24 Defoe : his Life and Writings. [ JAN. 



examples in themselves by doing the same. They have sworn allegiance 

 to you, and have since accepted of the Prince of Orange, and sworn 

 allegiance to him. But let them swear what they will, and to whom 

 they will, I for one will not believe them, nor put more value on their 

 oaths than they do themselves, which is just nothing at all." The 

 famous Bishop Burnet has borne similar testimony to the character of 

 the churchmen of his own times. 



We return to Defoe. For some years after the accession of King 

 William he kept himself constantly before the public, and among other 

 able pamphlets, which, however, produced him more or less ill-will at 

 the time, published one entitled " An Essay on Projects," in which he 

 satirized the love of over-trading, which distinguished the majority of 

 the London merchants. For this production, in which he discoursed 

 many home truths, gave much sound advice, and endeavoured to create 

 a reformation in the commercial spirit of the age, he incurred the 

 odium of the vast body of English traders, who, joined with his poli- 

 tical ones, were the means of wreaking on him a world of mischief. About 

 the same time w r ith his notorious "Essay on Projects," appeared his 

 t( Account of the Massacre of Glencoe," in which he proved to the satis- 

 faction of all unprejudiced readers, but greatly to the annoyance of 

 the Jacobites, that William III. was wholly guiltless of any participation 

 in the atrocities in question. 



The year 1701 is a memorable one in the life of Defoe. At this 

 period it was that he produced his ft Account of the Stock-Jobbing 

 Elections in Parliament," and put forth certain notions on the subject of 

 a reform in the House of Commons, which gained him ill-will exactly in 

 proportion to their value and good sense. The members were indignant 

 that a mere plebeian pamphleteer should presume to turn reformer. 

 Had he possessed birth, influence, or connections, to give weight to his 

 opinions, the case would have been different ; but truth from a plebeian, 

 and against themselves, too, was more than the House of Commons could 

 put up with, though as yet they had no means of venting their spleen on 

 the ill-starred subject of their indignation. Alluding to the corruption 

 of parliament, Defoe observes, that in his time there was a regular set 

 of stock-jobbers in the city, who made it their business to buy and sell 

 seats, and that the market price was a thousand guineas. This traffic he 

 stigmatizes as fatal to our religion and liberties, and says, t( by this 

 concise method parliaments are in a fair way of coming under the 

 hopeful management of a few individuals." He adds, " that a hundred, 

 or a hundred and fifty such members in a House would carry any vote ; 

 and, if it be true, as is very rational to suppose, those who buy will 

 sell, then the influence of such a number of members will be capable of 

 selling our trade, our religion, our peace, our effects, our king, and 

 every thing that is valuable or dear to the nation." How prophetic 

 these remarks are, recent events have signally shewn, and have yet to 

 shew to a still more signal extent. 



It was in the same year (1701) that Defoe made his first appearance 

 in public as a poet, or rather, as a satirist, for, in his case, the two 

 characters are materially different. The subject of his poem was " The 

 True-born Englishman ;" and its intention was to reproach his country- 

 men for abusing King William as a foreigner, and to humble their pride 

 for despising some of the newly-created nobility upon the same account. 

 Its success was prodigious, and brought down upon the author's head a 



