594 



DEFOE. 



Defoe, almost unparalleled sale; it was also the means of in- 

 "" "Y"""' troducing him to the person of King William, for whose 

 favours the author always expressed his gratitude. In 

 the year 1695, he was appointed accountant to the 

 commissioners for managing the duties on glass, which 

 office, however, fell when the commission was abolish- 

 ed by the suppression of the tax in 1 699. 



The death of William deprived Defoe of a patron 

 and protector. During the furious party contests which 

 ensued on the accession of Queen Anne, he took an 

 active part in the discussion of the various political 

 and religious questions which were then agitated ; and 

 his zeal drew upon him the resentment of the indivi- 

 duals in power. In the month of January 1702-3, a 

 proclamation was issued, offering a reward of fifty 

 pounds for discovering his retreat. In this proclama- 

 tion he is charged with writing " a scandalous and se- 

 ditious pamphlet, entitled, The shortest way toith the 

 Dissenters," an ironical production, which he gave to 

 the world towards the end of the year 1702; and in 

 the Gazette he is described as " a middle-sized spare 

 man, about forty years old, of a brown complexion, and 

 dark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig, a hooked 

 nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his 

 mouth." It was to no purpose that Defoe published 

 *' An Explanation :" he was found guilty of a libel, 

 sentenced to the pillory, and adjudged to be fined and 

 imprisoned. The author, however, appears to have 

 been so little affected by the ignominious part of his 

 punishment, that he consoled himself, when in prison, 

 by writing a hymn to the pillory. In the solitude of a 

 gaol, he occupied himself in correcting for the press a 

 collection of his writings, aud projected " The Re- 

 view," a periodical paper, which wa.s first published on 

 the 19th of February 1703-4. 



While he lay in the prison of Newgate, as he tells us, 

 without hopes of deliverance, a verbal message was 

 brought him from Sir Robert Harley, the Speaker of 

 the House of Commons, desiring to know what he 

 could do for him : to which Defoe answered by writing 

 the story of the blind man in the gospel, concluding — 

 Lord, that I may receive my sight. Harley became 

 secretary of state in the month of April 1 704 ; and by 

 his interposition, the author was at length relieved from 

 Newgate, in the month of August of the same year. 

 Immediately after his deliverance, he retired to St 

 Edmund's Bury, and continued his satirical productions, 

 for which he was liable to occasional persecution. 



In the year 1706, Defoe was called upon to engage 

 in business of more importance. Lord Godolphin re- 

 solved to take the benefit of his talents in promoting 

 the union with Scotland, and, with this view, intro- 

 duced him to the queen, who expressed herself to- 

 wards him in very flattering terms. In three days 

 thereafter he was sent to Scotland ; and he arrived at 

 Edinburgh in the month of October. Here he zea- 

 lously employed his pen in confuting the arguments 

 urged by the opponents of the great measure which 

 was then in agitation ; and he attended the committees 

 of Parliament, for whose use he made several of the cal- 

 culations on the subject of trade and taxation. On the 

 l6th of January following, the act of Union was passed 

 by the Parliament of Scotland ; and Defoe returned to 

 London in February 1706-7. After his first benefac- 

 tor, Harley, was driven from power, in 1707, Lord 

 Godolphin still patronised him, and he continued to 

 contribute his services to the government. 



In the year 1709, Defoe published his History of 

 the Union ; a work which was little noticed on its first 



appearance, but which was republished in 1712, and a 

 third time in 1786. In the same year he also published 

 The History of Addresses; and in 1711, he gave a se- 

 cond volume of Addresses, with serious and comical 

 remarks. Upon the change of ministry, in 1710, he was 

 again thrown back upon his first benefactor, and by his 

 means preserved his interest with the government. 

 He now lived at Newington, in comfortable circum- 

 stances, occasionally publishing such tracts as his pre- 

 judices or necessities dictated. 



On the 1st of February, 1 7 10-11, the corporation of 

 the city of Edinburgh, remembering the services which 

 Defoe had rendered to Scotland, empowered him to 

 publish the Edinburgh Conrant, in the room of Adam 

 Booge ; though it does not appear probable that he con- 

 tinued long to act in the capacity of editor of that pa- 

 per. He was then engaged, at a distance, in business 

 of a more important nature, supporting Lord Oxford's 

 South Sea project, by his Essay on the South Sea Trade, 

 and publishing other tracts relative to the political mea- 

 sures of the day. Although an advocate for peace, he 

 wrote against the treaty of Utrecht, conceiving that its 

 terms were prejudicial to the commercial interests of 

 this country. In the month of May 1713, he discon- 

 tinued the Review, after having published it regularly 

 during nine years ; and commenced the publication of 

 a General History of Trade, in monthly numbers, of 

 which only two appeared. In these factious times he 

 was compelled to seek personal safety in retirement. 

 The place of his retreat is believed to have been Halifax, 

 or the borders of Lancashire. At this period he pubo 

 lished several pamphlets in favour of the Hanover suc- 

 cession ; for which, however, he was arrested, obliged 

 to give eight hundred pounds bail, and prosecuted by 

 information, during Trinity term 1 713. In Easter term 

 of the same year he was committed to Newgate ; but 

 was soon released, upon making a proper submission ; 

 and his first benefactor, who was still in power, pro- 

 cured him the Queen's pardon in the month of Novem- 

 ber. When the Earl of Oxford was finally expelled 

 from administration, it is probable that our author lost 

 his original appointment ; and upon the accession of 

 George I. notwithstanding his services in support of the 

 Protestant succession, he was discountenanced even by 

 those who had derived benefit from his exertions. 



In consequence of the persecutions and disappoint- 

 ments which he had so frequently experienced, Defoe 

 seems now to have become weary of party writing, and 

 began to turn his attention towards other subjects. In 

 the year 1715, he published The Family Instructor, a 

 useful work, which, although little noticed on its first 

 publication, at length met with a general reception. To 

 this work he afterwards added a second volume ; and 

 in 1722, he published his Religious Courtship. In the 

 month of April 1719^ he gave to the world the Life and 

 surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, the most po- 

 pular of all his performances, of which the reception 

 was immediate and universal. It has often been said, 

 that Defoe had surreptitiously appropriated the papers of 

 Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, who had been left 

 ashore on the island of Juan Fernandez, in the South 

 Sea, and had lived upon that desolate place for about 

 four years, until he was at length relieved by Captain 

 Woodes Rogers, in his voyage round the world. From 

 this chai'ge, however, the author of Robinson Crusoe is, 

 we think, successfully vindicated by Mr Chalmers ; and 

 the fact is, that Selkirk's story had been already told 

 in Woodes Rogers's voyage, published in 1712. 



From this period, Defoe continued to employ his pen 



Defor. 



