1&31.J Defoe : kin Life and Writings. 25 



shower of praise and vituperation. No less than eighty thousand cheap 

 copies were disposed of in the streets of London alone a success before 

 which even the "Waverley novels" must hide their diminished heads and 

 of editions, twenty-one were sold off within four years from the date of 

 publication ! It cannot,, however, be denied, that this flattering 

 reception was in many respects undeserved. As a satire the " True- 

 born Englishman" possesses much vigour of thought and expres- 

 sion, but is wholly deficient in ease, grace, and poetical feeling. The 

 language throughout is homely, the fancy bare and meagre to a 

 degree. It must be confessed, nevertheless, that Defoe is a hard hitter, 

 he makes every blow tell, hits out manfully and straight-forward, and 

 never once misses his man. King William, and, of course, his courtiers, 

 were much pleased with the spirit and tendency of this poem, and vied 

 with each other in their testimonies of good- will to the author, to whose 

 satirical abilities may be applied, with peculiar propriety, Pope's phrase, 

 " downright," in that well-known and often-quoted line, "As downright 

 Shippen or as old Montaigne." 



The same year that gave birth to the " True-born Englishman," 

 rendered Defoe equally conspicuous in a different sphere of action. 

 Reverting to his favourite political topic, the corruption of the House of 

 Commons, he presented an address on the subject to the speaker, 

 signed " Legion," in the disguise of an old woman. In this document 

 he insisted so strenuously, and with so much justice, on the necessity of 

 reform, that the members took the alarm, and would at once have prose- 

 cuted the writer, had not the current of public feeling run strongly in 

 favour. As it was, they contented themselves with abuse and vulgar 

 recrimination. 



We now come to the most eventful incident in Defoe's life. On the 

 death of King William, Anne ascended the throne, at a period when the 

 nation was convulsed with party-spirit, when the faction of whigs and 

 tories raged with more violence than ever, and when high-church 

 principles were carried to an extent wholly inconceivable in the pre- 

 sent clay. Defoe, as the advocate of the dissenters, against whom 

 the established church projected, and actually attempted to carry into 

 execution, a war of extermination, of course resented with all the energy 

 of which he was capable, this inquisitorial persecution, and, adopting the 

 language of irony, exposed the bigotry of the high-churchmen in a 

 pamphlet entitled the " Shortest Way with the Dissenters/' For this 

 work he was eagerly pounced on by the House of Commons, brought to 

 trial at the Old Bailey, convicted chiefly by the manoeuvring of the attorney- 

 general (who seems to have been the prototype of that recreant whig, 

 Sir James Scarlett), and condemned, to the eternal disgrace of justice, to 

 stand in the pillory. 



This sentence reflected shame only on those who inflicted it. To 

 Defoe it was a triumph and season of rejoicing, " for he was 

 guarded," says his biographer, " to the pillory by the populace, as 

 if he were about to be enthroned in a chair of state, and descended from 

 it amidst the triumphant acclamations of the surrounding multitude, who, 

 instead of pelting him, according to the orthodox fashion in such cases, 

 protected him from the missiles of his enemies, drank his health, 

 adorned the pillory with garlands, and when he descended from it, 

 supplied him with all manner of refreshments." But notwithstanding 

 this flattering testimonial to his public worth, his punishment, and the 



M.M. New Series. VOL. XI. No. 61. E 



