314

AND CHARACTER OF THE WORK.

when any of these happen, he's starved and a beggar. It is too apparent to need explication, that English labouring people eat and drink three times as much in value as any sort of foreigners in the world. This it is that keeps them low, causes their children to be left naked and starving, and consigns them to the parish when sickness or disaster befals the parent."

Another national disease is sloth. 66 Nothing is more common than for an Englishman to work till he has got his pocket full of money, and then to be idle, or perhaps drunk till it is all gone; and so little is it thought of, that he'll tell you honestly, he'll drink as long as it lasts, and then go to work for more. I can give an incredible number of examples in my own knowledge. I once paid six or seven men together on a Saturday night, the least ten shillings, and some thirty shillings, for work, and have seen them go with it directly to the ale-house, lie there till Monday, spend every penny, and run in debt to boot, without giving a farthing to their families, though all of them had wives and children. From hence comes poverty, parish charges, and beggary. If one of these wretches falls sick, he goes to the parish, and his wife and children turn beggars." De Foe tells the Commons, that by applying proper remedies to these evils, they will confer a greater benefit to the nation, than by passing laws for transposing our manufactures, the end of which will be the ruin of trade, and a consequent addition to the number of our poor.

This able and well-timed treatise upon an important subject, is distinguished alike by comprehensive knowledge, acuteness of penetration, and soundness of judgment; and it may still be perused with advantage by those who are disposed to give it their attention. Since the time of De Foe, some salutary laws have been enacted to repress vagrancy, and by the activity of the police, the nuisance has been in a great degree abated; but the number of parochial poor has

AND CHARACTER OF THE WORK.

315

increased in a fearful degree, and the magnitude has so far reconciled the country to its endurance, that no hope seems to be entertained of any effectual cure. Many plans have been devised and promulgated by politicians and philanthropists, and rejected upon the score of their impracticability; more, perhaps, from the prejudices they had to encounter, than from any valid objections to the schemes themselves. Good sense is a sad intruder upon old customs and institutions, which men cease to worship when they can no longer perceive their utility. In the course of the work, we shall have occasion again to recur to the subject.

CHAPTER XV.

Illness of De Foe.- He publishes "The Double Welcome to the Duke of Marlborough."-Renews his Attack upon Sir Humphrey Mackworth's Bill.-His Scheme for the Employment of the Poor.—Exemplified by Sir Owen Buckingham.-And by Himself.-Account of the Colony of Carolina.-Its Fundamental Constitutions.-Invaded by Lord Granville.— Intolerant Measures of his Government.—Dissenters and others Persecuted. The Colonists depute an Agent to represent their Grievances.— Curious Interview with the Palatine.-The Affair brought before the House of Lords.- Decision in favour of the Colonists.-The Queen addressed to revoke the Charter.-The obnoxious Bills repealed.—And Peace restored to the Colony.-De Foe publishes a Pamphlet upon the Subject.-Account of his Work.-And of another by Mr. Archdale.-Hostilities between the Lords and Commons.-Parliament dissolved.-Remarks upon its Proceedings.-Rage of the Tories.-De Foe's Account of their Clamours. He publishes “Advice to all Parties.”—Abstract of his Work.— History of Faction."-Account of the Writer.-And his Design in the Work.-Character of the Convocation.-Revival of Clerical Claims.— Ascendancy of the Clergy in this Reign.

1705.

AT the opening of the year 1705, De Foe was in an ill state of health. For some time previously he appears to have been laid aside from a regular application to his studies; but occasional intervals of ease enabled him to continue his Review, which met with but slight interruption in its ordinary course of publication. The nature of his illness is not mentioned, but it was of some months' continuance, and remained with him during the whole of January. Whether his constitution had received a shock by his long confinement,

ILLNESS OF DE FOE.

317

can be only a matter of conjecture; but such a circumstance is not at all improbable. (z)

Upon the Duke of Marlborough's return to England, towards the close of the former year, he was welcomed with that favour and distinction which his splendid services so greatly merited. Besides the honors conferred upon him by the state, garlands of praise were prepared for him by the poets and the rhymsters of the age. De Foe published, upon this occasion, "The Double Welcome to the Duke of Marlborough. By the Author of the 'True-Born Englishman.' London, printed for Ben. Bragge, in Ave-Mary Lane, Ludgate Street, 1705." 4to. Advertised in the Review for January 9. Whilst he eulogises the Duke for his victories abroad, and makes him second in fame to none but his beloved William, he hails his return as the harbinger of that internal peace to which the nation had been so long a stranger. In the language of keen satire, he points to those hot-spurs of the church, who had embroiled the land:

"These are the strong banditti of the gown,

Who preach for God's sake, plunder for their own."

In the early part of the year, De Foe renewed his attack upon Sir Humphrey Mackworth, whose bill for the regulation of the poor had passed through the Commons with great applause; but, when carried to the Lords, they proceeded

(z) De Foe's illness is thus noticed in his Review, for January 6, 1705. "Several gentlemen having impatiently expected the Supplement to the Review, due for November last, the Society are obliged to desire the gentlemen's excuse, the author of this having for some time been very ill, and not able to prepare it; but it being now finished, and in the press, it may be expected the next week without fail." In the Review, for January 23, he says, "The author of this paper having been very sick, and out of town when the two last Reviews and the Supplement were finished, several errors of the press passed uncorrected, which the printer begs the reader's pardon for, and desires may be observed."

318

ATTACKS SIR H. MACKWORTH'S BILL.

with more circumspection, and rejected it as incompatible with the interests of the nation. In addition to his treatise, before-mentioned, he discussed the subject in several of his Reviews, in which he takes the following estimate of his opponent's character, and of the difficulties he had to contend with.

"I am now embarked against an act of parliament; a Bill contrived by a gentleman famed for knowledge of the interest and affairs of his country; judged so sufficient as to be entrusted with the representation of a whole county; a man of sense; all men allow, a man of letters; and, if you'll credit his own book, a man of piety and religion. I am embarked, not against a ludicrous excursion of his fancy, not a flash of his pen, nor a hasty thought, excusable from want of leisure; but a thing studied and laboured, the work of a million of thoughts deep as the leaden mines of his understanding, and refined with them at a vast expence for the public good.A thing on which, as on a solid foundation, he had built a fabrick of reputation, and had wrote on the outside, in capitals, COME SEE MY CHARITY FOR THE POOR: a thing which no man could doubt would have purchased him millions of blessings, and daily prayers for his posterity, as the saviour of the poor, the feeder of the hungry, and the clother of the naked; and a thing formed into so noble an appearance, that he need have prepared himself no epitaph, but was secured of the greatest encomium an Englishman could desire after his decease, when it should be written on his grave-Here lies Sir H. M. the charitable contriver of that famous act for the employment of the poor. Nor am I engaged only with this gentleman; but I am to oppose the legislative wisdom of the nation."

De

After this banter upon the author of the measure, Foe has the following apostrophe to himself. "Unhappy

* See Principles of a Member of the Black List.