1701.] HIS CONDUCT AS A DEBTOR. 27 abstemious liver, and not given to any of the vicious indulgences too often the bane of youth; but with the usual imprudence of superior genius, he was carried by his vivacity into companies who were delighted by his wit. Mr. Chalmers says, "he spent those hours with a small society for the cultivation of polite learning which he ought to have employed in the calculations of the counting-house; and being obliged to abscond from his creditors in 1692, he naturally attributed those misfortunes to the war, which were probably owing to his own misconduct. An angry creditor took out a commission of bankruptcy, which was soon superseded on the petition of those to whom he was most indebted, who accepted a composition on his single bond. This he punctually paid by the efforts of unwearied diligence. But some of those creditors, who had been thus satisfied, falling afterwards into distress themselves, Defoe voluntarily paid them the whole of their claims, being then in rising circumstances from King William's favour. This is such an example of honesty as it would be unjust to Defoe and to the world to conceal."* Perhaps a more valuable testimony was never paid to the honour and integrity of an opponent, for whom he had no feeling of friendship, than that paid by John Tutchin to Daniel Defoe, in "a Dialogue between a Dissenter and the Observator," published in 1702. I must premise that the Dissenters were then furious against Defoe for writing his tract, "The Shortest Way," &c., which they misunderstood. The writer of the Dialogue says:-" I must do one piece of justice to the man, though I love him no better than you do it is this-that, meeting a gentleman in a coffechouse, when I and every body else were railing at him, the gentleman took us up with this short speech, Gentlemen,' said he, I know this De Foe as well as any of you, for I was one of his creditors, compounded with him, and discharged him fully. Several years afterwards he sent for me, and though he was clearly discharged, he paid me all the remainder of his debt, volun. tarily and of his own accord; and he told me that, as far as God should enable him, he intended to do so with every body. When he had done, he desired me to set my hand to a paper Chalmers' "Life of Defoe," p. 8, 9. to acknowledge it, which I readily did, and found a great many names to the paper before me; and I think myself bound to own it, though I am no friend to the book he wrote no more than you.' Being reproached by Lord Haversham for mercenariness, he tells him, in 1705, that, "with a numerous family, and no help but his own industry, he had forced his way with undiscouraged diligence through a sea of misfortunes, and reduced his debts, exclusive of composition, from seventeen thousand to less than five thousand pounds."* The foregoing extracts will serve to shelter the character of Defoe from any dishonourable imputation in temporarily absconding from his creditors, a step which he thought himself justified in taking, during the negotiation for an amicable settlement, in order that he might escape the horrors of a debtors' prison. The result showed that he had acted wisely in so doing; his bankruptcy was immediately superseded, and a composition accepted, as already stated. The evil consequences of this failure in business, as will be seen, pursued him for many years afterwards; but as it is in the wisdom of Providence to overrule partial evil to general good, so these sufferings of Defoe caused him for more than thirty years to wage an incessant warfare against the monstrous cruelties then existing in connection with the laws of bankruptcy, recovery of debts, and the imprisonment of debtors. He lived to see the beginnings of a reformation of these evils, and posterity has completed the work. Mr. Wilson conjectures that when Defoe retired to avoid the fangs of the law, it was to Bristol. I do not doubt that he was, at some period, in that city, but he would certainly not have needed to remain there so long as Mr. Wilson supposes, had his object been only to avoid arrest until he could offer a composition to his creditors. During this period, from 1692 to 1694, we learn very little about him, but it appears from the third page of the preface to his "Essay on Projects," that he wrote the greater part of that work after his failure in business, and certainly OLD HOUSE IN CASTLE STREET, BRISTOL, 1701.] HIS FIRST CONTACT WITH GOVERNMENT. 29 before he became "engaged (in 1694) in proposing ways and means to the Government.' It was probably during the same period, also, that he became known to Queen Mary, who died in the latter year. The first laying out of Kensington Gardens was the design of her Majesty, and he says, "The author of this account having had the honour to attend her Majesty when she first viewed the ground, and directed the doing it, speaks this with the more satisfaction."* Defoe's acquaintance with foreign trade, particularly with that to Spain and Portugal, in which he had been engaged, joined with the high opinion his friends had of his honour and integrity, induced some of them to wish to settle him as a factor at Cadiz. I regret that Mr. Wilson should have conjectured any inferior considerations as inducing Defoe to decline this offer, especially when about to quote the one lofty motive assigned by Defoe himself. Willing to work, and trusting in God, the following statement shows the simplicity of his religious faith, and the consciousness of his own great powers, even under most adverse circumstances :— "Misfortunes in Business having unhing'd me from Matters of Trade, it was about the year 1694, when I was invited by some Merchants with whom I had corresponded abroad, and some also at home, to settle at Cadiz in Spain, and that with Offers of very good Commissions; but Providence, which had other Work for me to do, placed a secret Aversion in my Mind to quitting England upon any account, and made me refuse the best Offers of that Kind, to be concern'd with some eminent Persons at home, in proposing Ways and Means to the Government for raising Money to supply the Occasions of the War then newly begun."+ The chief objects of this War were to support the title of King William and Queen Mary to the Crown, and to arrest the conquests of the French Monarch. While the Revolution was being enacted, the adherents of the late King sought safety in silence; and the distinctions of Whig and Tory, Church and Dissent, were almost forgotten in the general enthusiasm. "Tour through Great Britain," vol. ii. lett. 3, p. 14. |