THE SCOTS' NARRATIVE.

43

is unable to say. Perhaps De Foe meant no more than to try the effect of irony upon a class of men, who went the most absurd lengths in raising the cry of persecution against the Scottish church. "Speedily will be published, An Historical Account of the bitter Sufferings, and the melancholy circumstances of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, under the barbarous Usage, and bloody Persecution, of the Presbyterian Church Government. With an Essay on the Nature and Necessity of a Toleration in the North of Britain." De Foe asserts it to be false in fact, that the episcopal clergy were at all persecuted by the Church of Scotland; and that the charge was only brought forward by highchurchmen, in order to brand the Presbyterians, and excite a popular feeling against them. He has given a particular account of the proceedings against some of these Non-jurant clergy, in order to shew that they were not molested for their ecclesiastical tenets, but solely for their disaffection to the civil constitution.

The episcopal clergy made known their grievances to the world, in a work intitled "A Narrative of the late Treatment of the Episcopal Ministers within the City of Edinburgh, since March 1708, until their Imprisonment July thereafter, Lond. 1708." 4to. The object of the writer, who was a Non-juror, is to prefer the charges of injustice and cruelty against the Presbyterians, in prosecuting them for a noncompliance with the laws; and he loads their establishment with many unwarrantable terms of reproach. A work, containing so much mis-representation, was not likely to pass unnoticed by De Foe. He accordingly replied to it in "The Scots' Narrative Examined; or the Case of the Episcopal Ministers in Scotland stated, and the late Treatment of them in the city of Edinburgh enquired into. With a brief Examination into the Reasonableness of the grievous Complaint of Persecution in Scotland, and a Defence of the Magistrates of Edinburgh, in their Proceedings there. Being

44

HIS REMARKS UPON LESLIE.

some Remarks on a late Pamphlet, intitled 'A Narrative of the late Treatment of the Episcopal Ministers within the City of Edinburgh,' &c. London: printed in the year 1709.” 4to. pp. 41. Postscript x. This work appears to contain a faithful account of the matters referred to in the title. The writer goes over the various points of accusation brought forward by the Jacobite clergy, which he refutes with temper; and he exposes their falsehood by an appeal to facts. Towards the close, he inserts a narrative of the whole proceedings before the magistrates, attested by the town-clerk of Edinburgh; and he concludes with a reproof to the men who kept alive these animosities.

De Foe had ample reason to remonstrate against the artifice of the Jacobite clergy; for Leslie pursued the same course in his "Rehearsals," as his Non-juring brethren in Scotland, bringing forward many unfounded charges, in a style that united coarseness with acrimony. In reply to this writer, De Foe says, "Since the noise is so great against the Presbyterians, it puts a necessity upon me to examine a little what treatment they received from the other party while they were under the cruel hands of an abjured prelacy, when some of the very people now crying out of persecution, were their task-masters. In this search, we shall readily see on which side the humanity lies, what spirits those people were of when uppermost, what the queen would have to expect from them, what the Church of Scotland, and what reason there is to suppress both their civil and ecclesiastical usurpation. And let not my adversary be angry at the word, for I shall be ready to prove against him, that Scots' prelacy, whenever it shall in God's judgment to plague Scotland, be let loose there, will be mere usurpation, and ever was so; and this far easier than he, or all the men of his opinion in Europe, can prove a direct apostolical ordination of ministers from the keys of blessed St. Peter." In transferring the charge of persecution from the Presbyterians

DE FOE PUBLISHES HIS HISTORY OF THE UNION." 45

to their adversaries, our author says, "I foresee I shall be forced to go back to the blessed restoration of prelatic tyranny in Scotland, with the restoration of the king; and if it happens a little plainly to appear how civil and ecclesiastical tyranny grew up together, went hand in hand, and assisted each other to ruin that poor nation, I cannot help it."*

As soon as the Union with Scotland was completed, De Foe announced his intention of presenting the world with a complete history of that transaction. Various engagements prevented him from completing his design until the present year, when the first edition was published in Scotland, with the following title:"The History of the Union of Great Britain. Edinburgh: printed by the Heirs and Successors of Andrew Anderson, Printer to the Queen's most excellent Majesty, Anno Dom. 1709." Folio, pp. 685. Pref. xxxii. Of the contents of the work bearing this brief title, De Foe gives a larger account in his advertisements. (D)

At its first appearance, it does not appear to have attracted

* Review, v. 486.

(D) In the Review for March 29, 1707, appears the following advertisement :-"Preparing for the press, and great part of it finished, A Compleat History of the Union. The work will contain about 250 sheets in folio, to be finished in six months after the Union: Being an account of the fruitless Attempts made in former times for uniting these kingdoms. With a particular Account of all the Transactions of the present Treaty, the many contrivances and vigorous opposition against it, both in England and Scotland, whether within the Parliament or without. Extracted out of the original Records, Registers, Journals, and other Authorities, in both Kingdoms. With an Appendix, containing an Abridgement of all the alterations made in the Laws, Trade, Customs, and Constitution of both Kingdoms by the Union. By the Author of 'The True-Born-Englishman.' Proposals for printing the said book by subscription will be published in a few days; and, in the meantime, subscriptions are taken in at John Matthews, printer hereof. The price is 20s. in quires; 5s. to be paid

down."

46

RECEPTION OF THE WORK.

that notice which might have been expected from so important a publication. It had many difficulties to encounter from the hostility of political parties; and being a work of considerable bulk, the sale could not be expected to be very rapid. Time, however, forced its way into public notice, and obtained for it a permanent reputation. In the preface, he thus states the nature of the performance, and the opposition it had to contend with. "In writing a history of the Union, it could not be reasonably expected that I should go any further than the finishing, ratifying, and exchanging the treaty in the respective parliaments of the two nations to be united; and this I think I have finished in the following sheets. However, since the work has laid longer in the press than I at first expected, and some remarkable things have in consequence of, and very much depending upon, the Union, happened since, I could not satisfy myself without giving a short abridgment of the state of things between the time of finishing the Treaty, and the publication of this work; which, though it be rather a kind of summary recapitulation of things, than a historical narrative, may yet be equally profitable to him that shall inquire into the affairs of the United Kingdom at that time. As to the work itself, I shall say nothing, but leave it to the charity of the world, which in this age indeed runs very low. It has many difficulties in its way, many factions and parties to please, and must be censured by some. I have endeavoured to speak truth and relate fact impartially, in all that is matter of history. As to my own observations, they are but my opinions, and they must abide the fiercest attacks of parties, as the passions and interests of men guide them; and I am perfectly unconcerned at the event."

De Foe prefixed two dedications to his work; one to the queen, another to the Duke of Queensbury, secretary of state for Scotland. In such complimentary effusions he particularly excelled. "Dryden and his contemporaries,"

HIS DEDICATION TO THE QUEEN.

47

observes Mr. Chalmers, "had brought dedications into disgrace by the fulsomeness of their flattery and the servility of their style. The dedications of the present day, have absurdly run into the contrary extreme. But the writers who are permitted to dedicate their works to royal patrons, ought to peruse De Foe's dedicatory epistles to King William `and Queen Anne; wherein they will find dignity of sentiment and delicacy of praise, conveyed in language, at once elegant and instructive. His dedications to the History of the Union of England and Scotland, would alone justify this remark."* In that to the Queen, he has the following allusion to his concern in the Union: "The humble author of these sheets, having amidst a throng of disasters and sorrows been honoured by your Majesty in being rendered serviceable to this great transaction, and having passed through all the hazards, tumults and disorders of that critical time, in his humble endeavours to forward the glorious design of your Majesty, thinks himself doubly rewarded in having the honour to lay this account at your Majesty's feet."

Introductory to his main design, De Foe gives a brief account of the state of affairs in both kingdoms, previously to the treaty; which leads to some interesting discussions upon a variety of transactions that tended to keep alive the animosities between the two kingdoms. The delicacy with which he discusses these events does credit to his discernment, which is no less conspicuous in his manner of unfolding them. His history of the intrigues that preceded the Union, will always be read with interest; whilst his narrative of the treaty must continue to furnish the basis for every succeeding account of that interesting portion of history. The minuteness in which he indulges is far from wearying; and his observations upon the various events as they are

*History of the Union, xxiv. 4to ed.