unwearied diligence; and some of the creditors, whose claims had been thus satisfied, falling into distress themselves, he waited upon them, and paid their debts in full. He was next engaged in carrying on tile-works, on the banks of the Thames, near Tilbury, but with little success; for it was sarcastically said of him, that he did not, "like the Egyp tians, require bricks without straw, but, like the Jews, required bricks without paying his labourers." United to his tile-making, our author, stimulated by an active mind and embarrassed circumstances, devised many other schemes, or, as he called them, projects. He wrote many sheets about the English coin; he projected Banks for every county, and Factories for goods; he exhibited a Proposal (very feelingly, no doubt) for a commission of inquiry into bankrupts' estates; he contrived a Pension-office for the relief of the poor, and finished, by publishing a long Essay upon projects themselves.

About this period, (1695,) our author's indefatigable endeavours procured him some notice from the court, and he was appointed accountant to the commissioners for managing the duties on glass. Here also his usual ill luck attended him; he was thrown out of his situation by the suppression of the tax in 1699.

But the time at length arrived when the sun of royal favour was to shine out upon our author's prospects. About the end of 1699, there was published, what De Foe calls," an horrid pamphlet, in very ill verse, written by one Tutchin, and called The Foreigners: in which the author fell personally upon the king, then upon the Dutch nation, and, after having reproached his majesty with crimes, that his worst enemies could not think of without horror, he sums up all in the odious name of Foreigner. This filled me with rage against the book, and gave birth to a trifle, which I never could hope should have met with so general an acceptation."

The trifle, which De Foe here alludes to, was his True-born Englishman; a poetical satire on the Foreigners, and a defence of King William and the Dutch; of which the sale was great without example, and our author's reward proportionate. He was even admitted to the honour of a personal interview with the king, and became with more ardour than ever a professed partizan of the court. In this composition the satire was strong, powerful, and manly, upbraiding the English Tories for their unreasonable prejudice against foreigners; the rather that there were so many nations blended in the mass now called Englishmen

The verse was rough and mistuned, for De Foe never seems to have possessed an ear for the melody of language, whether in prose or verse. But though wanting the long resounding verse and energy divine of Dryden, he had often masculine expressions and happy turns of thought, not unworthy of the author of Absalom and Achitophel, though upon the whole, his style seems rather to have been formed on that of Hall, Oldham, and the elder satirists. The first verses are well known:

Wherever God erects a House of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there;
And 'twill be found upon examination,

The latter has the largest congregation.

The author's first publication after The Trueborn Englishman was, The original Power of the Collective Body of the People of England examined and asserted; next, An Argument to prove that a standing Army, with consent of Parliament, was not inconsistent with a free Government; but, as we do not mean to follow De Foe through the career of his politics, and intend only to notice such works as, in their consequences, materially affected his personal situation and affairs, we shall pass to the death of his sovereign and patron, which took place 8th March, 1702.

The accession of Anne having restored the line of Stuart, to whom the politics and conduct of De Foe had been peculiarly obnoxious, our author was shortly reduced, as before, to live on the produce of his wits and it is perhaps lucky for the world that there is so much truth in the universal outcry against the neglect of living authors; for there seems a certain laziness concomitant with genius, which can only be incited to action by the pres⚫ sure of necessity. Had William lived, probably the world would never have been delighted with the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.

Whether De Foe found politics the most vendible produce of the press, or, like Macbeth, felt himself

Stept in so far, that should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er,-

we are yet to learn; but he ventured to reprint his Shortest Way with the Dissenters; and to publish several other treatises, which were considered libellous by the Commons; and on the 25th of February, 1702-3, a complaint being made in the House, of a book entitled, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters; and the folios 11-18 and 26 being read, "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, in New Palace-Yard."

Our unfortunate author's political sins were now all mustered in array against him, and a tremendous catalogue they made. He had been the favourite and panegyrist of William; he had fought for Monmouth, and opposed James; he had vindicated the Revolution, and defended the rights of the people; he had bantered, insulted, and offended, the whole Tory leaders of the Commons; and, after all, he could not be quiet, but must republish his most offensive productions.

Thus overpowered, De Foe was obliged to secrete himself; and we are indebted to a very disagreeable circumstance for the following accurate description of his person. A proclamation was issued by the secretaries of state, in January, 1703, in the following terms:

"St James's, Jan. 10, 1702-3. "Whereas Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled, 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