in the viciffitude of party, had been perfecuted by faction, and overpowered, though not conquered, by violence.

Such was the high interpofition by which De Foe was relieved from Newgate, in Auguft 1704. In order to avoid the town-talk, he retired immediately to St. Edmund's Bury: but his retreat did not prevent perfecution. Dyer, the news-writer, propagated that De Foe had fled from juftice. Fox, the bookfeller, published that he had deferted his fecurity. Stephen, a ftate-meffenger, every where faid, that he had a warrant for feizing him. This I fuppofe was wit, during the witty age of Anne. In our duller days of law, fuch outrages would be referred to the judgment of a Jury. De Foe informed the Secretary of State where he was, and when he would appear; but he was told not to fear, as he had not tranfgreffed. Notwithstanding this vexation, our Author's mufe produced, on the 29th of Auguft 1704, A Hymn to Victory, when the fuccefsful fkill of Marlborough furnished our poets with many occafions to publish Gazettes in Rhyme.

De Foe opened the year 1704-5 with his Double welcome to the Duke of Marlborough; disclaiming any expectation of place or penfion. His encomiaftic ftrains, I fear, were not heard while he wrote, like an honest Englishman, against the continuance of the war-a war indeed of perfonal glory, of national celebration, but of fruitlefs expence. De Foe's activity, or his needs, produced in March 1705, The Confolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Tranfactions, from the world in the moon. It was one of De Foe's felicities to catch the living manners

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as they rofe, or one of his resources, to shoot folly as it flew. In the lunar language he applies his satiric file to the prominences of every character: of the poets, from Dryden to Durfy; of the wits, from Addifon to Prior; of the metaphyficians, from Malbranche to Hobbs; of the free-thinkers, from Afgyl to the Tale of a Tub. Our author continually complains of the ill usage of the world; but with all his acuteness he did not advert, that he who attacks the world, will be by the world attacked. He makes the lunar politicians debate the policy of Charles XII. in. pursuing the Saxons and Poles, while the Mufcovites ravaged his own people. I doubt whether it were on this occafion that the Swedish Ambassador was fo ill-advised as to complain against De Foe, for merited ridicule of a futile warfare. They had not then discovered, that the beft defence against the fhafts of fatire is to let them fly. Our Author's fentiment was expanded by Johnson, in thofe energetic lines, which thus conclude the character of the Swedish Charles;

"Who left the name, at which the world grew pale, To point a moral, or adorn a tale.”

De Foe was fo little difturbed by the appearance of The Moon Calf, or accurate reflections on the Confolidator, that he plunged into a controverfy with Sir Humphrey Mackworth about his bill for employing the poor, This had been paffed by the Commons, with great applaufe, but received by the Peers with fuitable caution. De Foe, confidering this plausible project as an indigested chaos, reprefented it, through feveral reviews, as a plan which would

ruin the industrious, and thereby augment the poor. Sir Humphrey endeavoured to fupport his workhouses, in every parish, with a parochial capital for carrying on parochial manufacture. This drew from De Foe his admirable treatife, which he entitled Giving alms no charity. As an English Freebolder he claimed it as a right to addrefs his performance to the Houfe of Commons, having a particular intereft in the common good; but, confidering the perfons before whom he appeared, he laid down his archnefs, and affumed his dignity. He maintained, with wonderful knowledge of fact and power of argument, the following pofitions: 1ft, That there is in England more labour than hands to perform it; and confequently a want of people, not of employment: 2dly, No man in England, of found limbs and fenfes, can be poor merely for want of work:-3dly, All workhouses for employing the poor, as now they are employed, ferve to the ruin of families and the increafe of the poor :- - 4thly, It is a regulation of the poor that is wanted, not a fetting them to work. Longer experience fhews this to be a difficult fubject, which increases in difficulty with the effluxion of time.

De Foe had fcarcely difmiffed Sir Humphrey, when he introduced Lord Haverfham, a peer, who is famous in our ftory, as a maker and publifher of fpeeches. His Lordship publifhed his fpeech on the state of the nation in 1705, which was cried about the town with unufual earnestness. Our Author's prudence induced him to give no answer to the fpeech; but a pamphlet, which was hawked about the streets and fold for a penny, our Author's fhrewdnefs confidered as a challenge to every reader.

He

He laughed and talked fo much, through feveral Reviews, about this factious effufion, as to provoke a defence of topics, which his Lordship ought neither to have printed nor fpoken. De Foe now published a Reply to Lord Haversham's vindication of his Speech. During fuch battles the town never fails to cheer the smaller combatant. Our Author, with an allufion to the biography of both, fays farcaftically: "But, fate that makes footballs of men, kicks fome up ftairs, and fome down; fome are advanced without honour, others fuppreffed without infamy; fome are raifed without merit, fome are crushed without a crime ; and no man knows by the beginning of things, whether his courfe fhall iffue in a peerage or a pillory."

In the midst of thefe difputes, either grave or ludicrous, De Foe published Advice to all Parties. He strenuously recommends that moderation and forbearance, which his opponents often remarked he was not so prone to practice as to preach. While he thus gave advice to all parties, he conveyed many falutary leffons to the Diffenters, whom he was zealous to defend. In the Review, dated the 25th of December 1705, he conjures them for GOD'S fake, if not for their own fake, to be content. "Are there a few things more you could wish were done for you? refolve these wishes into two conclufions: ift, Wait till Providence, if it fhall be for your good, fhall bring them to pafs; 2dly, Compare the prefent with the paft circumftances, and you cannot repine without the highest ingratitude both to God and man."

De Foe found leisure, notwithstanding all those labours, perhaps a neceflity, to publish in 1705, A Second Volume of the Writings of the Author of the True

born

born Englishman. The fame reafons which formerly induced him to collect fome loofe pieces, held good, fays he, for proceeding to a fecond volume," that if I do not, fomebody else will do it for me.' He laments the fcandalous liberty of the prefs; whereby piratic printers deprive an author of the native product of his own thought, and the purity of his own ftyle. It is faid, though perhaps without authority, that the vigorous remonftrances of De Foe procured The Act for the encouragement of learning, by vesting the copies of printed books in the authors or their assigns. The vanity of an administration, which affected to patronize the learned, concurring with the mu. tual intereft of bookmakers and booksellers, produced this falutary law, that our Author alone had called for without fuccefs. De Foe's writings, thus collected into volumes, were foon a third time printed, with the addition of a key. The fatire being now pointed by the fpecification of characters, and obfcurities being illuminated by the annexation of circumftances, a numerous clafs of readers were induced, by their zeal of party, or defire of scandal, to look for gratification from our Author's treatises. He is ftudious to complain, That his writings had been most neglected of them, who at the fame time have owned them useful. The second volume of 1705, containing eighteen treatifes in profe and rhyme, begins with A new Difcovery of an old Intrigue, and ends with Royal Religion.

The year 1705 was a year of difquiet to De Foe, not fo much from the oppreffions of ftate as from the perfecutions of party. When his business, of

9 Anne, c. 19.

whatever