1831.] Defoe : his Life and Writings. 21 



ments, to keep up a standing army. They even preached the doctrine 

 of his divine authority from the pulpit, and held, among their leading 

 tenets, that it was impiety to dispute his will. This was their rule of 

 conduct so long as James respected their revenues. The instant, how- 

 ever, that he displayed an inclination to curtail them, their lordships' self- 

 interest took the alarm, and luckily chiming in with that of the 

 nation, the one cheered the other along that broad high-road 

 which is by courtesy called the course of patriotism but which, in 

 nine out of ten cases, is nothing more nor less than the course of per- 

 sonal aggrandizement till James had been expelled his throne, and both 

 parties, the churchmen and the nation, had reached the goal at which they 

 aimed, and secured the crown to the Prince of Orange, on the avowed 

 principle of toleration. And here, on dismissing James, we cannot 

 refrain from instituting a parallel between that monarch and the ex-king 

 Charles the Tenth. Both were bigots, and of the gloomiest cast ; both 

 were influenced by bad and interested advisers, and both fell victims 

 to their superstition. The Jesuits were the ruin of James, on the same 

 principle and in the same spirit that they were the ruin of Charles ; 

 though the latter is a thousand degrees less defensible than the former, 

 inasmuch as he was far behind his age in intellect, while James was 

 neither better nor worse than the other public characters of his day. 

 To complete the parallel, both kings had in early life suffered much from 

 the pressure of adverse circumstances, and both had failed to derive 

 wisdom or experience from such adversity. 



It may be imagined that throughout the eventful period which imme- 

 diately preceded and followed the dethronement of James and the 

 accession of William, Defoe's pen was not idle. He was indeed 

 continually at work in the good cause, and became in consequence so 

 popular with the nation, and even with the court, that he was personally 

 consulted by King William on some public questions of emergency, and 

 rewarded by that monarch a proof that his advice was of value with 

 the place of accountant to the commissioners of the glass duty, which, 

 however, he was compelled to relinquish in 1699, about four years 

 subsequent to his appointment. 



" It was, probably/' says Mr. Wilson, " about this time that Defoe 

 became secretary to the tile-kiln and brick-kiln works, at Tilbury, in 

 Essex, an office which he is reported to have filled for some years. It 

 failed, however, like many of his other projects, but was continued by 

 him, on a restricted scale, after he had lost upwards of three thousand 

 pounds by the speculation, till the year 1703, when the wind of his 

 court-popularity shifting, the current made strong head against him, 

 and he was prosecuted by the government for a libel/' Previous to this, we 

 should premise, Defoe had speculated largely, and with various, but in 

 the main indifferent, success in business. He had embarked with other 

 partners in the Spanish and Portuguese trade, which necessarily led 

 him into those countries, though at what particular period he visited 

 them, cannot now be ascertained. He also had some concern in the 

 trade with Holland, and was in consequence held up to ridicule by his 

 enemies, as a civet-cat merchant, " though it was, probably/' says his 

 biographer, " the drug rather than the animal in which he traded." 

 Besides his visits to Holland, Spain, and Portugal, Defoe made an 

 excursion to France, and appears to have been much struck with the 

 extent, number, and magnificence of the public buildings in Paris. 



