of Foreigner. This filled me with rage against the book, and gave birth to a trifle, which I never could hope should have met with so general an acceptation." The trifle, which De Foe here alludes to, was his True-born Englishman; a poetical satire on the Foreigners, and a defence of King William and the Dutch; of which the sale was great without example, and our author's reward proportion ate. He was even admitted to the honour of a personal interview with the king, and became with more ardour than ever a professed partisan of the court. In this composition the satire was strong, powerful, and manly, upbraiding the English Tories for their unreasonable prejudice against foreigners; the rather that there were so many nations blended in the mass now called Englishmen. The verse was rough and mistuned, for De Foe never seems to have possessed an ear for the melody of language, whether in prose or verse. But though wanting the long resounding verse and energy divine of Dryden, he had often masculine expressions and happy turns of thought, not unworthy of the author of Absalom and Achitophel, though, upon the whole, his style seems rather to have been formed on that of Hall, Oldham, and the elder satirists. The first verses are well known :— "Wherever God erects a House of prayer, The author's first publication after The Trueborn Englishman was, The original Power of the a Collective Body of the People of England examined and asserted; next, An Argument to prove that standing Army, with consent of Parliament, was not inconsistent with a free Government; but, as we do not mean to follow De Foe through the career of his politics, and intend only to notice such works, as, in their consequences, materially affected his personal situation and affairs, we shall pass to the death of his sovereign and patron, which took place 8th March, 1702. The accession of Anne having restored the line of Stuart, to whom the politics and conduct of De Foe had been peculiarly obnoxious, our author was shortly reduced, as before, to live on the produce of his wits; and it is perhaps lucky for the world that there is so much truth in the universal outcry against the neglect of living authors; for there seems a certain laziness concomitant with genius, which can only be incited to action by the pressure of necessity. Had William lived, probably the world would never have been delighted with the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Whether De Foe found politics the most vendible produce of the press, or, like Macbeth, felt himself "Stept in so far, that should he wade no more, we are yet to learn ; but he ventured to reprint his Shortest Way with the Dissenters; and to publish several other treatises, which were considered libellous by the Commons; and on the 25th of February, 1702-3, a complaint being made in the House, of a book entitled, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; and the folios 11-18 and 26, being read, the House "Resolved, that this book, being full of false and scandalous reflections on this Parliament, and tending to promote sedition, be burnt by the hands of the common hangman, in New PalaceYard." Our unfortunate author's political sins were now all mustered in array against him, and a tremendous catalogue they made. He had been the favourite and panegyrist of William; he had fought for Monmouth, and opposed James; he had vindicated the Revolution, and defended the rights of the people; he had bantered, insulted, and offended the whole Tory leaders of the Commons, and, after all, he could not be quiet, but must republish his most offensive productions. Thus overpowered, De Foe was obliged to secrete himself; and we are indebted to a very disagreeable circumstance for the following accurate description of his person. A proclamation was issued by the Secretaries of State, in January, 1703, in the following terms: "St James's, Jan. 10, 1702-3. "Whereas Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; he is a middle-sized spare man, about forty years old, of a brown complexion, and darkbrown coloured hair, but wears a wig, a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth; was born in London, and for many years was a hose-factor, in Freeman's Yard, in Cornhill, and now is owner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury-fort, in Essex; whoever shall discover the said Daniel De Foe to one of her majesty's principal Secretaries of State, or any of her majesty's justices of peace, so as he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of L.50, which her majesty has ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery." He was shortly after caught, fined, pilloried, and imprisoned. "Thus," says he, "was I a second time ruined; for by this affair I lost above L.3500 sterling."1 While he was confined in Newgate, he occupied his time in correcting for the press a collection of his own writings, which was published in the course of the year; and he even amused himself by writing an Ode to the Pillory; of which he had so lately been made the unwilling acquaintance. Hence Pope's insulting verse, which classes De Foe with his Tory rival: [It seems extremely difficult to believe that any person could ever have misunderstood De Foe's meaning and purpose of this Short Method. A single extract will show that he adopted a style of irony, hardly less broad than that of Swift in the Essay on the propriety of keeping down population by eating young children. He says, "'Tis vain to trifle in this matter. The light foolish handling of them by fines, is their glory and advantage. If the gallows instead of the compter, and the galleys instead of the fines, were the reward of going to a conventicle, there would not be so many sufferers. The spirit of martyrdom is over. They that will go to church to be chosen sheriffs and mayors, would go to forty churches rather than be hanged. If one severe law was made and punctually executed, that whoever was found at a conventicle should be banished the nation, and the preacher be hanged, we should soon see an end of the tale; they would all come to church; and one age would make us all one again."] "Earless on high stood unbash'd De Foe, And Tutchin flagrant from the scenes below." His Hymn to the Pillory, in rough and harsh iambics, has, like the True-born Englishman, and indeed all De Foe's poetry, a strong fund of manly satire, and we are mistaken if, in the lines which follow, the author does not successfully retort upon his prosecutors the shame at least of the punishment to which he had been subjected. They are in the spirit, though without the eloquence of the gallant old cavalier, Lovelace. "Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage; Minds innocent and quiet take That for a hermitage." The hymn of De Foe commences thus: "Hail! Hi'roglyphick State Machine, Men, that are men, can in thee feel no pain, Contempt, that false new word for shame, A shadow to amuse mankind, But never frights the wise or well-fix'd mind; And scandals innocence adorn. What prospect do I see of future fate? That fools look out, and knaves look on." Not satisfied with this unpleasant subject for iambics, De Foe afterwards wrote a Hymn to the Gallows. |