60 HIS MOTIVES FOR THE USE OF IRONY. at the price of my own destruction. How I have been treated, and am still for my fidelity to them, let themselves speak. I upbraid them with very few acts of kindness ever shown me; and for their unkindness, it has never moved me to forsake the cause of truth, or to leave off exposing with all my might this hellish party, and endeavouring to detect their wicked designs."* The motives that induced De Foe to write in the language of irony, are thus explained by himself. "Some people have blamed the author of The Shortest Way,' for that he did not quote either in the margin, or otherwise, the sermon of Sacheverell aforesaid, or such other authors from whom his notions were drawn, which would have justified him in what he had suggested. But these men do not see the design of the book at all, or the effect it had on the people it pointed. at. It is true, this had prevented the fate of the man, but it had, at the same time, taken off the edge of the book; and that which now cut the throat of a whole party, would not then have given the least wound. The case the book pointed at, was to speak in the first person of the party, and then, thereby, not only speak their language, but make them acknowledge it to be theirs; which they did so openly, that confounded all their attempts afterwards to deny it, and to call it a scandal thrown upon them by another."+ We are now to see what effect it produced upon the fortunes of the author. Although he had imitated the language of the high party so well as to be generally misunderstood, yet there were passages in the work, which, to a calm and considerate observer, might have discovered that he was merely in jest. That his object was not detected before the disclosure of his name, argues a degree of obtuseness in the men of both parties, not very creditable to * Review, vi. 454 + Present State of Parties, p. 24. HE IS DISCOVERED TO BE THE AUTHOR, 61 their understandings. When the author and his design became fully known, and he was threatened with the vengeance of those whom he had so successfully exposed, he complained, "How hard it was that his intentions should not have been perceived by all the town, and that not one man could see it, either Churchman or Dissenter."* Mr. Chalmers observes, "This is one of the strongest proofs how much the minds of men were inflamed against each other, and how little the virtues of mutual forbearance and personal kindness existed amidst the clamour of contradiction which then shook the kingdom, and gave rise to some of the most remarkable events in our annals."+ The first detection of our author is said to have been owing to the industry of the Earl of Nottingham, one of the secretaries of state, whose vigilance and perseverance in the affair are highly lauded by Leslie. When his name became generally known, people were at no loss to decipher his object; and those who had committed themselves by launching forth in his praises, were stung with madness at their own folly. All parties now concurred in pouring vengeance upon him for his unlucky wit, which no one had the charity to advance in his extenuation. As the party in power was inimical to the man, rather than to the principles of his book, it was resolved to crush him by a state prosecution. During the first ebullition of fury, De Foe, in contemplation of the rigour he was likely to meet with, sought concealment from the gathering tempest. A procla mation was issued by the government, offering a reward of fifty pounds for the discovery of his retreat, and advertised in the London Gazette, for January 10, 1702-3. It is as follows: "Whereas, Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is charged Brief Explanation of The Shortest Way. + Life of De Foe, p. 18. 62 PROCLAMATION FOR HIS APPREHENSION. with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, intitled "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters." He is a middlesized spare man, about forty years old, of a brown complexion, and dark brown coloured hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near Iris 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 the peace, so he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of 501., which her majesty has ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery." In the further prosecution of the resentment he had excited, a formal complaint was made of his publication in the House of Commons, the 25th of February, 1702-3, when some of the obnoxious passages being read, it was 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, to-morrow, in New Palace Yard." This pitiful vengeance upon a work, which was offensive only for its wit, was unworthy the dignity of a grave assembly, and conferred no reproach upon the victim it sought to dishonour. (G) The printer and bookseller being now taken into custody, De Foe issued forth from his retirement, to brave the storm, resolving, as he expresses it, "to throw himself upon the favour of government rather than that others should be ruined by his mistake." In order to remove the veil from the eyes of those who were too blind to perceive the drift of his argument, De Foe employed his retirement in composing "A Brief Explana (G) De Foe says in one of his works, "I have heard a bookseller in King James's time say, 'That if he would have a book sell, he would have it burnt by the hands of the common hangman."-Essay on Projects, p. 173. PUBLISHES AN EXPLANATION OF HIS PAMPHLET. 63 men. tion of a late Pamphlet, intitled, 'The Shortest Way with the Dissenters.' London: printed in the year 1703." 4to. He begins by saying, "The author professes, he thought, when he wrote the book, he should never need to come to an explication, and wonders to find there should be any reason for it. If any man takes the pains seriously to reflect upon the contents, the nature of the thing, and the manner of the style, it seems impossible to imagine it should pass for any thing but a banter upon the high-flying churchBut since ignorance or prejudice has led most men to a hasty censure of the book, and some people are like to come under the displeasure of the government for it, in justice to those who are in danger of suffering; in submission to the parliament and council, who may be offended at it; and in courtesy to all mistaken people, who, it seems, have not penetrated into the real design, the author presents the world with the native genuine meaning and design of the paper, which he hopes may allay the anger of the government, or at least satisfy the minds of such as imagine a design to inflame and divide us. "The 'Sermon preached at Oxford,' the New Association,' the Poetical Observator,' with numberless others, have said the same things in terms very little darker, and this book stands fair to let these gentlemen know, that what they design can no farther take with mankind, than as their real meaning stands disguised by artifice of words; but that, when the persecution and destruction of the Dissenters, the very thing they drive at, is put into plain English, the whole nation will start at the notion, and condemn the author to be hanged for his impudence. He 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. The meaning then of this paper is, in short, to tell these gentlemen, that 'tis nonsense to go round about and tell us of the crimes of the Dissenters, to prepare the world to believe they are not fit to live in a human 64. HE FEELS HURT AT THE DISSENTERS. society; that they are enemies to the government and the law, to the queen and the public peace, and the like; the shortest way, and the soonest, would be to tell us plainly, that they would have them all hanged, banished, and destroyed. "Thus a poor author has ventured to have all mankind call him villain and traitor to his country and friends, for making other people's thoughts speak in his words. From this declaration of his real design, he humbly hopes the Lords of her Majesty's Council, or the House of Parliament, will be no longer offended, and that the poor people in trouble on this account shall be pardoned or excused. He also desires that all men who have taken offence at the book, mistaking the author's design, will suffer themselves to think again and withhold their censure, till they find themselves qualified to make a venture like this for the good of their native country." De Foe was particularly hurt with the Dissenters for continuing to misunderstand him, even after he had fully declared his meaning; supposing that he wrote with a design to have them all hanged, banished, or destroyed, and that the gallows or the gallies should be the penalty of going to a conventicle. "Forgetting," says he, " that at the same time I must design to have my father, my wife, six innocent children, and myself put into the same condition." De Foe goes on to observe, "All the fault I can find in myself as to these people, is, that when I had drawn the picture, I did not, like the Dutchman with his man and bear, write under them, This is the Man, and This is the Bear, lest the people should mistake me. I confess I did not foresee an occasion for this; and having, in a compliment to their judgment, shunned so sharp a reflection upon their senses, I have left them at liberty to treat me like one that put a value upon their penetration at the expense of my own."* * Pref. to More Reformation. |