1831.] Defoe: his Life and Writings. 31 



ventures of Robinson Crusoe/' are the works to which Defoe is 

 indebted for his immortality. As a political writer he has perished 

 from among us; as a novelist his spirit yet walks the earth. His 

 present biographer has done him justice in both characters; and 

 has, besides, thrown so much light on the age in which Defoe 

 flourished, so fully illustrated its nature, its manners, and more par- 

 ticularly its moral and religious cast of thought, that we know not 

 which most to admire, his power of amusement or instruction. In every 

 sense of the word, even with Clarendon and Gibbon in our recollection, 

 we may style Mr. Wilson a historian. His " Life and Times of Defoe" 

 of that extraordinary man who exceeds Cobbett in the number and 

 variety of his political tracts ; who beats Thucydides on his own Vantage 

 ground ; almost equals Sir W. Scott as a novelist ; and who, in the 

 aggregate amount of his works, surpasses any author that ever lived, 

 having written upwards of two hundred volumes ! . Mr. Wilson's 

 Memoirs of that extraordinary man are volumes that no student, nay, 

 no gentleman, should be without. A library that does not possess 

 them is incomplete. 



FROM Tangiers we proceeded overland to Tetuan; the distance is 

 about thirty English miles, through a most luxuriant and romantic 

 country. Hitherto the Moors of this place have been considered so 

 untractable, that, notwithstanding the great allurements of situation,, 

 Europeans could not continue their residence in this part of the country. 

 In the year 1770 the Consuls withdrew from Tetuan, and fixed them- 

 selves at Tangiers. Within the last few years the English have again 

 succeeded in opening an intercourse with this city, by establishing a 

 Mr. Price as vice-consul in this town a gentleman in whose hands 

 English interests are sure to be promoted. t 



The bashaw of Tetuan is only visible to those who are disposed to pay 

 for the indulgence, and will at any time gratify the curiosity of strangers 



* In continuation of the article on Tangiers, at page 543 of our last volume. 



f- It would be scarcely fair to pass over this gentleman's name with so slight a notice. 

 The manner in which he conducted himself in his consulship is worthy of imitation. 

 Although the only European consul in Tetuan, his attentions and services were available 

 to all nations. Many were the odious disabilities against Europeans he contrived by his 

 firmness to abolish. It was he who first insisted that Englishmen should not submit to 

 the degradation of dismounting at the city-gates, and leading their horses through the 

 town, as had hitherto been the practice. I could mention numerous instances, in which 

 his humanity and good-heartedness have been equally conspicuous ; but can pay him no 

 better tribute than to record the conduct of Sidi Hash Hash, the bashaw, on his depar- 

 ture. So averse was this man to the sight of an English consul, that his intrigues pre- 

 vented Mr. Price from commencing the duties of his office for upwards of ten months. 

 In one of the bashaw's communications to the sultan on this subject, he reminds him 

 " that his forefather, Sidi Mohammed el Grande, had vowed by his beard (a most sacred 

 vow amongst the Moors) never to allow a Christian to set foot in Tetuan;" yet, on the 

 departure of Mr. Price, three years afterwards, he addressed him in terms of the greatest 

 amity, and told him that, by his conduct, he had laid the foundation of a future good 

 understanding between the Moors and the Christians, whom, previous to his acquaintance, 

 he had ever held in dread, and that it was now his only wish to be better acquainted with 

 Englishmen. The English flag, for the first time since the year 1770, now floats on 

 the Consular-house of Tetuan a sight which the population of that place thronged to 

 see during several days. 



