dying speech ; but to make up your 
 loss, if you think this sheet worth your while, pray make the best of 
 it. So no more, but your humble servant, John Sheppard." 
 
322 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 With all Its cheerfulness^ .however, the letter 
 contains a foreboding of ill : " And," runs the post- 
 script, " I desire you would be the postman to my 
 last lodging," from which it may be judged that "the 
 writer had fears of recapture, in which case he still 
 wished Mr. Applebee to write an account that 
 should be published immediately after his death." 
 And Sheppard's presentiment was destined to be 
 fulfilled, for only a week later (October 31) he was 
 re-taken. Hogarth, who painted his portrait, Sir 
 James Thornhill, and a host of other celebrities 
 visited him ; and an attempt was made to obtain a 
 pardon for him on account of his youth, for he was 
 only twenty-two, but without success. 
 
 The crowds of people in the streets of London 
 on the day of Sheppard's execution were greater 
 than had ever been known. When he had reached 
 the fatal tree he beckoned Defoe (or Mr. Applebee, 
 as he called him) into the cart, "and in view of 
 several thousands, of people, delivered to him a 
 pamphlet " containing a narrative of all his robberies 
 and escapes. Thus Defoe, as had been requested, 
 became " the postman " to Sheppard's last lodging. 
 This theatrical event proved a magnificent adver- 
 tisement for the new pamphlet on Sheppard which 
 Defoe published next day, " A Narrative of all the 
 Robberies, Escapes, etc., of John Sheppard. Giving 
 an exact description of the manner of his wonderful 
 escape from the castle in Newgate, and of the 
 methods he took afterwards for his security. Written 
 by himself, etc., etc." Prefixed to the volume was 
 "a true representation of his escape from the Con- 
 
JoliiL STi epli er d" s I E f c ap e 
 
 out of t/ic Ldii.ile/nfLd' Scric in' ?Zc?i^{mte'. 
 
 {Frontispiece to Defoe's Patii/'hiei. 1724.) 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 323 
 
 demned Hold, curiously engraven on a copper 
 plate," the whole being declared to be published 
 "at the particular request of the prisoner." In less 
 than a month it was in its seventh edition. 
 
 84.— THE SO-CALLED DUEL WITH MIST (NOV., 1724). 
 
 In June, 1723, Mr. Mist had once more got 
 into trouble. His Journal for the 8th of that 
 month having contained a libel against the Govern- 
 ment, he was again apprehended, and though 
 liberated on bail, was tried and found guilty. On 
 the 1 8th of May, 1724, being brought up to receive 
 judgment at the King's Bench Bar, he was sen- 
 tenced to pay a fine of one hundred pounds and 
 to suffer a year's imprisonment. Mist having kicked 
 against the traces, Defoe, as on former occasions, 
 abandoned him ; but, as on former occasions too, 
 Mist, when pining in prison, and by "frequent 
 trials, fines, and absence from business," being 
 reduced to the verge of ruin, again had recourse 
 to his "judicious, learned, and merry friend," and 
 this judicious, learned, and merry friend again con- 
 sented to resume duties in connection with the 
 Journal. This seems to have been at the end of 
 July, for an article by Defoe appears in Mist's for 
 August 1st. The connection with the Journal was 
 continued till October 24th, about which time Mist 
 seems to have been liberated, and between that date 
 and November 25th occurred the so-called duel 
 between Mist and Defoe. It was a duel, however, 
 only in the sense that it was a combat between two. 
 V 2 
 
324 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 There had been no formalities. Mist, in a sudden 
 fury and without any warning, attacked Defoe, and 
 Defoe defended himself. A regular duel Defoe 
 would not have fought, for though an accomplished 
 swordsman, who in earlier life had been concerned 
 in an affair of honour, nevertheless in the latter part 
 of his life he deprecated duelling, which he con- 
 sidered a sin against God {^Review vii. 451), and 
 looked back with regret that he had himself in that 
 count been guilty. 
 
 As regards Mist's affair, it was, says Defoe, a 
 case of "save a thief from the gallows and he will 
 cut your throat." Three times he had fetched Mist 
 out of prison, had saved him "from the utmost dis- 
 tress, and the immediate danger of life " ; and what 
 was the result .■* Mist used Defoe basely, insulted, 
 and provoked him, and at last drew his sword upon 
 him, and put forth his "utmost endeavour to de- 
 stroy him." Mist, however, was "disarmed fairly at 
 his weapon"; whereupon, Defoe "gave him his life, 
 embraced him, sent for a surgeon to dress a wound 
 he had, in his own defence, been obliged to give 
 him," and after this showed him "several acts of 
 friendship and kindness." Nevertheless, even then 
 Mist returned only evil for good, "returning abuses 
 of the worst and grossest nature." Such is the 
 Roman version ; the Carthaginian unfortunately does 
 not exist. " I can conceive," says Mr. Lee, and 
 probably he is right, "no other cause of the out- 
 rage than that Mr. Mist had learnt, in some way, 
 that during all the time Defoe was connected with 
 his Journal he was holding an appointment under 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 325 
 
 government but concealing the fact ; and, as Mist 
 •was now under prosecution of the same govern- 
 ment, he may have erroneously conceived that 
 Defoe's censorship was the cause of his present and 
 past troubles." 
 
 Thus terminated the connection between these 
 two men, which had continued, with interruptions, 
 more than seven years. Defoe, though employed in 
 the dirty work of the government, had evidently 
 acted again and again with true kindness to Mist. 
 He honoured the man, but abhorred his principles. 
 With Mist, however, it was a case of " Hate my 
 principles, hate me." That he had long been sus- 
 picious of Defoe is certain ; and, as we have seen, 
 had tried several times to do without him. It was 
 natural in a man so hot-headed as Mist to fly into 
 a furious passion when the whole truth came out ; and 
 it was natural in a man so diplomatic as Defoe, when 
 he had frustrated Mist's design, to turn round and 
 figure before the onlookers — that is to say, the 
 readers of Applebees — as the injured saint. But 
 when Defoe strikes that attitude, we need not 
 necessarily conclude that there is nothing whatever 
 to be said on the other side. 
 
 85.—".^ NEW VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD" AND "EVERYBODY'S 
 BUSINESS" (MAY AND JUNE, 1725). 
 
 Works : 226. — A New Voyage Round the World. 
 
 227. — Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business. 
 
 On the 8th of May, 1725, Defoe published 
 another work which exhibits his extraordinary geo- 
 graphical knowledge, especially concerning parts of 
 
326 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 the world then Httle known. It is entitled " A 
 New Voyage Round the World, by a Course never 
 sailed before. Being a Voyage undertaken by some 
 Merchants, who afterwards proposed the setting up 
 an East India Company in Flanders." Mr. Lee 
 terms it " one of the most instructive and best- 
 written of Defoe's imaginary voyages " ; and Mr. 
 Saintsbury observes that it is full of Defoe's peculiar 
 verisimilitude, " and has all the interest of Anson's 
 or Dampier's voyages, together with a charm of 
 style superior even to the latter." I can only say, 
 that to me the book seems a very dull one. There 
 is no particular person in the narrative in whom 
 we can take any lively interest. There is too much 
 geography, and too little human nature. You 
 wouldn't catch a boy reading it. For the man, 
 however, who can enjoy a gallery of landscapes and 
 seascapes it is the very thing, and he would be 
 particularly delighted with the wonders of the 
 extraordinary journey across Chili and Patagonia. ' 
 
 Defoe now turned again to the subject he had 
 touched upon in " Religious Courtship," and treated 
 so lengthily in " The Great Law of Subordination," 
 namely Ae domestic servant question. He entitled 
 his new production " Everybody's Business is No- 
 Body's Business" (5th June, 1725), by which is 
 meant that while everybody is crying out against 
 the insolence and idleness of servants, nobody 
 makes it his business to attempt means to lessen 
 the evil. 
 
 First, as to wages. Formerly women servants 
 took forty shillings a year and were thankful, but 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 327 
 
 now, complains Defoe, they want "six, seven, nay, 
 eight pounds per annum and upwards ; insomuch 
 that an ordinary tradesman cannot well keep one." 
 If a decent girl does come up from the country 
 and is willing to take fifty shillings a year, other 
 servants soon spoil her by advising her to raise her 
 wages or give warning, " to encourage her to which 
 the herb-woman or some other old intelligencer pro- 
 vides her a place of four or five pounds a year ; this 
 sets madam cock-a-hoop, and she thinks of nothing 
 now but vails and high wages, and so gives warning 
 from place to place till she has got her wages to the 
 tip-top. Her neat's leathern shoes are now trans- 
 formed into laced ones with high heels ; her yarn 
 stockings are turned into fine woollen ones with silk 
 clocks ; and her high wooden pattens are kicked 
 away for leathern clogs. She must have a hoop, 
 too, as well as her mistress, and her poor scanty 
 linsey-woolsey petticoat is changed into a good 
 silk one, four or five yards wide at the least. 
 Not to carry the description farther, in short, plain 
 country Joan is now turned into a fine London 
 madam ; can drink tea, take snuff, and carry herself 
 as high as the best." 
 
 The apparel of our women servants, thought 
 Defoe, ought certainly to be regulated, so that we 
 might know the mistress from the maid. "I re- 
 member I was once put very much to blush, 
 being at a friend's house, and by him required to 
 salute the ladies, I kissed the chamber-jade into 
 the bargain, for she was as well dressed as the 
 best. But I was soon undeceived by a general 
 
J 
 
 28 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 titter, which gave me the utmost confusion; nor 
 can I beUeve myself the only person who has made 
 such a mistake." 
 
 And the ignorance of servants was likewise in- 
 tolerable. One who was told that her duties in a 
 small house would be to wash, to dress a common 
 family dinner, to do needlework, and to keep the 
 place tidy, opened her eyes in astonishment, said 
 that she could neither wash, dress a dinner, nor do 
 needlework, and suggested that the mistress required 
 four servants. Were a servant to do her work 
 with cheerfulness, Defoe would not "grudge five or six 
 pounds per annum," nor would he be "so unchristian 
 as to put more upon a girl than she could bear ; 
 but to pray and pay too is the devil," and he thought 
 it hard that one must keep four servants or none. 
 
 Defoe is obliged, too, to administer a gentle 
 admonition and reproof to some of his own sex — 
 namely, "those gentlemen who give themselves un- 
 necessary airs, and cannot go to see a friend, but 
 they must kiss and slop the maid ; and all this done 
 with an air of gallantry, and must not be resented." 
 " This rnakes the creature pert, vain, and irnpudent, 
 and spoik many a good servant." 
 
 "If I must have an intrigue," he continues, "let 
 it be with a woman that shall not shame me. I 
 would never go into the kitchen when the parlour 
 door was open. We are forbidden at Highgate to 
 kiss the maid when we may kiss the mistress ; 
 why, then, will gentlemen descend so low, by too 
 much familiarity with these creatures, to bring 
 themselves into contempt ? " 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 329 
 
 Besides his reforms of domestic servants, Defoe 
 would revolutionise the race of " wicked, idle, 
 pilfering vagrants, called the blackguard, who black 
 your honour's shoes and incorporate themselves 
 under the title of the Worshipful Company of 
 Japanners." "Their profession," he insists, "is 
 gaming and thieving; japanning but the pretence." 
 He would make a clean sweep of them, compelling 
 them to work in mines, at wool -combing, and 
 agricultural labour, leaving the shoe-cleaning to 
 respectable old women. This book went through 
 four editions in a fortnight. 
 
 86.— JONATHAN WILD AND THE DEATH OF SAMUEL TUFFLEY 
 (SUMMER 1725). 
 
 Works: 228.— Life of Jonathan Wild. 
 
 229.^— An Account of the Conduct and Proceedings of John Gow, the 
 Pirate. 
 
 It was not long after Sheppard had been hanged 
 that Jonathan Wild, the thief maker and thief taker, 
 through whose means Sheppard forfeited his life, was 
 brought to justice. For years he had been in the 
 Jiabit of getting hold of idle young men and en- 
 couraging them to become thieves, he himself profiting 
 by their roguery. At the same time he was receiving 
 Government pay for thief catching. Much of his 
 knavery was done under the cloak of religion. To 
 one person who had paid the sum required for 
 returning the goods of which she had been robbed, 
 and who asked Wild what she must give him for 
 himself, he replied, "Good woman, I desire nothing 
 of you but your prayers." On another occasion, when 
 
330 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 somebody applied to him on a Sunday, he said that 
 he never did business on the Lord's Day ; and his 
 favourite maxim was " Honesty is the best policy." 
 Jonathan was arrested on February 15th, 1725, and, 
 after examination, was committed to Newgate, for 
 taking money to restore some goods that had been 
 stolen in his presence by his own men. Defoe had 
 an interview, with Wild in prison, and on the 8th and 
 14th of May lists were published in Applebees of 
 persons whom Jonathan had really brought to justice. 
 These were doubtless inserted at Wild's request, in 
 order that an impression might be made upon the 
 court by the services he had rendered for his country, 
 but no word of comment was added. Wild's efforts, 
 however, were unsuccessful, and on the 24th, amid a 
 vast concourse of people, he was carried to Tyburn. 
 
 " In all that innumerable crowd," says Defoe, 
 "there was not one pitying eye to be seen, not one 
 compassionate word to be heard ; but, on the contrary, 
 wherever he came, there was nothing but hallooing 
 and huzzas, as if it had been a triumph ; nay, so 
 far had he incurred the resentment of the populace 
 that they pelted him with stones." Defoe's " True, 
 Genuine,«and Perfect Account of the Life and Actions 
 of Jonathan Wild" appeared on 8th June, 1725 ; and 
 three days later was issued his account of the conduct 
 and proceedings of another miscreant, John Gow,- 
 " Captain of the late Pirates, executed for murther and 
 piracy, committed on board the George galley, after- 
 wards the Revenge." 
 
 Probably in 1725 died Mrs. Defoe's brother, 
 Samuel Tuffley, "late of St. John's, Hackney," for. 
 
Criminal and Topographical Series. 331 
 
 on the 23rd of August in that year, probate was 
 granted to Mary, wife of Daniel Defoe ; Pettit, the 
 executor, having died before the testator. In the 
 bond the sureties are Daniel De Foe, the elder, of 
 Newington, gentleman ; Daniel De Foe, junior, of 
 Sf. Michael's, Cornhill, merchant ; and Aaron Lambe, 
 of St. Mary's, Islington, scrivener. The penal sum 
 was ^3,000, and this would be considerably in excess 
 of, perhaps double, the value of the personal estate. 
 One of the trustees appointed by Tufifley was a Mr. 
 Henry Langley, salter, probably the husband, or 
 related to the husband, of Defoe's daughter, Maria. 
 As before mentioned, all Mr. Tuffley's property was 
 left to his sister, Defoe's wife. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 BUSINESS AND MAGICAL SERIES. 
 87.— THE COMPETE ENGLISH TRADESMAN (SEPT. 1725). 
 
 Works : 230. — Complete English Tradesman, vol. i. 
 231. — ■ Do. vol. ii. 
 
 232. — The Friendly Daemon \see § 64]. 
 
 Defoe had already written much on the subject 
 of trade, both in newspaper and pamphlet ; and he 
 now set himself to compose a complete manual or 
 vade memm on the subject, for the use of everyone, 
 but especially the young. It was first published in 
 one volume on the nth of September, with the 
 following title: " The • Complete English Tradesman, 
 in familiar letters directing him in all the several 
 parts and progressions of trade, etc." It dealt with 
 apprenticeships, industry, over-trading, expensive 
 living, indiscreet marriages, credit, partnerships, 
 book-keepng, and the dignity and honour of trade 
 in England. The second edition, published on the 
 loth of September, 1726, has a supplement which 
 relates to borrowing of money, and discounting bills, 
 with directions concerning accounts. 
 
 On the 1 8th of May, 1727, was issued a second 
 volume of the " Complete English Tradesman," 
 intended for the use of the more experienced 
 tradesman, who had already thriven ; with notes 
 
Business and Magical Series. 333 
 
 concerning both the home and foreign trade of the 
 country. Defoe closes the preface of the first vol- 
 ume by saying : — 
 
 " What I have spoken of, I have endeavoured to do fully and 
 pertinently ; and I think I may say of the following sheets, that 
 they contain all the directions needful to make the tradesman thrive; 
 and, if he pleases, to listen to them with a temper of mind willing to 
 be directed, he must have some uncommon ill-luck if he miscarries." 
 
 The general trend of the work can very well be 
 judgfed by the following : — 
 
 " A tradesman behind his counter,'' writes Defoe, " must have no 
 flesh and blood about him, no passions, no resentment ; he must never 
 be angry — no, not so much as seem to be so, if a customer tumbles 
 him five hundred pounds worth of goods, and scarce bids money for 
 anything ; nay, though they really come to his shop with no intent 
 to buy, as many do, only to see what is to be sold, and though 
 he knows they cannot be better pleased than they are at some other 
 shop where they intend to buy, 'tis all one ; the tradesman must take 
 it, he must place it to the account of his calling, that 'tis his business 
 to be ill-used, and resent nothing; and so must answer as obligingly 
 to those who give him an hour or two's trouble, and buy nothing, as 
 he does to those who, in half the time, lay out ten or twenty pounds. 
 The case is plain ; and if some do give him trouble, and do not buy, 
 others make amends, and do buy ; and as for the trouble, 'tis the 
 business of the shop." 
 
 Shop, in short, is to come first, and every other 
 consideration is to be subordinated to it. We can 
 only say that had Defoe, when he kept shop him- 
 self, put into practice the precepts which he so 
 kindly offers here, he would, at the moment of 
 writing it, have been worth thousands, where he 
 was only worth hundreds ; but we should have 
 had no "Robinson Crusoe"! Defoe, happily for 
 posterity, excellent as is the advice he gives in the 
 
334 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 "Complete English Tradesman," was not himself 
 good at minding shop. His advice, however, is none 
 the less valuable ; and many a young man has 
 profited by it. 
 
 Chadwick calls it the best book written by Defoe ; 
 Charles Lamb, who did not like it, considered that 
 "the bent of the book is to narrow and to degrade 
 the heart " ; but Chadwick had kept shop (for sell- 
 ing tiles amounts to the same thing), and Charles 
 Lamb had never kept shop, which makes all the 
 difference. 
 
 g8.— "HISTORY OF THE DEVIL."— MILTON.— PETER THE WILD BOY 
 (7TH MAY, 1726).— THE GREAT DANIEL TABOOED. 
 
 Works : 233. — History of the Devil. 
 
 234. — Mere Nature Delineated (" Peter the Wild Boy "). 
 
 235. — An Essay upon Literature. 
 
 236. — A General History of the Principal Discoveries and Improvements in 
 
 Useful Arts. 
 237. — The Protestant Monastery. 
 
 The complete title of the book we are now to 
 consider is as follows: "The Political History of 
 the Devil, as well ancient as modern : In Two 
 Parts. Part I., containing a state of the Devil's 
 circums-tances, and the various turns of his affairs, 
 from hi% expulsion out. of Heaven to the Creation 
 of Man ; with remarks on the several mistakes con- 
 cerning the reason and manner of his fall. Also 
 his proceedings with mankind ever since Adam, 
 to the first planting of the Christian religion in the 
 world. Part H., containing his more private con- 
 duct, down to the present times ; his government, 
 his appearances, his manner of working, and the 
 tools he works with. 
 
Business and Magical Series. 335 
 
 " Bad as he is, the devil may be abused, 
 Be falsely charged, and causelessly accused, 
 When men, unwilling to be blamed alone. 
 Shift off those crimes on him which are their own." 
 
 In the preface to the second edition Defoe 
 affirms " that the whole tenor of the work is 
 solemn, calculated to promote serious religion, and 
 capable of being improved in a religious manner " ; 
 but he does not think "that we are bound never 
 to speak of the devil but with an air of terror, as 
 if we were always afraid of him." 
 
 In " The Political History of the Devil " Defoe 
 again expresses his belief in the existence and 
 operation of good and evil spirits — a belief to which, 
 in common with very many other good men of his 
 time, he clung, as we have seen, all his life with 
 extraordinary tenacity. Defoe believed in a personal 
 devil, but for the popular idea of the devil — a 
 creature with bats' wings, cloven feet, a hooked 
 nose, and a forked tail — he had nothing but 
 ridicule. " Really," says Defoe, " it were enough 
 to fright the devil himself to meet himself in the 
 dark, dressed up in the several figures which 
 imagination has formed for him in the minds of 
 men." Nor does he think that the devil would 
 terrify people "half so much if they were to con- 
 verse face to face with him." The vulgar notions 
 of hell as a place where tormented souls broiled on 
 gridirons, hung upon hooks, he utterly repudiated ; 
 and he ridicules the old pictures of its entrance 
 " represented by a great mouth with horrible teeth 
 gaping like a cave on the side of a mountain, 
 
33^ The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 with a stream of fire coming out of it, and smaller 
 devils going and coming continually in and out to 
 fetch and carry souls the Lord knows whither, and 
 for the Lord knows what." 
 
 Many human beings, held Defoe, are only devils 
 with a case of humanity about them, called flesh and 
 blood. Bad men are not scarce, but " how many 
 hoop -petticoats complete the entire mask that dis- 
 guises the devil in the shape of that thing called a 
 wornan ? " And this is the more to be lamented 
 because bad mother, bad child ; " the child, you 
 know, has always most of the mother in it." A 
 lady devil is about as dangerous a creature as 
 one could meet. She can kill at a distance : 
 " the poison of her eyes (basilisk-like) is very 
 strong," and she has strange influence over eveii 
 the wary. She talks like an angel, sings like a 
 syren, does everything and says everything that is 
 taking and charming. No woman, it seems, is 
 perfect ; every one has within her a devil more or 
 less malignant. " Non rosa sine spinis, not a beauty 
 without a devil. Lord ha' mercy ! and a -|- may 
 be set on the man's door that goes a-courting." 
 
 We jjave, in short, in this book Defoe's usual 
 dish of fooling, with a strong admixture of the in- 
 tensely serious, the whole served up with an olla 
 podrida of history, literary criticism, and Defoe-an 
 anecdote. 
 
 . We must keep, however, firmly in the mind, 
 whilst reading it, first that Defoe is an intensely 
 religious man, and secondly that he always believed 
 himself to be accompanied, as we have before pointed 
 
Business and Magical Series. 337 
 
 out, by a good spirit — a friendly Daemon — upon 
 whose advice he implicitly relied. The first of his 
 references to his Daemon was, as we noticed, just 
 after his bankruptcy (1692), when he refused to go 
 to Cadiz because an impulse told him that " Provi- 
 dence had other work for him to do." Another 
 occasion on which the Daemon helped him was in 
 in his trouble of 1 7 1 5, when it suggested that he should 
 write to the judge. In the preface to the " Family 
 Instructor," written the same year, "the spirit of 
 God" — that is, his Daemon — "directed his hand in 
 the work." We have also seen that " Robinson 
 Crusoe" and "Serious Reflections" are saturated 
 with the idea, which drew upon him the taunts of 
 Gildon ; and the subject of the converse of spirits 
 occupies much of " Duncan Campbell." Defoe had 
 read that God had sent forth " ministering spirits 
 to minister to those who should be heirs of salva- 
 tion " ; and living in an age when people believed 
 in the literal inspiration of the Bible, his views 
 must be pronounced not extravagant, but moderate. 
 On supernatural questions he was not behind his 
 age, but in advance of it ; and his ideas on witch- 
 craft, astrology, second sight, fortune-telling, etc., 
 must by many have been regarded as simply revo- 
 lutionary. 
 
 • Round the subject of demonism and its adjunct, 
 witchcraft, a furious strife had raged for sixty or 
 seventy years. In the Middle Ages, and up till 
 the time of the Commonwealth, almost everybody in 
 Enp-land had believed in the orthodox devil and the 
 orthodox witch, among the last of the defenders of 
 w 
 
338 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 the old theory being dear old Glanvil, who put his 
 views into that treasury of delights, his famous 
 " Saducismus." Then arose the body of doubters 
 (among the best known of whom was the gentle and 
 amiable Dr. Cotta, of Northampton), who held that 
 though there might be witches, yet it is impossible 
 for man to point with certainty to one ; and that, in 
 consequence, witch-persecutions should cease. These 
 gentlemen were assailed with the howl of " Sadducee, 
 witch-advocate, Hobbist, purblind prattlers, profane 
 drolls, inblown buffoons puffed up with nothing but 
 ignorance, vanity and stupid infidelity — ignorant ob- 
 jectors." The teachings of the "witch advocates," how- 
 ever, made headway, and after 1 705, when Elinor Shaw 
 was burned at Northamptom, no witches were executed 
 in England. The teaching of Defoe merely marks 
 another advance. He held that not only were the 
 mediaeval notions of witches erroneous, but the 
 mediaeval notions of hell and the devil were wrong 
 too — that they were mere relics of the Pagan notions 
 of the Greeks and Romans, and figments that have 
 emanated from the brains of poets. The vulgar idea 
 of the devil and his den is, he declares, "little more 
 or les» than the old story of Pluto, Cerberus, and 
 Charon " ; only not so well told. There is a devil, 
 and a personal one, though his "personality is 
 spirituous " ; there is a hell, or place of punishment for 
 the wicked, but what it is like no man knoweth. So 
 far had Defoe, one of the chief exponents of what was 
 then "modern thought," gone in the year 1726. At 
 the present day, "modern thought" has struggled 
 on a little further. In my story, " The Blue Fire- 
 
Business and Magical Series. 339 
 
 drake" (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1892), I 
 have dealt with this subject exhaustively. 
 
 In " The History of the Devil " it transpires that 
 Defoe's favourite poet and his master in satire was 
 the gifted but licentious Earl of Rochester, whom he 
 calls "that incomparable noble genius." It is true 
 that Defoe lashed his countrymen for their pencha7it 
 for this poet, and said that 
 
 " One reads Milton, forty Rochester " ; 
 
 but he himself studied both Milton and Rochester. 
 On the "beautiful thoughts" of Rochester's "fine 
 poem upon ' Nothing ' " he is particularly eulogistic. 
 At the present day everything that Rochester wrote 
 is forgotten, with the exception of three or four choice 
 love songs, and the charming letters to his wife. 
 Other favourite poets of Defoe were Andrew Marvel, 
 Sir John Dejiham, and Buckhurst (Earl of Dorset). 
 
 In this book, too, he criticises at considerable 
 length, and advisedly, the matter — though not the 
 poetry — of the "majestic poem " of Milton. " Though 
 I admire Mr. Milton as a poet," says Defoe, " yet he 
 was greatly out in matters of history, and especially 
 the history of the devil." Milton, it seems, has 
 charged Satan falsely in several particulars, and done 
 him "manifest injuries," and Defoe, who was anxious 
 to give even the devil his due, felt it his duty to 
 expose Milton's fallacies. He points out that the 
 prototype of the war in Heaven was the war of the 
 Titans against Jupiter, so finely described by Ovid 
 in his "Metamorphoses"; and that many other of 
 Milton's notions have no foundation except the very 
 w 2 
 
34° The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 frail one of Pagan fable. Milton's poem, in short, he 
 considers to be a fine piece of work — the fancy is 
 good, the strokes are masterly, and the beauty of the 
 workmanship is inimitably curious and fine, yet it has 
 some unpardonable improprieties which mar the whole, 
 and he compares it to a picture of the Magi wor- 
 shipping the infant Christ, painted by a famous painter 
 of Toledo, "who, unhappily, when he drew the latter 
 part of them kneeling, their legs being necessarily a 
 little intermixed," made three black feet for the negro 
 king, and but three white ones for the two white kings, 
 and yet never discovered the mistake till the piece 
 was hung up in the church. That this book of 
 Defoe's is ingenious, and in part witty, cannot be 
 denied, but much of it is only chaff. As in every- 
 thing else that he wrote, he strains his arguments to 
 snapping point. If he has a good argument he must 
 always spoil it by spinning it thinner than it ought to 
 go. The absurdity of this habit is seen to the greatest 
 perfection in the " Use and Abuse," but it is exhibited 
 clearly, too, in his " History of the Devil." Who but 
 Defoe, for example, would have argued that a man 
 who in a dream commits a theft is guilty of sin ? 
 
 Fr(»m " The History of the Devil " we are to 
 turn to " Peter the Wild Boy." In July, 1724, was 
 found in a field near Hamelin, in Hanover, in the 
 act of sucking a cow, a naked, brownish, black- 
 haired boy, apparently about twelve years old, who 
 could not speak. Being enticed into the. town he 
 was placed for safety in a hospital, and called Peter. 
 In 1726, by order of Queen Caroline, then the 
 Princess of Wales, he was brought to England and 
 
Business and Magical Series.^ 341 
 
 put under the care of Dr. Arbuthnot ; but though 
 masters of every kind were provided for him, he 
 could never be taught to say more than two or 
 three words, and even these he pronounced very 
 indifferently. Instead of concluding that the boy 
 was a mere idiot, escaped perhaps from some 
 home where his loss was not particularly regretted, 
 the naturalists and philosophers of the day ad- 
 vanced the most extraordinary theories to explain 
 the phenomenon ; and Defoe, seeing a chance to 
 turn an honest penny, not only paid a visit to the 
 boy, but published an eighteenpenny pamphlet upon 
 him, entitled: " Mere Nature Delineated ; or, a Body 
 without a Soul. Being Observations upon the 
 Young Forester lately brought to Town, from 
 Germany, etc." Taking a more common-sense 
 view of the subject than his contemporaries, Defoe 
 argued that Peter could not have lived long in the 
 forest, and that the stories about his going upon 
 his (hands and knees were most likely untrue. On 
 the other hand, he was not disposed to admit that 
 the boy was an idiot. "He seems," says Defoe, 
 "to be the very creature which the learned world 
 has, for many years past, pretended to wish for, 
 viz., one that being kept entirely from human 
 society, so as never to have heard anyone speak, 
 must therefore either not speak at all ; or, if he did 
 form any speech to himself, then they should know 
 what language nature would first form for mankind." 
 This was, of course, a little bit of fooling ; but 
 people liked being fooled. They would have been 
 sadly disappointed had they discovered that the 
 
342 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 lion of the day was a common idiot ; and Defoe's 
 pamphlet, had it contained such a statement, would 
 scarcely have obtained popularity. After narrating 
 Peter's history, Defoe takes upon himself to moralise 
 upon it. He makes many, sarcastic allusions to the 
 men and manners of the time, raps the knuckles of 
 his old enemy Swift, descants on education, and 
 spfeculates ingeniously upon the possibility of think- 
 ing without a knowledge of words. He was also 
 good enough to put in a word for his friend and 
 prospective son-in-law Mr. Baker, speaking of him 
 as one "who is eminently known for a surprising 
 dexterity in teaching such as have been born deaf 
 and dumb, 'both to speak and understand what is 
 said when others speak to them " ; and says that 
 Peter should have been put with Mr. Baker. 
 
 "Education," says Defoe, "seems to me to be 
 the only specific remedy for all the imperfections 
 of nature. The difference in souls, or the greatest 
 part at least, is owing to this." He regarded the 
 human mind as a lump of soft wax, capable of re- 
 ceiving whatever impressions are fixed upon it ; and 
 he held that "as wisdom and virtue are their own 
 rewarc^ so vice and ignorance are their own 
 punishment." 
 
 The latter portion of Peter's life was spent at a 
 farmhouse at Northchurch, near Berkhamstead, with 
 the family of a Mr. Fenn. So that he should not 
 get lost, he wore a leather collar with a brass rim, 
 on which was inscribed : " Peter the Wild Man 
 from Hanover. Whoever will bring him to Mr. 
 Fenn, at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, shall be paid 
 
Business and Magical Series. 343 
 
 for their trouble." He died at Northchurch in 
 1785, at the age of 72. 
 
 On the 19th of November, 1726, appeared Defoe's 
 pamphlet, "The Protestant Monastery; or, a Com- 
 plaint against the Brutality of the Present Age. 
 Particularly the pertness and insolence of our youth 
 to aged persons. With a caution how they give the 
 staff out of their own hands, and leave themselves to 
 the mercy of others. Concluding with a proposal for 
 erecting a Protestant monastery, where persons of 
 small fortune may end their days in plenty, ease, and 
 credit, without burthening their relations, or accepting 
 public charities." 
 
 Respecting this pamphlet, we are especially to 
 notice two things. First the preface, from which we 
 learn that the great Daniel Defoe, the famous pam- 
 phleteer, the much-sought-after writer of " Letters 
 Introductory," has outlived his reputation, is no longer 
 in request ; nay, is shown the cold shoulder to, and 
 distinctly snubbed, by the whole journalistic world. 
 
 " Assure yourself, gentle reader," he says, " I had not published 
 my project in this pamphlet, could I have got it inserted in any of 
 the journals without feeing the journalists or publishers. I cannot 
 but have the vanity to think they might as well have inserted what 
 I send them, gratis, as many things I have since seen in their 
 papers. But I have not only had the mortification to find what I 
 sent rejected, but to lose my originals, not having taken copies of 
 what I wrote." 
 
 How came it about that the man who, a few 
 months previous, would have gladly been offered 
 payment for anything he had pleased to communicate 
 was now insulted by the proposal that his tract should 
 
344 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 be treated as an advertisement and be paid for ? And 
 this proposal was made not by one journalist, but by 
 all. Why was Defoe tabooed ? Mr. Lee's interpre- 
 tation of the position is that " Defoe's connection with 
 the Government became generally known to the pro- 
 prietors of the public papers, through the malignant 
 agency of Mr. Mist, and that this caused the termina- 
 tion of the connection between Defoe and Applebee, 
 'on the 1 2th of March, 1726." 
 
 " I hope,'' says Defoe, touchingly, " the reader will excuse the 
 vanity of an over-officious old man, if, like Cato, I inquire whether 
 or no, before I go hence and be no more, I can yet do anything for 
 the service of my country." 
 
 The action of the journalists had cut him to the quick. 
 
 " It has been the fate of much better men than myself, to be 
 despised when living, though revered when dead." 
 
 But most touching of all is the following — 
 
 " Alas ! I have but small health, and little leisure to turn author, 
 being now in my sixty-seventh year, almost worn out with age and 
 sickness. The old man cannot trouble you long ; take, ' then, in 
 good part his best intentions, and impute his defects to age and 
 weakness.'' 
 
 Mr. Lee's interpretation of the conjuncture is, of 
 course, conjecture, and I have given it only for what it 
 is worth. Defoe himself seems to intimate that the 
 reason his communications were refused was because 
 the publishers did not consider them up to the mark, 
 and he as good as admits that, owing to age and 
 weakness, the palmy days of his writing were over. 
 
 The second point that we are to notice is the 
 matter of the pamphlet itself "Particularly the 
 pertness and insolence of our youth to aged persons 
 
Business and Magical Series. 345 
 
 With a caution to people in years how they give the 
 staff out of their own hands, and leave themselves to 
 the mercy of others." Whether Defoe's own case is 
 here concerned we need not inquire, but it is deeply 
 touching to remember that the very snare against 
 which he cautioned others he himself ran into. As 
 we shall see, Defoe, owing to harassment by some 
 enemy, unwisely handed over his property to his 
 eldest son ; this son abused the confidence placed in 
 him, and Defoe's grey hairs were brought down with 
 sorrow to the grave. 
 
 On March 15th, the Daily Courant advertises for 
 the recovery of a small pocket-book, lost a few days 
 previous near Blackwell Hall Bag-gate. It contained 
 eighteen notes and bills on several persons, the second 
 note being " A note of Daniel Defoe to John Clarke, 
 ^18," and the fifth bill, "A bill by Joseph Brookes 
 on De Foe, .^50." There was to be " half-a-guinea 
 reward, and no questions asked." This reminds us 
 that Defoe continued to be engaged in commercial 
 transactions {see \ 43). " In all probability," says 
 Mr. Lee, "he purchased broad cloths for merchants 
 residing abroad ; paying for them with his own bills ; 
 and the lost pocket-book was that of a West of 
 England cloth manufacturer or his factor." In his 
 "Plan of the English Commerce," after observing 
 that the master clothier does not know to what part 
 of the world his goods are ultimately shipped, Defoe 
 says, "He sends them up to London to the factor, 
 that sells them, whether at Blackwell Hall, or in his 
 private warehouse, and when sold he draws bills for 
 the money ; there his circle meets." 
 
346 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 89.— THE HISTORY OF MAGIC— " 'TWAS NOT THOSE SOULS THAT 
 FLED IN PAIN."— A TILT AT ALEXANDER POPE (19TH DEC, 1726). 
 
 Works : 238. — A System of Magic. 
 
 239. — The Evident Approach of a War. 
 
 The second of Defoe's supernatural treatises, 
 "A System of Magic; or, a History of the Black 
 Art," was published 19th December, 1726, but 
 dated 1727. The frontispiece represents a magician 
 practising his tricks in a library, and a merry-look- 
 ing fiend popping his head in at the door. The 
 first title is a misnomer, for the book is not a 
 system of magic at all ; that is to say, it is not a 
 book of rules for instruction in the Black Art, but 
 simply a history of it. The earliest magicians, says 
 Defoe, were "wise and honest" ; those of the middle 
 ages, "madmen and rogues"; modern practitioners 
 are "wicked fools." To illustrate his subject, he 
 gives a number of amusing anecdotes ; and, like 
 almost everything else that he wrote, much of 
 it is a satire on his own times. Amongst those 
 whom he chastises is William Whiston, the eminent 
 philosopher and colleague of Sir Isaac Newton, to 
 whom he insinuates mercenariness ; and — as in his 
 former work — he pokes fun at the devil in " Paradise 
 Lost." Among his stories are some of the Kentish 
 magician Dr. Boreman, and one is of his own ex- 
 periences with a countryman with whom he rode 
 to Northampton, and who subsequently visited 
 Defoe at the George Inn there, and told him the 
 sayings and doings of two magicians he (the 
 countryman) had been consulting, one at a village two 
 
Business and Magical Series. 347 
 
 miles from Northampton, and one at Oundle. 
 Where people have been mostly in error, thinks 
 Defoe, has been in ascribing all phenomena to 
 Satanic influence. That there are evil spirits abroad 
 he admits, but he insists that good spirits are much 
 more numerous ; and he bade those whose breasts 
 were perturbed because they had seen apparitions to 
 be at ease. We get an echo of the idea in one of 
 the most striking stanzas in Coleridge's " Ancient 
 Mariner " : 
 
 " Be calm, thou Wedding-Guest. 
 
 'Twas not those souls that fled in pain, 
 
 Which to their corses came again, 
 
 But a troop of spirits blest.'' 
 
 We read in the Bible that God conversed with 
 man ; but says Defoe : " Did the great Being of 
 beings converse with man, and not the smaller and 
 lower degrees of spirits ? Do you think the ser- 
 vants did not converse, if the master did ? God 
 spoke to Noah, and gave him general directions 
 about building the ark," but He would not furnish 
 all the minutiae. He would not instruct Noah con- 
 cerning such matters as how the beams and the 
 timbers, etc., were to be put together, how the 
 bottom was to be shaped for swimming, and the 
 head and the stern for breaking off the force 
 of the water. Noah's knowledge concerning these 
 things must have been derived from "good and 
 beneficent spirits." " It seems," Defoe goes on to 
 say, "that men, by a differing conduct and a way 
 of life too gross for so excellent and sublime a 
 converse, have rendered themselves unworthy and 
 
348 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 unqualified since the Flood ; so that the angelic train 
 seem to have forsaken the earth, and only commu- 
 nicate themselves to such as render themselves 
 acceptable and worthy by a life of earnest applica- 
 tion to the study of divine science, and who seek 
 after the high illumination." 
 
 The question naturally follows : " Then there are 
 some who enjoy this extraordinary society still ? " 
 
 To which Defoe answers, " Why not, pray ? 
 The good spirits are the same ; they change not, 
 neither is their goodwill towards men abated." In 
 short, there are good spirits ; and those who seek 
 after the high illumination receive their assistance. 
 
 Towards the end of the book, Defoe laments 
 the decadence of poetry. He would be glad to 
 know "whether any of the good spirits or bad spirits, 
 the white devils or black devils, or whatever spirits 
 they were which formerly inspired the Rochesters, 
 the Dorsets, and the Drydens of the last ages, are 
 yet in being ; and if they are, what has been the 
 occasion that they have withdrawn the spirit of 
 poetry from the English world." He satirises the 
 practice of giving pensions and places to poetasters. 
 If this sort of thing goes on, ministers, he believes, 
 will have more dedications and laudatory verses 
 than they can possibly endure. They " are in 
 danger of dying the death of Edward V., and being 
 smothered with feather-beds." 
 
 There is no doubt that the passage respecting 
 the withdrawal of the spirit of poetry was a direct 
 thrust at Alexander Pope, at whom Defoe, on more 
 than one occasion, discharged the shafts of adverse 
 
Business and Magical Series. 349 
 
 criticism. In an article in Applebee's Journal for 
 July 31st, 1725, he had written a satirical paper 
 "On Pope's Translation of Homer," in which he 
 insinuates that instead of being the author of the 
 work, Pope, like "Sir Dick Steele with the Tatlers" 
 had abundance of Aid de plumes * under him. 
 Homer himself, according to a fellow of Defoe's 
 acquaintance (as Defoe thinks proper to put it), was 
 a plagiarist. " This Homer, in process of Time, 
 when he had gotten some Fame — and perhaps more 
 money than poets ought to be trusted with — grew 
 lazy and knavish, and got one Andronicus, a Spartan, 
 
 and one Dr. S 1, a Philosopher of Athens, both 
 
 pretty good poets, but less eminent than himself, to 
 make his songs for him ; which, they being poor 
 and starving, did for him for a small matter. And 
 so the poet never did much himself, only published 
 and sold his ballads still in his own name, as if 
 they had been his own ; and by that, £-ol great 
 subscriptions, and a high price for theviT (For the 
 italicising we are ourselves responsible.) " Now, 
 Mr. Applebee, if my friend be in the right, was 
 not Cousin Homer a knave for imposing thus upon 
 the Grecian world? In a word, it seems to me 
 that old Homer was a mere Mr. P(ope), and Mr. 
 P(ope), in that particular, a mere Homer." No 
 doubt it was this sort of thing that caused Pope to 
 retaliate, by putting Defoe in the " Dunciad." 
 
 * SiV.) 
 
350 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 go.— "the use and abuse."— specimens of defoe's anecdotes. 
 
 —THE MAN WHO WAS TOO HARD UPON HIS LADY.— OF 
 THE OLD WOMAN WHO MARRIED A LITTLE BOY. 
 
 Work : 240. — Conjugal Lewdness : or, Matrimonial Whoredom (30th Jan., 1727). 
 Reissued loth June, 1727, wiih the new title of A Treatise 
 concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed. 
 
 This is no place to dilate upon the merits and 
 demerits of what is to-day called Neo-Malthusianism, 
 but the best comment on this work of Defoe's is 
 to point the finger at his son Benjamin. Read the 
 heart-rending and grovelling letters to Lord New- 
 castle preserved in the British Museum, and then 
 inquire whether Benjamin Defoe would not have 
 found himself more flourishing in this world and 
 whether he would not have stood a better chance 
 of finally reaching a happier one had he thought fit 
 to limit his family. He had seventeen children ! 
 
 Much of the book, which was begun thirty 
 years previous, is excellent. Its commencement is 
 a paean in honour of modesty : " Modesty in Dis- 
 course," avast both lewd talk and ribaldry of the 
 press ; " Modesty in Behaviour," act at all times 
 with decorum ; " Modesty in regard to Sexes," after 
 marriage as Well as before — which brings us to the 
 subject of the book. 
 
 To write such a work at all was a delicate 
 business. Says Defoe: "The difficulty before me is 
 to know how to reprove with decency offences 
 against decency ; how to expose jnodestly, things 
 which 'tis hardly modest so much as to mention." 
 Whether Defoe ought to have written such a book 
 is not for me to answer ; some will say yes, others 
 
Business and Magical Series. 351 
 
 no. Defoe's defence was " Evil be to him who evil 
 thinks." " The healing, fructifying dews, and the 
 gentle, sweet refreshing showers, which are God's 
 blessing upon earth, when they fall into the sea are 
 all turned salt . . . but the fault is not in the 
 showers of refreshing rain." "The warm, cherishing 
 beams of the sun shining upon the stagnant waters 
 of an unwholesome marsh, or upon a corrupted 
 dunghill, exhale noxious vapours and poisons, but 
 who would blame the blessed sun .'' " 
 
 Very few marriages, observes Defoe, are happy 
 ones. Many take place without love on either side, 
 and are caused by the desire of the ladies for "a 
 good settlement," of the men " for money." But a 
 contract such as that, Defoe will not allow to be 
 really marriage at all ; " I should call it," says he, 
 " matrimonial whoredom." 
 
 The book teems with anecdotes, one of which, 
 illustrating the folly of perpetually making one's 
 wife the subject of ridicule and jest, may be quoted 
 as a sample. 
 
 "I had in friendship several times gently hinted to Mr. M , 
 
 that I thought he was too hard upon his lady. However, he went 
 on, and putting one time very hard upon something in her behaviour, 
 which he pretended not to like, though really without cause ; she 
 coloured at his words, which showed she resented them, and was 
 moved ; but she immediately recovered herself, and keeping back all 
 her resentment, she, with an inexpressible goodness in her face, and 
 a smile, said to him : ' My dear, you would like it in anybody but 
 your wife.^ " 
 
 It is satisfactory to know that this sweet and 
 
 gentle answer had the effect of curing Mr. M 
 
 of his complaint. 
 
352 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 The book is studded with excellent aphorisms. 
 
 " A cheerful affection is the beauty of a conjugal state." 
 
 " 'Tis a wise man's business after matrimony, by all means possi- 
 ble, to preserve the affection of his wife entire, to engross her to him, 
 and to make and keep himself the single and entire object of her 
 best thoughts." 
 
 " Marriage without love, is the completest misery in life." 
 
 " Love is the only pilot of a married state." 
 
 Dryden, or to quote Defoe, " Mr. Dryden, a 
 lewd poet," paints rosily the time when polygamy 
 was in vogue — 
 
 " 'Ere one to one was cursedly confined." 
 
 Defoe, on the other hand, advances a host of 
 arguments to demonstrate that the present condition 
 of things is a decided improvement. 
 
 But if some of the book is admirable, that 
 cannot be said about all. Much of it is a great 
 pother about nothing, or next to nothing, and his 
 arguments are some of them drawn out so fine as 
 to make them downright ridiculous. Far better 
 advice than much that Defoe gives is the simple 
 injunction, "Recognise the. laws of nature, and use 
 your common-sense." 
 
 On% chapter is in condemnation of the practice 
 of marrying children ; and among the anecdotes 
 is one of an old lady, who, in order that her 
 nieces should not succeed to her money, proposed 
 to a father that he should let her marry his little 
 boy, aged ten. " He is so young," she added, 
 "that nobody can raise any objection against it; 
 for to be sure, I shall be in my grave before he 
 will be grown up to man's estate." After some 
 
Business and Magical Series. 353 
 
 demur the father consented, and the pair were 
 united. The sequel of the story, which is told in 
 Defoe's daintiest style, is as follows : — 
 
 " But even this unsuitable match did not prove so satisfactory as 
 might have been expected ; for it pleased God this woman lived to 
 such a prodigious age, that the little boy was seventy-two years of 
 age when he followed her to the church to bury her, and she was 
 one hundred and twenty-seven years old. 
 
 " This story I had attested to me by a person of an unquestioned 
 veracity, who told me he was himself at her funeral : she was sixty- 
 five when she married, and lived sixty-two years with her husband ; 
 she indeed made him some amends for the disparity of years by 
 this, that she was a most excellent person, of an inimitable dispo- 
 sition, preserved the youth of her temper, and the strength of her 
 understanding, memory and eyesight to the last ; and, which was 
 ■particularly reitiarkable, she bred a whole new set of teeth, as white 
 as ivory, and as even as a youth, after she was ninety years old." 
 
 Defoe's didactic works are besprinkled with 
 anecdotes of this kind as liberally as a birthday 
 pudding with plums, and it is impossible not to 
 notice the boyish glee with which he tells them. 
 
 In conclusion, he declares that "the whole 
 tenour of the work is calculated to bear down vice, 
 vicious practices, and vicious language." That he 
 thoroughly enjoyed writing it is patent. Dancing 
 among broken bottles was a business that ever had 
 charms for him, and the fact that here he had 
 more bottles than usual could have only added to 
 the zest with which he went about it. 
 
 91.— THE HISTORY OF APPARITIONS. — THE SPIRITS WHO "BE- 
 TWEEN SOMEWHERE AND NOWHERE DWELL" (i8th MARCH, 1727). 
 
 Works : 241. — An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions. i8th March, 1727. 
 242. — A New Family Instructor. 1727. 
 
 The " History of Apparitions," the third and 
 last of Defoe's treatises on supernatural subjects, 
 
 X 
 
354 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 was published 23rd November, 1728. The full title 
 is "An Essay on the History and Reality of 
 Apparitions. Being an account of what they are, 
 and what they are not. As, also, how we may 
 distinguish between the Apparitions of Good and 
 Evil Spirits, and how we ought to behave to them. 
 With a great variety of surprising and diverting 
 examples, never published before. 
 
 " By Death transported to th' Eternal Shore, 
 Souls so removed re-visit us no more : 
 Engrossed with joy of a superior kind. 
 They leave the trifling thoughts of life behind." 
 
 On the 23rd of November the work was re- 
 published with a fuller title ; but the sheets were 
 those of the first edition. Instead of the verse 
 just quoted was the following from Milton ; — 
 
 " Spirits in whatsoever shape they choose. 
 Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure. 
 Can execute their airy purposes. 
 And works of love or enmity fulfil." 
 
 As in his work on magic, Defoe expresses 
 himself a firm believer in the presence of good and 
 evil spirits, and in the converse " between our 
 spirits cased up in flesh, and the spirits unem- 
 bodied ; who inhabit the unknown mazes of the 
 invisible world ; those coasts which our geography 
 cannot describe ; who between somewhere and no- 
 where dwell, none of us know where, and yet we 
 are sure must have locality, and for aught we know, 
 are very near us." He considers them to be an 
 intermediate order of beings between angels and 
 
HENRY BAKER, THE NATURALIST, DEFOE'S SON-IN-LAW. 
 {_Fro7n a fiainting iti tlte possession of the Rev. Henry Defoe Baker, Rector ofThrttxton, 
 
 Hants.) 
 
Business and Magical Series. 
 
 o03 
 
 men, and that they are the immediate agents in 
 dreams and premonitions, " calling upon men to 
 seek for direction and counsel from that hand who 
 alone can both direct and deliver." He denies, as 
 contrary to the teaching of the Bible, that ghosts 
 and apparitions are the departed souls of human 
 creatures. They are simply unembodied spirits. 
 
 We don't worry ourselves about things of that 
 sort, now-a-days ; but in the eighteenth century, 
 they occupied no small portion of people's thoughts. 
 He who imagines that our forefathers did not 
 really believe in witchcraft and apparitions ; that it 
 was only their fun, as Charles Lamb would say, 
 had better read Glanvil, or if Glanvil be unattain- 
 able, the author's story, " The Blue Firedrake." 
 
 92.— THE COURTSHIP OFHENRY BAKER.— -Mt/Gt/^r^ TRIUMPHA.VS." 
 — "THE FINEST JULAP UPON EARTH " (17TH AUG., 1727— 30TH 
 APR., 1729). 
 
 Works : 243. — Parochial Tyranny. 9th Dec. , 1727. 
 
 • 244. — Augusta Triumphans. i6thMar. , 1728. 
 245. — A Plan of English Commerce. 23rd Mar., 1728. 
 246. — Universal Spectator. 12th Oct., 1728. 
 247.— Second Thoughts are Best: or a Further Improvement of a late 
 
 Scheme to Prevent Street Robberies. 12th Oct., 1728. 
 248. — Street Robberies considered. 12th Nov., 1728. 
 249.-f-Fog's Weekly, nth Jan., 1729. 
 250. — An Humble Proposal. 15th Mar., 1729. 
 251. — Reasons for a War. Mar., 1729. 
 
 The admiration of Henry Baker for Sophia 
 Defoe had now developed into ardent love, and on 
 August 17th, 1727, he declared his passion. For- 
 tunately for us, Mr. Baker took the trouble in after 
 years to copy out all the letters that, during the 
 period of his courtship, had passed between him 
 and Sophia and Defoe, and this volume has been 
 X 2 
 
356 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 placed in my hands. Its contents have never before 
 been made pubHc, and none of Defoe's previous 
 biographers have even seen the book. The follow- 
 ing, in the handwriting of Mr. Baker, appears on 
 the first page : — 
 
 " Letters that passed between me and my dear wife Sophia 
 during the time of courtship, viz., from Aug. 17th, 1727, to April 
 30th, 1729, when we were happily married, and likewise the letters 
 that passed between us afterwards when we happened to be separated. 
 These letters are all genuine and strictly exact, being carefully copied 
 from the originals which are still in being." 
 
 The idea of the match gave satisfaction to 
 Defoe, and this alone is a sufficient guarantee of 
 the excellence of Mr. Baker's character. Defoe 
 was very particular in the matter of marriages, 
 and he had a rather poor opinion of the young 
 men of the day. There were ten rakes, he says, 
 to one sober man, and among sober men there 
 were ten Atheists to one religious man ; " and, 
 which is worse than all the rest, if a woman 
 finds a religious man, it is three to one whether 
 he agrees with her in principles." (" Religious 
 Courtship.") 
 
 Did, these letters bear reference only to Mr. 
 Baker and Sophia Defoe, we should have given 
 them only passing notice ; but teeming as they do 
 with references to Defoe, and throwing strong light 
 both on his character and his relations with Mr. 
 Baker, they are invaluable. We get from them 
 word-pictures of Defoe such as could be found 
 nowhere else. If the book itself should ever get 
 printed, I would suggest as a title " The Complete 
 
Business and Magical Series. 357 
 
 Lover " ; for it is the history of a passion from 
 beginning to end — or rather from incipiency to 
 marriage, for with marriage, strange as it may 
 appear, the infatuation of Mr. Baker for Sophia 
 Defoe did not cease. The first letter, which is 
 dated " Newington, Aug. 27th, 1727," runs as 
 follows : — 
 
 " How shall I make you sensible of what I feel for you ? How 
 shall I express the uneasiness of absence? or the no less torment of 
 being restrained from speaking to you when I see you ? I love your 
 sisters ; I love them for your sake, next you, the best of all things. 
 And yet I hate them for your sake, whenever they interpose between 
 my bliss and me ; but I forgive them, for though they do me the 
 greatest injury, they ignorantly do it. O how I now repent the hours 
 I have lost, those unhappy happy hours ! when all alone with you, 
 but overawed, I durst not tell my flame. And yet I hope they were 
 not wholly lost ; surely then, my eyes, my silence, my confusion told 
 it ; for even silence speaks, and love declares itself a thousand ways 
 without the help of words. Ah ! how can I bear this absence ! 
 Absence did I say ? How lovers rave ! No, you are always with 
 me ; your lovely image haunts me day and night, where'er I go, 
 whatsoe'er I do ; O give me leave to think of nothing but yourself. 
 By what strange means this comes to pass, I cannot tell ; but sure 
 you must be something more than woman, since from all my 
 frequent converse with that charming sex I never found the like 
 effect before." 
 
 An unwearied student, and a man of ambition, 
 who sought to distinguish himself both as a 
 scientist and a poet, Henry Baker found even 
 more delight in the beauties of Sophia's mind than 
 in the beauties of her face. " I liked you when 
 first I saw you, but I loved you not till I found 
 in you perfections few of your sex are blest with." 
 From Saturday till Wednesday evening was the 
 unhappy part of the week when he could not see 
 
358 The Lire of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 her ; and this distressing period — all lovers, and all 
 who have been lovers, will sympathise — was "wholly 
 filled up with anxious hopes and desires," which it 
 was. impossible to satisfy. " Ah, my dearest," he 
 continues" (Nov. 26, 1727), "how long must more 
 than half my days be miserable ? When will your 
 father declare his intentions for us, and when will 
 you be mine ! " 
 
 Like every other courtship, it was lighted up 
 with the ridiculous. For example, Baker spends 
 his Sundays reading the Song of Solomon, and 
 sends Sophia such extracts from it as " Thou hast 
 doves' eyes." In reply to this "borrowed rapturous 
 letter," Sophia cruelly told him " it cost you little 
 pains to copy words. Is the subject grown so dull 
 that you are fain to be beholding to so antiquated 
 a lover .''" In this same letter (4th Dec, 1727), 
 Sophia refers to an illness of her father's. "Since 
 I sat to write you this, I was alarmed by my 
 father's complaining of a violent sudden pain, which 
 spreads itself all over him, but is, I hope, not dan- 
 gerous, though I fear it is a messenger from that 
 grand tyrant which will, at last, destroy the (to me) 
 so-muA-valued structure." 
 
 Judging from appearances— ^._^., the " very genteel " 
 way of Defoe's living — Mr. Baker supposed that 
 Defoe "must be able to give his daughter a decent 
 portion ; he did not suppose a large one.'' But all 
 that could be got out of Defoe was that "he hoped 
 he should be able to give her a certain sum 
 specified," and " when urged to the point some time 
 afterwards, his answer was, that formal articles he 
 
Business and Magical Series. 359 
 
 thought unnecessary ; that he found he could not 
 part with any money at present ; but at his death, 
 his daughter's portion would be more than he had 
 promised ; and he offered his own bond as a guar- 
 antee for the payment." With this, Baker was not 
 satisfied, and the relations between them became 
 strained. Here note we three facts : first, that 
 Defoe, though in comfortable circumstances, was not 
 so well off as Mr. Baker imagined ; secondly, that 
 Defoe's affairs were, as they had ever been, in a 
 muddle ; and thirdly, that mystification was Defoe's 
 supreme delight. No one could understand him, no 
 one could lay hand on him and say he had got 
 him, and no one could tell what he was driving at. 
 We might also add a fourthly : he was a great 
 man — and he never forgot that he was a great man — 
 he would have his way. That Mr. Baker had parts 
 he admitted, but Henry Baker was not Daniel 
 Defoe ; and Daniel Defoe was not to be bullied into 
 what he had objections to. 
 
 Writing to Sophia (31st Dec, 1727), Mr. 
 Baker says : — 
 
 " I think your father's objections are of much less weight than 
 mine. To have his affairs known can be but an imaginary evil, but 
 for me to act myself in what I am wholly ignorant may prove a real 
 one." 
 
 To Defoe he writes : — 
 
 " I can't help objecting to that part of your paper which provides 
 that in case your daughter dies without issue her portion shall revert 
 to your executors. \\"\\l you consent if I die childless that what I 
 leave shall go among my relations. I know you won't. And is not 
 your negative a good argument for my objection ?" 
 
360 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 This was on Jan. 7th, 1728, and two days later 
 Sophia writes :— 
 
 " Your letter, sir, to my father seems to have much of the air of 
 barter and sale. My fortune, though not great, fully answers yours, 
 which is less than I need accept of, and which I think does not 
 justify such nice demands." 
 
 Mr. Baker, it seems, M'as ready to make over 
 to Sophia, for her sole benefit, immediately on 
 their marriage, the sum of ;^ 1,500. Mr. Defoe, 
 however, would not give way, and "Sophy" sided 
 with her father. " What strange kind of illness 
 have you,'' Mr. Baker enquires of her, "that will at 
 your command be gone on Friday, but not before?" 
 Baker then made himself uneasy about the lease of 
 Defoe's house at Newington, which was to be the 
 security for the dowry ; and he worried Defoe to 
 try and obtain another lease. Defoe unwillingly 
 consented ; and we find him writing to Baker on 
 Jan. 2ist, 1728, as follows: — ■ 
 
 "The sending me to Sutton to mend a title which I have no 
 reason to think precarious has had the effect I expected, to put vain 
 conceit in his head of his power, which, however ... no weight may 
 yet puff him up to refuse what I have really no occasion to ask, and 
 you will see, if you please to judge impartially, that I was not wrong 
 when I said it was harassing me and without cause, too." 
 
 In reply. Baker said that as a new lease could 
 not be obtained, they "must make the best of 
 things without' it. I shall never expect impossi- 
 bilities, but, indeed, wondered at your unwillingness 
 to attempt it, but I never intended it as a sine qua 
 non." 
 
 Baker's conduct in insisting on an attempt to 
 
Business and Magical Sehies. 361 
 
 obtain a new lease ; and now, after putting Defoe to 
 so much trouble, coolly observing that its obtainment 
 was not of supreme importance, exasperated Defoe to 
 the last degree. 
 
 "I am very much surprised," he writes (2Sth January, 1728), 
 " that now you plainly see the difficulties which I foresaw would 
 occur in this affair have happened accordingly, you drop them as 
 things which may be let alone, after they had been insisted upon 
 before as absolutely necessary, and after you have by this brought 
 me into a labyrinth which I do not see my way out of, and like 
 some other people ventured to rouse a devil they cannot lay. What 
 you expect next I know not, or what, from having been so handled, 
 you desire me to do, and therefore desire you will please to let the 
 lease be left with my son in Finch Lane, where I will also leave 
 your receipt for it. I am sorry my poor child has the misfortune to 
 have no better treatment, after so long being exposed, but I hope 
 God will provide for her his own way. — I am. Sir, your friend and 
 humble servant, 
 
 " De Foe." 
 
 The more coldness, however, Sophia exhibited, 
 the more fervent grew Baker's passion. 
 
 " My former pleasures are displeasing to me, company becomes 
 tiresome, books irisipid, and the muse impertinent." 
 
 This was on February 14th (1728), and a week later 
 he writes — 
 
 " Whilst I sit by my Sophy and gaze upon her I'm all ectsasy, 
 ray body trembles, my soul rejoices, and ray tongue falters with 
 pleasure not to be described, but soon as e'er I leave her I'm in a 
 state of wretchedness, and, like one of the false angels, find myself 
 greatly miserable for having been greatly happy." 
 
 On February 27th he is more passionate still — 
 
 "My Sophy, ah, how I languish for thee ! What soft sensations 
 seize me ! What fondness inexpressible possesses me whene'er I 
 
362 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 think of thee ! This very moment my soul is stretching after thee 
 with ardent longings. Methinks I fold thee in my eager arms, and 
 bask and pant and wanton in thy smiles ; and now I hold thee off 
 and gaze upon thy charms with infinite delight, and now all ecstasy 
 I snatch thee to me, and devour thy lips, strain thee with breathless 
 raptures to my bosom, till feeble mortal nature faints, unable to 
 endure bliss so excessive, and sinks with joys celestial." 
 
 In a subsequent letter he says, "Whatever dis- 
 regard your father shows me can never destroy my 
 love or shake my constancy ; he may go on to slight 
 me" ; in another, "Your father- is greatly angry with 
 me for no other reason but because he has misused 
 me " ; and in a third he refers to " Mr. Defoe's con- 
 tempt of me." "To be in love," says Baker, "is a 
 state of madness," a madness, however, not incurable; 
 "there is a drug called marriage which is a sure 
 specific in this disease." In another saying, he betrays 
 the scientist : " Melancholy," says he, " avails nothing, 
 but only like a microscope serves to magnify mis- 
 fortunes and show them in their most hideous forms." 
 Some of his letters are in verse, and he several times 
 addresses Sophia under the poetical name of Amanda. 
 
 " I love you," he writes, June 3, 1728, "more than 
 life, nor does my resenting your father's ungenerous 
 conduct* and my rejecting his chimerical offers at all 
 contradict this true assertion." But Baker had another 
 difficulty ; his mother was opposed to the match, and 
 had quarrelled with him on account of his persistency 
 in it. " I hope, my dearest," he writes to Sophia 
 (August 4, 1728), "neither you nor I are like our 
 parents." A little later Defoe declares that he has 
 made as good proposals as -his affairs will admit. " If 
 you desire my daughter, you must take her as I can 
 
Business and Magical Series. 563 
 
 give her;" this is followed on August 23 (1728) 
 by his ultimatum ; and then there was some haggling 
 as to whether four per cent, or five per cent, should 
 be paid by Defoe upon Sophia's dowry, as long as it 
 remained in his hand. 
 
 From the foregoing we see that Defoe was at this 
 time not rich, but neither was he poor. He had a 
 comfortable income, and the one desire of his 
 life now was to see his children provided for. 
 In a letter to Mr. Baker, of September 4, 1728, he 
 speaks of "being arrived at an age when, if ever, it is 
 needful to settle what little I have among my children. 
 This is so settled and so engaged, and no otherwise. 
 I cannot think it a breach of honour that I do not 
 think it proper to expose, no not to my own children, 
 all the particulars of my family settlement while I am 
 still living." 
 
 During the period we are now considering, 
 Defoe's pen had been almost as busy as ever ; 
 "Parochial Tyranny" (9th Dec, 1727), a tirade 
 against the corruption of "select vestries," and 
 "the abuses committed in the distribution of public 
 charities," was succeeded on i6th March, 1728, by 
 the interesting pamphlet "Augusta Triumphans: or, 
 the Way to make London the most flourishing city 
 in the Universe." To bring this about, Defoe had 
 six proposals : (i) The establishment of a University ; 
 (2) and of a Foundling Hospital ; (3) The sup- 
 pression of Private Madhouses ; (4) The clearing of 
 the Streets of gay women ; (5) The formation of 
 an Academy of Music ; (6) A prevention of the 
 "immoderate use of Geneva." 
 
364 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 This pamphlet, Hke some of its predecessors, 
 was published under Defoe's nom - de - plume, 
 "Andrew Morton, Esq." Of the six proposals 
 four of them — the first three and the fifth — are 
 now fails accomplis. Defoe here makes further 
 allusion to his age and infirmities. " I have but a 
 short time to live," he says, " nor would I waste 
 my remaining thread of life in vain ; but having 
 often lamented sundry public abuses, and many 
 schemes having occurred to my fancy, which to me 
 carried an air of benefit, I was resolved to commit 
 them to paper before my departure." 
 
 Among the customs condemned, one is that of 
 Sabbath-breaking ; but if Defoe is severe on dese- 
 crators of the Lord's Day, he is ten times more 
 severe on the "extravagant use, or rather abuse, of 
 that nauseous liquor called Geneva" among the 
 lower sort. 
 
 Not only, he argues, does this Geneva so in- 
 fatuate the common people, that half the work is 
 not done now as formerly, but it debilitates and 
 enervates them, and makes them "incapable of 
 getting such lusty children as they used to do." 
 The women, too, spoil their milk by it, "so that 
 in less than an age, we may expect a fine spindle- 
 shanked generation." 
 
 Having looked on that picture, look on this: 
 " On the contrary, our own malt liquor, especially 
 common draught beer, is most wholesome and 
 nourishing, and has brought up better generations 
 than the present. It is strengthening, cooling, and 
 balsamick ; it helps digestion, and carries nourish- 
 
Business and Magical- Series. 365 
 
 ment with it. And, in spite of the whims of some 
 physicians, is- most pertinent to a humane, especially 
 a good wholesome English constitution. Nay, the 
 honest part of the faculty deny not the use of 
 small beer well brewed, even in fevers. I myself 
 have found great benefit by it ; and if it be good 
 in its kind, 'tis the finest julap upon earth." 
 
 We note, too, that Defoe takes the opportunity 
 here to give his old antagonist Gay a good hearty 
 slash. "Our Rogues," says he, "are grown more 
 wicked than ever, and vice in all kinds is so much 
 winked at, that robbery is accounted a petty crime. 
 We take pains to puff 'em up in their villainy, and 
 thieves are set out in so amiable a light in the 
 Beggars Opera that it has taught them to value 
 themselves on their profession, rather than be 
 ashamed of it." No wonder that Gay and his 
 friends did not like Defoe. The charge that the 
 Beggars Opera had demoralised the town was 
 always a sore point with them ; and Dean Swift 
 well cudgelled even the Archbishop of Canterbury 
 (Dr. Herring) for taking such a view. 
 
 Defoe now harks back to trade, and writes "A 
 Plan of the English Commerce" (23rd March, 1728), 
 in which he handles the subject as it concerned the 
 general interest and prosperity of the nation ; just 
 as formerly, in his " Complete English Tradesman " 
 he had had in view the interest and prosperity of 
 the individual tradesman. 
 
 In October, 1728, Henry Baker, Defoe's pro- 
 spective son-in-law, floated a new periodical, The 
 Universal Spectator and Weekly Journal, and this 
 
/ 
 
 366 The Life of Daniel De^oe. 
 
 happening at a time when the quarrel about the 
 dowry was being patched, Defoe, at Baker's request, 
 wrote the first number (October 12th). It is chiefly 
 valuable for Defoe's clear definition of what in his 
 opinion constitutes a good writer : — 
 
 " The character of a good writer, wherever he is to be found, is 
 this, viz., that he writes so as to please and serve at the same time. 
 The writer that strives to be useful, writes to serve you, and at the 
 same time, by an imperceptible art, draws you on to be pleased also. 
 He represents truth with plainness, virtue with praise ; he even re- 
 prehends with a softness that carries the force of a satire without the 
 salt of it ; and he insensibly screws himself into your good opinion, 
 that as his writings merit your regard, so they fail not to obtain it." 
 
 Defoe wrote nothing for Baker's paper besides 
 this first number. 
 
 The feasibility of many of the projects of Defoe's 
 in the " scheme to prevent street robberies," in- 
 serted in ''Augusta Triumphans," so commended 
 itself about this time to the intellect of another 
 literary gentleman, that he coolly claimed the whole 
 scheme as his own, and announced in the public 
 journals his intention of laying it before Parliament 
 "for their approval during the next session." 
 
 Th£ plagiarist of George the Second's day went in 
 for none of your petty prigging of a thought here 
 and a paragraph there : he " lifted " the whole concern. 
 
 To be jockeyed out of his labours, however, piqued 
 Defoe not a little, especially as all the reward he 
 had asked was a " Thank-ye," so he wrote a 
 letter to Applebees and exposed the little trick of 
 this " second-hand schemist " ; and, not to be behind- 
 hand with him, " I determine," says Defoe, " next 
 
Business and Magical Series. 367 
 
 sessions to present copies of my aforesaid book to 
 divers honourable worthy members of both Houses, 
 unto whom I have the honour to be known, and 
 then we shall see whose scheme shall have the 
 precedence." But Defoe did more than that. He 
 recast his whole scheme, and extended it into a 
 distinct pamphlet, with the title " Second Thoughts 
 are Best ; or, a further improvement of a late 
 scheme to prevent street robberies. In which our 
 streets will be so strongly guarded, and so gloriously 
 illuminated, that any part of London will be as safe 
 and pleasant at midnight as at noonday, and bur- 
 glary totally impracticable " : a title illustrating at 
 least one thing — the extraordinary sanguinity of 
 Defoe's temperament when once his passions were 
 roused. If to prophesy such a state of affairs would 
 argue an enthusiast even nowadays with our electric 
 light, what must it have argued in the era of oil ? 
 This pamphlet was presented both to the King and 
 Queen at Windsor, and to the Lord Mayor of 
 London. It must be remembered that the pseu- 
 donym of Andrew Moreton was by this time 
 well known to belong to Defoe. An advertiser in 
 Read's journal for October 26, 1728, refers to 
 
 the scheme as " 'Squire Moreton's, alias D 1 
 
 Def — e's. Scheme." "Second Thoughts are Best" 
 was quickly followed by another pamphlet on the 
 same subject: "Street Robberies Considered" (12th 
 November, 1728), which contains, among other 
 things, warnings to travellers, with rules how to 
 know a highwayman, observations on housebreakers, 
 and a " description of shoplifts, how to know 'em, 
 
368 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 and how to prevent 'em," etc. "Written by a 
 converted thief. To which is prefixed some memoirs 
 of his Hfe. Set a thief to catch a thief" 
 
 An article in Fogs Journal, the successor of 
 Mist's, for January nth, 1729, recommending 
 "The Complete English Tradesman," which had 
 lately passed into a second edition, points to the 
 fact that Defoe was now writing again for the 
 public journals, and suggests that the strong feeling 
 against him among journalists had in part passed 
 away. The 15th of March shows him returned 
 once more to the subject on which he was so great 
 an authority — the subject of trade. "An Humble 
 Proposal," he calls his pamphlet, " to the People 
 of England, for the increase of their trade and 
 encouragement of their manufactures ; whether the 
 present uncertainty of affairs issues in peace or war." 
 "The following sheets," he says, "are as one 
 alarm more given to the lethargic age, if possible 
 to open their eyes to their own prosperity. If the 
 trade of England is not in a flourishing and thriving 
 condition, the fault and only occasion of it is all our 
 own, and is wholly in our own power to amend, 
 ■whene^r we please." He tells Englishmen " that 
 they live by trade, that their commerce has raised 
 them from what they were to what they are, and 
 may, if cultivated and improved, raise them yet 
 further to what they never were; and this," he 
 exclaims, " in a few words is an index of my present 
 work." 
 
 The next production of Defoe's was the last 
 political effort of his of which we have any 
 
Business and Magical Series. 369 
 
 knowledge, a tract entitled " Reasons for a War, in 
 order to establish the tranquillity and commerce of 
 Europe" (March, 1729). He argues that the pro- 
 tracted uncertainty of diplomatic proceedings only 
 injures trade ; and that a short sharp war followed 
 by peace would be decidedly better than to be 
 constantly on tenter-hooks. 
 
 93.-MARRIAGE OF SOPHIA DEFOE.— "BE AT THE PARSON'S BY 
 FARTHEST AT TEN O'CLOCK " (APRIL, 1729). 
 
 On January 27th, 1728-29, the quarrel between 
 Defoe and Baker had reached its highest point. 
 "You," says Baker to Sophia, "are my good genius, 
 and your father is my evil one. He, like a curst 
 infernal, continually torments, betrays, and overturns 
 my quiet ; you, like a divinity, allay the storm he 
 raises and hush my soul to peace. Ruin and wild 
 destruction sport around him and exercise their fury 
 on all he has to do with, but joy and happiness are 
 your attendants and bless where'er you come." On 
 February i. Baker proposes that he and Sophy should 
 take poison and die in each other's arms : " The world 
 telling with wonder our amazing story, pitying our 
 youth and our too cruel fate. It might be, some 
 brother bard with monumental verse would celebrate 
 our memory and give us down with praise to future 
 times." Sophia, however, instead of consenting, very 
 properly castigates. In different letters Baker thus 
 refers to Defoe : "I am persuaded he is all deceit 
 and baseness"; "What your father now designs to 
 do with us I won't pretend to guess, for his purposes 
 are always dark and " hideous " ; "Your father loves 
 
 Y 
 
370 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 to hide himself in mists, and if he pleases may enjoy 
 his fancy, but for my part, I will ever breathe the 
 clear and wholesome air of truth and honesty " ; " One 
 who is under the necessity of being crafty, ungenerous, 
 dishonest " ; " Him I abhor as much as I love you, 
 for to his baseness I owe all the misery I am brought 
 to, and he will be my certain ruin." Poor Sophia felt 
 the situation very keenly. Deeply as she loved Baker, 
 she persisted that her father was and would be just. 
 "Your suspicions of my father," she says, "I think 
 wholly unjust and groundless, He has not one thought 
 I am assured of, that you so rashly charge him with." 
 At last the health 'of the poor girl utterly broke down, 
 and a dangerous fever ensued. But the distress of 
 both the father and the lover at this critical moment 
 put an end to the quarrel. They came to terms, and 
 at Defoe's desire the marriage articles were at once 
 drawn up. All anxiety being removed, Sophia 
 speedily recovered, and the marriage was appointed 
 for April 30. 
 
 JjJ ;" I beg the favour of you," writes Baker on April 
 2 7, "to be at the parson's by farthest by ten o'clock. 
 There I myself shall be at nine, and I expect you with 
 great iippatience." 
 
 A month later Baker told a friend, " I do not yet 
 repent, and what is more wonderful, believe I never 
 shall." Nor did he, for no marriage ever turned out 
 happier. 
 
 The question of Sophia's dowry, however, con- 
 tinued frofn time to time to be a bone of contention 
 between Defoe and Baker ; and it was never really 
 settled till Defoe's death. ' " 
 
Business and Magical Series. 371 
 
 94. -a touching letter.— the death of sir richard steele 
 (1st september, 1729). 
 
 Work : 252.— Servitude, a Poem [only the prose introduction by Defoe]. 
 
 In a letter of Defoe's hitherto unpublished, which 
 
 is dated 9th June, and was probably written in 1729, 
 
 we are again touchingly reminded of his deep affection 
 
 for his children, and particularly for Sophia. She had 
 
 inadvertently caused him pain: — and from the way in 
 
 which Mr. Baker and Mr. Forster, Mr. Baker's friend, 
 
 are alluded to, in all probability it was in connection 
 
 with the interminable dowry squabble ; as soon, 
 
 however, as she discovered that her father's feelings 
 
 had been wounded, she hastened to make reparation, 
 
 and the following is his reply : — 
 
 '^June g. 
 
 " My dearest Sophie, — Allow me to begin with a little 
 philosophy. Where affections are strongest they are always most 
 sensible of a shock, and unkindness (nay, though but seeming such) 
 makes the deepest impressions. Hence Csesar, though of a spirit 
 invincible, gave up to death when he felt a stroke from his adopted 
 Brutus, and said no more but (et tu quoque mi fill ; tu Brute!) 
 What ! and thou, too, Brutus ? my son ! Nay, hence the wise man 
 says, A brother offended is harder to be won than the bars of a 
 castle. Love is of so nice a nature that, like the heart, it faints at 
 the least touch. Where it is not so, it must be because such know 
 not how to love. 
 
 " If I have been more sensibly grieved at what I thought un- 
 kind in my Sophi (say it was only that I thought so) if I took fire 
 more than another would have done, it was because I loved you 
 more than ever any loved or will or can love you (he that has you 
 excepted). Had Deb, the hussy, though rash and so far weak, said 
 ten times as much to me, it had made no impression at all : but 
 from Sophi ! thee, Sophi, whose image sits close to my affection, 
 and whom I love beyond the power of expressing, I acknowledge 
 it wounded my very soul, and my weakness is so much more as 
 that affection is strong, so that I can as ill express the satisfaction I 
 
372 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 have from your letter as I could the grief of what I thought an 
 unkindness. Perhaps I do not write like a father; but perhaps I do 
 too, if it be considered that love is the same, let the relation be 
 what it will ; besides, as a father I hope I may be allowed even to 
 love in a less exalted, sublimer manner, but a greater : so the same 
 affection doubles the satisfaction I have at my dear Sophy's return ; 
 I view your letter, my dear, with a joy not to be described but in 
 the deepest silence, or expressed but in tears. 
 
 " From hence I forbear to enter upon the subject of this irrup- 
 tion, and shall only hint that you mistake it : and be it that you 
 mistake it, yet as on that mistake you are so generous as to make 
 this reparation, I believe you would with same filial goodness have 
 made the like and more if you had been sensible in what tender 
 part you gave the wound. 
 
 " But you have healed it. One word can wound where love is, 
 and one word can heal where sincerity joins the affection. You 
 have healed it at once, and since you do not yet see where the hurt 
 was, I choose to leave it concealed, because, whatever I say, I would 
 have you feel no grief. 
 
 " I would say more, but hope I need not. Let this tell you I am 
 satisfied, and rejoice that you think your father's affection worth 
 preserving. I am persuaded I shall never give you room to lessen 
 your value for it, human frailty excepted. I shall conclude only 
 with letting you see with what a sincere heart I was acting when 
 this, happened, and how little I thought of disobliging you or Mr. 
 Forster ; and this I cannot do better than in sending you the letter 
 (unopened) which I had written to Mr. Baker, and had had in my 
 hand to give you. Let this speak for me, and believe it to be the 
 very meaning and intent of my heart, and I am sure you will 
 continue your affection to your father upon the very conviction of 
 it. All tlft penance I shall enjoin you, on this whole affair, is that 
 you will give Mr. Baker the letter, let him know when I wrote it, 
 and desire him to lend me a kiss of peace to Sophi, and I'll pay it 
 him in kind. 
 
 " My dearest Sophi, I am and ever shall be 
 
 " Your most affectionate father, 
 
 " D. F. 
 " (But very much tormented with pain ever since)." 
 
 About this time occurred that pleasing incident 
 — the seeking-out of Defoe by Robert Dodsley, 
 
Business and Magical Series. 373 
 
 afterwards the eminent bookseller, with its slight 
 resemblance to the subsequent and better-known 
 meeting of Boswell and Dr. Johnson. Robert 
 Dodsley, who was born in 1703, at. Mansfield, 
 Notts, and had for some years followed in London 
 the occupation of a footman, had written a short 
 poem called " Servitude," and the person to whom 
 he ventured to show it made the observation that 
 he wondered Dodsley had not "taken notice of a 
 late pamphlet entitled ' Everybody's Business is 
 Nobody's Business,' done by one who writes himself 
 Andrew Moreton, Esq." Dodsley replied that he 
 had never seen it, upon which the "person" ob- 
 served that it would be worth Dodsley's while ; so 
 the book was bought. It took Dodsley very little 
 trouble to find out that Andrew Moreton and the 
 great Daniel Defoe were one and the same, for all 
 the bookselling world, and a good many outside it, 
 had for at least twelve months, as we have already 
 observed, been aware to whom the pseudonym 
 belonged ; and, seeking the great man out, Dodsley 
 begged his advice. Defoe was now in his seventieth 
 year, worn with age and infirmities ; Dodsley a 
 sprightly young fellow of twenty-six. Ever ready 
 to lend a helping hand to struggling merit, Defoe 
 good-naturedly not only gave Dodsley the advice 
 required, but revised the poem, and wrote for it a 
 preface, an introduction, and a postscript. It is 
 rather amusing to hear of a poem being consigned 
 to Defoe's care for revision. Even in his palmy 
 days Defoe sang oddly, and his note in his seventieth 
 year was probably even less bird-like. However, the 
 
374 The Life of Daniel Defoe, 
 
 effusion was of such a nature that it couldn't very 
 well be spoilt, so no harm was done ; and Dodsley, 
 who soon found out that his calling was not poetry, 
 took up with something more profitable. 
 
 On September ist, 1729, died in King Street, 
 Carmarthen, in his fifty-eighth year, Defoe's great 
 contemporary and fellow-penman, Sir Richard Steele. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HIS LAST DAYS. 
 
 95.— THE "COMPLEAT ENGLISH GENTLEMAN."— NE'ER A 
 BLOCKHEAD IN THE FAMILY BUT ME. 
 
 Works : 253. — The Compleat English Gentleman. Begun to be printed in 1729. 
 Published in full, 1890. 
 254. — An Effectual Scheme for the Immediate Preventing of Street Robberies. 
 1731. 
 
 At the time Dodsley was putting to press his poem 
 on " Servitude," Defoe was employed upon another 
 important work, " The Compleat English Gentleman," 
 the last book but one that he is known to have 
 Written. As a letter of Defoe's to Mr. J. Watts, of 
 Wild Court, shows, Mr. Watts was about to begin 
 to print it on September loth, 1729. Defoe apolo- 
 gises for not having sent the manuscript before, 
 and gives as his reason that he had been "exceed- 
 ingly ill," 
 
 Only two or three pages of the book, however, 
 were printed in Defoe's lifetime. After his death 
 the manuscript found its way into the possession 
 of the Baker family, and it is now in the British 
 Museum. In 1890, one hundred and sixty years 
 after the book was written, it was published for 
 the first time by Mr. David Nutt, of London, who, 
 with the editor, Karl D. Bulbring, M.A., Ph.D., 
 and Mr. Francis B. Bickley, of the British Museum, 
 
nd The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 who performed the arduous task of making the copy 
 for the printer, deserve the hearty thanks of all 
 lovers of Defoe. 
 
 The manuscript, a small quarto of one hundred 
 and forty- two leaves, comprises, besides " The Com- 
 pleat English Gentleman," a supplement to it 
 entitled " On Royall Education," which i^ also to 
 be published by Mr. Nutt. 
 
 The MS. is well preserved, but the close and 
 hurried writing, the indistinct characters, the great 
 number of emendations, additions, and deleted pas- 
 sages, the extensive use of contractions and of 
 shorthand and other abbreviations, and the uncom- 
 mon, irregular, and often curious and faulty spelling, 
 make it difficult and sometimes perplexing to read. 
 
 Defoe uses a short thick horizontal stroke for 
 and, a similar one from left to right for the, o with 
 a horizontal stroke means either which or what ; if 
 crossed obliquely frorji right to left it means par- 
 ticular ; oo ^ good; xdome = Christendom ; D, Provi- 
 dence ; a long stroke with an o ^ notwithstanding ; 
 and there are many other abbreviations. He puts very 
 few commas, capitals at random, and often begins a 
 sentence»with a small letter. 
 
 The MS. is all in Defoe's own firm, small, and 
 close writing. As a rule only one side of the paper 
 is written on, but many insertions and notes are 
 added on the opposite page, and the book is 
 evidently not quite finished. 
 
 He commences by adopting the then current 
 acceptation of the word "gentleman-" as a "person 
 born of some known or ancient family"; and adds, 
 
His Last Days. 2>77 
 
 " I have the honour to be ranked, by the direction 
 of Providence, in the same class." He affects 
 throughout the whole book to write as a gentleman 
 for gentlemen. 
 
 The principal aim of the book is to make the 
 gentry ashamed of their want of culture, and to 
 induce them to give their children a better education. 
 
 The distinction between the " man of polite 
 learning" and the "mere scholar" is everywhere 
 insisted upon. "The former," he says, "is a gentle- 
 man, and the latter a mere bookcase." These 
 and other similar passages betray the bitter feeling 
 left in his mind by the scornful treatment he had 
 formerly received from University men. 
 
 The gentry of Defoe's time did not hold school- 
 masters in much honour. 
 
 Says Defoe's sample of a mother : — 
 
 " Shall my son be sent to school to sit bareheaded and say a 
 lesson to such a sorry diminutive rascal as that ; be brow-beaten and 
 hectored and threatened with his authority, and stand in fear of his 
 hand ! My son ! that a few years after he will be glad to cringe to, 
 cap in hand, for a dinner ! No, indeed ; my son shall not go near 
 him. Let the Latin and Greek go to the Devil. My son is a 
 gentleman ; he shan't be under such a scoundrel as that." 
 
 The lament of a gentleman on account of his 
 lack of learning is touching : — 
 
 " I have no learning. I was an unhappy dog : I was born to 
 the estate, or else I had been taught ; but I must be a blockhead 
 forsooth, because I was to be the gentleman. There's Jack, my 
 youngest brother, they gave him Latin and Greek as much as he 
 could carry upon his back, and the devil and all of other learning 
 besides, and now he's a pickpocket — a lawyer, I would say ; and there's 
 ,Will, my second brother, now he's commander of a man-of-war 
 
37^ The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 and knighted a'ready, and all by his being a mathematical dog. 
 There's ne'er a blockhead in the family but me." 
 
 Deficiency of education Defoe looked upon as a 
 disease, but he entered his "caveat against the 
 patient's' being given over by his physicians." That 
 any man could in his heart of hearts be proud of 
 ignorance he refused to believe. "Was ever a 
 crooked man proud of a hump-back 1 " he asks, 
 "or a cripple proud of his wooden leg? Was ever 
 a man proud of the small-pox in his face, or vain 
 of being squint-eyed "i " 
 
 An interesting book, except to students of Defoe, 
 " The Compleat English Gentleman " is not ; but it 
 is instructive, and in parts amusing. 
 
 96.— IN HIDING AT GREENWICH.-£r TU.' BRUTE.— TB.K LAST 
 TE DEUM. 
 
 In 1730, the machinations of his enemies proving 
 too powerful for him, Defoe, in order to avoid their 
 malice, first of all legally conveyed his property* 
 during the remainder of his life, to his son Daniel, 
 for the benefit of Mrs. Defoe and Hannah and 
 Henrietta, his two unmarried daughters, and then, 
 went into hiding. 
 
 The person who deHvered him the blow that 
 led him to take this course he describes as a 
 "wicked, perjur'd, and contemptible enemy" — prob- 
 ably, thinks Mr. Lee, Nathaniel Mist, who may 
 have made mischief between Defoe ' and the Govern- 
 ment — perhaps by producing documents written by 
 Defoe when he was a spy in the Jacobite camp, 
 
His Last Days.' 379 
 
 and managing to lead the Government to put a 
 wrong construction on them. 
 
 This blow of Mist's, if it was Mist's, was bad 
 enough, but the action of the son to whom Defoe 
 had confided his property was still worse. Instead 
 of proceeding according to his father's desires, Daniel 
 Defoe, fils, converted the property to his own use, 
 and thereby occasioned great inconvenience, if not 
 suffering, to his mother and sisters. So much did 
 the poor father feel this conduct, that his mind gave 
 way ; and it was whilst in this condition that he 
 wrote the last letter of his that has been preserved, 
 one of the most touching in the language. It was 
 written to his son-in-law, Mr. Baker, from "About 
 two miles from Greenwich, Kent," and is dated 
 Tuesday, August 12th, 1730: — 
 
 " Dear Mr. Baker, — I have your very kind and affectionate 
 letter of the first ; but not come to my hand till the loth ; where it 
 had been delayed I know not. As your kind manner, and kinder 
 thought, from which it flows (for I take all you say to be, as I always 
 believed you to be, sincere and Nathaniel-like, without guile), 
 was a particular satisfaction to me ; so the stop of a letter, however 
 it happened, deprived me of that cordial too many days, considering 
 how much I stood in need of it, to support a mind sinking under 
 the weight of an affliction too heavy for my strength ; and looking 
 on myself as abandoned of every comfort, every friend, and every 
 relative, except such only as are able to give me no assistance. 
 
 " I was sorry you should say at the beginning of your letter, you 
 were debarred seeing me. Depend upon my sincerity for this : I am 
 far from debarring you. On the contrary, it would be a greater com- 
 fort to me than any I now enjoy, that I could have your agreeable 
 visits with safety, and could see both you and my dearest Sophia, 
 could it be without giving her the grief of seeing her father in tenebris 
 [in prison], and under the load of insupportable sorrow. I am sorry 
 1 must open my griefs so far as to tell her, it is not the blow I re- 
 ceived from a wicked, perjur'd, and contemptible enemy, that has 
 
380 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 broken in upon my spirit ; which, as she well knows, has carried me 
 on through greater disasters than these. But it has been the in- 
 justice, unkindness, and I must say, inhuman dealing of my own son 
 which has both ruined my family, and, in a word, has broken my 
 heart ; and as I am at this time under a weight of very heavy illness, 
 which I think will be a fever, I take this occasion to vent my grief 
 in the breasts who I know will make a prudent use of it, and tell you, 
 that nothing but this has conquered or could conquer me. Et tu! 
 Brute. I depended upon him, I trusted him, I gave up my two dear 
 unprovided children into his hands ; but he has no compassion, and 
 suffers them and their poor dying mother to beg their bread at his 
 door, and to crave, as if it were an alms, what he is bound under 
 hand and seal, besides the most sacred promises, to supply them 
 with : himself, at the same time, living in a profusion of plenty. It 
 is too much for me. Excuse my infirmity. I can say no more : my 
 heart is too full. I only ask one thing of you as a dying request. 
 Stand by them when I am gone, and let them not be wronged while 
 he is able to do them right. Stand by them as a brother ; and if 
 you have anything within you owing to my memory, who have be- 
 stowed on you the best gift I have to give, let them not be injured 
 and trampled on by false pretences and unnatural reflections. I 
 hope they will want no help but that of comfort and council ; but 
 that they will indeed want, being too easy to be managed by words 
 and promises. 
 
 " It adds to my grief that it is so difficult to me to see you. I 
 am at a distance from London, in Kent, nor Jiave I a lodging in 
 London, nor have I been at that place in the Old Bailey, since I 
 wrote you I was removed from it. At present I am weak, having 
 had some fits of a fever that have left me low. But those things 
 much more. I have not seen son or daughter, wife or child, many 
 weeks, a^d know not which way to see them. They dare not come 
 by water, and by land there is no coach, and I know not what to 
 do. It is not possible for me to come to Enfield, unless you could 
 find a retired lodging for me, where I might not be known, and 
 might have the comfort of seeing you both now and then; upon 
 such a circumstance, I could gladly give the days to solitude, to 
 have the comfort of half an hour now and then, with you both, for 
 two or three weeks. But just to come and look at you, and retire 
 immediately, 'tis a burden too heavy. The parting will be a price 
 beyond the enjoyment. I would say (I hope) with comfort, that 
 'tis yet well. I am so near my journey's end, and am hastening to 
 
His Last Days. 381 
 
 the place where the weary are at rest, and where the wicked cease 
 to trouble ; be it that the passage is rough, and the day stormy, by 
 what way soever He please to bring me to the end of it, I desire 
 to finish life with this temper of soul in all cases : Te Deum 
 Laudamus. 
 
 " I congratulate you on the occasion of your happy advance in 
 your employment. May all you do be prosperous, and all you meet 
 with, pleasant ; and may you both escape the tortures and troubles 
 of uneasie life. May you sail your dangerous voyage of life with a 
 forcing wind, and make the port of heaven without a storm. 
 
 " It adds to my grief that I must never see ' the pledge of your 
 mutual love — my little grandson.* Give him my blessing, and may 
 he be to you both your joy in youth, and your comfort in age, and 
 never add a sigh to your sorrow. But, alas ! that is not to be 
 expected. Kiss my dear Sophy once more for me ; and if I must 
 see her no more, tell her this from a father that loved her above all 
 his comforts to his last breath. 
 
 " Your unhappy 
 
 " D. F, 
 
 " About two miles from Greenwich, Kent. 
 
 " P.S. — I wrote you a letter some months ago, in answer to one 
 from you about selling the house ; but you never signified to me 
 whether you received it or not. I have not the policy of assurance • 
 I suppose my wife or Hannah may have it. 
 
 ''Idem, "D. F." 
 
 So runs the last preserved letter of Defoe's, written 
 eight months before his death, and in moments of the 
 greatest anguish — a letter sad in the extreme, but 
 brightened up with that grand refrain which we have 
 heard resounding in this situation and that situation 
 and all through his life — Te Deum Laudamtcs. 
 
 Mr. Minto regards this letter as a clever evasion 
 of Mr. Baker's attempts to make sure of his share of 
 the property to be left by Defoe. It is easy, he 
 says, to make out what the guilt of Defoe's son 
 consists in. Defoe had assigned certain property to 
 
 * David Erskine, Mr. Baker's eldest son, born that year, 1730. 
 
382 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 the son to be held in trust for his wife and children. 
 The son had not secured them in the enjoyment of 
 this provision, but maintained them, and gave them 
 words and promises, with which they were content, 
 that he would continue to maintain them. It was 
 this that Defoe called making them " beg their bread 
 at his door, and crave as if it were an alms " the pro- 
 vision to which they were legally entitled. 
 
 " Baker had written to his father-in-law making 
 inquiry about the securities for his wife's portion," 
 Defoe in reply tells a long story of his son's treachery, 
 and dismisses the inquiry about the securities in a 
 postscript. He will not sell the house, and he does 
 not know who has the policy of assurance. " One 
 thing," continues Mr. Minto, " and one thing only 
 shines clearly out of the obscurity in which Defoe's 
 closing years are wrapt — his earnest desire to make 
 provision for those members of his family who could 
 not provide for themselves. The pursuit from which 
 he was in hiding was in all probability the pursuit of 
 creditors. His income must have been large from 
 the year 17 18 or thereabouts, till his utter loss of 
 credit in journalism about the year 1726 ; but he may 
 have l^d old debts. It is difficult to explain other- 
 wise why he should have been at such pains, when 
 he became prosperous, to assign property to his 
 children." 
 
 97.— " DANIEL DEFOE, GENTLEMAN. TO TINDALL'S (LETHARGY)," 
 26TH APRIL, 1731. 
 
 At the time he wrote the letter to. Baker of 
 August 12, 1730, Defoe, with health broken down, 
 
His Last Days. 383 
 
 and mind enfeebled, looked forward only to the 
 grave. Of his history between that date and the 
 date of his death we know only two facts. The 
 first is that he returned to London and took lodg- 
 ings in Ropemaker's Alley, Moorfields, then a 
 pleasant part of the town, containing, to use the 
 language of an advertisement of that day, very 
 sweet and large houses, standing in the midst of 
 pleasant gardens ; the other that he published one 
 more work — his last — the title-page of which runs : 
 "An EflTectual Scheme for the Immediate Preventing 
 of Street Robberies, and suppressing the other dis- 
 orders of the night ; with a brief history of the 
 hight-houses, and an appendix relating to those sons 
 of hell, called incendiaries. Humbly inscribed to the 
 Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London. 
 London: Printed by J. Wilford, at the three Flower- 
 de-Luces, behind the Chapter House in St. Paul's 
 Churchyard. Price one shilling." This pamphlet, 
 which is an 8vo of seventy-two pages, was pub- 
 lished in 1 73 1, but the day and month are not 
 known. 
 
 His death occurred at his lodging in Rope- 
 maker's Alley on the 26th of April, 1731, in the 
 seventy-second year of his age ; but concerning the 
 circumstances of his last hours history is silent : he 
 seems to have died as he had lived — alone. Rope- 
 maker's Alley was hard by what is now Finsbury 
 Pavement (there is still a Ropemaker Street), into 
 which runs Fore Street, so he died only a few 
 yards from the spot where he was born. The 
 entry in the parish register runs as follows : 
 
384 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 "Daniel Defoe, gentleman. To Tindall's (Lethargy) 
 April 26," which is so far satisfactory, for it 
 describes him, as he had always wished to be 
 described, as a gentleman. This entry, despite its 
 baldness, is sufficient to bring before us the lordly 
 air of the portrait in front of the "Jure Divino." 
 " D'aniel Defoe, gentleman " : we see him gorgeous 
 in military accoutrements in the train of King 
 William ; we note his laced coat and sword when 
 down on his luck at Bristol ; we hear the rumble 
 of his "chariot" when "The True-born English- 
 man " and King William's favour had put money 
 into his purse again ; we remember his seal with 
 coat of arms ; his servants in livery ; and we feel 
 that it was distinctly kind of fate to humour him 
 even after his decease, and to write him down in 
 the Cripplegate register as " Daniel Defoe, gentle- 
 man." Of the death of so distinguished a man, 
 however, we should have been glad to learn more 
 than that he died of a lethargy. The contemporary 
 press referred to his .decease, but only briefly. " A 
 few days ago," says the Daily Journal, "died Mr. 
 Daniel Defoe, sen., a person well known for his 
 numerous and various writings." The Grub Street 
 yournal speaks of him as " The Great Author 
 deceased." 
 
 In 1737 Mr. Rivington, the publisher, issuing a 
 third edition of the " Plan of English Commerce," 
 announces it to be " By the late ingenious Mr, 
 Daniel Defoe." 
 
 From the lodging in Ropemaker's Alley they 
 bore him to Tindall's burying-ground, now Bunhill 
 
His Last Days. 
 
 385 
 
 Fields. The entry in the register of Tindall's was 
 evidently written by some ignoramus \yho had never 
 even heard of the great man's name ; who didn't 
 even trouble to spell it properly : " 1731, April 26, 
 Mr. Dubow, Cripplegate." 
 
 THE OLD TOMBSTONE OF DANIEL DEFOE,. 
 
 Over the remains of the literary giant they 
 placed a mean stone with the following inscription : 
 
 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 Author of 
 
 Robinson Crusoe 
 
 who died April 24 1731 
 
 in his 70th* year. 
 
 In 1858, when Mr. Chadwick visited the grave, 
 the stone was lying "broken, and the inscriptions 
 were obliterated." He was told that, the lightning 
 had done it. 
 
 * Doubtless an error. See. § 2 and elsewhere. 
 Z 
 
386 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 In 1870 a more worthy monument was placed 
 on the spot, the result of an appeal, and an appro- 
 priate one, in the columns of the Christian World, 
 "to the boys and girls of England." The inscrip- 
 tion is as follows : 
 
 I^On ihaff) 
 
 Daniel De-Foe 
 
 Born 1 66 1 
 
 Died 1 731 
 
 Author of 
 
 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 
 
 (On pedestal) 
 
 This monument is the result of an appeal, 
 
 in the " Christian World " newspaper, 
 
 to the boys and girls of England, for funds 
 
 to place a suitable memorial upon the grave 
 
 of 
 
 Daniel De-Foe 
 
 It represents the united contributions 
 
 of seventeen hundred persons. 
 
 Septr. 1870. 
 
 The monument consists of an Egyptian or Cleo- 
 patric pillar, eight feet four inches at the base, 
 tapering to a height of seventeen feet, and is con- 
 structeob out of two massive blocks of pure marble. 
 It is surrounded by a low iron railing. 
 
 On July 5th of the same year that Defoe died, 
 Mrs. Defoe, his widow, made her will according to 
 the powers of disposition given by the last will of 
 her brother, Samuel Tufifley. She gave to her 
 sons, Daniel and Benjamin, £1 each to buy a ring; 
 and to her daughter, Maria Langley, one-third of 
 the profits from her three houses in White Cross 
 
DEFOE'S TOMB IX BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL-GROUND. 
 {From photograph hy York aitd Son, Xotting Hill, JF.) 
 
His Last Days. 387 
 
 Alley, Moorfields, to be paid as long as the exe- 
 cutors enjoyed the same. The remaining two-thirds 
 was left to her daughters and executors, Hannah 
 and Henrietta equally ; but if Maria died before 
 the houses were out of the possession of the 
 executors, her share was to go to the other 
 daughters and to their heirs. Her daughter Baker 
 was to have ^i equal with her brothers. To 
 Hannah and Henrietta, equally, and to their heirs, 
 was left a farm at Dagenham, Essex, then in the 
 possession of Henry Camping, tenant, as well as 
 all the rest of the estate, including all plate . and 
 wearing apparel. 
 
 Mrs. Defoe died in December of the following 
 year, and was buried with her husband, whom she 
 had survived only a little over eighteen months. 
 
 In September, 1733, according to an entry in 
 the books of Doctors' Commons, letters of adminis- 
 tration on the goods and chattels of Daniel Defoe 
 were " granted to Mary Brooks, widow, a creditrix, 
 after summoning in official form the next-of-kin to 
 appear." 
 
 Mr. Lee's explanation of this is that Mrs. 
 Brooks was the person with whom Defoe lodged 
 in Ropemaker's Alley, and that his children, to 
 whom he had left fortunes, were so abominably 
 mean, that they would not even settle the small 
 sum owing at the time of his death for lodgings ; 
 and that Mrs. Brooks, in order to recoup herself, 
 seized those of Defoe's goods that were in her house. 
 
 z 2 
 
388 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 98.— defoe's library. 
 
 One is always curious regarding the library of 
 a man of genius, and Defoe's was a fine one. 
 About six months after his death, the greater part 
 was sold to Mr. Oliver Payne, the bookseller in 
 Round Court, in the Strand, who published a cata- 
 logue of it, together with a catalogue of the books 
 of the Rev. Philip Farewell, D.D. ; and advertised 
 the same in the Daily Advertiser, 13th November, 
 1 73 1. The advertisement calls our author the "In- 
 genious Daniel De Foe, Gent., lately deceas'd " ; 
 and speaks of the library as "containing a curious 
 collection of Books relating to the History and Anti- 
 quities of divers Nations, particularly England, Scot- 
 land, and Ireland." Further on, the description says ; 
 "N.B. Manuscripts. Also several hundred Curious, 
 Scarce Tracts on Parliamentary Affairs, Politicks, 
 Husbandry, Trade, Voyages, Natural History, Min- 
 erals, &c. Several Curious Prints, Medals, &c." 
 The. books are stated to be " in very good condi- 
 tion, mostly well-bound. Gilt and Lettered." The 
 lowest price was marked in each book : they were 
 to be ^old on the 1 5th of November, and after- 
 ward, until disposed of Eight booksellers' shops, 
 etc., are specified, where catalogues were to be had 
 gratis. 
 
 Unfortunately, this catalogue has been searched 
 for in vain, and it is to be feared that no copy 
 exists. One of the books on Defoe's shelves, it is 
 pleasing to note, was Charles Lillie's collection* of 
 
 * Published in 1735. 
 
His Last Days. 389 
 
 " Original and Genuine Letters sent to the Tatler 
 &nd Spectator," in two volumes, for on the sub- 
 scription list are the names of "Mr. Daniel De Foe," 
 and " Mr. Daniel De Foe, Junior." 
 
 99.— SUMMARY OF DEFOE'S WORK. 
 
 Of the life work of no author is a summary 
 more needful than of that of Daniel Defoe. Care- 
 ful as I have been in proceeding with these pages 
 to bring into prominence his great works, to throw 
 into the shade his minor ones, and to refer by 
 only a passing word to those that the world has 
 long lost all interest in, nevertheless the question 
 may not unreasonably be asked : Which out of this 
 mass of productions ought one to read — which 
 are Defoe's masterpieces ? Much as he might 
 admire Defoe, no man on earth would attempt to 
 read all Defoe's two hundred and fifty odd books. 
 No one would be so insane. There are other 
 authors to read beside Defoe, and the years of a 
 man's life are only three-score and ten. Hence the 
 need for a general summing up. 
 
 We will begin with his works of History, Bio- 
 graphy, and Fiction, for on them hangs his chief 
 claim to fame. 
 
 His two masterpieces are " Robinson Crusoe " 
 and " Moll Flanders." These are not only the 
 greatest works of Defoe, but among the greatest 
 works the world has produced. In them his art is 
 at its highest. By "Robinson Crusoe" is meant, of 
 course, the original work, what we now call Part I. 
 
39° The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 In the second rank stand the fine " Memoirs of a 
 CavaHer" and the inimitable "Journal of the Plague 
 Year." 
 
 To the third belong " Captain Singleton," " Colonel 
 Jack," and "Roxana." 
 
 He who reads these seven, together with "The 
 Apparition of Mrs. Veal," will have the crime de la 
 crime of Defoe ; and he will read every one, with the 
 exception of portions of " Singleton" and " Roxana," 
 without weariness. Most, he will devour with pas- 
 sionate delight. 
 
 For the busy man of the world this is enough ; 
 but the student, or any who has more time on his 
 hands, should read also " The Complete English 
 Tradesman," " Robinson Crusoe," Parts II. and III., 
 and " The Tours Through Britain " ; and he should 
 skim "The History of the Devil," "The System 
 of Magic," " The Use and Abuse," " The Reality 
 of Apparitions," " Duncan Campbell," " Dickory 
 Cronke," " The Family Instructor," " Religious 
 Courtship," and "The Essay on Projects," but in 
 all these, though there is abundance of toothsome 
 and nutritious food, there is also a large quantity 
 of chaff 
 
 Of Defoe's poetry, the man of the world need not 
 read any. The student even need concern himself 
 with nothing except " The True-born Englishman." 
 
 The best of Defoe's political pamphlets are " The 
 Shortest Way," " An Argument showing that a 
 Standing Army, etc.," and the three tracts dealt with 
 in § 44 ; but much as these productions are praised, 
 it would be untrue to say that at the present day they 
 
His Last Days. 391 
 
 are extensively read. Some of them are contained in 
 vol. iv. of the " Pocket Library of English Literature," 
 published by Percival and Co. 
 
 100.— DEFOE'S DESCENDANTS. 
 
 At Defoe's death in 1731, six of his children were 
 living : Hannah, who seems to have been the eldest, 
 Daniel, Benjamin, Maria (married to a Mr. Langley), 
 Henrietta, and Sophia (married to Henry Baker). 
 
 (i). — Hannah, who died single in 1759 (April 25), 
 and is buried at Wimborne, Dorset. She left her 
 property to her nephew, John Burton. 
 
 (2). — Daniel, born probably about 1785. We 
 know that he was not of age in 1705. He seems 
 to have married about 1707, for in the Clerkenwell 
 registers is the entry, "January i, 1708-9, Daniel, son 
 of Daniel De Foe, and Dorothy his wife." His first 
 wife must have died rather young, for, as we have 
 seen, in 1720, he married Mary Webb. The child 
 Daniel must also have died young, for in 1724 we 
 read of another Daniel, " an infant and nursed child," 
 who was buried at Hackney, June 14, 1724. Thus 
 two children of Daniel Defoe the second were named 
 Daniel, and both died young. 
 
 Second Generation. — A third child, Samuel, born 
 about 1730, was on April ist, 1743, put apprentice 
 to a calico-printer, in London. His apprenticeship 
 indentures are in my possession. He afterwards 
 followed the business upon his own account. In the 
 American war he lost a fortune. He died at Pedlar's 
 Acre in November, 1783, and was buried in Lambeth 
 
392 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Churchyard. By his first wife, who kept the Royal 
 Inn at West Ham, in Essex, he had three sons, 
 Samuel (died young), Richard, bred a carpenter, and 
 Joseph ; and by his second wife one son, James, and 
 three daughters. 
 
 Third Generation. — James, a box-maker and 
 undertaker, in Hungerford Market, had fourteen or 
 fifteen children, six of whom are buried in the church- 
 yard of St. Martin's-in-the- Fields. 
 
 Fourth Generation. — Two of the children of 
 James Defoe are still living, namely, James William. 
 (of Bishop's Stortford) and Mary, the latter of 
 whom is in enjoyment of a small government pen- 
 sion. With this lady, who is now sixty-six years 
 of age, I have long had the pleasure of being per- 
 sonally acquainted, and she has helped me much 
 in getting material for this book. For James 
 William Defoe, who is in the receipt of parish 
 relief, I in 1892, as stated in the preface of this 
 book, started an assistance fund. It is still open. 
 
 Fifth Generation. — James William has a large 
 family of daughters but only one son, Daniel, a 
 young man of eighteen. He is now (1894) an 
 apprentice at sea, "and," continued his aunt, as she 
 finished #ie story of the family, "we hope some 
 day to see him ship-captain," a hope, need it be 
 said, that we heartily endorse. 
 
 (3). — Benjamin Norton, married in 171810 Hannah 
 Coates of Norwich. They had seventeen children, 
 the eldest of whom, Benjamin, was baptised at 
 Norwich, 6th June, 17 19. Mrs. Defoe "was brought 
 from Hackney, and buried in Bunhill Fields," in 
 
His Last Days. 393 
 
 1737. The letters of Benjamin Defoe, in 1739, to 
 the Earl of Newcastle, show that he was then in 
 great poverty. He seems to have inherited a little 
 of his father's genius, and all his father's faults. 
 Subsequently he emigrated to Carolina. Only three 
 out of his seventeen children were living in 1737. 
 Their descendants are scattered about the earth. 
 One cropped up in a Melbourne post-office a year 
 or two back, but nothing could be got out of him 
 except that he hugged the tradition that he was 
 descended from the great Daniel. 
 
 According to a ridiculous scandal of the time, 
 Benjamin Norton Defoe was the son of Daniel 
 Defoe and an oyster-wench. Savage, in the Pre- 
 face to his "Author to be let," is primarily respon- 
 sible for propagating this precious legend ; and Pope, 
 whom Benjamin Defoe had abused in the Flying 
 Post, patted it into rhyme and inserted it in his 
 " Dunciad." 
 
 " Norton, from Daniel and Ostroea sprung, 
 Blest with his father's front and mother's tongue." 
 
 Among Benjamin Defoe's works were : "ACom- 
 pleat English Dictionary" (1735), the "Memoirs 
 of the Princes of the House of Orange," and " The 
 Life of Alderman Barber." 
 
 (4). — Maj'ia, married to a Mr. Langley. 
 
 (5). — Henrietta, married, subsequent to her father's 
 death, to John Boston of Much-Hadham, Herts. She 
 died March 5th, 1760, and was buried at Wimborne, 
 Dorset. John Boston, her son, inherited the pro- 
 perty of his aunt, Hannah Defoe. John's soa 
 William died at sea in 1784, aged fifteen. 
 
394 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 (6). — Sophia married to Henry Baker. She died 
 
 in 1772, at the age of seventy-one; her husband 
 
 died in November, 1774, leaving ;^20,ooo to his 
 
 son. They were buried in St. Clement Danes, 
 
 Strand, but there is no memorial to them. There 
 
 ought to be a memorial, for Baker left a name that 
 
 will ever be honoured in the scientific world ; and 
 
 I would suggest, as an accompaniment to its 
 
 wording, the sensible epitaph which he wrote for 
 
 himself : — 
 
 " Of all my cares and all my pains 
 If aught commendable remains 
 Be that my epitaph ; if not. 
 May I for ever be forgot." 
 
 By his wife Sophia, Henry Baker had two sons : 
 David Erskine (i 730-1 767), who died without issue, 
 and Henry (i 734-1 776). Henry left an only son, 
 William (i 762-1 828), who became Rector of Lyndon 
 and South Luffenham. The Rev. William Baker 
 left issue Henry Defoe Baker (Vicar of Greetham, 
 Rutland) and William Baker, M.D. (died, 1850). 
 The eldest son of Henry Defoe Baker, the Rev. 
 Henry Defoe Baker, is now (1894) Rector of 
 Thruxton, Hants ; the eldest son of Dr. William 
 Baker»is the Rev. William Defoe Baker, now Rector 
 of Welton, Line. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 SOME OF THE EVENTS CONNECTED WITH DEFOE AND 
 HIS WORKS, FROM 1733 TO THE PRESENT YEAR 1894. 
 
 1733. — Sept. 7 : Administration of the goods, etc., of Daniel Defoe. Granted 
 to Mary Brooke, widow, principal creditrix. Dec. 11 : Note from Benjamin 
 Norton Defoe (British Museum). 
 
 1736. — In this year Daniel Defoe, fib, was one of nine candidates for the 
 office of secretary to the Million Bank, vacant through the death, by suicide, of 
 Mr. Robert Harle. Twenty directors voted, the result being that Mr. Nathaniel 
 Neal was elected by a majority of one vote (ten to nine) over Mr. George Wallis. 
 " Mr. Daniel Defoe " appears to have been in the good graces of one director 
 only, as he received but a single vote. 
 
 1737- —A Mrs. Deffoe buried in Bunhill Fields. This was Hannah Coates, 
 wife of Benjamin Defoe. [j'« 1739.] 
 
 1738.— May 12 : Letter from Daniel Defoe, fih, to his cousin Miss Cornwall. 
 Written in London. His age was about 53. Oct. 2 : Benjamin Defoe writes to 
 Duke of Newcastle. He has had seventeen children in less than seventeen years. 
 Says his wife died ' ' last Christmas." 
 
 •739- —Nov. II: Letter of Benjamin Norton Defoe to Duke of Newcastle. 
 Nov. 24 : Another of ditto to ditto. He is in great poverty, and speaks of 
 having been recently connected with " The Craftsman." He expresses a desire 
 to serve the Government, therefore he was then in England. His age was 
 about 52. 
 
 1744.— The Apprenticeship Indenture of Samuel Defoe, Defoe's grandson 
 signed. It runs :—" This Indenture Witnesseth, that Samuell Deffoe doth put 
 himself apprentice to William Walker, Callicoe printer of Westham, in the county 
 of Essex, to learn his Art, and with him after the manner of an apprentice, to 
 serve from the first day of Aprill last past 1744 unto the full end and term of Six 
 years from thence following, etc., etc And the said Master in considera- 
 tion of Thirty pounds being the money given with ye said apprentice to instruct, 
 etc., etc." The Indenture is signed April 19th, in the l8th year of George 
 11. by 'S. Deffoe.' Witnesses— W""- Sale, Robert Browne." Sideways is 
 written (ink now very indistinct) "1st April, 1743, to serve by his Indenture 
 7 years, 1750." He bad served one year before this indenture was made. 
 
 This interesting relic is in my possession. It was given to me by Mr. James 
 William Defoe in 1892. 
 
 1747. — Biographia Britannica. Life of Defoe by Dr. Towers. 
 
 1761. — Henrietta (Defoe's daughter), wife of John Burton, died (Mar. 5). 
 
 1762. — Sophia, wife of Henry Balcer, died. Buried at St. Mary-le-Strand. 
 She was Defoe's youngest daughter. 
 
 1765-6. — The church of Presbyterians, founded by Defoe, erected the " Defoe 
 Presbyterian chapel " at Tooting, Surrey. 
 
 1786.— Life of Defoe by George Chalmers. 
 
396 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 1820. — Issue of a number of Defoe's works with Chalmers's Life. 
 
 1830. — Life and Times of Defoe by Walter Wilson. 3 vols. 
 
 1831. — Robinson Crusoe, with Life of Defoe by Roscoe. 
 
 1840. — " Defoe's Works," with Memoir by William Ilazlitt. 3 vols., 
 1840-43. 
 
 1840-41.— " Novels and Miscellaneous Works of Defoe." 20 vols. Oxford. 
 
 1858.^ — Historical and Biographical Essays, by John Forster. Vol. II. 
 
 1859. — Life of Defoe by William Chadwick. 
 
 1869. — " Daniel Dfefoe : his life, and recently discovered writings," by 
 William Lee, 3 vols. (Vol i., the life ; vols. ii. and iii., the writings.) 
 
 1870. — September. A monument to Defoe, placed over his grave, was un- 
 veiled in Bunhill Fields, by Mr. Charles Reed, M.P., in the presence of a great 
 concourse of people. It was the gift of the subscribers of The Christian 
 World. 
 
 1892. — A Building fund started for the erection of a Defoe Presbyterian 
 Church at Tooting for the congregation that formerly worshipped at the Defoe 
 Presbyterian Chapel. Pastor, Rev. William Anderson, D.D., Defoe Manse, 
 Tooting, London, S.W. 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 LIST OF THE LETTERS OF DEFOE. 
 
 To whom Written. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Where to be Found. 
 
 John Fransham 
 
 1704-1707 •■• 
 
 Notes and Queries, April 3 and 
 April 10, 1875. 
 
 Lord Halifax 
 
 1705, April 5 
 
 Lee, p. 106. 
 
 Do. 
 
 1705, July 16 
 
 Lee, p. 114. 
 
 Do. 
 
 1705 
 
 Lee, p. 117. 
 
 Harley 
 
 1705, Aug. 
 
 Wilson ii., p. 358. 
 
 Lord Wharton 
 
 1 7 10, April 7 
 
 Wilson iii., p. 121. 
 
 Dyer 
 
 1 7 10, June 17 
 
 Wilson iii., p. 185. 
 
 Keimer 
 
 (No date) ... 
 
 Notes and Queries, May 8, 1869. 
 
 Earl of Buchan ... ' ... 
 
 1711, May 29 
 
 Notes and Queries, Jan. 26, 1884. 
 
 DelaFaye 
 
 17 1 8, April 12 
 
 Lee, Introduction. 
 
 Do 
 
 1718, April- 26 
 
 Id. 
 
 Do 
 
 1718, May 10 
 
 Id. 
 
 Do 
 
 1 7 18, May 23 
 
 Id. 
 
 Do 
 
 1718, June 4 
 
 Id. 
 
 Do 
 
 1718, June 13 
 
 Id. 
 
 Henry Baker 
 
 1728, Jan. 9 
 
 Unpublished. Appendix. 
 
 Do. 
 
 1728, Jan. 21 
 
 Do. Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 1728, Jan. 25 
 
 Do. § 92. 
 
 Do. 
 
 1728, Aug. 23 
 
 Do. Appendix. 
 
 Do. 
 
 1728, Aug. 27 
 
 Do. Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 1728, Sept. 9 
 
 Do. Do. 
 
 Do. 
 
 1729, April 
 
 Do. Do. 
 
 Sophia Defoe 
 
 1729, June 9 
 
 Do. § 94. 
 
 Watts the Printer 
 
 1729, Sept. 10 
 
 Wilson iii. 
 
 Henry Baker 
 
 1730, Aug. 12 
 
 §96. 
 
 Of the eight unpublished letters of Defoe, one is given in § 92 and one in 
 § 94. The following are the other six — all of which refer to the dowry 
 squabble: — 
 
 (I-) 
 
 ' Newington, January ()th, 1728. 
 
 " Sir, — I must acknowledge I am very Sorry we should break at last upon a 
 Point so very nice and yet so important as This, and I am the more concerned 
 because I think we have been both wrong in omitting a more early Debate about it. 
 
 "After the Frankness with which I at first treated your proposal, and the 
 Kindness with which I always treated you personally, I should be very sorry to 
 
398 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 offer' anything now that should seem less kind than at first. Nor can I see the 
 leaist room to have it thought so ; but at the same time that I desire to be 
 thought kind, you will not, I hope, offer anything that shall look like unkind. 
 
 "The Thing proposed, I confess, is in ray Opinion consistent not w"' kind- 
 ness only, but with Justice. And, indeed. Justice to the rest of my little Family 
 commands it from Me : It is a little hard to put a Father to express himself upon 
 it, but at the same time that You argue your Case as an Husband, with what 
 Horror (excuse the Word) must I suppose the case before I can argue upon it as 
 a Father. I must suppose My Child lost, dead, childless. Mr. Baker, who now 
 I value and shall (before that) say I value and love, lost to me ; the Relation 
 sunk out of Nature and embarked perhaps in another Family, how can I look on 
 the rest of my Children disinherited and impoverisht by the double Loss of their 
 Sister and their Fortune ! Make the Case your own if that be possible. 
 
 " I can say no more ! 'tis my Weakness : I would hope for long Life and a 
 Family between you. God in his mercy grant it if you come together : but how 
 can You (and I much less) enter upon the melancholy and mornful Negative and 
 suppose me deprived doubly and made miserable, and yourself supported at the 
 expence of the Family. 
 
 " Besides what Necessity as well as what Justice to lay such a dead weight 
 always on a Father's Thoughts ready to sink with but the mention of it. 
 
 " If you live and encrease, the Thing is at an end ; if not, the Occasion is at 
 least lessened. I hope the odds is in your Favour : may it be to you and yours for 
 ever ; and if there is so apparent Hopes, why should you lay so much more weight 
 on the melancholy part : I run the Risque Equally and indeed much more than 
 you, for upon the whole you run no Risque at all. If you lose your Wife you 
 have all your own with its encrease, and I can not call it a maintaining her in 
 the mean time ; if she will not more than merit her maintenance. She will be a 
 worse Wife than I would wish Mr. Baker to have, and much worse than I hope 
 she will make. 
 
 " I am very sorry my Family circumstances make it needful to me to say this, 
 but as it is nothing but what is consistent with my first offer, and with the 
 Nature of the Thing customary in like Cases, and which I yielded to myself on 
 the like occasion, I can not be chargeable with taking the least step aside, from 
 what I proposed and what you had accepted. 
 
 " I am, with the same kindness and sincerity as before, 
 
 ' ' V- Friend affectionately, 
 
 ■ "D. F. 
 
 " P.S. — Pray reflect on the risque on my Side if my Child should drop off in 
 a year or two or less, as often happens. The very Thought afflicts me so I can- 
 not go on writing upon it. Suppose again you should be taken from her in a few 
 Years before you had encreased sufficiently for the support of a Family which 
 may be left : Where would that dead weight lye ? 
 
 "God avert these melancholy Things ! but they are all possible." 
 
 The following was written after Baker had worried Defoe to try to obtain 
 another lease for the house at Newington {see p. 360) : — 
 
 (2.) 
 
 " January 2Ut, 1 728. 
 
 "Sir, — I believe you will now be convinced that what I suggested in this 
 affair was right Judged, tho as I was not sure you might then think me mistaken. 
 The sending me to Sutton, to mend a title which I have not the least reason to 
 think precarious, has had the effect I expected, and put vain conceits in his head 
 of his power, which, however, I see no weight in, puff him up to refuse what I 
 have really no occasion to ask ; and you will see, if you please to judge impar- 
 tially, that I was not wrong when I said it was hard upon me, and without cause, 
 too. 
 
 ' ' However, nothing shall move me to any dispute with Mr. Baker, or lessen 
 my respect for him, and for that reason circumstances allow me not to offer any- 
 
Appendix. 399 
 
 thing that he thinks fit to accept (I can only say I am sorry for it), I shall make 
 no remark upon it here. If you please to let my lease be returned either to my 
 daughter or to my son in Finch Lane I shall leave your receipt with either of 
 them as you shall direct. 
 
 " I am, 
 
 " Sir, Your very Humble servant, 
 
 "De Foe." 
 Mr. Baker's Answer. 
 
 "Sir, — I never supposed you could force Sutton, but presumed I might with- 
 out oifence desire your endeavours towards another lease. You have tried, it 
 seems, in vain ; if then it can't be done, we must make the best of things without 
 it. I never shall expect impossibilities, but indeed wondered at your unwilling- 
 ness to attempt it, but I never intended it as a sine qua non. To have the house 
 is not my wish, and if you please, as yourself proposed, to secure the yearly pay- 
 ments, I shall not only be well contented, but be in the sincerest (manner ?) 
 
 " Your Most obliged 
 
 " Humble servant." 
 Defoe now sends his ultimatum ; — 
 
 (3.) 
 
 ^'London, August 2yd, 1728. 
 
 " I cannot but say I am concerned on many Accounts, to see an Affair of this 
 Nature hang thus in suspence ; and you will not take it ill that I add, It is more 
 than I expected, and that it is highly reasonable it should be brought to an 
 Issue. 
 
 " As I said to you at first, that if you design'd to ask my Daughter, you must 
 take her as I could give her, so I think it is far from being out of the Way to 
 repeat it : adding with it that I also think I have endeavoured to shew the 
 Respect I profess'd for you, by making as good proposals as my affairs will 
 admit. 
 
 " The first Proposal you have rejected, and also a second ; You and I will no 
 more debate the Reasons of it, because whether I think it fair or kind or other- 
 wise, Yet as I resolve to take nothing ill from You, so I choose to say no more of 
 it, I think my Offer was fully consistent with my first proposal as it is with my 
 Ability. 
 
 " You have since plac'd the Affair in another Situation demanding [word or 
 sum scratched out] down, which I said I would consider of. Many intervening 
 Accidents have made the Time much longer than I intended to take in giving my 
 Answer. I have now drawn it up and sent it herewith to my Daughter, to show 
 you : I have only to add, that as this is my Ultimatum, not that I shall but 
 that I can make an Offer of, I intreat, that you will consider of it so effectually, 
 that your answer may put an end to the whole affair, one way or other ; which I 
 ■ think highly necessary, as well for yourself, who have much trouble in it, as for 
 my child, who I am too heartily concerned for to think it proper to leave it longer 
 in Suspence. 
 
 "I am (and shall be which way soever this matter may issue) always 
 
 " Your sincere Friend 
 
 "and Servant." 
 
 Mr. D. P.'s Proposal. 
 
 "August 2yd, 1728. 
 
 " Mr. B — r's last Demand as of [ ]* down, and my Return is 
 
 thus — 
 
 "My Affairs do not permit me to advance the money presently, but I offer 
 this as Equivalent. 
 
 * Scratched out. 
 
400 The Life op Daniel Defoe. 
 
 " I. That I will pay [ ]* at a certain Term, or sooner if it may be. 
 
 " 2. That tiU it be paid I will pay the Interest annually at £4 per cent., 
 which is the ordinary Interest of Money. 
 
 "3. That in Case of Mortality, Hannah will oblige herself to pay the 
 [ ]* out of the Essex Estate, which shall be legally vested in her to enable 
 
 her to perform it, and to come immediately upon my Decease into her Hands. 
 
 " This I take to be paying the Money down, seeing Mr. B — r does not pretend 
 to want the Money otherwise than to put it out to Interest." 
 
 Now they haggle as to whether four per cent, or five per cent, shall be paid 
 upon Sophia's dowry as long as it remains in Defoe's hands. (See p. 563 ) 
 
 (4.) 
 
 " Newington, August i-jth, 1728. 
 
 " S" — I am sorry there should be any manner of room for an objection when 
 we are so near a Conclusion of an Affair like this. I should be very uneasy when 
 I give you a Gift of so much value (and I hope I do not over rate her neither), 
 there should be any reserve among us that should leave the least room for un- 
 kindness or so much as thinking of unkindness, no, not so much as of the Word. 
 
 "But there is a Family Reason why I am tyed down to the words of four per 
 cent., and -I cannot think Mr. Baker should dispute so small a matter with me, 
 after I tell him so (viz.) that I am so tyed down. I can, I believe, ' many ways 
 make him up the little sum of [ ]* a year, and when I tell you thus, 
 
 under my Hand, that I shall think myself obliged to do it durante vita, I shall 
 add that I shall think myself more obliged to do so, than if you had it under hand 
 and seal. 
 
 "But if you are not willing to trust me on my Parols, for so small a sura and 
 that according to the great Treaties abroad there must be a secret Article in our 
 Negotiations : I say if it must be so, I would fain put myself in a Condition- to 
 deny you nothing which you can ask, Ijelieving you will ask nothing- of me which 
 I ought to deny. 
 
 " When you speak of a Child's Fortune, which I own you do very 
 modestly, you must give me leave to say only this, you must accept of 
 this in bar of my Claim from the City Customs, and I doubt you will 
 have too much Reason, seeing I can hardly hope to do equally for all the 
 rest as I shall for my dear Sophia ; but after that, you shall only allow me to 
 say, and that you shall depend upon, whatever it shall please God to bless me 
 with more shall have a deeper share in it, and you need do no more than remem- 
 ber that she is, ever was, and ever will be, my dearest and best beloved. And 
 let me add again I hope you will take it for a Mark of my Singular Esteem, and 
 Affectionate Concern for you, that I thus give her to you, and that I say too, if I 
 could give her much more it should be to you with the same affection. 
 
 " Yours without Flattery, 
 
 "D. F." 
 
 As further security for the dowry. Baker wants Defoe to mortgage the Essex 
 property.* Defoe declines. 
 
 (SO 
 
 " Newington, September <)th, 1 728. 
 
 " I am very Sorry to hear that Mr. Forster should say I have not acted with 
 Honour in this Affair. I must ask your Leave to think quite otherwise, and that 
 I am not well used at all. 
 
 "From the beginning, I said, both to you and Mr. Forster, that I would 
 never Mortgage the Triffle {sic) I have in Essex for the Security of this Affair. 
 I did not speak ambiguously in it at all, but in Words at length and explicit such 
 as were capable of no other meaning, so as an honest Man ought always to speak. 
 
 " Mr. Forster concludes from hence, that it is already Mortgaged, which is 
 something hard. I told him it was at first indeed engaged for £200, which is. 
 since paid off. - 
 
 But that I may more fully explain it, if it must be so, the Case is this and 
 
 * Scratched out. 
 
Appendix. 401 
 
 nothing else (viz.), that being arrived to an Age when, if ever it is needful to 
 Settle what little I have among my Children, this is so settled and so engaged 
 and no otherwise, and I cannot think it a Breach of Honour, that I do not think 
 it proper to expose, no, not to my own Children, all the particulars of my 
 Family Settle', while I am still living ; and as this is the only reason, and 
 that no Mortgage or other Engagement is made on the Estate but this, and yet, 
 that this binds me not to make any other Disposition of it, I cannot see how I 
 act dishononrably, and I think ought not to be told so. I am sorry I am 
 obliged to say this, but since this is Truth, and that the Circumstances oblige me 
 to speak it, I hope you will excuse my Freedom. I shall still be with respect as 
 before, 
 
 "Your humble Servant, 
 
 "D. F." 
 
 (6.) 
 
 No date. Apparently just before the marriage of Mr. Baker, i.e., April, 1729. 
 [,Seepp. 369-370.) 
 
 "Sir, — I have perused the writing and see nothing amiss with it, if you 
 think the security against the lost writings is sufficient, but I thought Mr. 
 Curryer, in whose possession they were lelt and by whom they are lost (or by 
 persons intrusted by him), should have given something under his hand obliging 
 him to deliver up the old deed and Assignment to be cancelled, if it should 
 come to his hand, and should have indemnified D. F. from all Claims or preten- 
 sions which might hereafter be made by any person on the foot (?) of those 
 writings, nothing of which is mentioned in this deed. 
 
 " There is a small objection which occurs to me against a clause in the draft 
 of the marriage contract which I perused but hastily and in disorder that night on 
 account of our family being so discomposed, I suppose it is not too late. The 
 payment of the £200 is made to take place within a month after my decease, 
 which is sooner than can be supposed executors can be in readiness after such a 
 revolution in the family. Such things have usually twelve months time allowed, 
 and as my effects will be much abroad I think it 'cannot be expected in less. This 
 is a matter so reasonable that I hope you cannot scruple the alteration. 
 
 " I am your Fiiend and servant, 
 
 "Friday night. ' " Dei'oe." 
 
 A A 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 THE MEETING OF . DEFOE AND SELKIRK. 
 
 In connection with the meeting of Selkirk and Defoe, mentioned in ^ 42, I 
 received from Mr. Richard Champion Rawlins two statements from separate and 
 original sources. These were sent to Mr. Plugh Owen, the antiquary, by the late 
 Francis Fry, who, like Mr. Owen, was an enthusiastic and painstaking member 
 of the Society of Antiquaries. 
 
 The first statement consists of an undated letter to the Editor of the Bristol 
 Mirror, and rutis as follows : — 
 
 " Sir, — Have accidentally taken up an old paper of yours, Oct. 20, 1849. I 
 found it stated in a very interesting account of the Duke and Duchess Privateers 
 that my grandfather. Alderman Harford, was the first person who proved that 
 'Defoe composed " Robinson Crusoe" from papers given him by Alex. Selkirk, 
 and that you would be glad of any further information on the subject.' I have 
 much pleasure in confirming the account there given, haying often heard my father 
 say ' that an old lady, Mrs. Daniel, a daughter of the celebrated Major Wade, 
 told my grandfather that Selkirk had informed her. that he had placed his papers 
 in Defoe's hands.' My grandfather purchased many of the things which were 
 sold on the return of the Duke and Duchess with the rich prize of the Manilla 
 Ship (mentioned by Woodes Rogers in his account of the voyage in which 
 Selkirk was found on the Island of Juan Fernandez. They are now in my pos- 
 session, and consist principally of very handsome china, which was given to the 
 Queen of Spain, with curious articles in tortoise shell and Indian ink. 
 
 ' ' Captain Rogers, who commanded the Duke and Duchess, lived at Frenchay 
 in the house near the residence of Mrs. Brice. 
 
 "Frenchay." "H.C.Harford." 
 
 The preceding, as stated, has been published, but the following, which belongs 
 to a date fifteen years previous, has not been published. It is in the handwriting 
 of Francis Fry, and runs as follows : — ■ 
 
 " Memm. after a conversation with W. P. Lunell, 5th month, 1834. 
 
 "Joseph Beck, the father of Joseph, the husband of the well known Mary 
 Beck, built the house at Frenchay. The wife of the elder Joseph Beck, sur- 
 vived him. She had three husbands, Jos. Beck, Coysgarne, and lastly Daniells, 
 This Mrs. Daniells lived at a corner house in James Square, Bristol, the corner 
 originally opposite the entrance from the Barton. Here she was visited by 
 Alexander Selkirk, then recently returned from his solitary abode in the Island 
 of Juan Fernandez. There also she was accustomed to entertain Daniel De Foe. 
 It was in her house tha't Selkirk gave De Foe an account of his adventures, etc., 
 from whicW De Foe drew up a narrative of Selkirk which was published. 
 Many years later Defoe wrote and published his romance of Robinson Crusoe, 
 the notion of which was suggested by Selkirk's narrative. The Romance 
 speedily supplanted the genuine work, and while the existence of the latter is now 
 hardly known the former is still among the most popular of books. 
 
 " A gentleman (name forgotten) who was accustomed to meet Selkirk at Mrs. 
 Daniells' sent a paper to the Gentleman's Magazine containing a very specific 
 account of what he heard from him. 
 
 "W. P. Lunell died 30 or 40 years since. His sons are living. The fore- 
 going has been copied by some few but never published just as here given. Who 
 the conversation was with I do not know, but it is quite authentic. It works in 
 with J. Harford's account, and the gentleman alluded to as sending to the Gent. 
 Ma^. was no doubt Joseph Harford. Use this as you like as original, 
 
 '"Gotham, 1868." "(Srt.) Francis Fry." 
 
 " The conversation as copied was given to me by a friend of mine who knew 
 all the parties." 
 

 . *fot..„ e«.it^ C-^ji I ie.^ uj„ ^tc.J'L , -^ _, o. e*'?^ 5^«-jl2> /. 
 
 ,■5 
 
 
 
 (« 
 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE FROM "THE COMPLEAT ENGLISH GENTLEMAN.' 
 
 A A 
 

 
 ::''■ X t:* ^J^K^' eft- f-^' ''"^b - '^ ^'*- -^ "^ -^ 
 
 
 
 P/VGE FROM "THE COMPLEAT ENGLISH GENTLEMAN." 
 
APPENDIX D. 
 
 MR. LEE'S LIST OF DANIEL DEFOE'S WORKS, WITH A 
 FEW ALTERATIONS BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Note. — The Works underlined are in verse. 
 
 1.— Tract on the Turks. (Lost.) 1683. 
 
 2.— A New Discovery of an Old Intreague. A Satyr level'd at Treachery and 
 AnMtion : Calculated to the Nativity of the Rapparee Plott, and the Modesty of 
 of the Jacobite Clergy. Designed by Way of Conviction to the 117 Petitioners, 
 and for the Benefit of those that Study the Mathematicks, &c. Printed in the 
 Year 1691. (4to. pp. 36.) 1691. 
 
 3.. — The Anglishriian's Choice, and True Interest: In a Vigorous Prosecution 
 of the War against France and Serving A'. Willintn and Q. Mary, and acknow- 
 ledging their Right. London. Printed in the Year 1694. (4to. pp. 32.) 1694. 
 
 4. The Character of the late Dr. Samuel Anneslry , by Way of Elegy. 
 
 (Folio.) 1697. 
 
 B. — Some Reflections on a Pamphlet lately Published, entitled, "An Argu- 
 ment showing that a Standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government, and 
 absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy." London. 
 Printed for E. Whitlock, 1697. (4to. pp. 28.) ist Edition, 1697.— (410. pp. 28.) 
 and Edition, 1697. 
 
 6. — An Enquiry into the Occasional Conformity of Dissenters in Cases of 
 Preferment. With a Preface to the Lord Mayor, Occasioned by his carrying the 
 Sword to a Conventicle. London. Printed Anno Dom. 1697. (4to. 4 leaves & 
 28 pages. ) 25 Jan. 1698. 
 
 7. — An Essay upon Projects. London. Printed by P. R. for Tlw. Cockerill, 
 at the Corner of Warwick Lane, 1697. (8vo. Title, pp. xiv 6i 336.) 1st 
 Edition, 29 May, 1698. — "With a New Title, 2nd Edition, 23 May, 1702. 
 
 8. — The Poor Man's Plea, in Relation to all the Proclamations, Declarations, 
 Acts of Parliament, &c., which have been or shall be made or published for a 
 Reformation of Manners, and suppressing Immorality in the Nation. London. 
 Printed in the Year 1698. (4to. 2 leaves, pp. 31.) 1st Edition, 31 Mar. 1698. — 
 2nd Edition, 24 May, 1698.— 3rd Edition, 26 Mar. 1700. 
 
 9.— An Argument showing that a Standing Army, with Coment of Parlia- 
 ment, is not inconsistent with a Pre'e Government. London. • E. Whitlock. 
 (4to. 2 leaves & pp. 26.) 1698. 
 
 10. — The Pacificator, a Poem. London. Sold by J. Nutt near Stationers' 
 Hall. Folio. (Title & pp. 14-) 20 Feb. 1700. 
 
 W.— The T1U0 Great Questions Considered. I. What the French King will 
 do, with respect to the Spanish Monarchy. II. What Measures the Englisli 
 ought to Take. London. Printed in the Year 1700. (4to. 2 leaves & pp. 28.) 
 J 5 Nov. 1700. 
 
 12, — An Enquiry into the Occasional Conformity of Dissenters in Cases of 
 Preferment. With, a Preface to Mr. How. London. Piinted, Anno Dom. 
 1701. 20 Nov. 1700. 
 
4o6 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 13.— The Two Great Questions further Consider' d. With some Reply to the 
 Keraarks. Non licet hominem Muliebriter Rixari. London. (4to.) 2 Dec. 
 1700. 
 
 14.— The Six distinguishing Characters of a Parliament Man ; address'd to 
 the good People of England. London. Printed in the Year 1700. (4to. 2 leaves 
 &pp. 22.) 4 Jan. 1 701. 
 
 15.— The Danger of the Protestant Religion Considered, from the present 
 Prospect of a Religious War in Europe. Printed in the Year 1701. (4to.) 
 9 Jan. 1 701. 
 
 16.— The True-Born Englishman. A Satyr. Printed in the Year 1700. 
 (4to. 2 leaves &. pp. 71.) 1st Edition, Jan. 1701.— With an Explanatory Preface. 
 (4to. 5 leaves & pp. 60.) 9th Edition, 1701.— " A New Edition Neatly Printed 
 on a Superfine Paper with an Elzevir Letter very much enlarged of the True-Born 
 Englishman. Just Published. London. J. Koberts. (8vo. .) With a 
 
 New Preface." 22 March, 1716. — "AiVfO/and Correct Edition (on an Elzevir 
 Letter) of the True-Born Englishman. A Satyr. To which is prefixed a New 
 Preface by the Author, adapted to the Present Reign. Price 6d." 9 Oct. 1719. 
 — " A Neat Pocket Edition (Corrected and Enlarged liy the Author) of the True- 
 Born Englishman, A Satyr. Price 6d." 2 Nov. 1721. 
 
 17. — Considerations upon Corrupt Elections of Members to serve in Parliament. 
 London. Printed in the Year 1 701. (4to. 2 leaves & pp. 24.) Jan. 1 701. 
 
 18. — The Freeholders Plea against Stock-Jobbing Elections of Parliament-Men. 
 London. Printed in the Year 1701. (4to. 2 leaves & pp. 27.) 1st Edition, 
 23 Jan. 1701. — 2nd Edition, 4 Feb. 1701. 
 
 19.— A Letter to Mr. How by Way of Reply to his Observations on the 
 Preface to the Enquiry into the Occasional Conformity of Dissenters in Case of 
 Preferment. By the Author of the Preface and the Enquiry. Printed 1701. 
 By A. Baldwin in Warwick Lane. 24 Jan. 1701. 
 
 20.— The Villainy of Stock-jobbers detected, and the Causes of the late Run 
 upon the Bank and Bankers Discovered and Considered. London. Printed in 
 the Year 1701. 1st Edition, nth Feb. 1701. — (4to. Title & pp. 26.) 2nd 
 Edition, 17 Feb. 1701. 
 
 21. — "Vhe Succession \o 'Ctxe. Crown of England Considered. London. Printed 
 in the Year 1701. (4to. pp. 38.) About I March, 1701. 
 
 22. — Legion's Memorial to the House of Commons (2 leaves quarto) presented. 
 14 May, 1 701. 
 
 23! — The History of the Kentish Petition. London. Printed in the Year 
 1701. (4to. Title & Preface 3 leaves & pp. 25.) August, 1701. 
 
 24. — The Present State oi Jacobitistn Considered, in two Queries. I. What 
 Measures the T^rOTC/^ Kingvi'Al take with respect to the Person 2.ni Title o( the 
 P. P. of Wales ? IL What the Jacobites in England ought to do on the same 
 Account? London. A. Baldwin. (4to. Title & Preface 3 leaves, pp. 22.) 
 Before Oct. 1701. 
 
 25. — Reasons against a War with France ; or, an Argument shewing that the 
 French King^s Owning the Prince of Wales as King ot England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland, is ift Sufficient Ground of a War. London. Printed in the Year 1701. 
 (4tD. Title & pp. 30.) October, 1701. 
 
 26. — The Original Power of the Collective Body of the People of England, 
 Examined and Asserted. With a double Dedication to ihe King, and to the 
 Parliament. London. (Folio, Title and Dedications 4 leaves & p. 24.) Printed 
 in the year 1702. 27 Dec. 1701. 
 
 27. — Legion's New Paper : Being a Second Memorial to the Gentlemen of a 
 late House of Commons. With Legion's Humble Address to His Majesty. 
 London. Printed and are to be Sold by the Booksellers of London and West- 
 minster. (4to. pp. 18.) I Jan. 1702. 
 
 28. — The Mock Mourners, a, Satyr, by way of Elegy on King William. By 
 the Author of the True-born Englishman. London. W. Gunne. ist Edition, 
 about May, 1702. — Corrected. (410. 2 leaves & pp. 20.) Price 6rf. 2nd Edition, 
 1702. — Corrected. (4to. 2 leaves & pp. 32.) 3rd Edition, 1702. — Corrected. 
 (8vo. pp. 16. Corrected by the Author. London. Printed 1702.) 7th Edition. 
 23 Feb. 1703. 
 
Appendix. 407 
 
 <2.9.— Reformation, of Manners . A Satyr. Va Vobis Hypocrite. Printed in 
 the year 1702. (4to. 2 leaves & pp. 64.) 1702. 
 
 30. — A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty : or, Whiggish Loyalty 
 and Church Loyalty Compared. Printed in the year 1702. (410. Title and 
 pp. 34.) June, 1702. 
 
 ZX.— Good Advice to the Ladies : shewing, that, as the World goes, and is 
 like to go, the best way for them is to keep Unmarried. By the Author of the 
 True-born Knglishman. Printed in the year 1702. (4to. Title & Preface 4 leaves 
 pp. 16.) 1st Edition, 3 Sept. 1702. — (The Second Edition corrected) with the 
 Character of a Beau. London. Printed for R. Smith, without Temple Bar, and 
 are sold by J. Nutt, near Stationers' Hall. (4I0. Title and Preface 3 leaves 
 & pp. 16.) 2nd Edition, 1705. 
 
 32. — The Spanish Descent . A .Poem. By the Author of the True-born 
 Englishman. London. Printed in the year 1702. (4to. pp. 27.) Nov. 1702. 
 
 33. — An Enquiry into Occasional^ Conformity. Shewing that the Dissenters 
 are in no Way Concerned in it. By the Author of the Preface to Mr. How. 
 London. (4to. pp. 31.) 1st Edition, Nov. 1702. — In his collected Writings, 
 2nd Edition, 1703. — (The same with the following Title) an Enquiry into the 
 Occasional Conformity Bill. By the Author of the True-Born Englishman. 
 London. (4to. pp. 14.) , 3rd Edition, 1704. 
 
 34. — The Shortest Way with the Dissenters : or. Proposals for the Estalilish- 
 ment oi Ihe Church. London. Printed in the year 1702. (4to. Title & pp. 29). 
 
 1 Dec. 1702. 
 
 35. — A Brief Explanation of a late Pamphlet, entitled The Shortest Way 
 with the Dissenters. 1703. 
 
 36. — King William'' s Affection to the Church of England, Examined. London. 
 (4to. pp. 26.) 1st Edition, 25 March, 1703. — 2nd Edition, 1703. — (4to. Title & 
 pp. 26.) 3rd Edition, 3rd April, 1703. — (4.to. Title & pp. 36.) 4th Edition, 
 13 April, 1703. 
 
 37.— - An Ode lo the Athenian Society, signed D. F. In the second volume of 
 the Athenian Oracle. (8vo. i leaf.) 6 May, 1703. 
 
 38. ^A True Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True-Born 
 Englishman, corrected by himself. London. (8vo. Portrait 12 leaves pp. 465.) 
 A Spurious Edition had been published about six months before, ist Edition, 
 July, 1703. — 2nd Edition, 1705. 
 
 39. — A Second Volume of the Writings of the Author of the True-Born 
 Englishman. Some whereof never before Printed, Corrected and Enlarged by 
 the Author. London. Printed and Sold by the Booksellers. 1705. Price 6s. 
 (8vo. Portrait, Title, Preface and Contents 8 leaves pp. 479.} Beginning of 1705. 
 — The Collected Works of the Author of the True-Born Englishman, containing 
 &c., with a Key. 2 Vols. 8vo. 3rd Edition. 28 December, 1710. — A True 
 Collection of the Wiitings of the True-Born Englishman. 2 vols. 8vo. 4th 
 Edition, I July, 1713. 
 WRITTEN DURING HIS FIRST IMPRISONMENT IN NEWGATE. 
 
 40.— A Bymn to the Pillory . London. Printed in the year 1703. (4to. 
 
 2 leaves & pp. 24.) 29 July, 1703. — (Reprinted and sold in the Streets.) 25 Feb. 
 1721. 
 
 <il.— More Reformation. A Satyr upon himself. By the Author of the True- 
 Born Englishman: London. Printed in the year 1703. (410. 4 leaves & 
 pp. 52.) 16 July, 1703. 
 
 42. — The Shortest Way to Peace and Union. By the Author of the Shortest 
 Way with the Dissenters. London. (410. pp. 26.) 28 July, 1703. 
 
 43. — The Sincerity of the Dissenters Vindicated from the Scandal of Occa- 
 sional Conformity. With some Considerations on a late Book, entitled, Modera- 
 tion a Virtue. London. Printed in the year 1703. Price 6d. (4to. pp. 27.) 
 18 Sept. 1703. 
 
 44. — An Enquiry into the Case of Mr. AsgiVs General Translation : shewing 
 that 'tis not a nearer way to Heaven than the Grave. By the Author of the True- 
 Boni Englishman. London. J. Nutt. (8vp. 4 leaves & pp. 48.). 4 Nov. 1703. 
 — Reissued 1704. 
 
4o8 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 45. — A Challenge oi Peace, addressed to the whole Nation, with an Enquiry 
 into Ways and Means for bringing it to pass. London. (4to. 4 leaves & pp. 24.) 
 23 Nov. 1703. ' 
 
 46. — Some Remarks on the First Chapter in Dr. Davenant's Essays, concerning 
 Appeals to the People from their Represenialives. Printed and Sold, by A. 
 Baldwin. London, 1704. (4to. Title & pp. 29.) 1st Edition, 10 Dec. 1703. — 
 Reissued with Title of " Original Right,^' &c. (4to. pp. 30.) 2nd Edition, 1704. 
 47. — The Liberty of ^Episcopal Dissenters in Scotland truly Stated. . By a 
 Gentleman. 4to. 1703. 
 
 48. — Peace without Union. By way of Reply to Sir H — M — 's Peace at 
 Home. London. (Folio, Title & pp. 14.) 1st Edition, Dec. 1703. — (4to.) 
 2nd Edition, 5 Jan. 1704. — 3rd Edition, 7 March, 1704. — To which is added a 
 Preface. (8vo. pp. 24.) — 4th Edition, 1704. 
 
 49. — The Dissenters'' Answer to the High Church Challenge. London. (4to. 
 PP- 5S-) 5 Jan. 1704. 
 
 50. — An Essay on the Regtilat/on of the Press. Sold by the Booksellers of 
 London and Westminster. Price 6d. (4to.) 7 Jan. 1704. 
 
 51.^ — A Serious Inquiry into this Grand Question :• Whether a Law to prevent 
 Occasional Conformity of Dissenters would rot be Inconsistent with the Act of 
 I'oleration, and a Breach of the Queen's Promise. London. Printed in the year 
 1704.' (4to. pp. 28.) Early in 1704. 
 
 52. — The Parallel : or, Persecution oi Protestants the shortest Way to prevent 
 the Growth of Popery in Ireland. (4to.) About Feb. or early in 1704. 
 
 53. — The Layman's Sermon upon the l^te Storm. Held forth at an honest 
 Coffee-House Conventicle. Not so much a Jest as 'tis thought to be. (4to. 
 Title & pp. 24.) 24 Feb. 1704. 
 
 54. — Royal Religion. Being some Enquiry after the /"zV/y of Princes. With 
 Remarks on a Book, Entitled a Form of Prayers used by King William. (4to. 
 pp.27.) Price 6d. 1st Edition, 18 Mar. 1704. — 2nd Edition, 1704. 
 
 55. — Legion's Humble Address to the Lords. (One leaf folio.) About April, 
 170^. 
 
 56. — More Short Ways with the Dissenters. London. (4to. pp. 24.) 28 
 April, 1704. 
 
 57. — Tiie. Dissenters Misrepresented &nd. Represented. (4to.) May, 1704. 
 68. — A New Test of the Church of England's Honesty. London. Printed in 
 the year 1704. (410. Title & pp. 24.) 16 July, 1704. 
 
 69. — The Storm ; or, a Collection of the Most Remarkable Casualties and 
 Disasters, which happened in the late Dreadful Tempest, both by Sea and Land. 
 London. G. Sawbridge. 1704. Price 3s. 6d. (8vo. Title and Preface 8 leaves 
 & pp. 272.) 17 July, 1704. 
 
 WRITTEN AT BURY. 
 
 60. — An Elesv on the Author nf the Trice- Born Ejiglisliman. Wiih an Essay 
 on the late i>torm. By the Autlior ot the Hymn to the Pillory. London. (410. 
 Title and Pref^ee 2 leaves & pp. 56.) 15 Aug. 1704. 
 
 61. — A True State of the Difference between Sir George Rooke, Kt., and 
 William Colepeper, Esq , together with an Account of the Trial of Mr. Nathaniel 
 Denew, Mr. Robert Britton, and Mr. Merrian ; before the Right Hon. Sir John 
 Holt, Kt. , Lord Chief Justice 0/ England, on an Indictment for the Designs and 
 Attempts therein mentioned against the Life of the said Wm. Colepeper, on 
 behalf of the said Sir George Rooke. Sold by the Booksellers of London and 
 Westminster. London. (Folio pp. 44.) 22 Aug. 1704. 
 
 62.— A Hvmn to Victory. By the Author of the True- Born Englishman. 
 London. Printed for John Nutt, near Stationers' Hall. (4to. 4 leaves & pp. 52.) 
 1st Edition, 29 Aug. 1704. — Three Spurious Editions, i, a HaK^-sheet. 2, a Sheet, 
 3, a Sheet and a half. Aug. 1704. — (With Latin Epigrams behind Title.) (410. 
 4 leaves & 52 pages.) London. Printed for J. Nutt, near Stationers' Hall. 2nd 
 Edition, 9 Sept. 1704. 
 
 63. — The Protestant Jcsuite Unmasked. In answer to the two Parts of 
 Cassandra. Wherein the Author and his Libels are laid open, with the True 
 
Appendix. 409 
 
 Reasons why he would have the Dissenters Hutnbled. With my service to Mr. 
 Lesley. London. Printed in the year 1704. (410. 2 leaves & pp. 52.) 12 Sept. 
 1704. 
 
 WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO LONDON. 
 
 64. — Giving Ahns no Charity, and Employing the Poor a Grievance to the 
 Nation. Being an Essay upon this Great Question. Whether Workhouses, 
 Corporations, and Houses of Correction for Employing the Poor, as now practised 
 in England, or Parish Stocks as proposed in a late Pamphlet, Entitled, A Bill 
 for the better Relief, Imployment and Settlement of the Poor, &c., are not mis- 
 chievous to the Nation, tending to the Destruction of our Trade, and to Encrease 
 the Number and Misery of the Poor, Addressed to the Parliament of England. 
 London. (4to. pp. 28.) 18 Nov. 1704. 
 
 65.— The Double Welcome . A Poem to the Duke of Marlborough. London. 
 Printed in the year 1705. (410. Title & pp. 30.) 9 Jan. 1705. 
 
 66. — Persecution Anatomized : or an Answer to the following Questions, viz. 
 I. What Persecution for Conscience Sake is? II. Whether any High Church that 
 Promote the Occasional Bill, may not properly be called Persecutors? III. 
 Whether any Church whatever, whilst it Savours of a Persecuting Spirit, is a 
 true Church ? IV. Who are the greatest Promoters of a Nation's Welfare, the 
 High Church or Dissenters? London. Printed in the year 1705. (4to. Title 
 and Dedication 2 leaves & pp. 23.) 22 Feb. 1705.' 
 
 67. — A Review of the Affairs of France, and of all Europe as influenced by 
 that Nation, &c. &c. (4to. pp. 424. Five Supplements of Scandal Club, pp. 
 140, and Appendix, pp. 32.) Vol. I. London. 24 Feb. 1705. 
 
 68. — The Consolidator : or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World 
 in the Moon. Translated from the Lunar Language. By the Author of the 
 Trut-Born En^lishiiia^u London. Printed and are to be sold by Beiij. Bragg. 
 (8vo. 2 Titles, pp. 360.) 26 IVfar. 1705. — With Additions. 2nd Edition, 17 
 Nov. 1705. 
 
 69. — A Journey to the World in the Moon, &c. By the Author of the True- 
 Bom Englishman. Printed at London and Reprinted at Edinburgh by James 
 Watson in Craig's Closs. (4to. pp. 4.) 1705. 
 
 YO. — A Leiter from the Man in the Moon to the Author of the True-Born 
 Enghshman. Printed at London and Reprinted at Edinburgh by James Watson 
 in Craig's Closs. (4to. pp. 4.) 1705. 
 
 71. — A Second Journey to the World in the Moon, &c. By the Author of 
 the True-Born Englishman. London. (4to. pp. 4.) 1795. 
 
 72. — The Experiment ; or, the Shortest Way with the Dissenters Exemplified. 
 Being the Case of Mr. Abraham Gill, u Dissenting Minister' in the Isle of Ely, 
 and a full Account of his being sent for a Soldier by Mr. Fern (an Ecclesiastical 
 Justice of the Peace) and other Conspirators. To the Eternal Honour of the 
 Temper and Moderation of High Church Principles. Humbly Dedicated to the 
 Queen. London. Printed and Sold by B. Bragg. (410. 3 leaves & pp. 58.) 
 1st Edition, 27 March, 1705. — The Modesty and Sincerity of those worthy 
 English Gentlemen commonly called High Churchmen, exemplified in a Modern 
 Instance. Most humbly dedicated to her Majesty and her High Court of Parlia- 
 ment. London. B. Bragg. (4to. 3 leaves & pp. 58.) 2nd Edition, ig Oct. 1706. 
 
 73. — Advice to all Parlies. By the Author of the True-Born Englishman. 
 London. Printed and are to be sold by B. Bragg. (4to. 2 leaves & pp. 24.) 
 30 April, 1705. 
 
 74.— The Dyet of Poland. A Satyr. Printed at Dantzick in the year 1705. 
 (4to. 2 leaves & pp. 60.) May, 1705. 
 
 75. — The High Church Legion : or, the Memorial Examined. Being a New 
 Test of Moderation, as 'tis recommended to all that love the Church of England 
 and the Constitution. London. (4to. 3 leaves & pp. 21.) 17 July, 1705. 
 
 76. — A Declaration without Doors. By the Author of the True-Born Eng- 
 lishman. Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster. (4to.) 24 Oct. 
 1705. 
 
 77. — Party Tyranny : or, An Occasional Bill in Miniature ; as now Practised 
 
4IO The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 in Carolina : Humbly offered to the Consideration of both Houses of Parliament. 
 London. (410. Title and pp. 30.) About Nov. 1705. 
 
 78. — An Answer to Lord Haversham's Speech. By Daniel De Foe. (Re- 
 printed from the Review of 23 Nov. 1705.) (4to. pp. 4.) At the end is " London. 
 Printed 1705." About I Dec. 1705. 
 
 79. — A Hymn to Peace. Occasioned by the two Houses joining in one 
 Address to the Queen. By the Author of the True- Born Engli-shman. London. 
 Printed in the year 1706. (4to. pp. 60.) 10 Jan. 1706 
 
 80. — A Reply to a Pamphlet, entitled the L— d Haversham's Vindication of 
 his Speech, &c. By the Author of the Review. London. (4to. pp. 32.) 
 15 Jan. 1706. 
 
 81. — A Review of the Affairs of France ; with Observations on Transactions 
 at Home. (4to. 4 leaves & pp. 508.) Vol. II. (including the "Little Review," 
 from 6 June to 21 August, 1805). i Jan. 1706. 
 
 82. — The Case of Protestant Dissenters in CAROLINA ; shewing how a L.4W 
 to prevent Occasional Conforfnity there, has ended in the Total Subversion of the 
 Constitution in Church and State. Recommended to the serious Consideration of 
 all that are true Friends of our present Government. Mutato noinine de te Fabiila 
 narratur. London. Printed in the year 1706. (410. pp. 42.) Early in 1706. 
 
 83. — Reniarlis on the Bill to prevent Frauds committed by Bankrupts. With 
 Observations on the Effect it may have upon Trade. London. (410. Title & 
 pp. 29.) 18 April, 1706. 
 
 84. — An Essay at Removing National Prejudices against a Union with Scot- 
 land. To be continued during the Treaty here. London. Printed for B. 
 Brag^. (4to. Title & pp. 30.) Part I. 1st Edition, 4 May, 1706. 
 
 85. — Part II. (The Title as before.) ist Edition, 28 May, 1706. — Edin- 
 burgh, Parts I. & II. reprinted in one. (4to. pp. 51.) 2nd edition, 1706. 
 
 86. — An Essay at Removing National Prejudices against a Unio?i with ENG- 
 LAND. By the Author of the two First. [Edinburgh.] Printed in the year 1706. 
 (4to-. pp. 35.) Part III. Nov. 1706. 
 
 87. — A Fourth Essay at Removing National Prejudices ; with some Reply to 
 Mr. H—dges, and some other Authors, who have Printed their Objections against 
 a Union with F^ngland. [Edinburgh.) Printed in the year 1706. (4to. pp. 44,) 
 Part IV. Dec. 1706. 
 
 88. — A Fifth Essay at Removing Natiotial Prejudices ; with a Reply to some 
 Authors, who have Printed their Objections against a Union with England. 
 [Edinburgh.] Printed in the year 1707. (410. Title and Preface 4 leaves, pp. 35.) 
 Part V. Jany. 17,07. 
 
 89. — Two Great Questions Considered — I. What is the Obligation of Parha- 
 ments to the Addresses or Petitions of the People, and What the Duty of Ad- 
 dressers? II. Whether the Obligation of the Covenant, or other National 
 Engagements, is concerned in the Treaty of Union ? Being a Sixth Essay at 
 Removing National Prejudices against the Union. [Edinburgh.] Printed in the 
 year 1707. (4to. pp. 31.) Part VI. Jan. 1707. 
 
 90. — A Plea for the Non Conformists : Shewing the true State of their Case, 
 &c. &c. 'Bfi^ Thomas de Laune. With a Preface by the Author of the Review'. 
 London. Printed and Sold by W. & J. Marshall, at the Bible in Newgate Street. 
 (4to. Title [Preface by Defoe, pp. xi.] pp. 66.) Ist Edition, 6 June, 1706. — ■ 
 Another Edition (8vo. Title [Preface by Defoe; pp. xvi.] Witness & Contents 
 3 leaves. Plea pp. 144.) 17 12. 
 
 91. — A Sermon preached by Mr. Daniel De Foe, on the Fitting up of Dr. 
 Burgess's Meeting Hoiise. (Taken from his Review of the 20th June, 1706.) 
 (4to.) June, 1706. 
 
 92. — A True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal, the next Day after 
 her Death, to one Mrs. Bargrave at Canterbury, the 8th of September, 1705. 
 Which Apparition recommends the Perusal o( Drelincourt's Book of Consolations 
 against ihe Fears of Death. London. Printed for B. Bragg, at the Black Raven. 
 1st Edition, 5 July, 1706. — (Svo. Title and Preface 2 leaves & pp. 12.) nth 
 Edition. 
 
 ^Z. —fure Di'ciino : a Satyr. In Twelve Books. By the Author of the True- 
 Born Englishman. London. Printed in the year 1706. [8vo. Spurious 
 
Appendix. 411 
 
 Edition. Port. Title and Dedication, 2 leaves. Preface, pp. xlii. Contents, 
 I leaf. Poem to the Author, pp. 2. Introduction, pp. 5. Book I. pp. 25. 
 Book II. pp. 24. Book III. pp. 19. Book IV. pp. {68 to 93). Book V. pp. 26. 
 Book VI. pp. 15. Book VII. to the end pp. (135 to 278). 20 July, 1706. — 
 Jure Divino : a Satyr. In Twelve Books. By the Author of the True- Born 
 Englishman. London. Printed in the year 1706. {Folio. Genuine Edition. 
 Portrait. Title & Dedication, 2 leaves. Preface pp. xxviii. Contents and Poem 
 to Author, 2 leaves. Introduction, pp. vii. The 12 Books separately paged 
 Together, pp. 346.) 20 July, 1706. 
 
 94. — A Letter to a Friend, giving an Account how the Treaty of Union has 
 been received here. With remarks on what has been written by Mr. H(odges) 
 and Mr. R(idpath). Edinburgh. (4to.) 1706. 
 
 95. — The Dissenters in England Vindicated from some Pejlections in a late 
 Pamphlet, called "Lawful Prejudices," &c. &c. Edinburgh. 1706. {410. pp. 8.) 
 1st Edition, Jan. 1707. — Reprinted, London. 2nd Edition, 1707. 
 
 96. — Caledonia, &c. A Poem, in Honour of Scotland, and the Scots Nation. 
 Edinburgh. Printed by the Heirs and Successors of Andrew Anderson, Printer 
 to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. (Folio. Title, Dedication, and Preface 
 5 leaves. Poem, pp. 60.) 1st Edition, 1706. — London: Printed by J. Matthews, 
 and Sold by John Morphew, near Stationers' Hall. (8vo. Title, Dedication, and 
 List of Subscribers, 4 leaves. Poem, pp. 55.) 2nd Edition, 28 Jan. 1707. 
 
 97. — A Review of the state of the English Nation. London. (4to. Title and 
 Preface 4 leaves & pp. 688.) Vol. III., 6 Feb. 1707. 
 
 98, — A Short View of the Present Slate of the Protestant Religion in Britain, 
 as it is now profest in the Episcopal Church in England, the Presbyterian Church 
 in Scotland, and the Dissenters in Both. Edinburgh. Printed in the year 
 1707. (8vo. pp. 48.) 1st Edition, March, 1707. — The Dissenters Vindicated : 
 or, a Short View of the Present Stute of the Protestant Religion in Britain, as it 
 is now professed in the Episcopal Church of England, the Presbyterian Church 
 in Scotland, and the Dissenters in both. In Answer to some Reflections in Mr. 
 Webster's two Books published in Scotland. London. J. Morphew. (8vo. 
 pp.48.) 2nd Edition, i April, 1707. 
 
 99. — A Voice from the South : or, an Address from some Protestant Dissenters 
 in England to the I\irk in Scotland. {From his Reviews of May 10 and 15, 
 1707.)' (4to. pp. 8.) May,' 1707. 
 
 100. — A Modest Vindication of the Present Ministry ■' From the Reflections 
 published against them in a. late Printed Paper, Entitled, The Lord Havershani's 
 Speech, &c. Wiih a Review a\& Balance of the Present War. Evincing, That 
 we are not in such a Desperate Condition as that Paper Insinuates. Humbly 
 submitted to the Consideration of all, but especially to the Right Honourable and 
 the Honourable, the North British Lords and Commoners. By a Well-wisher to 
 \.\it Peace oi Britain. London. Printed in the year 1707. (410. Title & pp. 14.) 
 1707. 
 
 101. — An I-Iistorical Account of the Bitter Sufferings, and Melancholy Circum- 
 stances of the Episcopal Church in Scotland, Under the Barbarous Usage and 
 Bloody Perseculion of the Presbyterian Church Government. With an Essay on 
 the Nature and Necessities of a Toleration in the North of Britain. Edinburgh. 
 Printed in the year 1707. {8vo. pp. 40.) 1707. 
 
 102. — De Foe's Answer to Dyer's Scandalous Newsletter. [Edinburgh.] 
 (4to. pp. 3.) August, 1707. 
 
 103. — The Union Proverb, viz., " If Skiddaw has a cap, Scruffell wots full well 
 of that." Setting forth, I. The necessity of Uniting, II. The good consequences 
 of Uniting, III. The happy Union of England and Scotland, in case of a Foreign 
 Invasion. Eelix quern faciunt aliena Pcricula cautum. London. G. Sawbridge. 
 {8vo.) 13 March, 1708. 
 
 104. — A Review of the State of the British Nation. London. (4to. Title, 
 Preface 2 leaves & pp. 700.) Vol. IV., 25 Jlarch, 1708. 
 
 105. — The Scots Narrative Examined ; or, the Case of the Episcopal Ministers 
 in Scotland stated ; and the late Treatment of them in the City of Edinburgh, 
 enquired into. With a brief Examination into the Reasonableness of the Grievous 
 Complaint of Persecution in Scotland, and a Dcf.nce of the Magistrates of 
 
412 The Life of Danjel Defoe. 
 
 Edinburgh, in their Proceedings there. Being some Remarks on a late 
 Pamphlet, entitled A Narrative of the late Treatment of the Episcopal Ministers, 
 within the City of Edinburgh, &c. London. Sold by A. Baldwin, in 
 Warwick Lane. (4to. pp. 41. Postscript x.) 19 Feb. 1709. 
 
 106. — A Review of the State of the British Nation. London. (410. Title and 
 Preface 4 leaves & pp. 632.) Vol. V., 31 March, 1709. 
 
 107.— The History of the Union of Great Britain. Edinburgh. Printed by 
 the Heirs and Successors of Andrew Anderson, Printer to the Queen's Most 
 Excellent Majesty. (Folio, Portrait, Title, and Dedication, 8 leaves. Preface, 
 xxxii. , and total pp. 694.) 1709. 
 
 198. — An Answer to a Paper concerning Mr. De P'oe, against the History of 
 the Union. Edinburgh. (4to. pp. 8.) 1709- 
 
 109. — A Reproof to Mr. Clark, and a Brief Vindication of Mr. De Foe. 
 Edinburgh. John Moncur. (4to. pp. 8.) A.D. 1710. 1709. 
 
 110. — A Comfnendatory Sermon, Preached November 4th, 1709. Being the 
 Birth Day of King William of Glorious Memory. By Daniel Defoe. London, 
 Printed by J. Dutton, near Fleet Street. (8vo. pp. 8.) From the Review. 
 Nov. 1709. 
 
 111. — A Review of the State of the British Nation. Londoti. (4to. Title and 
 Preface, 4 leaves & pp. 600.) Vol. VI., 23 March, 1710. 
 
 112. — A Letter ixora Captain Tom to the Mob, now Raised for Dr. Sacheverell. 
 London. Printed for J. Baker at the Black Boy in Paternoster Row. (8vo. pp. 8.) 
 II March, 17 10. 
 
 113.— rA Speech without Doors. London. Printed for A. Baldwin, near the 
 Oxford Arras in Warwick Lane. Price Two Pence. {8vo. pp. 20.) 19 April, 
 1 7 10. 
 
 114. — Instructions from Rome in Favour of the Pretender : Inscribed to the 
 most Elevated Don Sacheveriltio, and his Brother Bon Higginsco. And which all 
 Perkinites, Nonftirors, High-flyers, Popish Desirers, Wooden-shoe Admirers, and 
 Absolute Non-resistance Drivers are obliged to pur.^e and maintain (under pain 
 of his Unholinesses Damnation), in order to carry on their intenaed subversion of 
 a Government, fixed upon Revohition Principles. London. Sold by J. Saker, at 
 the Black Boy in Paternoster Row. Price 2d. (8vo. pp. 16.) 11 May, 17 10. 
 
 115. — An Essay upon Publick Credit : Being an Enquiry ; How the Publick 
 Credit comes to depend upon the Change of the Ministry or the Dissolutions of 
 Parliajtients : and whether it does so or no. With an Argument, Proving that 
 the Publick Credit may be upheld and maintained in this Nation ; and perhaps 
 to a greater Height than it ever yet arriv'd at ; Tho' all the Changes and Dis- 
 solutions already made, pretended to, and now Discoursed of, should come to 
 pass in the world. London. Printed and Sold by the Booksellers. Price 3d. 
 (8vo. pp. 28). 23 Aug. 17 10. 
 
 116. — A Word against a New Election ; that the People of England may see 
 the ' Happy difference between English Liberty and French Slavery : and may 
 consider well before they make the Exchange. (8vo. pp. 23.) Oct. 1710. 
 
 117. — A New Test of the Sense of the Nation : Being a Modest Comparison 
 between the Addresses to the late King James, and those to her present 
 Majesty. In dfcler to observe how far the Sense Of the Nation may be judged of 
 by either of them. London. (8vo. Title and pp. 91.) 12 Oct. 1710. 
 
 118. — An Essay upon Loans : or, An Argument proving That Substantial 
 Funds, settled by Parliament, with the Encouragements of Interests, and the 
 Advances of Prompt Payment usually allowed, will bring in Loans of Money to 
 the Exchequer, in spite of all the Conspiracies of Parties to the Contrary ; while a 
 Just, Honourable, and Punctual P(:rformance on the Part of the Government, 
 supports the Credit of the Nation. By the Author of the Essay upon Credit. 
 London. Printed and Sold by the Booksellers. (8vo. pp. 27.) 2i Oct. 17I0. 
 
 119. — The. Edinburgh Courant. I Feb. 171 1. 
 
 120. — Atalantis Major. Printed in Olreeky, the Chief City of the Northern 
 part of Atalantis Major. Anno Mundi 1711. (8vo. Title and pp. 46.) Early 
 in 1711. 
 
 121. — A Review of the State of the British Nation. London. (4to. Title 
 and Preface, 4 leaves & pp. .) Vol. VII. 22 March, 171 1. 
 
Appendix. 4 1 3 
 
 122. — Eleven Opinions about Mr. H[arle)y ; with Observations. London. 
 J.Baker. (8vo. pp. 89.) i4May, 1711. 
 
 123. — The Secret History of the October Club : From its Original to this 
 Time. By a Member. London. Printed in the year 1711. Price is. (Svo. 
 Title & pp. 86.) 1st Edition, 21 April, 1711. — 2nd Edition, 10 May, 1711. 
 
 124. — The Secret History of the October Club. From its Original to this 
 Time. By a Member. Part II. London. Printed for J. Baker, at the Black- 
 boy ill Paternoster Kow (Price is.), where may be had the first Part. (Svo. 
 Title, pp. 93.) About Aug. 171 1. 
 
 125. — An Essay on the South Sea Trade : With an Enquiry into the Grounds 
 and Reasons of the present Dislike and Complaint against the Settlement of a 
 South Sea Company. By the Author of the Review. London. J. Baker. (Svo. 
 pp. 47.) 1st Edition, 6 Sept. 1711. — (Svo. pp. 47.) Printed on Title 1712. 
 2nd Edition, 29 Nov. 171 1. 
 
 126. — Reasons why this Nation ought to put a Speedy End to this Expensive 
 War. With a Brief Essay at the probable Conditions on which the Peace now 
 Negociating may be Founded. Also an Enquiry into the Obligations Britain 
 lies under to the Allies, and how far she is obliged not to make Peace without 
 them. London. J. Baker. (Svo.) ist Edition, 6 Oct. 1711. — (Svo. pp. 47.) 
 2nd Edition, 11 Oct. 171 1.— 3rd Edition, 13 Oct. 1711. 
 
 127. — Armageddon : or, the Necessity of Carrying on the War if such a Peace 
 cannot be obtained as may render Europe safe and Trade secure. London. 
 J.Baker. Price 6d. (Svo. pp. 47.) 3oOct. 1711. 
 
 128. — The Balance of Europe ; or, an Enquiry into the respective Dangers 
 of giving the Spanish Monarchy to the Emperor, as well as to King Philip. 
 With the Consequences that may be expected from either. Printed for John 
 %ker. (Svo. pp. 48.) i Nov. 1711. 
 
 129. — An Essay at a Plain Exposition of that difficult Phrase a Good Peace. 
 By the Author of the Review. London. J. Baker. Price 6d. (Svo. pp. 52.) 
 About 27 Nov. 171 1. 
 
 130. — Reasons why a Party among us, and also among the Confederates, are 
 obstinately bent against a Treaty of Peace with the French at this Time. By the 
 Author of Reasons for putting an End to this Expensive War. J. Baker. 
 Price 6d. (Svo.) Ist Edition, 29 Nov. 171 1. — 2nd Edition, 8 Dec. 17 1 1. 
 
 131. — The Felonious Treaty : or, an Enquiry into the Reasons which Moved 
 his late Majesty King William of Glorious Memory, to enter into a Treaty at 
 two Several Times, with the Kins; of France, for the Partition of the Spanish 
 Monarchy. With an Essay proving that it was always the sense of King William, 
 and of all the Confederates, and even of the Grand Alliance itself, that the Spanish 
 Monarchy should never be united in the Person of the Emperor. By the Author 
 of the Review. London. J. Baker. Price 6d. (Svo. pp. 48.) Dec. 1711. 
 
 132. — ^An Essav on the History of Parties and Penecutions in Britain, be- 
 beginning with a brief Account of the Test Act and an Historical Enquiry into the 
 Reasons, the Original, and the Consequences of the Occasional Conformity of the 
 Dissenters; with some Remarks on the several v4«fOT/<j, already made and now 
 making, for an Occasional Bill. Enquiring how far the same may be esteemed a 
 Preservation to the Church, or an Injury to the Dissenters. London. Printed 
 for J. Baker, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster Row. Price 6d. (Svo. pp. 48.) 
 22 Dec. 1711. 
 
 133. — The Conduct of Parties in England, more especially of those Whigs, 
 who now .appear against the new Ministry and a Treaty of Peace. (Svo. pp. 42.) 
 24 Jan. 17 12. 
 
 134. — The Present State of Parties in Great Britain : Particularly an Enquiry 
 into the State of the Dissenters in England, and the Presbyterians in Scotland, 
 their Religious and Public Interests considered as it respects their Circumstances 
 before and since the late Acts against Occasional Conformity in England, and for 
 Toleration of Common Prayer in Scotland. London. Printed and Sold by J. 
 Baker. Price Five Shillings. (Svo. Title and Preface 4 leaves & pp. 352.) 
 17 May, 1712. 
 
 135. — Reasons against Fighting; Being an Enquiry into this Debate whether 
 it is Safe for her Majesty, or her Ministry, to Adventure an Engagement with 
 
414 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 the French, considering the present Behaviour of the Allies. Printed in the year 
 1712. Price 6d. (8vo. Title and pp. 38.) 7june, 1712. 
 
 136. — A Review of the State of the British Nation. London. (4to. pp. 848.) 
 Vol. VIII,, 29 July, 1712. 
 
 137. — An Enquiry into the Real Interest of Princes in the Persons of their 
 Ambassadors ; and how far the Petty Quarrels of Ambassadors, or the Servants 
 and Dependants of Ambassadors, one among another, ought to be Resented by 
 their Principals. With an Essay on what Satisfaction it is Necessary to Give or 
 Take in such Cases. Impartially applied to the affair of Monsieur Mesna^er, 
 and the Count de Rechteren, Plenipotentiaries at Utrecht. London. J. Baker. 
 (8vo. pp. 23.) 18 Sept. 1712. 
 
 138. — A Seasonable Warning and Caution against the Insinuations of Papists 
 and Jacobites in favour of the Pretender. Being a letter from an Englishman at 
 the Court of Hanover.. Printed by J. Baker, at the Black Boy. (8vo. pp. 24.) 1712. 
 
 139. — Hannibal at the Gates ; or, the Progress of Jacobitism and the Danger 
 of the Pretender. London. J. Baker. {i2mo. pp. 40.) ist Edition, 30 Dec. 
 1712. — With remarks on a Pamphlet now Published Intituled Hannibal not at 
 our Gates, &c. (8vo. pp. 48.) 2nd Edition, 1714. 
 
 140. — A Strict Enquiry into the Circumstances of a late Duel, with some 
 Account of the Persons concern'd on both Sides. Being a Modest Attempt to do 
 Justice to a Noble Person Dead, and to the Injured Honour of an Absent Person 
 Living. To which is added the substance of a Letter from General McCartney 
 to his Friend. London. (8vo. pp. 30.) 1713. 
 
 141. — Reasons against the Succession of the House of Hanover, with an 
 Enquiry how far the Abdication of King James, supposing it to be legal, ought to 
 • affect the Person of the Pretender. London. J. Baker. Price 6d. (8vo. Title 
 & pp. 45.) 1st Edition, 21 Feb. 1713. — 4th Edition, April, 1713. 
 
 142. — And What if the Pretender should Come ? or some Considerations of 
 the Advantages and real Consequences of the Pretender's possessing the Crown of 
 Great Britain. Lottdon. J. Baker. (8vo. pp. 44.) 1st Edition, 26 March, 
 1713. — 2nd Edition, April, 1713. 
 
 143. — An Answer to a Question that nobody thinks of, viz.. What if the Queen 
 should die? London. J.Baker. (8vo. pp. 44.) April, 1713. 
 
 144. — An Essay on the Treaty of Commerce with France, with Necessary 
 Expositions. 1st Edition, May, 1713. — London. J. Baker. (8vo. pp. 44.) 
 2na Edition, 1 713. 
 
 WRITTEN DURING HIS SECOND IMPRISONMENT IN NEWGATE. 
 
 145. —Considerations upon the 8th and Ninth Articles of the Treaty of Com- 
 merce and Navigation. Now published by Authority. With some Enquiries 
 into the Damages that may accrue to the English Trade from them. London. 
 J.Baker. (8vo. pp. 40.) 2june, 1713. 
 
 146. — The Review (each Number a single leaf) (4to. pp. 212.) 2 Aug. 1712 
 to II June, 1713. Vol. IX., 11 June, 1713. 
 
 147. — Some Thoughts upon the Subject of Commerce with France. By the 
 Author of the Review. London. 1. Baker. (8vo. ). June, 1713. 
 
 148. — A Gfteral History of Trade, and especially considered as it respects 
 British Commerce, &c. Four foirtnightly Numbers. London. J. Baker. (8vo. 
 each No. about pp. 40). Aug. & Sept. 1713. 
 
 149. — Whigs turned Tories and Hanoverian Tories from their avowed 
 Principles proved Whigs ; or each side in the other Mistaken. Being a plain 
 proof that each party deny that Charge which the others bring against them ; and 
 that neither side will disown those which the other profess. With an Earnest 
 Exhortation to all Whigs, as well as Hanoverian Tories, to lay aside those un- 
 charitable heats among such Protestants, and seriously to consider, and effectually 
 to provide, against \.\io&& Jacohile, Popish, and Conforming Tories, whose principal 
 Ground of Hope to ruin all sincere Protestants is from those Unchristian and 
 violent /'«<fl'j among ourselves. London. J.Baker. (8vo.) 1713. 
 
 150. — Union and no Union. Being an Enquiry into the Grievances of the 
 Scots and how far they are right or wrong, who alleged that the Union is dis- 
 solved. J. Baker. (8vo. pp. 24.) 1713. 
 
Appendix. 4 1 5 
 
 WRITTEN SUBSEQUENT TO HIS SECOND IMPRISONMENT IN 
 
 NEWGATE. 
 
 151. — A Lettet- to the Dissenters. London. Printed for J. Morphew near 
 Stationers' Hall. Price 6d. (8vo. pp. 48.) 3 Dec. 1713. 
 
 163. — The Scots Nation and Union Vindicated from the Reflections cast on 
 them in an Itifamous libel entitled the Public Spirit of the Whigs, &c. In which, 
 the most Scandalous Paragraphs contained therein are fairly quoted and fully 
 answered. London. Printed for A. Bell. (4to. pp. 28.) March, 1714. 
 
 163. — A View of the Real Danger of the Protestant Succession. London. 
 J.Baker. Price 6d. {8vo. pp. 15.) April, 1714. 
 
 154. — Reasons for Im(peaching) the L(or)d H{ig)h Treasurer, and some others 
 of the P(resen)t M(inistr)y. Printed and Sold by J. Moore, near St. Paul's. 
 Price 6d. (8vo. pp. 39.) End of April, 1714. 
 
 156. — The Remedy worse than the Disease; or. Reasons against passing the 
 Bill for preventing the Growth of Schism. To which is added a brief Discourse 
 of Toleration and Persecution, shewing their Unavoidable Effects Good or Bad ; 
 and Proving that neither Diversity of Religions, nor Diversity in the Same 
 Religion are Dangerous, much less Inconsistent with good Government. In a 
 Letter to a Noble Earl. London. J.Baker. (8vo. pp. 48.) gjune, 1714. 
 
 156. — Mercator: or, Commerce Retrieved, Being Considerations on the Subject 
 of British Trade ; particularly as it respects Holland, Flanders and the Dutch 
 Barrier ; the Trade to and from France, the Trade to Portugal, Spain and the 
 West Indies, and the Fisheries of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia : With other 
 Matters and Advantages accruing to Great Britain, by the Treaties of Peace and 
 Commerce lately Concluded at Utrecht. The whole being founded upon just 
 Authorities, faithfully Collected from Authentick Papers, and now made Publick 
 for General Information. 26 May, 1713, to 20 July, 1714. 
 
 1B7.— The Flying Post and Medley (Hurt's). [Written by Daniel Defoe, a 
 small leaf folio published thrice a week, continued to the 21st of Aug. 1714, if not 
 later.] 27 July, 1714 to 21 Aug. 1714. 
 
 168. — Advice to the People of Great Britain, as to what they ought to expect 
 from the King, and how they ought to behave to him. London. J. Baker. 
 1st Edition, 7 Oct. 1814. — Reprinted in Dublin for G. Risk, Bookseller. (8vo. 
 pp. 30.) 2nd Edition, 1714. 
 
 159. — A Secret History of One Year. London. J. Baker. (8vo. Title & 
 pp. 40.) 17 14. 
 
 160. — The Secret History of the White Staff. Being an Account of Affairs 
 under the Conduct of Some late Ministers ; and of what might probably have 
 happened if her Majesty had not died. J. Baker. (8vo. pp. 71.) 1st Edition, 
 Oct. 1714.— (8vo. pp. 7r.) 2nd Edition, 7 Oct. 1714.— (8vo. pp. 71.) 3rd 
 Edition, Oct. 1714.— (8vo. pp.71-) 4* Edition, 27 Oct. 1714. 
 
 161. — (8vo. pp. 71.) Part II. 1st Edition, 27 Oct 1714. — 2nd Edition, 
 1714.— (Svo.pp. 71.) 3rd Edition, 1714. 
 
 162.— (8vo. pp. 80.) Part III. 1st Edition, 29 Jan. 171 5. 
 
 163, — An Appeal io Honour and Justice, tho' it be of his Worst Enemies, by 
 Daniel Defoe. Being a True Account of kis Conduct in 'PnhXidk AE3.\rs. London. 
 Printed for J. Baker. (8vo. Title & pp. 58.) January, 1715. 
 
 164. A Reply to a Traitorous Libel entitled, English Advice to the Free- 
 holders of England. J.Baker. (8vo. pp. 40.) 29 January, 17 15. 
 
 165. — A 'Friendly Epistle by Way 6f Reproof, from one of the People called 
 Quakers to Thos. Bradbury, a Dealer in many Words. London. Printed and 
 Sold by S. Keimer, Paternoster Row. Price 6d. (8vo. pp. 39.) 19 Feb. 1715. 
 
 166. The Family Instructor: in three Parts. I. Relating to Fathers and 
 
 Children. II. To Masters and Servants. III. To Husbands & Wives. By 
 Way of Dialogue, With- a Recommendatory Letter by the Rev. Mr. S. Wright. 
 London. E. Matthews. (i2mo. 3 leaves * pp. 444.) 31 March, 1715.— Cor- 
 rected by the Author. (Title and Preface 3 leaves, & pp.414.) 2nd Edition, 
 17 Sept. 1715. — Corrected by the Author. (i2mo. Title and Preface 3 leaves, 
 & pp 385.) 8th Edition, 1720.— (i2mo. pp. 384.) i6th Edition, 1766. 
 
4i6 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 167.— A Sharp Rebuke from one of the Peotile called Quakers to Henry Sache- 
 verell, Ike High Priest of Andreim, Hotborn. By the Same Friend that wrote to 
 Thos. Bradbury. London. Printed and Sold by S. Keimer, Paternoster Row. 
 Price 6d. (8vo. pp. 35.) 1715. 
 
 168. — A Seasonable Expostulation, and Friendly Reproof unto fames Butler, 
 
 who by the Men of this World is styled the Duke of O d, relating to the 
 
 Tumults of the People. By the same Friend that wrote to Thos. Bradbury, the 
 Dealer in many Words, and Henry Sacheverell, the High Priest of Andrews, 
 Holborn. London. S. Keimer. (8vo. pp. 31.) ist Edition, 31 May, 1715.— 
 (8vo. pp. 24.) Reprinted in Dublin by Thos. Humes. 2nd Edition. 1715- 
 
 169. — History of the Wars of his present Majesty Charles XII. Kin^ of 
 Sweden; from his first Landing in Denmark, to his Return from Turkey to 
 Pomerania. By a Scots Gentleman in the Swedish Service. London. A. Bell. 
 (8vo. 2 leaves & pp. 400.) ist Edition, 6 July, 1715. — With a continuation to 
 his Death. (Portrait. Title and Preface, 2 leaves. Hist. pp. I to 248. Con- 
 tinuation, pp. 249 to 402.) 2nd Edition, 21 May, 1720. 
 
 170.— A Hymn to the Mob. London. Printed and Sold by S. Popping, &c. 
 Price 6d. (8vo. Title and freface, 3 leaves & pp. 40.) 14 July, 1715. 
 
 171. — A View of the Scots Rebellion. With some Enquiry into what we have 
 to fear, from the Rebels ? and what is the properest method to take with them ? 
 London. R. Burleigh, in Amen Corner. Price 6d. {8vo. pp. 40.) 15 Oct. 1715. 
 
 172. — A Trumpet, Blown in the North, and sounded in the Ears of John 
 Ereskink, called by the. Men of the World, DuKE of Mar. By a Ministering 
 Friend of the People called Quakers. With a word of Advice and Direction to 
 the said John Ereskine and his followers. Sold by S. Keimer, at the Cheshire 
 Coffee House in King's Arms Court, in Ludgate Hill. Price 6d. (8vo. pp. 38.) 
 10 Nov. 1715. 
 
 173, — An Accottnt of the Great and Generous Actions oi James Butler {la.te 
 Duke of Ormond). Dedicated to the Famous University of Oxford. London. 
 Printed for J. A?ff<7«. Price 6d. (8vo. pp. 48.) Dec. 1715. 
 
 174. —Some Account of the Two Nights Court at Greenwich ; wherein may 
 be seen the Rea.son, Rise, and Progress of the late Unnatural Rebellion, against 
 his Sacred Majesty, King George and his Government. London. J. Baker. 
 (8vo. Title, & pp. 72. ) 1716. 
 
 175. — Some Considerations on a Law for Triennial Parliainents ; with an 
 Enquiry. I. Whether there may not be a Time, when it is necessary to suspend 
 the Execution of Such Laws as are most essential to the Liberties of the People .? 
 H. Whether this is such a Time or No? London. }. Baker. (8vo. pp. 40.) 
 April, 1716. 
 
 176. — The Alteration in the Triennial Act Considered. London. R. Bur- 
 leigh. Price 3d, (8vo. pp. 22.) April, 1716. 
 
 177. — Mercurius Politicus: Being Monthly Observations on the Affairs of 
 Great Britain ; With a Collection of the Most Material Occurrences. [For the 
 Month of May.] By a Lover of Old England. London. Printed and Sold by 
 J. Morphew. Price one Shilling. (8vo. pp. 96.) [Continued probably later 
 than Sept. 1720]. May, 1716, to Sept. 1720. 
 
 178. — Burner's News Letter (conducted by Daniel Defoe for some time. I 
 have found no Copies of this Journal, and, therefore, can give no farther par- 
 ticulars.) Each Number one Sheet Small Folio. June, 17 16, to Aug. 17 18. 
 
 179. — Memoirs of the Church of Scotland, in 4 Periods. I. The' Church in 
 her Infant State, from the Reformation to Queen Mary's Abdication. II. The 
 Church in its Growing State, from the Abdication, to the Restoration. HI. The 
 Church in its Persecuted State, from the Restoration to the Revolution. IV. 
 The Church in its Present State, from the_ Revolution to the Union. With an 
 Appendix of Some Transactions since the Union. London. Eman. Matthews. 
 (8vo. Title and Preface -j. leaves, pp. 232 and 196. Appendix, pp. 9.) 
 26 April, 1717. 
 
 180. — A Short Narrative of the Life, and Death of fohn Rhinholdt, Count 
 Paikul, A Nobleman of Livonia, who was broke Alive upon the Wheel in 
 Great Poland, anno 1707. Together with the manner of his Execution. Written 
 by the Lutheran Minister, who assisted him in his last Hours. Faithfully 
 
A PPENDIX. 417 
 
 Translated Out of a Pligh Dutch Manuscript ; anrl now published for the 
 Information of Count Gyllenborg's English Friends. By L. M. The 
 Second Edition. London. Printed For T. Goodwin, Fleet Street. Price is. 
 (8vo. 2 leaves, & pp. 59.) April, 1717. 
 
 181. — Minutes of the Negociations of Mons. Memager, at the Court of 
 England, Towards the Close of the last Reign. Wherein some of the Most 
 Secret Transactions of that Time, relating to the Interest of the Pretender, 
 and to a Clandestine Separate Peace are detected and laid open. Written by 
 himself. Done out of French. London. S. Baker. (8vo. pp. 326.) — 1st 
 Edition, 17 June, 1717.— 2nd Edition, 1717. — 3rd Edition, 8 July, 1731. — 4th 
 Edition, 1736. 
 
 182. — A Declaration of Truth to Benjamin Hoadley, one of the High Priests 
 of the Land, and of the Degree whom Men Call Bishops. By a Ministering 
 Friend who writ to Tho. Bradbury, a Dealer in Many Words. London. 
 Printed for E. Moore. Price Six Pence. (8vo. pp. 31.) 1717. 
 
 183. — The Weekly Journal ; or, Saturday's Post (Mist's). [Defoe first found 
 in it at No. 37, and Continued to No. loi, 15 Nov. 1718. Defoe again con- 
 nected with Mist's Journal, 31 January, 1719, and continued its Management, 
 writing Letters introductory until the beginning of July 1720 ; after which he 
 only Watched the Paper, and translated the Articles on Foreign Affairs, and Occa- 
 sionally Contributed Articles.] (Each Number i^ Sheets. Small Folio.) 24 
 August, 1717, to 15 Nov. 1718. 3 Jan. 1719, to July, 1720; and Occasionally 
 afterward, until 24 Oct. 1724. 
 
 184. — A Curious Little Oration, Delivered by Father Andrew, concerning the 
 Great Quarrels that divide the Clergy of France. Translated from the Fourth 
 
 Edition of the French, by Dan. D. F e. (8vo. pp. 20.) 1st Edition, 1717. 
 
 —2nd Edition, 1717. 
 
 185. — Memoirs of Publick Transactions in the Life and Ministry of his Grace 
 the D. of Shrewsbury. In which will be found much of the History of Parties, 
 and especially of Court Divisions, during the last Four Reigns ; which no History 
 has yet given an Account of. Plus valet occulatus Testis quam Aurite Decern. 
 London. Printed for Tho. Warner, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster Row, 1718. 
 Price Two Shillings. (8vo. Title and Preface 2 leaves & pp. 139.) 6th May, 
 1718. 
 
 186. — The Case of the War in Italy Stated. Being a Serious Enquiry, how 
 far Great Britain is Engaged to concern itself in the Quarrel between the Emperor 
 and the King of Spain. Pax Quceritur Bello. London. T. Warner. Price 
 6d. (8vo. Title & pp. 34.) 17 18. 
 
 187. — Memoirs of the Life and Eminent Conduct of that Learned and 
 Reverend Divine, Daniel Williams, D.D. With some Account of his Scheme, 
 for the Vigorous Propagation of Religion, as well in England as in Scotland, and 
 several other Parts of the World. Address'd to Mr. Pierce. London. Printed 
 for E. Curl!. Price 2s. 6d. Bound. (8vo. Title & pp. 86.) 1718. 
 
 188. — The Family Instructor. In Two Pans. I. Relating to Family 
 Breaches, and their obstructing Religious Duties. II. To the Great Mistake of 
 Mixing the Passions, in the Managing and Correcting of Children. With a 
 great Variety of Cases of Setting 111 Examples to Children. Vol. II. (i2mo. 
 Title & Pref. vi. pp. 404.) 1st Edition, 1718. (i2mo. pp. viii. & 384.) 8th 
 Edition, 1766. 
 
 189. — The Whitehall Evening Post. (Commenced and Edited by Defoe, 
 Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. He continued to write in it 
 occasionally until June 1720.) (2 leaves small 4to.) 18 Sept. 1718 to June, 
 1720. 
 
 190. — A Friendly Rebuke to One Parson Benjamin ; Particularly Relating 
 to his Quarrelling with his own Church, and Vindicating Dissenters. By one of 
 the People called Quakers. London. Printed for E. Moor, near St. Paul's. 
 Price 6d. (8vo. pp. 32.) 10 Jan. 1719. 
 
 191. — The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of 
 York, Mariner ; Who lived eight and twenty Years all alone, on an uninhabited 
 Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroon- 
 oque ; Having been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished 
 
 B B 
 
4i8 
 
 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 but himself. With an Account how he was at last Strangely delivered by Pyrates, 
 Written by Himself. London. Printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship, in Pater- 
 noster Row. (8vo. Frontispiece. Title and Preface 2 leaves & pp. 364. 1st 
 Edition, 25 April, 1719. (8vo. Frontispiece. Title and Preface 2 leaves & pp. 
 364.) — and Edition, 12 May, 1719 — 3rd Edition, 6 June, 1719 — 4th Edition, 
 8 Aug. 1719. 
 
 192. — The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Being the Second and 
 Last Part of his Life, and of the Strange Surprizing Accounts of his Travels 
 Round three Parts of the Globe. Written by Himself, To which is added a 
 Map of the World, in which is Delineated the Voyages of Robinson Crusoe. 
 London. Printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship in Paternostei- Row. ,(8vo. Map, 
 Title, Preface and Advertisements, 4 leaves & pp. 373.) ist Edition, 20 Aug 
 1719. 
 
 193. — Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprizing Adventures of Robin- 
 son Crusoe. With' his Vision of the Angelick World. Written by Himself. 
 London. Printed for W. Taylor at the Ship in Paternoster Row. (8vo. Fron- 
 tispiece. Title, Preface, and Introduction 8 leaves & pp. 270, and 84.) ist 
 Edition, 6 Aug. 1720. Ist and 2nd Vols. Reprinted in the Original London Post 
 or Heathcote's Intelligencer. 7 Oct., 1719, to 19 Oct., 1720. Ist Vol. spuriously 
 abridged, and published by T. Cox at the Amsterdam Coffee House in London 
 before the 7th August, 1719. 5. First Abridgement in I Vol (8vo.) 5th Edition, 
 19 Nov. 1720. 6. In 2 Volumes. 6th Edition, 28 Oct., 1721. 7. An Abridged 
 Edition in I Vol. 28 Feb. 1722. 8. Another Edition in 2 Volumes with 14 
 Copper Plates called 6th Edition. 5 June, 1722. 9. In 2 Volumes, called 7th 
 Edition. 27 Aug. 1726. 
 
 194. — Some Account of the Life arid most Remarkable Actions of Henry, 
 Baron de Goertz, Minister to the late King of Sweden. Lo7idon. Printed for 
 T. Bickerton. (8vo. Portrait, Title, & pp. 46.) About May, 1719. 
 
 195. — A Letter to the Dissenters. London. J. Roberts. Price 6d. (8vo. 
 pp. 27.) About May, 1719. 
 
 196. — The Anatomy of Exchange Alley ; or a System of Stock-Jobbing; 
 proving- that Scandalous Trade, as it is now carried on, to be knavish in its 
 private Practice, and Treason in its Publick. Being a Clear Detection. I. Of 
 the private Cheats, used to deceive one another. 11. Of their Arts lo draw 
 Innocent Families into their Snare, understood by their new Term of Art, viz., 
 being let into the Secret. III. Of their Raising and Spreading false News, to 
 ground the Rise or Fall of Stocks upon. IV. Of the Dangerous Consequences 
 of their Practices, and the necessity there is to Regulate or Suppress them. To 
 which is added some Characters of the most Eminent Persons concern 'd now, 
 and for some Years past, in carrying on this pernicious Trade. By a Jobber. 
 Printed for E. Smith near Exchange Alley, and Thomas Warner in Paternoster 
 Row. Price Is. (8vo. Title & pp. 64.) Ist Edition, 11 July, 1719. 2nd 
 Edition, 26 Mar. 1720. 
 
 197. — The Daily Post. [Commenced and Edited by Daniel Defoe. Continued 
 connected with it, writing occasionally, until 27 April, 1725.] (Each Number 
 one Leaf small folio.) 4 Oct. 1719 to 27 Ap. 1725. 
 
 198. — ^¥he Dumb Philosopher ; or Great Britain's Wonder, containing I. A 
 Faithful and very Surprising Account, how Dickory Cronke, a Tinner's Son, in 
 the County of Cornwall, was born Dumb, and continued so for 58 years ; and 
 how, some Days before he Died, he came to his Speech. With Memoirs of his 
 Life, and the manner of his Death. II. A Declaration of his Faith and Princi- 
 ples in Religion ; With a Collection of Select Meditations composed in his 
 Retirement. III. His Prophetical Observations upon the Affairs of Europe, more 
 particularly of Great Britain, from 1720 to 1729. The whole extracted from his 
 original Papers, and confirmed by unquestionable authority. To which is an- 
 nexed, His Eelgy, written by a young Cornish Gentleman, of. Exeter Coll. in 
 Oxford. With an Epitaph by another Hand. London. Printed for T. Bicker- 
 ton. Price one Shilling. (8vo. pp. 64.) Ist Edition, 14 Oct. 1 7 19 — 2nd 
 Edition, 27 May, 1720. 
 
 199. — Charity still a Christian Virtue : or, an Impartial Account of the Tryal 
 and Conviction of the Reverend Mr. Hendley, for Preaching a Charity Sermon at 
 
Appendix. 4 1 9 
 
 Chisselhurst. And of Mr. Campman, and Mr. Harding, for Collecting at the 
 same Time the Alms of the Congregation. At the Assizes held at Rochester, on 
 Wednesday. July isth, 1719. Offer'd to the Consideration of the Clergy of the 
 Church of England. London. Printed for T. Bickerton, at the Crown in Pater- 
 Noster Row, 1719. (Price One Shilling.) (8vo. Frontispiece. Title and 
 Preface 2 leaves & pp. 72.) 16 Oct. 1719. 
 
 200.— The King of Pirates : Being an Account of the Famous Enterprizes of 
 Captain Avery, the Mock King of Madagascar ; with his Rambles and Piracies, 
 wherein all the Sham Accounts formerly published of him are detected. In two 
 Letters from himself, one during his Stay at Madagascar, and one since his 
 Escape from thence. London. A. Bettesworth. Price is. 6d. (8vo. Title and 
 Preface pp. vi. and <jT,.) ist Edition, 10 Dec. 1 7 19— (Collation the same). 2nd 
 Edition, 1720. 
 
 201. — The Chimera: or, The French (Way of Paying National Debts Laid 
 Open. Being an Impartial Account of the Proceedings in France for Raising a 
 Paper Crertit,'and Settling the Mississippi Stock. London. T. Warner. Price 
 One Shining. (8vo. Title & pp. 76.) About Jan. 1720. 
 
 202. — The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell. A 
 Gentleman, v/ho though born Deaf and Dumb, writes down any Stranger's Name 
 at First Sight ; and their Future Contingencies of Fortune. Now living in 
 Exeter Court, over against the Savoy in the Strand. London. E. Curll. (!ivo. 
 Portrait, Title, Dedication, and Contents xxiv. & pp. 320. 4 Plates.) Ist 
 Edition, 30th April, 1720. 
 
 203. — Mr, Campbell's Pacquet, for the Entertainment of Gentlemen and . 
 Ladies, Containing, I. Verses to Mr. Campbell, Occasioned by the History of 
 his Life and Adventures. By Mrs. Fowke, Mr. Phillips, &c. II. The 
 Parallel, a Poem comparing the Poetical Productions of Mr. Pope, with the 
 Prophetical Predictions of Mr. Campbell. By Capt. Stanhope. III. An 
 Account of a Most Surprising Apparition ; sent from Launceston in Cornwall. 
 Attested by the Rev. Mr. Ruddle, Minister there. London. Printed for T. 
 Bickerton, at the Crown in Paternoster Row. (8vo. Title, & pp. 33.) [Section 
 III., by Defoe.] 18 June, 1720. The History of the Life and Adventures of 
 Mr, Duncan Campbell (with the Pacquet included). London. E. Curll. (8vo. 
 Portrait & Plates. Title, &c. xxiv. Pacquet pp. 33. Life pp. 320.) — and Edition, 
 4 Aug. 1720. — 2nd Edition reissued 14th Mar. 1721. The Supernatural 
 Philosopher : or, the Mysteries of Magick, in all its Branches clearly unfolded, 
 • Containing, I. An Argument proving the Perception, which Mankind have by 
 all the senses, of Demons, Genii, or Familiar Spirits ; and of the Several species 
 of them, both Good and Bad. II. A Philosophical Discourse, concerning the 
 Second Sight, demonstrating it to be Hereditary to some Families. III. A full 
 Answer to all Objections that can he brought against the existence of Spirits, 
 Witches, &c. IV. Of Divination by Dreams, Omens, Spectres, Apparitions 
 after Death, Predictions, &c. V. Of Enchantment, Necromancy, Geomancy, 
 Hydromancy, ^romancy. Pyromancy, Chiromancy, Augury, and Aruspicy. All 
 Exemplified in the History of the Life and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Duncan 
 Campbell, a Scots Gentleman, who though Deaf and Dumb writes down any 
 Stranger's Name at first Sight, with their Future Contingencies of Fortune. 
 Collected and Compiled from the most approved Authorities, wherein is inserted 
 that most celebrated Tract written by Dr. Wallis, The Method of Teaching 
 Deaf and Dumb Persons to read, write, and understand a Language. By 
 William Bond, of Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk. London. E. Curll. (8vo. 
 Collation as 2nd Edition, except New Title and the Portrait omitted.) 3rd 
 Edition, 1728 (This was again reissued as a 2nd Edition). 4th Edition, 21 Dec 
 1728. 
 
 204. — Memoirs of a Cavalier : or, a Military Journal of the Wars in Germany, 
 and the Wars in England. From the Year 1632, to the Year 1648. Written 
 threescore years ago, by an English Gentleman, who served first in the Army of 
 Gustavus Adolphus, the Glorious King of Sweden, till his Death, and after that 
 in the Royal Army of King Charles the First, from the Beginning of the Rebellion 
 to the End of the War. London. Printed for A.Bell, at the Cross Keysm 
 Cornhill,J. Osborn, at the Oxford Arms in Lombard Street, W. Taylor, at the 
 
 B B 2 
 
420 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Ship and Siuan, and. T. Warner, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster Row, ist 
 Edition, 21 May, 1720.— (Leeds, James Lister.) (8vo. Title, and Preface, 
 6 leaves, & pp. 338). 2nd Edit. 
 
 205. — The Lile, Adventures, and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton : 
 Containing an Account of his being set on Shore in the Island of Madagascar, 
 his Settlement there, with a Description of the Place and Inhabitants : Of his 
 Passage from thence in a Paraguay, to the Main Land of Africa, with an Account 
 of the Customs and Manners of the People : His great Deliverances from the 
 Barbarous Natives and Wild Beasts : Of his meetmg with an Englishman, a 
 citizen of London, amongst the Indians. The great Riches he Acquired, and his 
 Voyage Home to England. As also Captain Sniqleton's Return to Sea, with an 
 Account of his many Adventures, and Pyracies with the famous Captain Avery, 
 and others. London. Printed for_/. Brotherton at the Blcuk Bull, in Cornhill, 
 J. Graves, in St. James' s Street, A. Dodd, at the Peacock, without Temple-har, 
 and T. Warner, at the Black Boy in Paternoster Row. (8vo. Title & pp. 344.) 
 ISC Edition, 4 June, 1720. — Reissued in the Post Master or Loyal Mercury, 
 Exeter. 4 Nov. 1720, and following weeks. — Printed and Sold by Nath. Mist, 
 in Great Carter Lane. 2nd Edition, 9 Sept. 1721. 
 
 206. — Applebee's Original Weekly Journal. [Established in 1714. Daniel 
 Defoe began to write weekly articles, and to assist in the management, and con- 
 tinued to do so nearly six years. The Journal continued long afterward.] 25 
 June, 1720, to 12 March, 1726. 
 
 207. — The Director. [Defoe wrote Leading Articles in it, but whether 
 he was the responsible Editor or not I cannot say.] No. I. published 5 Oct. 
 1720. 
 
 208. — The Compleat Art of Fainting. A Poem. Translated from the French 
 of M. Du hresnoy. By D. )!., Gent. London. T. Warner. Price One 
 Shilling. (8vo. Title & pp. 53.) 1720. 
 
 209. — A Vindication of the Honour and Justice of Parliament against a most 
 
 Scandalous Libel, Entituled the Speech of John A ■ Esq. London. Printed 
 
 for A. Moore, near St. Paul's, and Sold by the Booksellers of London and West- 
 minster. Price Six Pence, n. d. (Title and Preface 2 leaves & pp. 36.) Feb. 
 1721. 
 
 210. — A Collection of Miscellany Letters, selected out of Mist's Weekly 
 Journal [i2mo. (Vol. I. Title and Dedication 4 leaves, Preface xiv.. Contents 4 
 leaves & pp. 310.) (Vol. II. Title, &c., xii. pp. 332, Contents 4 leaves.)] 
 * Contains many Letters written by Defoe. 9 Jan. 1722. 
 
 211. — The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c., who 
 was born in Newgate, and during a Life of continued Variety, for Threescore 
 Years, beside her Childhood, was Twelve Years a Whore, Five Times a Wife 
 (whereof once to her own Brother), Twelve Years a Thief, Eight. Years a Trans- 
 ported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and died a Penitent. 
 Written from her own Memorandums. London. ^ W. Chetwood, 1721. (8vo. 
 pp. xiii. & 424.) 1st Edition, 27 Jan. 1722. — London. J. Brotherton. (8vo. 
 4 leaves & pp. 366.) 2nd Edition, 23 July, 1722. — London. W. Chetwood. 
 (8vo. 4 leaves & Mi. 366) 3rd Edition, 21 Dec. 1722. — An Abridged Edition 
 (for the Pocket), "tondon. J. Read. 4th Edition, 13 July, 1723. — A Reissue of 
 the 3rd Edition. 2nd Nov. 1723. 
 
 212. — Religious Courtship : Being Historical Discourses on the Necessity of 
 Marrying Religious Husbands and Wives only. As also of Husbands and Wives 
 being of the same Opinions in Religion with one Another. With an Appendix of 
 the Necessity of taking none but Religious Servants, and a Proposal for the better 
 Management of Servants. London. E. Matthews. (8vo. 4 leaves & pp. 358.)' 
 20 Feb. 1722. 
 
 213. — A Journal of the Plague Year : Being Qbservations or Memorials of the 
 most Remarkable Occurrences, as well Publick as Private, which happened in 
 London during the last Great Visitation in 1665. Writ-ten by a Citizen, who 
 continued all the while in London. Never made piiblick before. London. 
 Printed for E. Nutt, &c. (8vo. 3 leaves & pp. 287.) Ist Edition, 17 Mar. 1722. 
 —The History of the Great Plague in London, in the Year 1665. Containing 
 Observations and Memorials of the most remarkable Occurrences, both Publick 
 
Appendix. 4^1 
 
 and Private, that happened during that dreadful period. By a Citizen who lived 
 the Whole Time in London. To which is added a Journal of the Plague at 
 Marseilles, in the Year 1720. London. T. and J. Noble. (8vo. Title and pp. 
 376.) 2nd Edition, 1754. 
 
 213a. — Due Preparations for the Plague 1722. Omitted accidentally by Mr. 
 Lee. A separate work from 213. 
 
 214. — The Life and Actions of Lewis Dominique Cartouche, who was broke 
 alive upon the wheel at Paris, Nov. 28, 1721, N.S., Relating at large his remark- 
 &\i\& Adventures, Desperate Enterprises, and Various Escapes. With an Accoutit 
 of his Behaviour under Sentence, and upon the Scaffold, and the Manner of his 
 Execiition. , Translated from the French. London. /. Roberts. Price is. 6d. 
 (8vo. pp. 88.) 27 April, 1722. 
 
 215. — The History and Remarkable Life of the truly Honourable Colonel 
 Jacque, vulgarly called Col. Jack, who was born a Gentlevian ;' ■^\i.l 'Prentice to a 
 Pickpocket ; was six and twenty years a Thief, and then kidnapped to Virginia ; 
 canie back a Merchant ; was five times married to four IVhores ; went into the 
 Wars, behaved bravely, got Preferment, was made Colonel of a Regiment ; came 
 over, and fled with the Chevalier, is still abroad Completing a life of Wonders. 
 and resolves to die a General. London. J. Brotherton, &c. &c. (8vo. Title and 
 Preface, pp. vii. & pp. 399.) 1st Edition, 20 Dec. 1722. — (8vo. Title and Preface 
 4 leaves & pp. 399.) 2nd Edition, 19 Jan. 1723.— (8vo. Title and Preface 4 leaves 
 & PP- 399- ) 3f<l Edition, 1724. 
 
 216. — ka. Impartial History of the Life and Actions of Peter Alexowitz the 
 present Czar of Muscovy : From his Birth down to this present Time. Giving an 
 Account of his Travels and Transactions in the Several Courts of Europe. With 
 his Attempts and Successes in the Northern and Eastern Parts of the World. In 
 which is intermixed the History of Muscovy. Written by a British Of/icer in the 
 Service of the Czar. London. Printed for W. Chetwood, at Gate's Head in 
 Russel Street, Covent Garden ; J. Stagg in Westminster Hall ; J. Brotherton, at 
 the Bible, near the Royal Exchange ; and T. Edlin, at the Princes Arms, over 
 against Exeter Exchange in the Strand. Price bound 5s. (8vo. Title & pp. 420.) 
 1723. 
 
 217. — The Highland Rogue, or the Memorable Actions of the celebrated 
 Robert Macgregor ; commonly called Rob Roy. Containing a Genuine Account 
 of his Education, Grandeur, and sudden Misfortune ; his commencing Robber, 
 and being elected Captain of a formidable Gang ; his exploits on the Highway, 
 breaking open Houses, taking Prisoners ; commencing Judge, and Levying Taxes ; 
 his Defence of his Manner of Living ; his Dispute with a Scotch Parson upon 
 Predestination ; his joining with the Earl of Mar in the Rebellion ; his being 
 decoy'd, and imprison'd by the Duke of — ■ — , with the Manner of his Escape, &c. 
 Introduced with the Relation of the Unequall'd Villainies of the Clan of the 
 Macgregors several Years past. The whole impartially digested from the Memo- 
 randums of an Authentick Scotch M.S. London. J. Billingsby, &.c. &c. Price 
 IS. (8vo. pp. 63.) 5 Oct. 1723. 
 
 218. — The fortunate Mistress : or, a History of the Life and Vast Variety of 
 fortunes of Mademoiselle de Belaii ; afterwards called the Countess of Wintsel- 
 sheim, in Germany. Being the person known by the name of the Lady Roxana, 
 in the Time of King Charles II. London. T. Warner, &c. (8vo. Frontis- 
 piece, Title, and Preface 3 leaves, & pp. 407.) ist Edition, 14 March, 1724. 
 
 219. — The Great Law of Subordination Consider'd ; or. The Insolence, and 
 Unsufferable Behaviour of Servants in England, duly enquired into. Illustrated 
 with a great Variety ot Examples, Historical Cases and Remarkable Stories of 
 the Behaviour of some particular' Servants, Suited to all the Several Arguments 
 made use of as they go on. In Ten Familiar Letters. Together with a Con- 
 clusion, being an Earnest and .Moving Remonstrance, to the Housekeepers and 
 Heads of Families in Great Bfitain, pressing them not to cease using their Utmost 
 Interest (especially at/ thjs Juncture), to obtain sufficient laws, for the effectual 
 Regulation of the Manners and Behaviour of their Servants. As also a Proposal, 
 -containing such Heads, or Constitutions, as would effectually answer this great 
 End and bring Servants of every Cla-s to a just (and yet not a Grievous) Regula- 
 tion.' London. S. Harding, and other Booksellers. Price Three Shillings and 
 
422 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Six Pence. (8vo. Tille and Preface 2 leaves & pp. 302.) 1st Edition, 4 April, 
 1724- — "^^^^ Behaviour oi Servants in England, Inquired into. With a Proposal 
 containing Such Heads or Constitutions as would effectually answer this Great 
 End, and Bring Servants of every Class to a Just Regulation. London. H. 
 Whittridge, under the Royal Exchange. Price, 2s. Stitcht, or 3s. Bound. (8vo. 
 Title & pp. 302. In (act the sheets of the previous Edition, with suppression of 
 Preface, and Change of Title.) 2nd Edition, no date. 
 
 220. — A Tour thro' the whole Island of Great Britain ; divided into Circuits 
 orjournies. Giving a Particular and Diverting Account of whatever is Curious 
 and worth Observation, viz. : — I. A Description of the Principal Cities and 
 Towns, Iheir Situation, Magnilude, Government, iind Commerce. II. The 
 Customs, Manner, Speech ; as also the Exercises, Diversions, and Employment 
 of the People. III. The Produce and Improvements of the Land, the Trade and 
 Manufactures. IV. The Seaports and Fortifications, with ihe Course of Rivers, 
 and the Inland Navigation. V. The Publick Edifices, Seats and Palaces, of the 
 Gentry and Nobility. With useful observations on the whole. Particularly 
 fitted for the Reading of Such as desire to travel over the Island. By a Gentle- 
 man. London. G. Strahan. (8vo. Plate of the Siege of Colchester in 1648. 
 Title and Preface "vii. & pp. 140, 121, and 127.) Vol. I., 1st Edition, 22 May, 
 1724. 
 
 221. With a Map of England and Wales, by Mr. Moll. (8vo. Map, 
 
 Title, and Preface, viii. & pp. 192 and 200. Index to Vols. I and 2, pp. xxxvi.) 
 Vol. II., 1st Edition, 8 June, 1725. 
 
 222. Which completes this Work, and contains a Tour thro' Scot- 
 land, &c. With a Map of Scotland, by Mr. Moll. (8vo. Map, Title, and Preface, 
 3 leaves & pp. 232 and 230. Index, 2 leaves.) Vol. III., Lst Edition, 13 Aug. 
 1726. — Complete, 3 Vols., 2nd Edition, 15 June, 1727. 
 
 223. — A Narrative o{ the Proceedingsin France, for Discovering and Detecting 
 the Murders of the English Gentlemen, September 21, 1723, near Calais. Wiih 
 an Account of the Condemnation and Sentence of Joseph Bizeau and Peter Le 
 Febvre, Two Notorious' Robbers, who were the principal Actors in the said 
 Murder ; particularly in the Killing Mr. Lock. Together with their Discovery 
 and manner of perpetrating that execrable Murder ; and also large Memoirs of 
 their Behaviour during their Torture, and upon the Scaffold ; their impeaching 
 Several other, Criminals, and a brief History of their Past Crimes, as well in 
 Company with their former Captain, the famous Cartouche, as Since his Execu- 
 tion. In which is a great Variety of Remarkable Incidents, and Surprising 
 Circumstances, never yet made Publick. Translated from the French. London. 
 Printed for J. Roberts, in Warwick Lane. Price 2s. (8vo. pp. 108.) 17 Aug. 
 1724. 
 
 224. — "Wi^ History oi \he Pemarkable Life of John Shepfard. Containing a 
 Particular Accountof his Many Robberies and Escapes, &c. &c. Including his 
 last Escape from the Castle, at Newgate. Printed and Published by John 
 Applebee, in Black Friars. Price one Shilling. {8vo. pp. .) 1st Edition", 
 19 Oct. I724.^2nd Edition, 26 Oct. 1724. — 3rd Edition, 12 Nov. 1724. 
 
 225. — AWarrative of all the Robberies, Escapes, &c., oi Jehn Sheppard, 
 Givmg an Exact Description of the Manner of his Wonderful Escape from the 
 Castle in Newgate, and of the Methods he took afterward for his Security. 
 Written by hiniself during his Confinement in the Middle Stone Room, after his 
 being retaken in Drury Lane. To which is Prefix'd a true Representation of 
 his Escape, from the condemned Hold, Curiously Engraven on a Copper Plate. 
 The whole Published at the particular request of the Prisoner. London. 
 Printed and Sold hy John Apflebee, &c. in Black Friars. Price 6d. (8vo. front, 
 pp. 31.) 1st Edition, 17 Nov. 1724. — 2nd Edition, 18 Nov. 1724 — 3rd Editi<in, 
 19 Nov. 1724 — 4th Edition, 20 Nov. 1724. — 5lh Edition, 21 Nov. 1724.— 6th 
 Edition, z8 Nov. 1724. — 7th Edition, 12 Dec. 1724. 
 
 226. — A New Voyage Round the World. By a Coawe never Sailed ^^r^. 
 Being a Voyage undertaken by some Merchants, who afterwards proposed the 
 setting up of an East India Company in Flanders. Illustrated with Copper 
 Plates. London. A. Betlenvorth. {8vo. Plates. Title & pp. 20S and 205.) 
 8 May, 1725. 
 
Appendix. ' 423 
 
 227. — Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business : or VrlwsXe Abuses, Publick 
 Grievances. Exemplified in the Pride, Insolence, and Exorbitant Wages of our 
 Women Servants, Footmen &c. By Andrew Morton, Esq. ist Edition, 5 June, 
 .1725.— 2nd Edition, 9 June, 1725.— (8vo. pp. 34) 3rd Edition, 14 June, 1725.— 
 4th Edition, 19 June, 1725.— (With an addition of a Preface) 5th Edition, 24 
 July, 1725.— Reprinted 1767. 
 
 228. — The True, Genuine, and Perfect Account of the Life and Actions of 
 Jonathan Wiid. Taken from good Authority, and from his own Writings. 
 Printed and Published by J. Applebee, in Black Friars. (8vo.) ist Edition, 
 8 June, 1725. — 2nd Edition, 10 June, 1725. — 3rd Edition, 12 June, 1725. 
 
 229. — ^An Account of the Conduct and Proceedings of the \a.leJohn Gow, alias 
 Smith, Captain of the late Pirates, executed for Murther and Piracy, committed 
 on Board the George Galley, afterwards called the Revenge; with a Relation of 
 all the horrid Murthers they Committed in Cold Blood.. As also of their being 
 taken at the Islands of Orkney, and sent up prisoners to London. London. 
 Printed and Sold by J. Applebee, in Black fryers. Price is. (8vo. Title, &c. 
 viii. pp. 62.) II June, 1725. 
 
 230. — The Complete English Tradesman, In Familiar Letters, Directing him 
 in all the several Parts and Progressions of Trade — viz. I. His acquainting him- 
 self with Business during his Apprenticeship. II. His Writing to his Corre- 
 spondents, and obtaining a general Knowledge of Trade, as well what he is not 
 as what he is employ'd in. HI. Of Diligence, and Application, as the Life of 
 all Business. IV. Cautions against Over-Trading. V. Of the ordinary Occa- 
 sions of a Tradesman's Ruin : such as Expensive Living, — Too early Marrying, — 
 Innocent Diversions, — Giving and Taking too much Credit, — Leaving Business 
 to Servants, — Being above Business, — Entering into Dangerous Partnerships, &c. 
 
 VI. Directions in the several Distresses of a Tradesman, when he comes to fail. 
 
 VII. Of Tradesmen Compounding with their Debtors, and why they are so 
 particularly severe. VIII. Of Tradesmen ruining one another, by Rumour and 
 Scandal. IX. Of the Customary Frauds of Trade, which even honest Men 
 allow themselves to practise. X. Of Credit, and how it is only supported by 
 Honesty. XI. Directions for Book-keeping, punctual paying Bills, and thereby 
 maintaining Credit. XII. Of the Dignity and Honour of Trade, in England, 
 more than in other Countries ; and how the Trading Families in England are 
 mingled with the Nobility and Gentry, so as not to be separated, or distinguished. 
 Calculated for the Instruction of Our Inland Tradesmen, and especially of 
 Young Beginners. London. Charles Rivington. (Title & Preface xv. Contents 
 I leaf & pp. 447.) 1st Edition, n Sept. 1795 — Reissued, 1726. (Title as before 
 to Section Xll.) The Second Edition. To which is added a Supplement, Con- 
 taining — I. A Warning against Tradesmen's Borrowing Money upon Interest. 
 II. A Caution against that destructive Practice, of drawing and Remitting, as 
 also discounting Promissory Bills, meerly for a supply of Cash. III. Directions 
 for the Tradesman's accovmts, with brief but plain Examples, and Specimens for 
 Book-keeping. IV. Of keeping a Duplicate, or Pocket Ledger, in Case of Fire. 
 London. Printed for Charles Rivington, at the Bible and Crown in St. Paul's 
 Churchyard. (Title, Preface, and Contents xx, & pp. 368. Supplement, 148.) 
 2nd Edition, 10 Sept. 1726. (*Supplement may be had alone. Price is.) 
 Reissued, 1727. 
 
 231. — The Compleat English Tradesman. Volume ii. In two Parts. 
 Part I. Directed chiefly to the more Expetienc'd Tradesmen ; with Cautions 
 and Advices to them after they are thriven, and supposed to be grown rich, viz. 
 I. Against Running out of their Business Projects, and Dangerous Adventures, 
 no Tradesman being above Disaster. II. Against Oppressing one another by 
 Engrossing, Underselling, Combinations in Trade, &c. III. Advices, that 
 when he leaves off his Busine.-s he should part Friends with the World ; the 
 great Advantages of it ; with a Word on the Scandalous Character of a Purse- 
 proud Tradesman. IV. Against being litigious and Vexatious, and apt to go to 
 Law for Trifles ; with some Reasons why Tradesmen's Differences should, if 
 possible, all be ended by Arbitration. Part II. Being useful Generals in Trade, 
 describing the Principles and Foundation of the Home Trade of Great Britain, 
 with Large Tables of our Manufactures, Calculations of the Product, Shipping, 
 
424 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Carriage of Goods by Land, Importation from Abroad, Consumption at Home, 
 &c. by all which the infinite number of our Tradesmen are employ'd, and the 
 General Wealth of the Nation rais'd and increas'd. The whole calculated for the 
 use of our Inland Tradesmen, as well in the City as in the Country. London. 
 Printed for Charles Kimngton at the Bible and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard. 
 (Title, Preface and Contents xiv. & pp. 298 and 176.) ist Edition, 13 May, 
 1727 — Compleat. In 2 Volumes. 2nd Edition, 10 Aug. 1728. 
 
 232 — The Friendly Dcemon ; or, the Generous Apparition. Being a True 
 Narrative of a Miraculous Cure newly performed upon the famous Deaf and 
 Dumb gentleman. Dr. Duncan Campbell, By a familiar Spirit, that appeared to 
 him in a white surplice, like a Cathedral Singing boy. London. J. Roberts. 
 (8vo. pp. 39. Pp. 14 to 48, by Defoe.) 1726. 
 
 233. — The Political History of the Devil, As well Ancient as Modern. In 
 two Parts. I. Containing a Slate of the Devil's Circumstances, and the Various 
 Turns in his affairs, from his Expulsion out of Heaven, to the Creation of Man. 
 With remarks on the Several Mistakes concerning the Reason and Manner of his 
 Fall. Also his Proceedings with Mankind, ever since Adam, to the first 
 planting of the Christian Religion in the World. Part 11. Containing his more 
 Private Conduct down to the present Times ; his Government, his Appearances, 
 his Manner of Working, and the Tools he Works with. London. T. Warner. 
 (8vo. Frontispiece, Title, Dedication and Contents, 4 leaves & pp. 408.) ist 
 Edition, 7 May, 1726. — (8vo. Frontispiece, Title, Preface and Contents 4 leaves 
 pp. 408.) 2nd Edition, 20 April, 1727. — Westminster. J. Brindley (8vo. Front. 
 Title, Ded. & Preface 4 leaves & pp. 408). 3rd Edition, 1734. 
 
 234. — Mere Nature Delineated ; or, a .5«(?y without a Soul. Being Observa- 
 tions upon the young Forester lately brought to Town from Germany. ' With 
 Suitable Applications. Also a Brief Dissertation upon the Usefulness and 
 necessity of Fools, whether Political or Natural. Price is. 6d. London. T. 
 Warner. (8vo. 2 leaves & pp." 123.) 23 July, 1726. 
 
 235. — An Essay upon Literature ; or, an Enquiry into the Antiquity and 
 Original of Letters. Provirg that the two Tables, written by the Finger of God 
 in Mount Sinai, was the first Writing in the World ; and that all other Alphabets 
 d*='rive from the Hebrew. With a. short view of the methods made use of by the 
 Ancients to supply the want of Letters before, and improve the use of them., after 
 they were known. London. Thos. Bowles. (8vo. Title & pp. 127.) 1726. 
 
 236. — A General History of the Principal Discoveries and Iniproveinents in 
 Ihefitl Arts. Particularly in the Great Branches of Commerce, Navigation, and 
 "Plantation in all Parts of the known World, &c. London. J. Roberts. (Com- 
 plete in Four Monthly Parts. 8vo. Title and Preface viii., pp. 307, and 
 General Index & pp. 5.) Oct. 1726 to- Jan. 1727. 
 
 237. — The Protestant Monastery, or, a Complaint against 4he Brutality of the 
 Present Age. Particularly the Pertness. and Insolence of our Youth to Aged 
 Persons. With a Caution to People in Years how they give the Staff out of their 
 own Hands, and leave themselves to the Mercy of others. Concluding with a 
 Proposal for Erecting a Protestant Monastery, where Persons of small Fortune 
 may End tljeir J)ays in Plenty, Ease and Credit, without Burthening their 
 Relations, or areeoting Publick Charities. By Andrew Moreton, Esq., Author 
 of " Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business." London. W, Meadows, 1727, 
 Price 6d. (8vo. Title and Preface viii., and pp. 31.) 19 Nov. 1746. — Re- 
 issued, 1727. 
 
 238. — A System of Magick ; or, a History of the Black Art. Being an 
 Historical Account of Mankind's most early Dealings with the Devil, and how 
 the Acquaintance on both Sides first began. London. J. Roberts. {8vo. Front. 
 Title, Preface & Contents 5 leaves & pp. 403.) ist Edition, 19 Dec. 1726. — 
 With Addiiions. 2nd Edition, 16 Jan. 1731. 
 
 239. — The Evident Approach of a War : and Something of the Necessity of 
 it, in order I o Establish Peace and Preserve Trade. Pax Quceritur Bella. To 
 which is added an Exact Plan and Description of the Bay and City of Gibraltar. 
 London, J. Roberts, Price Is. 6d. (8vo. Plan. 2 leaves & pp. 52.) Jan. 
 1727. 
 
 240. — Conjugal Lezudness : or, Matrimonial Whoredom, &c. &c. London. 
 
Appendix. 425 
 
 T. Warner. (8vo. Title, Preface, & Contents 4 leaves & pp. 406.) 30 Tan 
 1727.— [Reissued with the following Title, but collation as befoie.]— A Treatise 
 concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed. Shewing— I. The Nature 
 of Matrimony, its Sacred Original, and the True Meaning of its Institution. II. 
 The gross abuse of Matrimonial Chastity from the wrong Notions which have 
 possessed the World, degenerating even to Whoredom. III. The Diabolical 
 practice of attempting to prevent Childbearing by Physical Preparations. IV. 
 The Fatal Consequences of Clandestine, or forced Marriages, thro' the Persuasion, 
 Interest, or Influence of Parents and Relations, to wed the Person they have no 
 love for. but oftentimes an Aversion to. V. Of Unequal Matches as to the Dis- 
 proportion of Age ; and how such many Ways occasion a Matrimonial Whoredom. 
 VI. How married Persons may be guilty of Conjugal Lewdness, and that a Man 
 may, in effect, make a Whore of his own Wife. Also many other Particulars of 
 Family Concern. London.. T. Warner. (8vo. Title, Preface, & Contents 
 4 leaves & pp. 406.) 10 June, 1727. 
 
 241. — An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions. Being an 
 Account of What they are, and What they are not ; Whence they Come, and 
 Whence they Come not ; As also how we may distinguish the Apparitions of 
 Good and Evil Spirits, and how we ought to behave to them. With a great 
 Variety of Surprising and Diverting Examples, never published before. London. 
 J. Roberts. (!ivo. Front, and Plates. Title, Preface, and Contents 6 leaves, 
 * PP' 39S-) 1st Edition, 18 March, 1727. — The Secrets of the Invisible JVorld 
 Disclos'd: or, An Univei-sal History of Apparitions, Sacred and Profane, under 
 all Denominations ; whether Angelical, Diabolical, or Human Souls Departed. 
 Shewing— I. Their Various Returns to this World ; with sure Rules to know, by 
 their Manner of Appeari^ig, if they are Good or Evil Ones. The Differences of 
 the Apparitions of Ancient and Modern Times ; and an Enquiry into the Scrip- 
 tural Doctrine of Spirits. III. The many Species of Apparitions ; their real 
 Existence and Operations by Divine Appointment. IV, The Nature of Seeing 
 Ghosts before, and after Death, and how we should behave towards them. 
 V. The effects of Fancy, Vapours, Dreams, Hyppo, and of real or imaginary 
 Appearances. VI. A Collection of the most Authentic Relations of Apparitions, 
 particularly that surprizing One attested by the learned Dr. Scott. By Andrew 
 Moreton, Esq. Adorned with Cuts. London. Printed for J, Peete. (Svo. 
 Plates, Title, Preface and Contents 6 leaves, & pp. 395. Only the Title altered.) 
 23 Nov. 1728.— (Printed for John Clarke & A Millar, &c.) Reissued, znd 
 Edition, 13 Feb. 1729. 
 
 242. — ■ h. New Family Instructor; in Familiar Discourses between a Father 
 and his Children, on the most Essential Points of the Christian Religion. In 
 Two Parts. Part I. containing a Father's Instructions to his .Sore upon his 
 going to Travel into Popish Countries ; and to the rest of his Children, on his 
 Son's turning Papist ; confirming them in the Protestant Religion, against the 
 Absurdities of Popery. Part II. Instructions against the Three Grand Errors of 
 the Times; viz. i. Km'tXin^^^ Divitie Authority alxh^ Scriptures ; against the 
 Deists. 2. Proofs, that the Messias is already come, &c. ; against the Atheists 
 aad/ews. 3- Asserting, the Divinity oi Jesus Christ, that he was really the same 
 with the Messias, and that the Messias was to be really.GoD ; against our Modern 
 Hereticks. With a Poem upon the Divine Nature of Jesus Christ, in Blank 
 Verse. By the Author of the Family Instructor. London, T. H'arner. (8vo. 
 Title and Pref. xv. & pp. 384-) ist Edition, 1727.— With an altered Title. 2nd 
 Edition, 1732. 
 
 243. — Parochial Tyranny: or, the Housekeeper's Complaint, against the in- 
 supportable Exactions and partial Assessmetits of Select Vestries. With a plain 
 Detection of many Abuses committed in the Distribution of Public Charities. 
 Together with a Practical Proposal for Amending the same: which will not only 
 take off great Part of the Parish Taxes now subsisting, but ease Parishioners from 
 Serving troublesome Offices, or paying exorbitant Fines. By Andrew Moreton, 
 Esq. London. IV. Meadows. (Svo. Title & pp. 36). 9 Dec. 1727. 
 
 244. Au^sla Triumphans : or, the Way to make London the most Flourish- 
 ing City in the Universe. I. By Establishing a University where Gentlemen 
 may have Academical Education under the Eyes of their Friends. II. By an 
 
426 The Life qf Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Hospital for Fnmdlmgs. III. By forming an Academy of Sciences at Christ's 
 Hospital. IV. By Suppressing pretended Mad-Houses, where many of the fair 
 Sex are unjustly confined, while their Husbands keep Mistresses, &c., and many 
 Widows are locked up for the sake of their Jointure. V. To Save our Youth 
 from Destruction, by Clearing the Streets of impudent Strumpets, suppressing 
 Gaming Tables, and Sunday Debauches. VI. To Save our lower Class of People 
 from utter Ruin, and render them useful, by preventing the immoderate use of 
 Geneva. With a frank Exposition of many other Common Abuses, and incon- 
 testable Rules for Amendment. Concluding with an Effectual Method to prevent 
 Street Robberies, and a Letter to Col : Robinson, on Account of the Orphan's Tax, 
 By Andrew Moreton, Esq. London. J. Roberts. (8vo. pp. 63). 1st Edition, 
 16 Mar. 1728. — (Collation the same). 2nd Edition, 1729. 
 
 245. — A Plan of the English Commerce. Being a Compleat Prospect of the 
 Trade of this Aation, As well the Home Trade as the Foreign. In three Parts. 
 Part I. Containing a view of the present Magnitude of the English Trade, as it 
 respects, I. The Exportation of our own Growth and Manufacture ; 2. The Im- 
 portation of Merchant Goods from Abroad ; 3. The Prodigious Consumption of 
 Both at Home. Part II. Containing an Answer to that Great and Important 
 Question now depending. Whether our Trade, and especially our Manufactures, 
 are in a declining Condition, or No ? Part III. Containing several Proposals 
 entirely new, for Extending and Improving our Trade, and Promoting the Con- 
 sumption of our Manufactures in Countries wherewith we have hitherto had no 
 Comme7-ce. Humbly offered to the Consideration of the Xing and Parliament : 
 London. C. Rivinglon (8vo. pp. 368). 1st Edition, 23 March, 1728. — A Plan 
 ■of the English Commerce, Being a Compleat Prospect of the Trade of this Nation, 
 as well the Hovie Trade as the Foreign. Humbly offered to the Consideration of 
 the King and Parliament. The Second Edition. To which is added, an 
 Appendix, containing A View of the Increase of Commerce, not only of England, 
 but of all the Trading Nations of Europe, since the Peace with Spain. The 
 whole Containing several Proposals, entirely new, for Extending, and Improving 
 Our Trade; zni Promoting Ihe ConsxJM'eTlON qf otir Manufactures in Countries, 
 wherewith we have hitherto had, no Commerce. London. Printed for C. Rivington, 
 1730. (8vo. Title and Pref. xvi. Contents, &c., 4 leaves & pp. 368, and Append, 
 pp. 40). 2nd Edition, 13 Jan. 1761. 
 
 246. — The Universal Spectator. No. I. (Impl. 410. one sheet.) 12 Oct. 
 1728. 
 
 247. — Second Thoughts are Best: or, a Further Improvement of a late Scheme 
 to Prevent Street Robberies. By which our Streets will be so strongly Guarded, 
 and so gloriously illuminated, that any part of London will be as safe and pleasant 
 at Midnight, as at Noonday, and Burglary totally impracticable. With some 
 Thoughts for Suppressing Robberies in all the Publick Roads of England, &c. 
 Humbly offered for the good of his Country, Submitted to the Consideration of 
 the Parliament, and Dedicated to his Sacred Majesty George II. By Andrew 
 Moreton, Esq. London. W. Meadows. Price 6d. (8vo. pp. 24). 12 Oct. 1728, 
 
 248. — Street Robberies considered. The reason of their being so frequent, with 
 probable meains to prevent 'era. To which is added, three short Treatises : — 
 I. A Warning for Travellers : with Rules to Know a Highwayman, and Instruc- 
 tions how to behave upon the occasion. 2. Observations on Housebreakers, 
 How to prevent a Tenement from being broke open. With a Word of Advice 
 concerning Servants. 3. A Caveat for Shopkeepers : with a Description of 
 Shoplifts, how to know 'em, and how to prevent 'em ; also a Caution of Deliver- 
 ing Goods : With the Relation of several Cheats, practised lately upon the 
 Publick. Written by a Converted Thief. To which is prefix'd some Memoirs 
 of his Life. Set a Thief to Catch a Thief. Lonaon. Printed- for J. Roberts, in. 
 Warwick Lane. Price is, (8vo. pp. 72). 12 Nov. 172S. 
 
 249. — Fog's Weekly Journal. (An Article by Defoe.) 11 Jan. 1729. 
 
 260.— .i4« Humble Proposal, to the People of England, for the Encrease of 
 their Trade and Encouragement of their Manufactures ; whether the present 
 Uncertainty of Affairs issues in Peace or War. By the Author of the Compleat 
 English I radesman. London. C. Rivington. (8vo. Title and Preface, 2 leaves 
 & pp. 59;) 15 March, 1729. 
 
Appendix. 427 
 
 251. — Reasons for a War, in Order to Establish the Tranquility and Commerce 
 of Europe. Pax Quceritur Bella, London. Printed for A. Dodd, and R. 
 Walker, without Temple Bar ; E. Nutt and F. Smith, at the Royal Exchange, 
 and Sold by the Booksellers, and Pamphlet Shops, Mercuries and Hawkers of 
 Londor and Westminster. Price 6d. (8vo. pp. 32.) Mar. 1729. 
 
 252. — Servitude : a Poem. To which is prefix'd an Introduction, humbly 
 submitted to the Consideration of all Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Ladies, who 
 keep many Servants. Also, a Postscript, occasioned by a late trifling Pamphlet, 
 entitled, Every Body's Business is Nobody's Business. Written by a Footman. 
 In Behalf of Good Servants, and to excite the Bad to do their Duty. London. 
 T. Worrall. Price 6d. [The Prose, comprising the larger part, written by 
 Defoe ; the Verse by Robert Dodsley.'] (8vo. pp. 32.) 20 Sept. 1729. 
 
 263. The Compleat English Gentleman : Containing useful Observations on 
 
 the general Neglect of the Education of English Gentlemen, with the Reason and 
 Remedies. The Apparent Differences between a well-born, and a well-bred 
 Gentleman. Instructions how Gentlemen may recover a Deficiency of their 
 Latin, and be Men of Learning, though without the Pedantry of Schools. First 
 printed in 1890 by David Nutt of London. 1729. 
 
 264 —An Effectual Scheme, for the immediate Preventing of Street Robberies, 
 and suppressing the other Disorders of the Night ; With a Brief History of the 
 Night-Houses, and an Appendix relating to those Sons of Hell, called Incen- 
 diaries. Humbly Inscribed to the Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor of London. 
 London. Printed by /. Wilford, at the three Flower-de-Luces, behind the 
 Chapter House in St. Paul's Church-Yard. Price is. (8vo. pp. 72.). 1731. 
 
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INDEX. 
 
 Abney, Sir Thomas, 56 
 
 Acteon, 162 
 
 Addison, 98, 157, 190, 204, 240 
 
 Affair of honour, Defoe's, 20 ' 
 
 Aitken, Mr. G. A., 5, 17, 87 
 
 Ale, Defoe on, 60 
 
 Ambition makes the world go round, 
 
 85 
 
 Amorphous character of Defoe's writ- 
 ings, 283 
 
 Anecdotes, Defoe-an, 307, 309, 327 
 
 Anglesey, Lord, 193 
 
 Annesley, Dr., 5, 46 
 
 Antiquary, Defoe an, 313 
 
 Ants, Flight of, 43 
 
 "Apparitions, History of," 242, 253 
 
 Apphbeis, 156, 266, 3I9, 349 
 
 Applewoman and Moll Flanders, The, 
 280 
 
 Arbuthnot, Dr., 184 
 
 "Armageddon," 160 
 
 Asgill, Mr., 91 
 
 Astell, Mrs. (Camilla), 74 
 
 Atterbury, Dr., 185, 197 
 
 "Augusta Triumpham" 563 
 
 Avery, Csiptain, 254 
 
 Aylesbury, Defoe at, l6 
 
 Baker, Henry, 202, 317, 3SS. 379. 394 
 
 Bankruptcy, Defoe's, 37, 125 
 
 Belhaven, Lord, 146 
 
 Benson prosecutes Defoe, 179 
 
 Bible, Defoe copies out the, 8 
 
 Blue Firedrake, The, 339 
 
 " Bo-Peep with God Almighty," 51 
 
 Bradbury, Rev. Thomas, 198 
 
 Bristol, Defoe at, 38 
 
 Brother, Defoe's, 6, 1 16 
 
 Buchan, Lord, 158 
 
 Bunyan, John, u 
 
 Bury, Defoe at, 102 
 
 Butcher's Company, Defoe and the, 31 
 
 Calais Murders, The, 318 
 "Campbell, Duncan," 254 
 "Cartouche," 295 
 Chadwell, Tileyard at, 42, 87 
 Chadwick on Defoe, 25 
 " Charity still a Christian Virtue," 253 
 Charles XII. of Sweden, 208, 243 
 Church of England, Defoe and the, 
 
 115, 252 
 Civet Cat, Sign of the, 16 
 Clothes, Defoe's love of fine, 30, 36 
 Coach, Defoe sets up a, 43 
 Colchester, Property at, 296 
 " Colonel Jack," 81, 230, 277, 298 
 "Compleat Art of Painting," 268 
 "Compleat English Gentleman," 375 
 "Complete English Tradesman," 332 
 " Consolidator, The," in 
 Coventry beast, Defoe and the, 146 
 Cruso, Rev. Timothy, n, 233 
 "Crusoe, Robinson," n, 13, 23, 33, 
 150, 223, 229, 234, 241, 244, 269 
 Cupola House, Bury, 102 
 Curll, Edmund, 221 
 
 Daemon of Defoe, 39, 240, 247, 347 
 
 Daniel, Mrs. Damans, 171 
 
 Davenant, Dr., 92 
 
 Defoe, Benjamin, 228, 273, 392 
 
 Defoe, Daniel {fits), 17, 145, 391 
 
 Defoe, Hannah, 17, 391 
 
 Defoe, Henrietta, 393 
 
 Defoe, Maria, 393 
 
 Defoe, Sophia, 42, 202, 208, 355, 394 
 
 "Devil, History of the," 334 
 
430 
 
 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 "Dickory Cronke," 250 
 Dingley, Dorothy, 256 
 Dodsley, Robert, 372 
 Dogs, Mr. Foe's, 3 
 Don Dismal (Nottingham), 71 
 Dormer's News-Letter, 214. 
 Drake, Dr., 121 
 Dream, Thanks to a, 209 
 Dryden, 54, 352 
 Duel with Mist, 323 
 Duelling, Defoe on, 20, 323 
 Dyer, Letter to, 156 
 "Dyet of Poland," 115 
 
 Edinburgh, Defoe in, 137 
 Edwin, Sir Humphry, 50 
 Espinasse, Mr. F., 237 
 Etton (in Northarits), 2 
 " Everybody's Business," 326 
 Exeter, Defoe at, 118 
 
 Fagg, Sir John, 49 
 
 " Family Instructor, The,'' 204, 353 
 
 Finger of God in Defoe's Life, 84 
 
 Foe, Daniel (novelist's grandfather), 3 
 
 Foe, Edmund, of Tilbury, 42 
 
 Foe family, 2 
 
 Foe, James (novelist's father), 4, 5 ; 
 
 dies, 143 
 Foe, Mary (novelist's sister), 5 ; her 
 
 marriage, 15 
 Fog' s Journal, 368. 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 53 
 Fransham, 106, 107, 125, 141 
 "Friday," 194, 216, 231, 314 
 Friends of Defoe : 
 
 Sir John Fagg, 49 ; Sir Dalby 
 Thomas, 49, 51 ; Rev. W. Smith- 
 ies, 297 ; ^ohn Fransham, 106, 
 107 
 
 Gay, 1 85 
 
 Geographical knowledge, Defoe's, 263 
 
 Gildon's attack on Crusoe, 247 
 
 Gill, Abraham, 113 
 
 " Giving Alms no Charity," 108 
 
 Godolphin, 142 
 
 Goertz, Baron, 243 
 
 Greenwich, Defoe hides at, 378 
 
 Grimmelshausen, 233 
 
 Gyllenborg, Count, 215 
 
 Halifax, Defoe at, 175 
 
 ,, Lord, 114 
 Harcourt, Sir Simon, conducts the 
 
 prosecution against Defoe, 76 
 Harley, Robert, 79, 96, 100,, 142, 152, 
 
 158 
 Haversham, Lord, fustigated, 140 
 Hell, The medieeval, 338 
 History, Defoe's love of, 313 
 " History of the Devil," 334 
 Home, Defoe at, 311 
 Howe, John, M.P., 161 
 
 „ Rev., 56, 85, 86 
 Hunt, Mr. Christopher (Defoe), 117 
 " Hymn to Peace," 123 
 " Hymn to the Mob," 211 
 
 Ipswich, 8 
 
 Jeffreys, Judge, 21 
 Juan Fernandez, 166 
 "Jure Divino," Defoe's satire, 44, 65, 
 106, 133, 134, 260 
 
 Keimer, the Printer, 199 
 
 Kentish Petition, 61 
 
 Key to " Robinson Crusoe," 6, 24 
 
 Lace trade, 282 
 Lady devil; 336 
 Lamb, Charles, and Defoe's iiovels, 
 
 279 
 Lee, Mr. (quoted), 64, 128, • 182, 214, 
 
 251, 275, 288 
 Lesley, 89, 93, 106 
 Letters by Daniel Defoe, Appendix 
 Library, Defoe's, 388 . 
 
 " Magic, The History of," 346 
 Man of God, Defoe the, 291 
 Marlborough, no ■ 
 Marriage, Defoe on, 351 
 Marriage of Sophia Defoe, 369 
 Mary, Defoe and Queen, 41 
 Meeting of Defoe and Selkirk, 171 
 " Memoirs of a Cavalier," 98, 258 
 Men in the Moon, The, in 
 Mercator, 186 
 Merchant, Defoe as a, 175 
 Mercurius Politicus, 214 
 Mesnager, 160, 216 
 
Index. 
 
 431 
 
 Mickleham, Defoe at, 23 
 
 Milton, 334, 339 
 
 Minto, Professor (quoted), 48, 63, 68, 
 
 187, 381 
 Mist, Nathaniel, 85, 218, 265, 271, 
 
 323. 344 
 "Moll Flanders," 81, 223, 230, 277, 
 
 278, 286, 389 
 Monmouth, Duke of, 16, 21 
 Monument, Defoe and the, 14 
 Morton, Andrew, 364 
 „ Rev. Charles, 9 
 " My heart is vid you," 67 
 
 Name, Defoe changes his, 43 
 
 "New Voyage Round the World, "325 
 
 Newgate, Defoe in, 79 
 
 Newington, 9, 312 
 
 Nottingham, Lord, 70 
 
 Gates, Titus, 14 
 
 Occasional conformity, 49, 56, 67, 92 
 
 Old lady who married a boy, 352 
 
 Oldmixon, 187 
 
 Olney, 115, 282 
 
 "Pacificator, The," 54 
 Pamphlets, Defoe's, 48, 55, 63, 75 
 Parallels between Crusoe and Defoe, 
 
 26 
 Pay me, Peter, 88 
 " Peter the Great," 299 
 " Peter the Wild Boy," 340 
 Pillory, Defoe in the, 77 ; Mist in the, 
 
 271 
 "Plague, Due Preparations for the," 
 
 294 
 " Plague, Journal of the," 7. 98. 230, 
 
 235. 293 
 "Plague of London," 7, 230 
 
 Poems, Defoe's, 47 
 
 Poet, Defoe as a, 45 
 
 Pope, Alexander, 22, 77, "6, 185, 
 
 348 
 Popery, Defoe and, iiS 
 Portraits of Defoe, 75, 133 
 Presbyterian Church at Tooting, 30 
 
 „ Defoe a, 7 
 " Projects, The Essay on," 51 
 Protestant flail, Defoe's, 14 
 
 " Protestant Monastery, The," 343 
 Puffery, Defoe and, 226 
 
 Quakers, The, 197, 265 
 Queensberry, Duke of, 136 
 
 '&.e:^.A'% Journal, 224, 225, 274 
 Reasons against succession of the 
 
 House of Hanover, 177 
 Red Lion, Bristol, 38 
 " Reformation of Manners," 82 
 Relation of Defoe's at Martock, 15 
 Relic of Defoe, 315 
 " Religious Courtslijp," 288 
 Review, Defoe's, 88, 105, no, 112, 
 
 119, 126, 139, 140, 141, 153, 161, 
 
 162, 186 
 "Rob Roy," 300 
 "Robinson Crusoe," 11, 13, 23, 33, 
 
 150, ^23, 229, 234, 241, 244, 269 
 Rogers, Captain Woodes, 170, 231 
 " Roxana," 81, 277, 301, 302, 305 
 
 Sacheverell, Dr., 147 
 
 Saintsbury, Mr. George (quoted), 133, 
 
 258, 278, '299, 305 
 Sayings of Defoe, 292 
 Scotland, Defoe visits, 33 
 Scriblerus club, 184 
 Seal, Defoe's, 44 
 Selkirk, Alexander, 10, 164, 230 
 " Serious Reflections," 268 
 Serrano, Peter, 232 
 Silence, Defoe's life of, 201 
 " Singleton, Captain," 20, 262 
 " Sheppard, Jack," 318 
 " Shortest Way with Dissenters,'' 67 
 Shy informer. The, 74 
 Sister Mary, Defoe's, 5, 15 
 South Sea Scheme, The, 159, 266 
 Spain, Defoe in, 18 
 Spy> A government, 211 
 Standing Army question, The, 48 
 Steele, Sir Richard, 98, 172, 189, 349, 
 
 374 
 Storm, The great, 94 
 "Subordination, The Great Law of," 
 
 30s 
 Summary of Defoe's work, 389 
 Swift, Bean, 53, 71, 97, 98, 1,6, 154, 
 18s 
 
432 
 
 The Life of Daniel Defoe. 
 
 Tackers, Down with the, 109V 118 
 Taylor the publisher, 237, 238, 269 
 Te Deum Laudamus (Defoe's great 
 
 refrain), 40, 83, 150, 163, 381 
 Tile yard, Defoe's, 87 
 Tombstone, Defoe's, 385 
 Tooting, 30 
 
 ■'" Tours," Defoe's, 8, 33, 307 
 Trade, Defoe and, 175, 345 
 "True-bom Englishman, The," 58 
 Tuffley, Mary (Defoe's wife), 17, 24' 
 Tutfley, Samuel, 191, 329 
 Turks, Defoe's tract on the, 17 
 Tutchin, John, 22, 43, 58, 68, 90, 120, 
 
 155 
 
 Union of England and Scotland, 127, 
 
 136 
 " Use and Abuse, The," 340 
 
 Vanity, Defoe's, 43 
 "Veal, Mrs.," 127 
 Verisimilitude of " Crusoe," 246 
 ' ' Voyage Round the World, "325 
 
 Walkley, Mr. A. B., on ''..AX 
 
 Flanders,", &c., 285' 
 Ward, Mr., of Coleshill, 1 75 
 Ward, Ned, 78 
 Watts, Dr., 45, 56 
 
 Webb, Thomas, assisted by Defoe, 316 
 Webster, Rev. James, 1 38 
 Wesley, Samuel, 47 
 " What if the Pretender shoivld come?" 
 
 177 
 " What if the Queen should die ? " 177 
 "White Staff," 194 
 Wife, Defoe's, 17, 24, 192, 386 
 "Wild, Jonathan," 320, 329 
 Will, Daniel Foe's, 4 ; James Foe's, 
 
 143 ; Samuel TufHey's, 28, 191 ; 
 
 Mrs. Defoe's, 386 
 William III., 34, 64, 65 
 Williams, Daniel, D.D., 222 
 Wilson, Walter, 80, 134 
 Window to Defoe in Butchers' hall, 31 
 Women, Defoe and, 51 
 Works of Defoe kept a long while in 
 
 MS., 277 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed bv Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C.