and then speak to the subject. It is true, that being desired to give my opinion in the affair of the commerce with France, I did, as I often had done in print many years before, declare, that it was my opinion we ought to have an open trade with France, because I did believe we might have the advantage by such trade; and of this opinion I am still. What part I had in the Mercator is well known; and would men answer with argument, and not with personal abuses, I would, at any time, defend any part of the Mercator which was of my doing. But to say the Mercator was mine, is false: I neither was the author of it, nor had the property, printing, or profit of it. I had never any payment or reward for writing any part of it; nor had I the power of putting what I would into it; yet the whole clamour fell upon me, because they knew not who else to load with it. And when they came to answer, the method was, instead of argument, to threaten and reflect upon me, reproach me with private circumstances and misfortunes, and give language which no Christian ought to give, and which no gentleman ought to take. I thought any Englishman had the liberty to speak his opinion in such things; for this had nothing to do with the public. The press was open to me as well as to others; and how or when I lost my English liberty of speaking my mind, I know not; neither how my speaking my opinion without fee or reward, could authorize them to call me villain, rascal, traitor, and such opprobrious names.

"It was ever my opinion, that were our wool kept from France, and our manufactures spread there upon reasonable duties, all the improvement which the French have made in the woollen manufacture would decay, and in the end be little worth; and, consequently, the hurt they could do us by them would be of little moment. It was my opinion, that the ninth article of the Treaty of Commerce was calculated for the advantage of our trade; let who will make it, that is nothing to me. My reasons are, because it tied up the French to open the door to our manufactures at a certain duty of importation there; and left the Parliament of Britain at liberty to shut theirs out by as high duties as they pleased here: there being no limitations upon us as to duties on French goods, but that other nations should pay the same. While the French were

thus bound, and the British free, I always thought we must be in a condition to trade to advantage, or it must be our own fault. This is my opinion still; and I would venture to maintain it against any man, upon a public stage, before a jury of fifty merchants, and venture my life upon the cause, if I were assured of fair play in the dispute. But, that it was my opinion, that we might carry on a trade with France to our great advantage, and that we ought for that reason to trade with them, appears in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes of the Review, above nine years before the Mercator was thought of. I was not thought criminal to say so then; how it comes to be villanous to say so now, God knows; I can give no account of it. I am still of the same opinion; and shall never be brought to say otherwise, unless I see the state of trade so altered as to change my opinion; and if ever I do, I shall be able to give good reasons for it.

"The answer to these things, whether mine or no, was all pointed at me; and the arguments were generally in the terms, villain, rascal, miscreant, liar, bankrupt, fellow, hireling, turncoat, &c. What the arguments were bettered by these methods, I leave others to judge of. Also, most of those things in the Mercator, for which I had such usage, were such as I was not the author of. I do grant, had all the books which have been called by my name, been written by me, I must of necessity have exasperated every side, and perhaps have deserved it. But I have the greatest injustice imaginable in this treatment, as I have in the perverting the design of what I have really written."

At this time, De Foe also published another pamphlet, advocating free-trade principles, entitled "An Essay on the Treaty of Commerce with France; with necessary Expositions, Proverbs xviii. 12. London, printed for J. Baker. 1713. 8vo." In this pamphlet, De Foe advocates free-trade principles, as might be expected, from the position he was taking at the time-on the Treaty of Commerce with France, on the settlement of the Treaty of Utrecht.

Another pamphlet appeared at this time, entitled "A Letter from a Member of the House of Commons to his Friend in the Country, relating to the Bill of Commerce; with a true Copy of the Bill, and

an exact List of all those who voted for and against engrossing it. London, printed and sold by J. Baker. 1713. 8vo. :" also ascribed to De Foe by some opponent, supposed to be Oldmixon, who wrote "Remarks on a scandalous Libel, entitled 'A Letter from a Member of Parliament, relating to the Bill of Commerce.' In which the Trade with France is considered, and the Falsities and Absurdities of the Mercator are exposed. To which is added, a Caution to the Freeholders of Great Britain in their approaching Elections; and an exact List of this House of Commons, under several Distinctions. London, A. Baldwin, 1713: 8vo." The writer of the above is very severe on De Foe, whom he professes to answer on his free-trade principles.

We will now return to the charge laid against Daniel De Foe, of being an advocate of a Dutch war. Really, the thing is too absurd to be replied to--for all De Foe's sympathies through a long political life had been in favour of a league, or union, or combination of the Protestantism of Europe against Popish aggression; whether proceeding from France, Italy, or Spain. A charge of this kind could only be wilful annoyance thrown at the man, for some feeling of revenge, great or small-a principle or a hat better than that worn by the low street miscreant who could throw the dirt. De Foe was an advocate for the combination of the vitality of Protestantism against all aggressions on civil and religious liberty, which he justly considered to be expected, in one form or other, under the pretext or pretence of a conformity in religion; a shackling of the free limbs of the vitality of Protestantism; for the sake of restricting the free agency of action, and the power of locomotion; for an endthe raising of arbitrary power upon the wreck of civil and religious liberty. De Foe an advocate for a Dutch war! Let him speak for himself in his own Review-his newspaper; which had now reached 825 pages of the eighth volume-let him speak :—

"If it be, as some pretend, in the last foreign news, that we are now running headlong into a war with the Dutch-which I look upon as the worst circumstance that can befall this nation-I shall convince those who would maliciously suggest me to be writing for it, that they are in the wrong. It has been all along my argument,

and I have seen no answer to it, that Britain and Holland are the essential strength of the Protestant interest in Europe; and in that respect their interests are inseparable. It is for uniting these that I have always pleaded against the union of Spain with any Popish power in Europe. I appeal to all who read what I write, that the dividing this great prize has been my aim all along, though reproached and misunderstood. The safety and prosperity of the Protestant interest depend upon the joint power of the confederated Protestants; and this must be built upon the union of the British and Dutch."

CHAPTER IX.

Or the peace of Utrecht there were the greatest complaints; for the ministers had sacrificed the true interests of England to those of France, in allowing the Bourbons of France to retain the whole Spanish monarchy, instead of the half, as designed by the Partition Treaty of William III.: thus giving a preponderance to the Popish party in Europe over the combined influence of Protestantism: a thing much to be deplored by the well-wishers to the vitality of Protestantism in Europe, as a barrier to the encroachments of Papistry, and the strangling, by religious usurpations, all freedom of thought; and, with it, all civil and religious liberty.

The peace of Utrecht, De Foe deplored-as much as any Englishman could deplore, the increase thus given to the strengthening of the aggressive power of the French monarchy; but what could he do more? He was not minister, neither was he connected with the ministry, beyond giving his opinion on a free-trade treaty of commerce with France; after the treaty of Utrecht had been disposed of altogether. If De Foe had been prime minister of England, he could not have received more of the malignity of the Whig party, than he did receive; and this when neither Swift nor Pope knew the man by his name; beyond the fellow who had had his ears cut off; or who had stood in the pillory. Never was man so basely used as Daniel De Foe; his talent was made the scapegoat for all talent which could not at once be fixed upon its real owner; and this, too, for the greater portion of his life. He had to stand responsible for all the anonymous talent of his age. Steele, Davenant, and others, might write, and write what they pleased too; and yet, with a little caution on their parts, in concealing their names, the productions of the pen, however offensive, or however debasing, could be fathered upon the ready wit of Daniel De Foe.