How our author was rewarded by the ministers who derived a benefit from those services, and from that danger, as he does not tell, cannot now be known. Before his departure for Scotland, indeed, lord Godolphin, as he acknowledges', obtained for him. the continuance of an appointment, which her majesty, by the interposition of his first benefactor, had been pleased to make him, in consideration of a former service, in a foreign country, wherein he run as much risk as a grenadier on the counterscarp. As he was too prudent to disclose his secret services, they must at present remain undiscovered. Yet is there reason to think that he had a pension rather than an office, since his name is not in the red book of the queen; and he solemnly avers, in his Appeal, that he had not interest enough with lord Oxford to procure him the arrears due to him in the time of the former ministry. This appointment, whatever it were, he is studious to tell, he originally owed to Harley; he, however, thankfully acknowledges, that lord Godolphin continued his favour to him after the unhappy breach that separated his first benefactor from the minister, who continued in power till August, 1710.

The nation, which was filled with combustible matter, burst into flame the moment of that memorable separation, in 1707. In the midst of this con

that occasion; viz., first, in suffering the operation of the surgeons to heal the wound of the assassin; and since, in accumulating honours from parliament, the queen, and the people. On Thursday evening her majesty created him earl Mortimer, earl of Oxford, and lord Harley of Wigmore: and we expect that to-morrow in council he will have the white staff given him by the queen, and be declared lord high treasurer. I wrote this yesterday; and this day, May the 29th, he is made lord high treasurer of Great Britain, and carried the white staff before the queen this morning to chapel.

1 Appeal, p. 16.

LIFE.

E

flagration our author was not inactive. He waited on Harley after he had been driven from power, who generously advised him to continue his services to the queen, which he supposed would have no relation to personal differences among statesmen. Godolphin received him with equal kindness, by saying, I always think a man honest till I find to the contrary. And if we may credit De Foe's asseverations, in the presence of those who could have convicted him of falsehood, he for three years held no correspondence with his principal benefactor, which the great man never took ill of him.

As early as February 1706-7, De Foe avowed his purpose to publish the History of the Union, which he had ably assisted to accomplish. This design he executed in 1709, though he was engaged in other lucubrations, and gave the world a Review three times a week. His history seems to have been little noticed when it first appeared; for, as the preface states, it had many difficulties in the way; many factions to encounter, and parties to please. was republished in 1712; and a third time in 1786, when a similar union had become the topic of public debate and private conversation". The subject of this work is the completion of a measure, which was

Yet it

With the present Life of De Foe, by Mr. Chalmers, prefixed. In this year he closed the fifth volume of the Review. He goes at great length into the affairs of Scotland, especially religious. For the freedom of his remarks in protesting against innovations upon the Scotch establishment, the Review was prosecuted by the grand jury, but the prosecution was soon stopped. He also contended vigorously against licensing the press, and for the Copyright Bill, which subsequently passed. He attacked Dr. Sacheverel for his celebrated sermon on the 5th of November, at St. Paul's. And he published a sixth volume of the Review. He there exposed stockjobbing ;-he refers to his frequently repeated anticipations of the eventual defeat of Charles XII. in relation to the battle of Pultowa; and he pays great attention, as before, to Scotch affairs.-ED.

carried into effect, notwithstanding obstructions apparently insurmountable, and tumults approaching to rebellion, and which has produced the ends designed, beyond expectation, whether we consider its influence on the government, or its operation on the governed. The minuteness with which he describes what he saw and heard on the turbulent stage, where he acted a conspicuous part, is extremely interesting to us, who wish to know what actually passed, however this circumstantiality may have disgusted contemporaneous readers. History is chiefly valuable as it transmits a faithful copy of the manners and sentiments of every age. This narrative of De Foe is a drama, in which he introduces the highest peers and the lowest peasants, speaking and acting, according as they were each actuated by their characteristic passions; and while the man of taste is amused by his manner, the man of business may draw instruction from the documents, which are appended to the end, and interspersed in every page. This publication had alone preserved his name, had his Crusoe pleased us less.

De Foe published in 1709, what indeed required less effort of the intellect or the hand, The History of Addresses; with no design, he says, and as we may believe, to disturb the public peace, but to compare the present tempers of men with the past, in order to discover who had altered for the better, and

who for the worse. He gave a second volume of

Addresses in 1711, with remarks serious and comical". His purpose plainly was to abate, by ridicule,

" Mr. Chalmers here seems to be mistaken. De Foe wrote neither of these works. The first Mr. Wilson tells us was written by Oldmixon. De Foe, indeed, in order to expose the folly of the high tory party, who had procured several addresses to the queen, and which were published by them as an indication, "that the sense of the nation is express for the doctrine of

the public fervour with regard to Sacheverel, who, by I know not what fatality, or folly, gave rise to eventful changes. De Foe evinces, by these timeful publications, that amidst all that enthusiasm and tumult, he preserved his senses, and adhered to his principles.

When, by such imprudence as the world had never seen before, Godolphin was in his turn expelled, in August, 1710, our author waited on the ex-minister; who obligingly said to him, That he had the same good-will, but not the same power to assist him; and Godolphin told him, what was of more real use-to receive the queen's commands from her confidential servants, when he saw things settled. It naturally occurred to De Foe, that it was his duty to go along with the ministers, while, as he says, they did not break in on the constitution. And who can blame a very subordinate officer, (if indeed he held an office,) who had a wife and six children to maintain with very precarious means? He was thus, says he, cast back providentially on his first benefactor, who laid his case before her majesty, whereby he preserved his interest, without any engagement. On that me

passive obedience and nonresistance, and for her majesty's hereditary title to the throne of her ancestors," published a counter manifesto, 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 order to show how far the sense of the nation may be judged of by either of them. 1710. His object is of course to expose the folly of supposing that the addresses represented the real feeling of the country. In a strain of great irony, he says; "The practice of addressing has cheated many already; a jest that was put upon Richard Cromwell, and yet they deprived him three weeks afterwards. It was a second time put upon king James II. and they all flew in his face a year after. And I could give some instances of the little value that has been put upon it since, even such as one would think the very people themselves expect, that for time to come addressing should pass for nothing with their princes."-Ed.

morable change De Foe however somewhat changed his tone. The method I shall take, says he, in talking of the public affairs, shall for the future be, though with the same design to support truth, yet with more caution of embroiling myself with a party who have no mercy, and who have no sense of service.

De Foe now lived at Newington, in comfortable circumstances, publishing the Reviews, and sending out such tracts, as either gratified his prejudices, or supplied his needs. During that contentious period he naturally gave and received many wounds; and he prudently entered into a truce with Mr. J. Dyer, who was engaged in similar occupations, that, however they might clash in party, they may write without personal reflections, and thus differ still, and yet preserve the Christian and the gentleman P. But

• Review, vol. vii. No. 95.

P The following letter to Mr. J. Dyer, in Shoe-lane, who was then employed by the leaders of the tories, in circulating news and insinuations through the country, will show the literary manners of those times, and convey some anecdotes, which are nowhere else preserved. The original letter is in the Museum, Harl. MSS. No. 7001. fol. 269,

Mr. Dyer,

I have your letter. I am rather glad to find you put it upon the trial who was aggressor, than justify a thing which I am sure you cannot approve; and in this I assure you I am far from injuring you, and refer you to the time when long since you had wrote I was fled from justice: one Sammon being taken up for printing a libel, and I being then on a journey, nor the least charge against me for being concerned in it by anybody but your letter:-also many unkind personal reflections on me in your letter, when I was in Scotland, on the affair of the Union, and I assure you, when my paper had not in the least mentioned you, and those I refer to time and date for the proof of.

I mention this only in defence of my last letter, in which I said no more of it than to let you see I did not merit such