CHAPTER VII.

De Foe still in Scotland.-Appointed Publisher of the Edinburgh Courant. -He is attacked by Dr. King.-Story of the Coventry Horse.-De Foe's Explanation.-Seventh Volume of the "Review."-Pursues a middle course in Politics.-Prospect of its drawing towards a close.-The Work yields no Profit.-Violence of Parties.-De Foe's Contempt for his Opponents-Dyer, the News-writer.-De Foe's Letter inviting him to Peace.-His Contest with the "Examiner."-His ill usage by the High Party.-He satirizes the Examiner.-Scandalous Conduct of a Justice. And of the Master of a Trading Vessel.-Projected Tax upon Papers.-De Foe's Sentiments upon it.-Impolitic as concerns the Government.~And ruinous to Trade.—Discords in the Ministry.-Pretensions of its Leaders.-Harley's temporizing Conduct. He gives offence to the Tories-October Club.-De Foe's Account of it.-Publications upon the Subject.-Guiscard's Attempt to Assassinate Hurley.-Honors paid to the Minister.-- His Scheme for Paying off the National Debt.-De Foe's Sentiments upon a Trade to the South Seas. He Publishes a Pamphlet upon the Subject.—And “ Eleven Opinions about Mr. Harley."- His Defence from the Charge of Versatility. -Motives that governed his Political Conduct.-Accusations of Oldmixon and others.-His own Defence of Himself.

1711.

Ar the opening of the year 1711, De Foe was still in Scotland, but how employed we no where learn. During his absence, he continued his Reviews, which were transmitted to London with great regularity, and afforded matter for the One speculation of party-writers, as their humour dictated. incident relating to him at this time has been preserved, and is a testimony of the favor in which he was still held by the Scots. Upon the first of February, the corporation of Edinburgh, grateful for his past services, empowered him to

DE FOE ATTACKED BY DR. KING.

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publish the Edinburgh Courant, in the room of Adam Booge, deceased, and prohibited any other person to print news under the name of that paper. This was the second newspaper published in Scotland, being established by James Watson, in February, 1705. The first effort of the kind was the Edinburgh Gazette, projected by the same writer, and published by authority, in February, 1699. After he had issued forty-five numbers of the Courant, he relinquished it to the heirs and successors of Andrew Anderson, printer to the queen, the city, and the college. Watson is still remembered as the author of "A History of the Art of Printing." Before he ventured upon the experiment of a National Gazette, the Scots were content to receive their news from England, by re-printing some of the London papers; and even some years afterwards, De Foe's Review was circulated in that way. The Scots Courant was published twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, in a folio half-sheet, with double columns. It is apprehended that De Foe did not continue long to edify the good people. of Edinburgh with his weekly lucubrations, as affairs of a more pressing nature recalled him to London about the month of March.*

In the month of January, Dr. King, a high-church writer already mentioned, sported his wit upon a respectable Whig clergyman, in a pamphlet pretended to be "Mr. Bisset's Recantation: In a Letter to the Rev. Dr. Henry Sacheverell. Occasioned by his reading the Doctor's Vindication, lately published by Henry Clements, at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church Yard. Lond. 1711.". In this attempt to palm a forgery upon the public, Bisset is made to unsay all the scandals he had charged upon the hero of the church, in his "Modern Fanatic;" but the joke did not succeed,

180

STORY OF THE COVENTRY HORSE.

for he renewed them with additional force in a second part of the same work, in which he exposed the deception. King, in his pamphlet, had associated De Foe with Bisset, and pretended that he was preparing a work to assist in the same design of exposing the church, and implicating some of her greatest men in a correspondence with the Pretender. But the whole was a mere hoax of the writer, to white-wash the character of a criminal, and hold up the Whigs to popular odium.

During his absence in Scotland, De Foe was assailed in a penny pamphlet, called "A Hue and Cry after Daniel De Foe, and his Coventry Beast: with a Letter from that worthy Horse-Courser, to a friend of Mr. Mayo in Coventry, that lent it him. Lond. 1711." 4to. This libel recites, that De Foe's travelling occasions leading him about three years since into Warwickshire, "to encourage the faction there, as well as elsewhere, he could not but pay his respects to the brethren who at that time were very numerous in Coventry;" that he there hired a horse of one Mayo, which he took with him into Scotland; and that neither the animal nor the hire of him had been heard of since. A letter is added, said to be written by De Foe, in reply to one that had been left for him at his printer's; but its contents prove it a manifest forgery. In reply to this libel, De Foe published the true state of the case in one of his Reviews, from which it appears, that "about three years since, the author going to Scotland, a gentleman who went with him, his horse falling lame, was obliged to leave him at Coventry, and hire another. So that in the first place, the story is a falsity as to the person; for that the author of the Review, hired no horse at all, neither was the other person any servant or otherwise belonging to him, but a travelling companion." It appears, that the hire of the horse was paid down, and a further sum agreed upon for the purchase, in case it was not returned. De Foe's friend

SEVENTH VOLUME OF "THE REVIEW.'

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settling in Scotland, kept the horse, and remitted the money to Coventry, but the horse-dealer had hitherto declined receiving it, there being a dispute between them as to the price. Such is the substance of a story that was made the ground of a senseless slander against our author, who considered it little deserving of notice, but thought fit to state. it correctly" for the sake of some people who are willing to lay hold of any shift to reproach the man they hate." *

The Seventh volume of the Review, which commenced with the 28th of March, in the former year, was closed upon the 22nd of March, 1711, when it had reached to 155 numbers. The following title was then prefixed: "A REVIEW of the State of the British Nation. vol. vii. London: printed in the year 1711." 4to. pp. 620. Our author observes in his preface, "Contrary to many people's hopes and expectations, this work is happily arrived at the end of the seventh volume. When posterity shall revise the sheets, and see what turn the times have taken; what parties, what fury, what passions have reigned; how the author has treated them, and they him, it may add something to their wonder, how either the writing has been supported, or the author left alive to shew his face in the world. I have sometimes thought it hard, that while I endeavour to steer the middle course between all parties, I should be maltreated by all; but so shall it fare with any man who shall not run to the same excess of riot as other people. For my part, I have always thought it a true maxim in politics, that the government should be of no party. When ministers cease to be independent, they must expect to be mob-ridden, till they become slaves to the party they espouse, and fall under the party they oppose: and this is what has ruined all the ministries that have been these last twenty years."

* Review, viii. 83, 84.

182

LIBERTY OF THE PRESS THREATENED.

In the following passage, the author glances at a measure which he expected to put an end to his periodical labours. "The Review has subsisted under four administrations. I am now to suppose it drawing towards a period, and the party that has so long regretted that old branch of English liberty-freedom of speech, please themselves with stopping the mouths of the Whigs, by laying a tax upon public papers. If such a design goes on, it will soon appear whether it be to raise money, or suppress the papers. For my part, I am perfectly easy; for, whatever ends I may be supposed to write for, none will suggest that I do it for private gain; and shall, therefore, as readily be silent as any man that writes. (F) But I prophecy this to the party, that it will not answer their end; for the stopping the press will be opening the mouth, and the diminution of printing will be the increase of writing, in which the liberty is tenfold, because no author can be found out, or punished if he is. This made King Charles II. say, and he understood those things very well, that the licencer of the press did more harm than good; and that if every one was left to print what he would, there would be less treason spread about, and fewer pasquinades. And I take upon me to say, that let

(F) Strange as it may appear, our author now derived no profit whatever from his Review; so that the time and labour he bestowed upon it, must be set down solely to his zeal for the public welfare. Upon this subject he writes thus: "I have always thought it an unjust scandal, and very injurious to the true design of this paper, to say, I write for bread; not but that the argument will lie with the same strength against all the occupations in the world. Thus, the lawyer pleads, the soldier fights, the musician fiddles, the players act, and no reflection upon the tribe-the clergy preach for bread. And where is the man that does anything but for bread; that is, gain? The only difference lies here: that this author who they say, writes for bread, goes without it; and though I have the misfortune to amass infinite enemies, and not at all to oblige even the men I serve, yet I defy the whole world to prove, I have directly or indirectly gained or received one single shilling, or the value of it, by the sale of this paper, for now almost four years; and honest Mr. Morphew is able to detect me, if I speak false."-Review, vii. 65.