666 D E F 
intereft, when his circumftances were amended. His ac¬ 
tive imagination inclined him to be much of a projector. 
He offered various fchemes to the public; and, in 1697, 
wrote an odhivo volume, intitled, An Effay upon Pro¬ 
jects. One of the firft of His performances, which ex¬ 
cited confiderable attention, was a fatire in verfe, pub- 
liflted in 1701, intitled, The True-born Englifhman. Its 
purpofe was to furnifh a reply to thofe who were con¬ 
tinually abufing king William and his friends,'as foreign¬ 
ers. The fatire was fevere ; but, though it gave of¬ 
fence, it was much read. Soon after he publifhed an¬ 
other fatire, under the title of Reformation of Manners, 
which, among other topics, Contains a flrong inveftive 
againft: the (lavc-trade. Defoe had no pretenftons to the 
character of a poet; yet he had fome nervous and well- 
verfified lines. He is afferted to have been the writer of 
a Memorial to the Houfe of Commons, commonly called' 
the Legion Letter, which is a very fpirited cenfure of 
the conduit of that affembly in reference to the Kentifh 
petition. This letter fupports the right of the people 
to (liew their fenfe of public affairs by petition, addrefs, 
e-r remonftrance, and afferts the radical fuperiority of the 
nation at large to its reprefentatives. In 1702, when the 
high-church party was inclined to proceed to rigorous 
meafures againft thefecretaries, Defoe wrote, The Shorted 
Way with the Diffenters ; or, Propofals for the Eftablifh- 
ment of the Church : an ironical recommendation of per- 
fecution, but written in fo ferious a drain, that many 
perfons at fil'd midook its real intention. It became, 
however, a fubject of complaint in the houfe of com¬ 
mons, was voted a feditious libel, and burnt by the com¬ 
mon hangman ; and a profecution was ordered againd 
Defoe, Who was convicted, and fentenced to fine, impri- 
fonment, and the pillory. He underwent the latter in¬ 
famous punidiment with great fortitude ; and it feems 
to have been generally tliought that; he was treated with 
unreafonable feverity. He was fo far from being afhamed 
of his fate,” that he wrote A Hymn to the Pillory ; and 
Pope, who has thought fit to introduce him in his Dun- 
ciad, (probably for no other reafon than party difference,) 
charact'erifes him in the following line : 
Earlefs on high dood unabafli’d Defoe. 
In February, 1703-4, while dill confined in Newgate, he 
commenced a publication intitled The Review. This 
was a periodical paper, difeufiing quedions on a variety 
of milcellaneous topics ; and is, with probability, fup- 
pofed to have given the hint of the Tatler, and the other 
celebrated papers of Steele and Addifon. Defoe was li¬ 
berated from Newgate by the interpofition of Harley, 
afterwards earl of Oxford; and the queen herfelf com- 
patlionated his cafe, and fent money to his wife and fa-' 
mily. Pie continued, after he had regained his freedom, 
to write upon political fubje&s ; and, in 1706, he pub- 
lidted Jure Divino, a fatire in twelve books. Its purpofe 
was to expofe the doftrine of the divine right of kings, 
■and to decry tyrannical government. He feems at this 
time to have enjoyed the favour of queen Anne ; and, 
when tire union with Scotland was projected, he was fent 
into that country for the purpofe of rendering the mea- 
fure popular. His knowledge of commerce and revenue 
c;mfed,him to be frequently confulted by the committees 
of parliament there ; and he endeavoured to conciliate 
the good-will of the nation, by a poem intitled Caledo¬ 
nia, highly complimentary to its inhabitants. After the 
union was completed, he wrote the hiftory of it, in a fo¬ 
lio volume, 1709; and in the fame year he publifhed 
The Hiftory of Addrelfes. At this time he was living in 
tranquillity and comfort at Stoke-Nevvington, ftill con¬ 
tinuing to publifh his Reviews. When the fucceflion of 
the houfe of Planover became an interefting topic, he en¬ 
deavoured to favour it by feveral publications; but fome 
of thefe, intended to expofe the jacobite- party, were writ¬ 
ten in an ironical ftyle, in which he was fo unfortunate, 
that they were ignorantly taken for libels in favour of 
D E F 
the pretender, and he was profecuted and imprifoned on 
that account. He had unhappily, by foir.e equivocal 
writings, rendered himfelf fufpe&ed by both parties ; fo 
that he met with no reward for his exertions in the caufe 
of liberty, even when the whigs, returned to power on 
the accefiion of George I. Wearied, apparently, with 
politics, lie began to compofe works of a different kind. 
In 1715, lie publifhed The Family Inftructor, a work in¬ 
culcating moral and domeftic duties in a lively manner. 
It has been fuggefted that Richardfon, in his celebrated 
novels, lias copied his dramatic and elevated manner from 
this performance. 
The moft celebrated of all Defoe’s works, the Life 
and Adventures of Robinfon Crufoe, appeared in 1719. 
It is unneceffary to charadterife a book which every body 
knows. Defoe has been charged in,this work, with pi¬ 
rating the information of one Alexander Selkirk, who 
paffed fome years alone on the ifland of Juan Fernandez, 
and a fketch of whofe ftory had before appeared in the 
voyagd of Woodes Rogers. But Mr. Chalmers, in his 
Life of Daniel Defoe, pubiifhed in 1790, has fuccefsfully 
vindicated this author, by proving the charge to be un¬ 
founded. Perhaps no work has been more popular than 
Robinfon Crufoe. Its editions have been numberlefs ; 
it l;as been tranflated into almoft all modern languages ; 
and it continues to be a ftandara book in the juvenile li¬ 
brary. Defoe’s fuccefs in this performance induced him 
to write a number of ot’uer lives and adventures, which 
were popular in their times, though at prefent nearly 
forgotten. He alfo compofed Religious Courtfhip, a 
work of a fimilar kind with his Family Inftruftor. He 
employed his turn for fidli.on, perhaps lefs laudably, in 
writing a Journal of the Plague Year, in the perfon of a 
citizen fuppofed to have been a witnefs of all the events 
of that melancholy vifitation. It is indeed an extremely 
interefting piece, and the very natural manner in which 
it is written is faid to have made it pafs for real with 
Dr. Mead ; but fiilion and' popular report are rather 
dangerous on a topic where truth is fo important to 
mankind. • One of his lateft publications was, A Tour 
through the Ifland cf Great Britain, the deferiptions in 
which are probably as exact as thofe in feveral works of 
the kind by writers lefs guided by imagination. Defoe 
finiflied his unfettled and laborious life at London, in 
April, 1731. 
DEFCEDA'TION, f. [from defxdus, Lat. ] The a£t 
of making filthy ; pollution. This is no Englifh word ; 
at leaft, to make it Englifh, it fiiould be written defeda- 
tion. —What native unextinguifhable beauty mult be irn- 
preffed and inftinCted through the whole, which the de- 
fxdation of fo many parts by a bad printer, and a worfe 
editor, could not hinder from fhining forth ! Bentley. 
DEFOLIA'TION, f [from de and folium, Lat.] In 
botany, the falling off and fhedding the leaves of a plant. 
To DEFO'RCE, v. a. [a law term ; from deforcer, old 
Fr.] To keep out of the poffeffion of land by deforcement. 
—Deforcement may be grounded on the difability of the 
party deforced. Blackfcne. 
DEFORCEMENT, f. in law, a fpecies of injury by 
oufter or privation of the freehold, where the entry of 
the prefent tenant or poffelfor was originally lawful, but 
his detainer is fince become unlawful. 3 Comm. 172. 
For that at firft the withholding was with force and vio¬ 
lence, it was called a deforcement of the lands or tene¬ 
ments * but now it is generally extended to all kind of 
wrongful withholding of lands or tenements from the 
right pwner. There is a writ called a quod ei dforciat, 
which lieth where tenant in tail, or tenant for life, lofeth 
by default, by Weftm. 2. c. 4. he fhall have a quod ei de- 
forciat againft the recoverer; and yet he cometh in by 
courfe of law. 1 Inf. 331. b. 
Deforcement in its moft extenfive fenfe, is nomengene- 
raliffimum, fignifying the holding of any lands or tenement 
to which another perfon hath a right. Co..Lilt. 277. So 
that this includes as well an abatement, an intrufion, a 
difieifin. 
