CHAPTER XIX. De Foe publishes "A Hymn to Peace."-Renews his Complaints against the Printers. He is attacked by Francis Bugg.-His Account of that Writer. More Injuries to his Literary Reputation.-Libel upon the Review.-De Foe's Vindication of Himself.-His Paper Stolen from the Coffee-Houses. —Advertises a Work upon Toleration against Toland.-His narrow View of the Subject.-Remarks upon the Mode of Dealing with adverse Opinions. -Account of the Mine Adventure.-Submitted to the Judgment of De Foe. — He discusses its Merits.—And pronounces against it.—Bill for the Relief of Bankrupts.-De Foe's Zeal in Promoting it.—His Disinterested Conduct.-His Satire upon the Commissioners.—Answer to Threatenings.-He publishes Remarks upon the Bill.-His Satire upon the Bailiffs and Lawyers.-Reply to his Pamphlet.-Dr. Browne sets up a Paper against him. Some Account of it.-De Foe's Strictures upon his Writings.-He is Attacked by the Curate of Stepney.-His Poem on " The Fight of Ramillies." -His Scheme for the Regulation of Mad-houses.-He writes a Preface to" Delaune's Plea".-His Account of the Occasion of that Work.-And the Treatment of the Author.-His Reply to Opponents.-Robertson's Reply to Delaune.-His Letter to De Foe. 1706. THE disposition now manifested by the parliament to assuage the heat of parties, suggested an agreeable topic to the rhyming faculties of De Foe. The year 1706 was opened by him with, "A Hymn to Peace. Occasioned by the two Houses joining in one Address to the Queen. By the Author of 'The True-Born Englishman.' London: printed for John Nutt, near Stationers'-Hall, 1706." 4to. pp. 60. Published the 10th of January. The poem is in Pindaric verse, a metre much in vogue at the time, and strongly reprobated 420 DE FOE PUBLISHES A HYMN TO PEACE." by Johnson. As a specimen of the work, the reader may take the following passage, descriptive of his own misfortunes, and of the composure of mind with which he sustained them : "Of all thy blest admiring train, "Tis hard that I alone should wish in vain! Am lean with expectation made! When to the world thou mak'st a short return, Spoil in their hands, and poison in their breath, And to abate my peace, destroy their own. "Brought up in teaching sorrow's school, And there the heaven of satisfaction find. An uncontested conquest in the grave. "Till then, blest Angel of Eternal Light, Be thou my solace in the night: And calm'st my soul, and keeps it smooth within: Witness this very Hymn to thee." Soon after the commencement of the year, De Foe had to renew his complaints against the printers, for pirating his works; and also for affixing his name continually to the trash they caused to be cried about the streets. In his Review for the 5th of February, he writes thus: "I have often complained of the injury done me by piratical printers, and tired with expectation of redress, had given over the complaint. But I am now dealt with another way, by printing things in my name, which I had no concern DE FOE ATTACKED BY FRANCIS BUGG. 421 in, crying them about the street as mine; nay, and at last are come to that height of injury, as to print my name to every scandalous trifle. And yet, I had taken no notice of this, had I not happened to see two gentlemen of quality, strangers to me, run away with the mistake, buy the paper, and read the nauseous ribaldry of a half-penny pirate, as mine. I thought I had no need to tell the world what are, and are not, my writing; since some would be thought so knowing as to pretend they could swear to the style, especially when 'tis to my disadvantage. But above all, I was in hopes I need not defend myself against these single sheets and half-sheets; from whence I intreat my friends to observe, once for all, that whenever they meet with a penny or half-penny paper, sold or cried about the streets, they would conclude them not mine. I never write penny papers, this excepted, nor ever shall, unless my name is publickly set to them; and I hope this will clear me of the scandal, though it cannot fortify me against the damage.” De Foe continues, "But I am not only abused in matters of copy, but in subject also, by a person wholly a stranger, who takes the liberty first to charge me falsely, and then to make me speak ridiculously, the better to confirm what he pretends to advance, which I take to be one of the worst sorts of forgery. The case shortly is this :-Having occasion, in a former Review, to mention the Quakers among the several sorts of Dissenters, I concluded by expressing my belief, that they are not only Christians, but many of them better Christians than those who pretend to condemn them. For this, I am fallen upon by a certain man of volumes, for it seems he has written many, in a penny book, intitled, 'The Quakers' Catechism;' to which, as a shoeing-horn to draw in the people to buy it, is added in the title, The Shortest Way with Daniel De Foe: a true printer's cheat, that, when people were expecting great things, and some new proposal concerning what was to be done with the man that so many want to be rid of, when they come to look into the book, 422 HIS ACCOUNT OF THAT WRITER. found it to contain nothing but a long rhapsody of Billingsgate language, and raillery against the Quakers, which he must have a great talent of self-denial, that can bear the reading. At the end is a loud challenge upon the poor Review, for saying, he hoped the Quakers were Christians, offering a conference, and desiring me to get a deputation from the Quakers to meet him, and hear him prove the negative. "Indeed, this author, whose name, it seems, is Francis Bugg, had been answered by silence, the general return I give to such rudenesses, had I not thought it necessary a little to clear up my charity, and show the grounds I had for it, which I think every man bound to do; and this, not so much for the satisfaction of Mr. Bugg, who, I am informed, may be much sooner confuted than silenced, as for vindicating that true Christian spirit of charity, which I think the laws of God and man oblige me to. It must not be expected that I shall here undertake to examine or vindicate the principles of the Quakers, who, at the same time, do not profess them; nor shall I enter into any of this author's elaborate scandals; who, like Satan, brings a railing accusation. Let him go on with his large folio, which he says he is printing: I dare say nobody will give himself the trouble to reply, and not many to read him; for I am told, it is very difficult for him to write any thing he has not printed before, and that has not been often answered.* (s) * Review, iii. 62, 3. (s) In another Review, De Foe, in allusion to the Tory Addresses presented at the latter end of this reign, says, "I cannot but liken them to some late books written by Mr. Bugg against the Quakers. Those they were wrote for, would not read them; those they were wrote against, did not value them; those that read them, did not understand them; those that understood them, did not like them; those that liked them, would not buy them; his friends would not vindicate them; his enemies would not trouble themselves to answer them; and he that wrote them, did not believe them: and all this but the last was from the character of the author."-Review, viii. 30. MORE INJURIES TO HIS LITERARY REPUTATION. 423 In the present day, when the Quakers have fully established their claims to those honourable distinctions which elevate man in the scale of being, it would seem needless to go about proving their christianity. It was different, however, when our author wrote. Leslie, and many other writers equally distinguished by their want of charity, as well as common sense, excluded them, in common with all Dissenters, from the pale of salvation. But their bigotry, which was then mischievous, inasmuch as it served to alarm the civil power, as well as to frighten old women and children, is fit only to be despised, and the men laughed at for their folly. Before the month of February was expired, De Foe had to complain of more injuries to his literary reputation; which he unfolds in the following narrative. "The author of this paper is so used to ill-treatment, and the world handles him so roughly in all respects, that if any impartial persons were to judge, they would wonder he should not take the advantage of return. But as resentment is not to the gust of his inclination, so he is not at all concerned at the learned railings of a gentleman who sent him the fable of Jupiter and the Actor, with a mutato nomine de te; nor, at another, who, with his ill-language, sent him word, that good manners were not due to him: only, he tells both these gentlemen, if they will give him their names, that the world may applaud their wit as well as breeding, he will freely publish their sarcasms upon himself, leaving the world to find out the jest if they can; for he never knew any in ill-language."* About this time, De Foe was attacked in an anonymous libel, called "The Moderation, Justice, and Manners of the Review, exemplified from his own works. Lond. 1706." 4to. The writer opens upon him by observing, "That he had for a long time abused the nation with pretensions of peace and moderation, whilst nothing less was at his heart," and he * Review, iii. 87. |