80 NOTICE OF SOME REPLIES TO THE SHORTEST WAY.

mind. But this was an extraordinary age; and persons who valued themselves upon their understanding, `often advanced matters that could not be reconciled with its healthy exercise. Another writer adopted the title of "The Shortest Way with Whores and Rogues; or, a New Project for Reformation. Dedicated to Mr. Daniel De Foe, Author of The Shortest Way with the Dissenters.' London: Printed in the year 1703." 12mo. pp. 106. The snarling dedication is all that has a reference to De Foe, or to his pamphlet. The body of the work is occupied in an admonition to nineteen different sorts of sinners, with examples under each head. It is written much in the manner of Dunton, and contains many maxims of piety, mixed up with much that is absurd and ridiculous.(L)

"No men

Another of De Foe's antagonists adopted the title of "The Fox with his Fire-brand unkennelled and ensnared ; or, a Short Answer to Mr. Daniel Foe's 'Shortest Way with the Dissenters.' As also to his Brief Explication of the same. Together with some animadversions upon the Sham-Reflections made upon his Shortest Way, and printed with the same. London printed in the year 1703." 4to. The author puts the following motto in his title: have been more injuriously used, as to their legal rights, than the Bishops and Churchmen. These, as the fattest deer, must be destroyed; the other rascal herd of schisms, heresies, &c. being lean, may enjoy the benefit of a Toleration.-K. Char. on the Covenant." The writer says, that if a timely discovery had not been made of the author, "The bantling had been infallibly laid at St. James's-gate, or the

(L) Under the head of "The Shortest Way with the Persecutor," the author relates the following anecdote of De Foe's early pastor: "I'm told that Justice Balch died signing a warrant for seizing that eminent servant of Christ, Dr. Samuel Annesley. And 'tis certain, for I heard it myself, that when the devil came for his soul, he made such hideous roaring as frighted all his neighbours in Spittlefields."

NOTICE OF SOME REPLIES TO THE SHORTEST WAY. 81 chapel-door." He thinks, "it had been better for him, if he had kept to his burning of bricks, or selling stockings, as the best way to keep him from dying in his shoes;" and says, "these are a sort of crimes that have cost us too dear in England; and we don't desire such dialogues, or playing the fool betwixt jest and earnest, to bring us back again into the same circumstances." He might have added, that the bigots of his day, by driving men to desperation, were preparing the materials for a conflict; and that if they did not relish being turned into a jest, they should not have shown the fool's coat that provoked it.

De Foe's pamphlet was also animadverted upon in "The New Association, Part II., with farther improvements. As another and later Scots' Presbyterian Covenant, besides that mentioned in the former part, and the Proceedings of that party since. An Answer to some objections in the pretended D. Foe's Explication; in the Reflections upon 'The Shortest Way' with Remarks upon both. Also an Account of several other pamphlets which carry on, and plainly discover, the design to undermine and blow up the present church and government. Particularly, the Discovery of a certain Secret History, not yet published. With a Short Account of the Original of Government, compared with the schemes of the Republicans and Whigs. Printed and sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster. 1703. Price one shilling." 4to. The work bearing this long and heterogeneous title, exceeds, if possible, in virulence and vulgarity, the part that had gone before. Nothing can equal the assurance and scurrility of this writer, nor compensate for the total absence of that spirit of forbearance, which is far before all the ceremonials of religion. His language is as coarse as his ideas, and both as ill-suited to the dignity of a scholar as to the candour of a Christian. The author of the "Reflections," just mentioned, meets with as little quarter from him as De Foe; and in general, all who plead

82 for moderation, or for any just notions of religion and liberty, are alike subject to his lash. Charles Leslie, the author of this bitter invective, was a violent writer in behalf of the Jacobites throughout this reign; but his notions upon religion and government were better suited to the age of Saint Dominic.

NOTICE OF SOME REPLIES TO THE SHORTEST WAY.

About the same time, there appeared "A Dialogue between a Dissenter and the Observator, concerning 'The Shortest Way with the Dissenters.' Lond. 1703." 4to. This work was supposed at the time to have been written by De Foe, and is included in the spurious collection of his writings; but being omitted in the one made by himself, it may have been the work of some other writer. There are passages in it, however, which bear a strong resemblance to the style of De Foe. Tutchin was the author of the "Observator," one of the speakers in the dialogue; but whether he talks himself, or is personated by another, he ably defends the character of De Foe, and stands forward as the champion of his opinions. The object of the work. is to convict the Dissenters of blindness and ingratitude towards our author, and to reprehend them for their inconsistency in the affair of occasional conformity. Of their behaviour to De Foe, it is impossible to speak in terms creditable to their understandings; for even after it was discovered that his arrows were shot at the high-flyers, they united with their adversaries in attempting to crush the most ingenious writer their party could boast. By way of satire upon their obtuseness, the dialogue-writer says, "The Author of the Shortest Way' comes with a lanthorn for you, and he sums up all the black things this high party had published, into one general; and if you had any eyes, you might learn two things for which he is like to pay dear enough for teaching you: First,-From the general abhorrence mankind shewed of the book, you might learn. that the destruction of our party is a cruelty not to be found

NOTICE OF SOME REPLIES TO THE SHORTEST WAY. 83

in the English nation. Secondly,-From the outcry made against it by that party in particular, you might learn who they are that were touched in the book, and where the design lay. As to the quarrel you Dissenters have with the book, that's a mystery no man can unriddle but yourselves." The following observation is justified by experience: "I am of opinion, that if your enemies were true masters of politics, they would not persecute you at all. I take you to be a declining party; toleration will be your ruin; and if God in mercy to you don't send a persecution, you are lost, you will all dwindle back into the church again."

There is an attack upon De Foe and Tutchin, in the preface to "The Memorial of the Presbyterians. Lond. 1706," in which they are described as "a pair of republican orators, mercenary hirelings, and weekly scribblers of the party." The author, who was most probably Leslie, says, "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters was done with as much moderation (but irony was the pretence when the beast of prey was caught) as his late moderation against the Church of England (under the notion of that villanous term of high-church) in his Reviews, and the other in his Observators." He adds, "that one P-e, a broker, had kept out of the way for publishing and dispersing a half sheet which was wrote by D. D. F.” De Foe's pamphlet was noticed, more or less, by most of the highflyers in their publications at this period.

CHAPTER V.

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De Foe's Occupations in Newgate.-He publishes a Poem on Reformation of Manners. In which he attacks the Vices of the Age.-His Defence of the Work.-The Impartiality of his Censures. He exposes the Knavery of Projectors.--And reprobates the Traffic in Slaves. He publishes another Poem called" More Reformation".-Defends himself from Reproaches.— His Rebuke to the Dissenting Clergy.—He publishes "The Shortest Way to Peace and Union.”—Pirated Edition of his Works.—Cibber's Account of it.-De Foe publishes a Genuine Collection-Its Contents.-Description of his Portrait.-His Apology for the Undertaking.-King William's Affection for the Church of England, an Ironical Satire by De Foe.Dunton's Satire upon King William.

1703.

WE are now to contemplate De Foe for some time a prisoner in Newgate, as a victim of political resentment. And here it is natural to remark, that the custom, still continued, of confining persons for political offences, who are usually men of education and character, within the walls of the same prison with thieves and murderers, and the very scum of society, betrays an indelicacy of feeling, not to say wanton cruelty, that is utterly revolting to the refinement and liberality that are so much the boast of the age. In a strain of manly satire, De Foe could say:

"Stone walls do not a prison make,

Nor iron bars a cage;

Minds innocent and quiet take

That for a hermitage."

Hymn to the Pillory.