"Fierce as the Briton, as the Roman brave,
And less inclined to conquer than to save;
Eager to fight, and lavish of their blood,
And equally of Fear and Forecast void.
The Pict has made 'em sour, the Dane morose,
False from the Scot, and from the Norman worse.
What honesty they have, the Saxons gave them,
And that, now they grow old, begins to leave them."

In terms equally forcible and biting, he runs over the peerage as augmented by the natural children of King Charles the Second, and other left-handed sources, and concludes his poem, after warm panegyrics on King William, his generals, and personal friends, with an axiom, the truth of which must be equally acknowledged by all ranks and in all ages :—

"Could but our ancestors retrieve their fate,
And see their offspring thus degenerate;
How we contend for birth and names unknown,
And build on their past actions, not our own;
They'd cancel records, and their tombs deface,
And then disown the vile degenerate race;
For fame of families is all a cheat,

"TIS PERSONAL VIRTUE ONLY MAKES US GREAT.'

The interest of the satire was no way lessened in the estimation of King William, who knew as little of the Muses as of the Graces, by the rough and homely numbers in which it was conveyed; and the run it had among the nation at large, praised by some, abused by others, but read by all, was astonishing. De Foe himself, in less than four years, published nine editions of it at the price of one shilling, and twelve other editions were printed without

his concurrence: of these pirated editions no less than 80,000 were disposed of at a cheap rate in the streetsof London. By this unprincipled conduct De Foe sustained a very considerable deduction in his profits, which otherwise, according to his own calculation, would have amounted to one thousand pounds, an amazing sum certainly in those days for so small a publication.

The favor in which De Foe was now held at court, added to the esteem with which his mercantile integrity caused him to be regarded, procured him the notice of many persons of rank and talent; and it was probably to give himself some little additional consequence among his new associates, or to restore it to its Norman origin, that he took the De in addition to his name, having before been known only as Daniel Foe; nor would his antagonists ever compliment him by addressing him with the foreign prefix.

De Foe resided several years at Tooting in Surrey, where he rendered the Dissenters in that neighbourhood the service of forming them into a regular congregation, under the reverend and learned Dr. Joshua Oldfield, author of a treatise on Improvement of Human Reason.".

"The

The whole of the reign of King William afforded perpetual invitation to the pen of a writer like De Foe. The massacre of Glencoe, the question of occasional conformity, of a standing army, the state of morals, reformation of the stage, observance of the sabbath, treaty of partition, act of settlement, and, above all, the famous appeal of parliament known

by the name of the " Legion Letter;" a statement. of grievances laid before them in the name of two hundred thousand Englishmen, on the impeachment of the leading Whig nobility ;- —were all treated on by him with his accustomed vigour and independence.

The death of William in 1702 opened a fresh field to him in vindicating both in prose and verse the memory of that monarch, to whom he was certainly most devotedly attached, from the aspersions of his enemies, and setting forth with all the lively eloquence of grief quickened by indignation, the innumerable benefits conferred by him on a country ungrateful enough to forget them before his remains were cold. Can an Englishman," says he, "go to bed, or rise up, without blessing the very name of King William? His perils have been our safety, his labours our ease, his cares our comfort, his continued harassing and fatigue our continued calm and tranquillity. When you sit down to eat, why have you not soldiers quartered in your houses, to command your servants and insult your tables? 'Tis because King William subjected the military to the civil authority, and made the sword of justice triumph over the sword of war. When you lie down at night, why do you not bolt and bar your chamber, to defend the chastity of your wives and daughters from the ungoverned lust of raging mercenaries? "Tis because King William restored the sovereignty and dominion of the laws, and made the red-coat world servants to those that paid them. When you receive your rents, why are not arbitrary defalcations

VOL. I.

b

made on your tenants, arbitrary imposts laid on your commerce, and oppressive taxes levied on your estates, to support the tyranny that demands them, and your bondage made strong at your own expense? 'Tis because King William re-established the essential security of your properties, and put you into that happy condition, which few nations enjoy, of calling your souls your own. How came you by a parliament, to balance between the governed and the governing, but on King William's exalting liberty upon the ruin of oppression? How came you ever to have power to abuse your deliverer, but by the very deliverance he wrought for you? He gave you that liberty you afterwards took to insult him, and supported you in those very privileges you ungratefully bullied him with. You could not, with all your brutish skill, provoke him to be a tyrant. abhorred oppression, and scorned to practice it; and he that had fire enough to assault all your oppressors, and a hand strong enough to wrestle with an established and confirmed tyrant, had yet meekness enough to let you oppress him, because he would not oppress you, and saw you ungrateful enough to oppose, not your benefactor only, but your own felicity for his sake.'

He

The reign of Anne was fraught with trouble to the dissenters; the queen advocated the cause of the high church with firmness and moderation, but,

It is the curse of kings to be attended

By slaves, that take their humors for a warrant
To break within the bloody house of life;

And, on the winking of authority,

To understand a law; to know the meaning

Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humor than advised respect."

The intemperance of the party thus patronized by the queen soon threatened to elevate the mitre even above the crown, and to mark all the humbler dissenters from its dogmas as victims of persecution." I knew," says De Foe, in his Christianity of the High-church considered,'" a person of the same principles with the High-church, who, discoursing with me on the altering the lieutenancy throughout the kingdom, was pleased to say, Now, Sir, we have an opportunity, and don't distrust our improving it: a little time and pains shall compel all to be of one religion.' How can that be,' added I; 'don't you find the Dissenters are the most numerous and the richest persons in the kingdom?' "Tis no matter for that,' cried he, laughing; it will not be long before all Dissenters will be out of office, and the magistracy in our hands; when that d―d liberty of conscience,' added he, biting his lips, shall be snatched away, and they compelled to conform.' 'I fancy,' said I, 'these things will not happen in my time, nor in this reign, whatever they may in the next.' 'Assure yourself that they will,' added he; and as for those who are obstinate, I hope Queen Mary's bonfires will blaze again in Smithfield, that they may be all extirpated, and not a soul left." Sentiments like these, unblushingly expressed, were certain to lead to actions equally intemperate, insomuch that in a very short time the Dis