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HIS PROSPECTS CLOUDED.

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By the author of the Preface to Mr. Howe. London. Printed in the year 1702." He wrote under a consciousness that he should be considered arrogant, and further displease his friends; but he also knew that he was right, and therefore his only care was to express his views clearly, and with due humility. So far as the Dissenters were concerned, he thought the measure would rather consolidate their true interests than accomplish the ruin intended; but the injustice and persecution of its promoters was not the less to be condemned on that account. The pamphlet was an able one, but quotation would have little interest now. It was republished, the following year, in the first volume of his Collected Writings.

This memoir has now arrived at the month of December, 1702. The opening of that year had seen Defoe the honoured and confidential friend of his King, and apparently on the high road to fame and fortune. How changed is now his condition, as to all external circumstances! Unrecognised by the Court, and courtiers-the popular branch of the legislature opposed to the political principles of the Revolution ;-a furious party in church and state anathematizing, and threatening with destruction, the religious denomination to which he belonged; and the members of that denomination treating him adversely because he told them the truth: well might he complain, in the work above noticed, that he was alone, and surrounded by enemies. "To me it is wonderful to find no Body of my Mind, and yet be Positively assured that I am in the Right." (p. 4.) We shall have, presently, to see him proscribed,— brought to what was then called justice,-fined, pilloried, imprisoned, his business thereby ruined, and his wife and children destitute; but at the same time, we shall witness in him a remarkable instance of the sustaining power of conscious integrity. "Positively assured" that he was in the right, with indomitable courage he refused to be silenced. He was still pursuing the high road to fame, though not apparently to fortune.

As the threatenings of persecution, thundered forth by the High Church Clergy, denoted in themselves an unchristian spirit, so the moderate party turned in disgust from such teaching. Bad passions were stirred up among indifferent professors

VOL. I.

F

of religion, and a panic seized the sincere Dissenters, who believed that their toleration was about to be withdrawn, and public worship of God, according to their consciences, interdicted. Defoe found that plain argument had little weight with those who, in the name of the Church, had unfurled the bloody flag and banner of defiance; and, being well acquainted with what they had promulgated from the pulpit and the press, he embodied such views in suitable language, for the purpose of exposing their folly. The result was published, under the title of "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters: or Proposals for the Establishment of the Church. London. Printed in

the year 1702."

To understand the inimitable irony of this production, it must be read. No mere quotations or abstract can convey an adequate impression of its completeness. The artfulness with which the writer gravely concealed his art, under an apparent simplicity of purpose; the mental transmutation, by which he was able to see through the eyes and read the thoughts of these violent men; and then, so perfectly to express all their wishes, exactly in their own style, within less than thirty small pages, are proofs of the greatness of that genius which was destined to captivate all readers. Mr. John Forster has well remarked, "If a justification of this masterly pamphlet were needed, would it not be strikingly visible in the existence of a state of society wherein such arguments as these could be taken to have grave intention ?" Such, however, was the state of the public mind, and the irresistible reality of the book, that timid and cowardly Dissenters were immediately struck with direful apprehensions; while the High-flying bigots embraced it, as the legitimate offspring of, what they falsely called, the Church. A Fellow of one of the colleges in Cambridge, to whom his bookseller had forwarded a copy, wrote to thank him, saying, "I received yours, and with it that Pamphlet which makes so much noise, called 'The Shortest Way with the Dissenters,' for which I thank you: I joyn with that Author in all he says, and have such a value for the Book, that, next to the Holy Bible, and the Sacred Comments, I take it for the most valuable Piece I have. I pray God put it it into her Majesty's Heart to put what is there proposed in Execution." That is, to exterminate them all.

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Defoe gave a full account afterward of the reception of the book, and its consequences, in his work on "The Present State of Parties."* It must suffice to say here, that the tract was soon discovered to be the work of a dissenter, and a satire upon the High Church party. Then they saw that they were taken in their own net; and, though determined to destroy the author, if possible, they also perceived that in doing so they must condemn the book; and that act would hamper them in pursuing their rage against the Dissenters. Thus, from having first applauded the work, they were driven to declare, from the press and the pulpit, that it was a horrible slander upon the Church. Nor could they clear the Church without condemning religious persecution; and that, again, was a censure of the High Church clergy, who had, in other words, said the same thing in print. Truly, as Defoe says, in the work above referred to, The Shortest Way "cut the throat of the whole party." As soon as the name of the author became known, his object was apparent; and, blind with madness at their own folly, they determined to immolate all their principles in vengeance. During the first outburst of fury, Defoe sought concealment, but the Tory Government, moved by his enemies, resolved to crush him by a state prosecution; and a proclamation, offering a reward for his discovery, was advertised in the London Gazette of the 10th of January, 1703. I insert it in full, for the description it gives of his person :"Whereas, Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, intitled '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 hosc-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 the peace, so he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of £50, which her Majesty has ordered immediately to be paid on such discovery."

* Pp. 18-24.

The fury of his enemies is not less apparent in the next step of vengeance, which could not injure their victim; the pamphlet was brought under the notice of the House of Commons on the 25th of February, and ordered to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman, on the following day, in New Palace Yard. The printer and bookseller having now been taken into custody, Defoe voluntarily surrendered himself, resolving, as he expresses it, "to throw himself upon the favour of government rather than that others should be ruined by his mistake."

Anxious that his motives should not be misunderstood, even by the most ignorant of friends or enemies ;-astonished at the universal delusion effected by this effort of his own genius ;and having a desire to drive home against the High Church the application of his pamphlet; Defoe employed his retirement in composing " A Brief Explanation of a late Pamphlet, intitled, 'The Shortest Way with the Dissenters.' London. Printed in the year 1703." In this explanation there is no retreating; but, after referring to what had been said by the High Church, he adds, "The Author humbly hopes, he shall find no harder treatment for plain English, without design, than those gentlemen for their plain design, in duller and darker English." This explanation must have been published in February, immediately before his surrender, as he was indicted at the Old Bailey on the 24th of that month, and the trial appointed to take place in July. Alluding, many years afterward, to this great and unmerited fall, he says, “I have seen the rough side of the world as well as the smooth; and have, in less than half a year, tasted the difference between the closet of a King, and the dungeon of Newgate."

Between the committal and the trial of Defoe, turn we for a little space from the infuriated howls of the High Church Legion, to the den into which they had hunted him. His occupation there is known by his published labours, the first of which, issued on the 25th of March, was intitled, "King William's Affection to the Church of England Examined. London. Printed in the year 1703." There is something refreshing in the title. Amidst the burning heat of party rage, it fell like gentle rain; and, as we have already noticed the great popu

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larity of "The Mock Mourners," so this second tribute of our author to the King's memory, proved also that moderation and true patriotism still pervaded the great mass of the people. It passed through four editions by the 13th of April. "King William's Affection to the Church of England Examined," begins in irony, and proceeds in banter; but the author gradually drops disguise, and concludes with an eloquent denunciation of the calumniators of the late King, and a vindication of his memory.

While in the state of suspense preceding his trial, he prepared for publication the first Volume of his Works, under the title of "A true Collection of the Writings of the Author of the True-Born Englishman. Corrected by himself. London. 1703." In the Preface he complains of a spurious and incorrect publication of this kind some time previously; and, that he had resolved to disabuse the world with a corrected copy. The Volume contains twenty-two pieces, including "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters," for which he was about to be tried; and he takes advantage of the preface to offer a further explanation of his motives in writing that Tract. He refers, at the close, to a further work he was about to publish, concerning his own errors, and those of others; "to settle Matters between Vice and Repentance a little, and that they may have no Excuse to reject the Admonition because the Reprover is not an Angel." The work thus alluded to is entitled, "More Reformation. A Satyr upon himself. By the Author of the True-Born Englishman. London. Printed in the year 1703." This pamphlet was also written while he was in confinement, and was published on the 16th of July, about ten days after his trial. In a preface of six pages, he recurs to “The Shortest Way," and confesses his grand mistake to have been, a too favourable opinion of the discernment of the public, as to the real intention of that work. He also notices the illfeeling displayed toward him on account of his satire, called "Reformation of Manners," and gives explanations. In "More Reformation," he is careful to avoid the possibility of personal application, except to himself. The following evinces a grim conviction of his folly, and refers to the description of his person, in the advertisement for his apprehension: