and boldness that would soon have been silenced from the pulpit, but which rapidly raised him to distinction through the medium of the press. The period in which De Foe lived, immediately between the Restoration and the accession of the House of Hanover, was one peculiarly calculated to excite the full energy of a mind like his, gifted equally with the powers of observation, and with activity to embody their results. The court of Charles the Second presented the strange and disgusting anomaly of unblushing profligacy of manners, combined with the most heartless political ingratitude and tyranny. It was impossible for a staunch friend of liberty, civil and religious, to look coolly on that arbitrary exercise of power which threatened destruction to both. Hence, in the conflict of parties from the reign of Charles the Second to the accéssion of George the First, few persons took a more active share than De Foe; and in the number of his publications he probably outstripped all other writers of his time. During ten of his busiest years, and those the most factious in English history, he was the sole writer of a periodical paper, which appeared three times a week, under the title of "The Review," and contained many elaborate essays upon the most important subjects in politics and commerce.

De Foe was about one-and-twenty when he commenced author, and he continued the employment, with little interruption, for the space of half a century. We have already remarked that his literary labours amounted to two hundred acknowledged publications, besides anonymous ones; and, as has been

observed by the biographer to whom the public is recently indebted for the most perfect catalogue of them, as well as for the most elaborate account of their author that has yet appeared, 66 even the bare titles of them are in themselves a literary curiosity, and will serve in a degree to illustrate the peculiar bent of the writer's genius."

His first publication is commonly supposed to have been called forth by the war between the Turks and the Imperialists, in an anonymous treatise against the Turks, which appeared in 1683; but before this he had enlisted his pen in the political dissensions of the times, and levelled a lampoon at one of the most factious of its writers, the noted Roger L'Estrange. It was occasioned by L'Estrange's "Guide to the Inferior Clergy," and bore the following title: "Speculum Crape-Gownorum; or, A Looking-glass for the Young Academies, New Foyl❜d. With Reflections on some of the late high-flown Sermons to which is added, an Essay towards a Sermon of the newest fashion. By a Guide to the Inferiour Clergie. Ridentem discere Verum Quis vetat? London: Printed for E. Rydal. 1682. 4to. pp. 34." At twenty-four years of age, De Foe joined the standard of the brave and unfortunate Duke of Monmouth, on his landing at Lyme, in the summer of 1685. In this perilous and ill-fated expedition he acquitted himself courageously, but escaping alike the horrible cruelties and legal persecutions which followed close on the defeat of his leader, he lived to narrate the ill-advised transaction and all its melancholy consequences, forty years afterwards,

1

with a vigour and feeling that showed how forcibly the remembrance of it revived that enthusiasm of youth which had led him into the participation of its dangers. The public execution of Monmouth, and the total wreck of hope in his party, seems to have acted for a time on the lively spirits of De Foe as a sedative, under the influence of which he betook himself to the peaceful occupation of a hosier, or rather of a factor in the hosiery line; for he has repelled, somewhat indignantly, the idea of having been apprenticed to the business, and his biographers have done the same for him, as if there could be the slightest disgrace, especially in difficult and troubled times, in any laudable occupation whatsoever, particularly when entered on with the education of a gentleman, and the independence of an honest man.

De Foe carried on the office of factor, or middleman, between the manufacturer and the retail dealer, about ten years, during which time he took up his freedom, to which he was entitled by birth, and was admitted to the civic honor of liveryman of London in January, 1687-8., At this time the nation was in a state of feverish excitement respecting the repeal of the test act, which James openly avowed should be the sole condition of serving him in any capacity, either civil or military. Protestant officers were removed, Popish ones put in their place; shoals of Catholic priests imported; mass-houses erected; seminaries instituted; religious bigotry pervading every measure of the government; superstition and hypocrisy reigning over one half of the people, fear and indigna

tion over the other; whilst rancour was common to both. In this state of things De Foe raised his pen to put the dissenters on their guard against the king's pretended zeal for liberty of conscience, exhorting them not to accept even liberty itself at the expence of their religious rights. That accomplished nobleman and statesman, George Saville, the Marquis of Halifax, whose political views coincided with those of De Foe, published a pamphlet at the same period so similar in subject and in the manner of treating it, as to procure De Foe the honor of being imagined its author.

During the middle of William's reign, De Foe was comparatively little engaged in politics, and it appears that he began to be sensible at this time, that, in helping to settle the affairs of the nation, his attention had been most injuriously diverted from his own. He had been engaged some years in the Spanish and Portuguese trade, and he enlarged the sphere of his observation on men and manners by visiting those countries, as well as France, Holland, and Germany. It is probable, however, that his travels were in some measure connected with the increasing embarrassment of his affairs, which, in 1692, obliged him to get out of the way of his creditors. However the prudence or foresight of De Foe might be impugned by his misfortunes, for in those days the severity of the laws made it a real misfortune to be a bankrupt, it is evident that his integrity remained unimpeachable, from the circumstance of the commission of bankruptcy, which an angry creditor took out against him, being superseded on the petition of those to whom he was most

indebted, who accepted a composition on his single bond; and well he repaid the consideration thus shown to him, as he not only exerted the utmost efforts of industry so far as punctually to fulfil the engagements he thus entered on, but some years afterwards, when his affairs had assumed a more prosperous aspect under the revivifying influence of royal favor, he paid the whole of their original demands to several of his ereditors, who, by the turn of fortune's wheel, were then plunged into the same difficulties as he had extricated himself from, by the most laudable application and frugality. The practice of these virtues was the more commendable in him, as they by no means formed any component parts of his character: he had, therefore, reason to be proud rather than ashamed of the charge brought against him by Lord Haversham, of being mercenary; to which he replies by a simple statement of fact, more honorable to himself than any studied panegyric by another could have been, saying that "with a numerous family, and no help but his own industry, he had forced his way, with undiscouraged diligence, through a sea of misfortunes, and reduced his debts, exclusive of composition, from seventeen thousand to less than five thousand pounds." In a subsequent work he expressed himself on this subject with an equal sense of religion and honor," Never think yourselves discharged in conscience," said he, "though you may be discharged in law. The obligation of an honest mind can never die. No title of honor, no recorded merit, no mark of distinction, can exceed that lasting appellation, an 'honest man.' He