1703.]

SEVERITY OF HIS PUNISHMENT.

71

Hosier in Cornell, pleaded guilty to an indictment for the writing and publishing of this seditious libell and had Judgment to stand thrice in the Pillory with a Paper of his crime, executed accordingly and to find sureties of his good behaviour for 7 years and to pay cc Marks and to lye in Prison till all be performed." At the end of the copy is the following, in the same hand: —“ NOTA.—The Author hereof Pilloryed for the same is quite a Good Champion for the Moderate Church of England, by a Review in opposition to Jacobite and Non-Juror & the High Churchmen of Passive Obedience."

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CHAPTER IV.

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Defoe in Newgate-Publishes" The Shortest Way to Peace and Union”'Hymn to the Pillory"'-" The Sincerity of Dissenters Vindicated— "A Challenge of Peace to the Whole Nation"-Asgill's tract on Translation without Death, answered by Defoe-Answers also, Dr. Davenant, on Appeals to the People"-Publishes " Peace without Union"-" The Liberty of Episcopal Dissenters in Scotland"—“ The Dissenters' Answer to the High-church Challenge"- An Essay on the Regulation of the Press"- A Serious Inquiry"-" The Parallel"Commences the "Review"'—" The Layman's Sermon upon the late Storm"- "Royal Religion""-"Legion's Address to the Lords""More Short Ways with the Dissenters”- "The Dissenters Misrepresented and Represented"—Mr. Harley undertakes Defoe's cause"The Storm"-" A New Test of the Church of England's Honesty""An Elegy on the Author of the True-born Englishman, and an Essay on the Storm"-The Queen gives Defoe money to pay his fine, and restores him to liberty-Affray between W. Colepeper and Sir George Rooke-Defoe publishes an account thereof-" A Hymn to Victory"-" The Protestant Jesuit Unmasked"-Groundless rumours as to Defoe's retirement-He offers a reward for the discovery of the authors.

1703-4.

A

FTER the passing of sentence, Defoe was confined in Newgate; and an interval of twenty days was allowed to elapse before he should be publicly exposed in the Pillory. During that time he bore up under this load of injustice, and armed himself with a resolution of mind that enabled him to convert his punishment into a cutting satire upon its authors. He also remembered that he was a Christian, having a high duty to perform in the inculcation of peace between the blind and distracted parties in religion. Considering his outward circumstances, there is something of moral grandeur in the fact that he immediately sat down and completed a work upon which, he says, he had been engaged some time before, viz., "The Shortest Way to Peace and Union. By the Author of 'The Shortest Way with the Dissenters.' London. Printed in the year 1703." The object of this pamphlet is, to convince Dissenters that there ought to be an established religion, in con

1704.]

DEFOE IN THE PILLORY.

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nection with the state; and, that the Church of England is not only the most fit, but the only capable Institution for that supremacy. He therefore exhorts Dissenters to avoid all conflict with the Church, and to be content with the many privileges, civil and religious, which they enjoy. The High Church are urged, on the other hand, to cease from all attempts to deprive their Dissenting brethren of their Toleration; to act out the true moderate spirit of the Church; and, that by these means mutual Charity, and Peace and Union, may be established. Thus the noble Christian peacemaker endeavoured to return good for evil, to the enemies who had laboured to crush him, and to the friends who had forsaken him. The second. work I have alluded to, as being composed between his sentence and its execution, is his celebrated Satire, "A Hymn to the Pillory. Printed in the year 1703." This, and “The Shortest Way to Peace and Union," were both published on the same day, July the 29th, on which he was made a public spectacle to the people, before the Royal Exchange, in Cornhill. The next following day he was similarly exhibited near the conduit in Cheapside, and on the third day at Temple Bar.

The people of England have an innate sense of justice, and a detestation of oppression. The multitude formed a guard to protect him from any injury or insult. It was summer time, and they decked the pillory with garlands of flowers. They drank his health,-wished those who set him there were placed in his room,-expressed their affection by loud shouts and acclamations when he was taken down,— and they provided refreshments for him, after his exhibition. The triumph was as great as the moment would admit of, but he had a more lasting triumph in store; his High Church enemies had made him a gazingstock to the world for three hours, but his satirical Hymn pilloried them for all time.

The" Hymn to the Pillory" became at once popular. A large edition was immediately sold, it is said, among the crowd present; and it was not until a second issue had been exhausted, that the author could find time to correct the errors incidental to the peculiar circumstances of its first appearance.*

* I am indebted to my friend, Edward Riggall, Esq., for a careful verbal collation of the first and third editions of the " Hymn to the Pillory," both of which appeared in 1703, proving that in the distressing circumstances