Author had faid in his Double Welcome to the Duke of Marlborough, with less poetry than truth—

Macenas has his modern fancy ftrung,

And fixed his penfion firft, or he had never fung.

While thus infulted by enemies, and discountenanced by power, De Foe published his Appeal to Honour and Justice, in 1715; being a true Account of his Conduct in public Affairs. As a motive, for this intrepid meafure, he affectingly fays, That, "by the hints of mortality and the infirmities of a life of forrow and fatigue, I have reafon to think, that I am very near to the great ocean of eternity, and the time may not be long ere I embark on the last voyage: wherefore, I think I fhould even accounts with this world before I go, that no flanders may lye against my heirs, to disturb them in the peaceable poffeffion of their father's inheritance, his character." It is a circumstance perhaps unexampled in the life of any other writer, that before he could finish his Appeal, he was ftruck with an apoplexy. After languifhing more than fix weeks, neither able to go on, nor likely to recover, his friends thought fit to delay the publication no longer. "It is the opinion of most who know him," fays Baker, the publisher, "that the treatment which he here complains of, and others of which he would have spoken, have been the cause of this difafter." When the ardent mind of De Foe reflected on what he had done, and what he had fuffered, how he had been rewarded and perfecuted, his heart melted in defpair. His fpirit, like a candle struggling in the focket, blazed and funk, and blazed and funk, till it disappeared in darknefs.

While his strength remained, he expoftulated with his adverfaries in the following terms of great manlinefs, and inftructive intelligence:" It has been the difafter of all parties in this nation, to be very hot in their turn, and as often as they have been fo, I have differed with them all, and fhall do fo. I will repeat fome of the occafions on the Whig fide, because from that quarter the accufation of

ing about comes.

my turn"The first time I had the misfortune to differ with my friends, was about the year 1683, when the Turks were befieging Vienna, and the Whigs in England, generally fpeaking, were for the Turks taking it; which I, having read the hiftory of the cruelty and perfidious dealings of the Turks in their wars, and how they had rooted out the name of the Christian religion in above three score and ten kingdoms, could by no means agree with: and though then but a young man, and a younger author, I oppofed it, and wrote against it, which was taken very unkindly indeed.

"The next time I differed with my friends, was when King James was wheedling the Diffenters to take off the penal laws and teft, which I could by no means come into. I told the Diffenters, I had rather the Church of England fhould pull our clothes off by fines and forfeitures, than the Papifts fhould fall both upon the Church and the Diffenters, and pull our skins off by fire and faggot.

"The next difference I had with good men, was about the fcandalous practice of occafional conformity, in which I had the misfortune to make many honeft men angry, rather because I had the better of the argument, than because they difliked what I faid.

And,

And now I have lived to fee the Diffenters themfelves very quiet; if not very well pleased with an act of Parliament to prevent it. Their friends indeed laid it on; they would be friends indeed, if they would talk of taking it off again.

"Again, I had a breach with honeft men for their male-treating King William, of which I fay nothing; because I think they are now opening their eyes, and making what amends they can to his memory.

"The fifth difference I had with them, was about the treaty of partition, in which many honeft men were mistaken, and in which I told them plainly then, that they would at laft end the war upon worfe terms; and fo it is my opinion they would have done, though the treaty of Gertruydenburgh had taken place.

"The fixth time I differed with them, was when the old Whigs fell out with the modern Whigs; and when the Duke of Marlborough and my Lord Godolphin were used by the Obfervator in a manner worse, I confefs, for the time it lafted, than ever they were used fince; nay, though it were by Abel and the Examiner. But the fuccefs failed. In this difpute my Lord Godolphin did me the honour to tell me, I had ferved him and his Grace alfo, both faithfully and fuccefsfully. But his Lordship is dead, and I have now no teftimony of it, but what is to be found in the Obfervator, where I am plentifully abused for being an enemy to my country, by acting in the interest of my Lord Godolphin and the Duke of Marlborough. What weathercock can turn with fuch tempers as these?

"I am now in the feventh breach with them, and my crime now is, that I will not believe and fay the VOL. II.

E e

fame

fame things of the Queen, and the late Treasurer, which I could not believe before of my Lord Godolphin and the Duke of Marlborough, and which in truth I cannot believe, and therefore could not fay it of either of them; and which, if I had believed, yet I ought not to have been the man that fhould have faid it, for the reafons aforefaid.

"In fuch turns of tempers and times a man muft have been ten-fold a Vicar of Bray, or it is impoffible but he must one time or other be out with every body. This is my prefent condition; and for this I am reviled with having abandoned my principles, turned Jacobite, and what not: GOD judge between me and these men! Would they come to any particulars with me, what real guilt I may have, I would freely acknowledge; and if they would produce any evidence of the bribes, the penfions, and the rewards I have taken, I would declare honestly whether they were true or no. If they would give a lift of the books which they charge me with, and the reasons why they lay them at my door, I would acknowledge any mistake, own what I have done, and let them know what I have not done. But thefe men neither fhew mercy, nor leave room for repentance; in which they act not only unlike their Maker, but contrary to his exprefs commands *."

With

* The most folemn afleverations, and the moft unanswerable arguments of our Author, were not, after all, believed. When Charles King re-published The British Merchant, in 1721, he without a scruple attributed The Mercator to a hireling writer of a weekly paper called The Review. And Anderson, at a still later period, goes further in his Chronology of Commerce, and names De Foe, as the hireling writer of The Mercator, and other papers in favour of the French treaty of trade. We can now judge

With the fame independence of fpirit, but with greater modesty of manner, our Author openly dif approved of the imtemperance, which was adopted by Government in 1714, contrary to the original purpofe of George I. "It is and ever was my opinion," fays De Foe in his Appeal," that moderation is the only virtue by which the tranquillity of this nation can be preferved; and even the King himself, (I believe his Majesty will allow me that freedom,) can only be happy in the enjoyment of the crown, by a moderate administration: if he should be obliged, contrary to his known disposition, to join with intemperate councils, if it does not leffen his fecurity, I am perfuaded it will leffen his fatisfaction. To attain at the happy calm, which is the confideration that fhould move us all, (and he would merit to be called the nation's phyfician, who could prescribe the specific for it,) I think I may be allowed to fay, a conquest of parties will never do it, a balance of parties may." Such was the political testament of De Foe; which it had been happy for Britain, had it been as faithfully executed as it was wifely made!

The year 1715 may be regarded as the period of our Author's political life. Faction henceforth found other advocates, and parties procured other writers to propagate their falfehoods. Yet, when a

with the impartiality of arbitrators: on the one hand, there are the living challenge, and the death-bed declaration of De Foe; on the other, the mere furmife and unauthorised affertion of King, Anderson, and others, who detract from their own veracity by their own factioufnefs, or foolery. It is furely time to free ourselves from prejudices of every kind, and to disregard the found of names as much as the falfehoods of party,