69 



It might be mentioned that the borough then returned four 

 members, and therefore was well worth the attention of De Foe> 

 supposing politics to have been the object of his visit. 



However, on July 26th, 1705, occurs a series of entries in the 

 Weymouth Eecords, containing the examinations of witnesses 

 seeking to establish against De Foe and others a charge of 

 plotting against the Government. 



In his " Review," August 25th, 1705, he explains the occur- 

 rence thus : That the Author of this Paper with but one Friend, 

 and his Friend's Servants, being in the Western Counties of 

 England, on a journey about his Lawful Occasions, met with 

 several Unmanlike and Unreasonable Insults upon the Road ; 

 That at Weymouth his letters being delivered to a wrong Person, 

 by Mistake, were showed about the Town. That a Friend 

 having Wrote in one of them, as a Piece of News, and too true, 

 That a certain Person had the Impudence to say in Defence of 

 the High Churchman, That the Queen had broke her Coronation 

 Oath, and the like The Wise Mayor of the Town Examines all 

 the People he found had Convers'd with him, and officiously 

 carries them to Dorchester, before the Judges, the Assizes being 

 at that Place 



It will be found that the wrong delivery of the letters was 

 caused by confusing Capt. James Turner with Capt. Turner, and 

 their misinterpretation can in some degree be accounted for by 

 the fact that they were written in such ambiguous terms, and 

 contained such queer expressions that not even the schoolmaster 

 or the dissenting minister could make head or tail of them. The 

 times being ticklish, and things in a state of transition, the 

 Mayor, whom De Foe denounces as a Jacobite, thought it advis- 

 able to bring the matter before the higher authorities, then 

 fortunately sitting at Dorchester, and thus remove from himself 

 the responsibility of deciding so important a case. He probably 

 also had heard of De Foe's escapades, and regarded him as a 

 suspected person. The Mayor in question was Mr. Edward 

 Tucker, a person of position, who, in 1702, was one of the 

 members for the Borough of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, 



