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THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

RIVERSIDE

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2008 witii funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/englishgarner08arbe

LATER STUART TRACTS

^N ENGLISH G^RNE% ■-'■'-'

LATER STUART TRACTS

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY GEORGE A. AITKEN

?

WESTMINSTER ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO., LTD.

1903

A13

Edinburgh : Printed by T. and A. Constable.

NOTE

It would be incompatible with the plan of this new edition of my friend Professor Arber's valuable English Garner to interfere in any way with his labours, beyond classifying the pieces contained in the collection in such a manner as to illustrate more fully the various topics on which they throw so much light. I have therefore contented myself with contributing to this volume an explanatory Introduction, leaving the text and the brief notes of the original edition as I found them. The only exception is the addition of the interesting Preface to the Eighth Volume of Defoe's ' Review,' which completes the series, and has never before been re- printed.

G. A. A.

CONTENTS

Introduction, ....*•

Sir William Petty- Political Arithmetic (1690),

Daniel Defoe —

An Appeal to Honour and Justice (1715))

The True-Born Englishman (1701), .

The History of the Kentish Petition (1701),

Legion's Memorial {1701),

The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702),

A Hymn to the Pillory (1703),

The Review (Prefaces and Extracts) (1704-12},

Papers from the Review (1704),

The Revolution of 1688 (17 10),

The Education of Women (1697),

John Arbuthnot —

Law is a Bottomless Pit (1712), ....

John Bull in his Senses (1712), . . . .

John Bull still in his Senses (1712), . . . .

An Appendix to John Bull still in his Senses (1712), Lewis Baboon turned honest, and John Bull politician (17 12),

PAGB

vii

67 109

179

187

205

22 I 267 275 281

28s

359 373

INTRODUCTION

Under the later Stuarts the newspaper press was in its infancy, and men who wished to influence public opinion on a question of the day usually published a pamphlet, which was read and discussed in coffee-houses, and was frequently answered by one or more pieces of the same nature. During the Civil War there were, indeed, various ' Mercuries,' which during their usually brief existence gave their readers items of news, together with animadversions upon the opposite party, but most of the controversy was carried on by means of isolated pamphlets.

After the Restoration the newspaper gradually grew in importance, but pamphlets remained the favourite medium for political controversy for more than half a century. Sir Roger L'Estrange, a prolific pamphleteer, started, in 1663, two weekly papers, the News and the Intelligencer, ' pub- lished for the satisfaction and information of the people.' These papers, written in defence of the Government, gave place in 1665 to the Oxford Gazette, which became the Londoti Gazette in the following year, on the return of the Court to town after the plague. The Gazette, however, contained little but paragraphs of news, official notices, and the like, and when men's minds were agitated by the Popish Plot in 1679-80, a host of pamphlets appeared on either side. At the same time L'Estrange brought out controversial periodicals, Hcraclitus Ridens, ' a discourse between jest and

viii Later Stuart Tracts

earnest, in opposition to all libellers against the Government,* and the Observator, which lasted for six years.

Party politics, questions of church government, economic problems, literary quarrels — everything in which men were interested, formed the subject of pamphlets. Many of these pieces were, of course, by forgotten scribblers, for the cost of production was slight ; but they were also the means by which men like Marvell and Baxter made their views known to their contemporaries. In fact, the pamphlet fulfilled the purpose now served by a leading article in the Spectator or other influential paper, or by a letter from a public man in the Times. Sometimes the pamphlet was in verse, like Dryden's Medal or The Hind and the Panther, or (on the other side) Shadwell's Medal of John Bayes.

In 1695, the year after the final disappearance of the system of press licensing, rival newspapers, the Flying Post and the Post Boy, appearing on three days in the week, were started by George Ridpath, a Presbyterian Whig, and by Abel Roper, a Tory bookseller, who was sometimes assisted, in later years, by paragraphs from Swift. It was not until 1702, after Queen Anne's accession, that the first daily paper, the Daily Courant, appeared. The editor said he should relate only matters of fact, avoiding comment or conjecture, and the paper in no way took the place of the pamphlet. Daniel Defoe had already begun to produce that long series of tracts on questions of the day which was continued for thirty years ; but he was essentially a journalist, and in 1704 he started the Review, of which some specimens are given in this volume. Defoe's paper is the forerunner of all the political reviews of to-day. Other papers, like Tutchin's Obsen>ator and Lesley's Rehearsal, which were constantly attacking each other, are now of interest only to the historian.

Introduction ix

One of the attractions of the periodical essay, of which the fashion was set by Steele in the Tatler, was the avoid- ance of party controversy ; but in later papers, such as the Guardian, Steele found, as he says, that ' parties were too violent to make it possible to pass them by without observation.' Even Addison was drawn into writing a Whig Examiner, besides one or two political pamphlets. Swift's work under Queen Anne illustrates very well the varied uses of the pamphlet. On behalf of the government he wrote the Conduct of the Allies and the Remarks on the Barrier Treaty, which were followed by many ephemeral pieces by himself or by * understrappers' writing under his supervision. In the controversy with Steele he published The Importance of the Guardian considered, in reply to The Importance of Dunkirk considered, and The Public Spirit of the Whigs, in reply to The Crisis. To church controversies he contributed his Project for the advajicement of Religion, and Sentiments of a CJiurch of Etigland mari. A serious literary question was discussed in the Proposal for converting, improv- ing, and ascertaining the English Tongue, while the Predic- tions for the year 1708 and other pieces formed part of a conspiracy of the wits against the astrologer Partridge. But convenient as was the pamphlet. Swift found it desir- able to use also the more modern weapon, the periodical ; and the Examiner, begun in 1710, contained a series of powerful political papers by him, and was continued by minor writers for four years.

This is not the place to discuss the pamphlets on literary subjects which appeared under the later Stuarts ; but we may recall the fact that among them were Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), Gildon's Comparison between the Two Stages (1704), several pieces by Dennis, Downes's Roscius Anglicanus (1708), Gay's Present State of Wit (lyi i).

X Later Stuart Tracts

and Pope's Essay on Criticism (171 1), all valuable to the literary student of to-day for the facts which they contain, and for the light which they throw on the way in which contemporaries viewed the writers or actors of that time.

The pieces contained in this volume illustrate fairly well the tracts of the later Stuart period. They were originally selected on account of their intrinsic merit rather than as illustrative of the literature of a particular time, and it would of course be easy to suggest many pamphlets which might have been included. But Petty as an economic writer, Defoe as a journalist, and Arbuthnot as a wit, writ- ing on the side of the Government, are sufficiently repre- sentative. Swift is not directly included, but he was no doubt consulted in the writing of the History of John Bull, and his works are readily obtainable.

The first piece here given is one of a series of little books by Sir William Petty, whose publisher sometimes com- plained that the manuscript sent him ' made no sufficient bulk,' to which Petty replied, ' I could wish the bulk of all books were less.' Petty's own books certainly contain much matter in a little space. He was deeply interested in social problems, and his writings give the result of a wide ex- perience of men and of affairs.

As a boy, Sir William Petty was interested in mechanics. He tried the sea, studied at a Jesuit college and at Dutch universities, and at Paris formed a friendship with Hobbes. For a time he followed his father's business as a clothier ; then he wrote on education, invented a manifold letter- writer, and moved to Oxford, where he took the degree of doctor of physic, and lectured on anatomy. In 1652 he was appointed physician-general to the army in Ireland, and was found so useful in reorganising the service that he

Introduction xi

was asked to supervise the survey of the forfeited estates of Irish landowners, and ultimately to carry out the re-settle- ment in that country. After the Restoration Petty was in as much favour with Charles II. as he had been with Henry Cromwell ; and he was knighted at the incorporation of the Royal Society (1662), of which he was one of the earliest members. Evelyn says of him : ' There is not a better Latin poet living, when he gives himself that diversion; nor is his excellence less in council and prudent matters of state. . . . There were not in the whole world his equal for a superintendent of manufacture and improve- ment of trade, or to govern a plantation. If I were a prince, I should make him my second counsellor at least.' And Pepys, after mentioning various distinguished men, says, ' But above all I do value Sir William Petty.'

The Political Arithmetick appeared in 1690, two years after Petty's death, but there had been a spurious edition in 1683. The book seems to have been begun about 1671 and finished about 1677. As early as 1662 Petty published a Treatise of Taxes and Contributions ^ and assisted Captain John Graunt in the preparation of Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality. After various tracts on money. Petty published, in 1682, an Essay in Political Arithmetick, concerning the people, housing, hospitals, etc., of Loud 071 and Paris, and A71 Essay concerning the multiplication of Mankind, together with an Essay on the growth of London. These were followed by Another Essay in Political A rithmetick concerning the growth of the City of London, and in 1687 by Five Essays in Political Arithmetick, and Observations upon the Cities of London and Rome. ^

^ A collected edition of Petty's Economic Writings, by Prof. Hull, was published in two volumes in 1899 ; several of the pieces mentioned above are

xii Later Stuart Tracts

There was no census in this country before 1801, and Petty had to base his calculations on the Bills of Mortality, the statistics of the Chimney Tax, and the like. He was conscious of the imperfect nature of the data on which he worked, and he often resorted to guesses, but his guesses were wonderfully acute, and considering the difficulties in his way, his success was very marked. Frank and liberal- minded, Petty occupies a high rank as a writer on politics, and by virtue of his application of statistics to social questions, he was one of the founders of economic science in England. Evelyn seems to have done an injustice to Graunt when he said {Diary, March 22, 1675) that Petty was 'author of the ingenious deductions from the bills of mortality which go under the name of Mr. Graunt ' ; but Graunt, though entitled to most of the credit for that early work on vital statistics, was not an economist like Petty. There are many contra- dictions and reservations in Petty's writings, sometimes due to his not having shaken himself free from prevalent fallacies, and sometimes the result of prudential con- siderations as to what would be palatable ; but in the main he was on the side of free-trade, and opposed to the prevalent belief that the wealth of a country is to be measured by the excess of its exports over the imports.

After Petty's death his widow was created Baroness Shelburne by James II. Their son, who was created Lord Shelburne, dedicated to William III. his father's posthumous w^ork, Political Arithmetick, which had long remained unpub- lished because it ran counter to the French policy which had been in favour under Charles II. In the preface Petty

included in one of the volumes of Cassell's National Library (1888). A detailed Life, by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, appeared in 1895. ^^ article by Mr. W. C. Bevan, in vol. ix. of the American Economic Association's Proceedings, should also be consulted.

Introduction xiii

says that the work was intended to show the baselessness of the prevalent fears respecting the welfare of England. The method adopted was ' not yet very usual.' * Instead of using only comparative and superlative words and intellectual arguments/ Petty expressed himself *in terms of number, weight, or measure,' using only 'arguments of sense,' and considering only such causes as have visible foundations in Nature. He began by showing that a small country, by its situation, trade, and policy, may be equivalent in wealth and strength to a far greater nation, and that conveniences for shipping eminently conduce to wealth and strength. An English husbandman earned but about four shillings a week, whereas a seaman's earnings (including food and lodging) were equal to twelve shillings, so 'a sea- man is in effect three husbandmen.' Wise points in Dutch policy were Liberty of Conscience, the securing of titles to land and houses, and the institution of banks. Petty then proceeded to show that some taxes increase, rather than diminish, the wealth of a kingdom. If money is taken, by means of taxation, from one who spends it in superfluous eating and drinking, and delivered to another who employs it in improving land, or in manufactures, it is clear that the tax is an advantage to the state. The people and territories of the King of England are, naturally, nearly as considerable for wealth and strength as those of France. ' If a man would know what any land is worth, the true and natural question must be, How many men will it feed? How many men are there to be fed ? ' Petty came to the conclusion that the English people ' have, head for head, thrice as much foreign trade as the people of France, and about two parts out of nine of the trade of the whole commercial world, and above two parts in seven of all the shipping.'

xlv Later Stuart Tracts

The impediments to England's greatness were but con- tingent and removable. Many useful reforms could be effected. Might not the three kingdoms be united into one, and equally represented in Parliament ? Might not parishes, etc., be equalised? Might not jurisdictions be determined ? Might not taxes be equally levied, and directly applied to their ultimate use? Might not Dis- senters be indulged ? There were enough lands in the country to enable earnings to be increased by i^2,ooo,ooo a year, and there were employments available for the purpose. There was enough money to drive the trade of the nation, and capital enough in England to drive the trade of the whole commercial world.

Such are some of Petty's conclusions, worked out by the use of the figures which were to hand, or at which he guessed. The whole treatise is interesting because of the ingenuity of the arguments and the enlightened views of the writer. As he says, he showed (i) the use of knowing the true state of the people, trade, etc. ; (ii) that the king's subjects were not in so bad a condition as discontented men would make them; and (iii) the great effect of unity, industry, and obedience on the common safety and on the happiness of the individual.

Petty's influence is very discernible in succeeding writers. Gregory King, Lancaster Herald, wrote his interesting Natural atid Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of Ettgland in 1696 ; extracts from it were published by Charles Davenant, but the work itself was not printed until 1801. Davenant wrote Discourses on the Public Revenues and of the Trade in England (1698) ; An Essay upon the probable methods of making the people gainers in the Balance of Trade (1699), and other treatises

Introduction xv

on finance and public affairs. But before these came Defoe's Essay upon Projects (1697), a work which is full of interesting information, and of enlightened suggestions on banking, bankruptcy, friendly societies, education, and numerous other questions of public import. This book, in which Petty would have delighted, is here represented by an eloquently worded extract on the advantages of the education of women.

For a right understanding of the pamphlets by Defoe given in this volume, some short account is necessary of the events which led to their production. The masterly Appeal to Honour and Justice should be studied by all who are interested in Defoe's course of action under Queen Anne.^

Defoe was about forty years of age in 1700, when Tutchin attacked William III. in a pamphlet called The Foreigners. As a boy, it was intended that Defoe should enter the Nonconformist ministry, and he was placed at the academy of the Rev. Charles Morton, at Stoke Newing- ton, where he learnt several languages, and was well trained in English. But after a time the idea of the ministry was abandoned, and Defoe became a hose-factor in Cornhill. The accession of James II. brought fears of Popish aggression, and when the Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme, Defoe, with some of his old schoolfellows, joined in the rising. He was fortunate enough to escape the fate which awaited many of his comrades at the hands of Judge Jeffreys after the Duke's defeat at Sedgemoor.

' There are lives of Defoe by William Lee, Wright, and others. Defoe's Romances and Narratives, with an introduction by the present writer, were pub- lished in 16 vols, in 1S95. ^ large number of the pamphlets are included in Hazlitt's edition of Defoe's Works (1840-3) in 3 vols.

b

xvi - Later Stuart Tracts

In the succeeding years Defoe followed his business, and made several tours through the country, studying the life and condition of the people. He was made a liveryman of the City, and established a dissenting congregation at Tooting, where he had a house.

Discontent at the acts of James II. grew in intensity, and when William of Orange landed in 1688 Defoe was among those who went to welcome him. At Henley he joined William's army, and in 1689 he rode as a trooper in a volunteer regiment which escorted William and Mary to the Guildhall. Subsequent years were less prosperous ; speculations in foreign trade, which led to visits to Spain and France, involved Defoe in bankruptcy in 1692. A composition was agreed to, but his opponent Tutchin tells us that Defoe carried out his resolve tha*-, though dis- charged, he would pay his creditors in full, ' as far as God should enable him.' He became owner of brick and pan- tile works at Tilbury ; and as a reward for his services in joining 'with some eminent persons at home in proposing ways and means to the Government for raising money to supply the occasions of the war,' he was appointed Accountant to the Commissioners of the Glass Duty. The Essay upon Projects was followed by A Poor Man's P/m (1698), which dealt with the reformation of manners and the suppressing of immorality, questions which were just then engaging much public attention.

The publication by Tutchin, in August 1700, of The Foreigners, an attack on the King and the Dutch nation, led Defoe to write The True-Born Englishman: A Satyr (Jan. 1701), which was an immense success. In pointed doggrel verses he showed how the English were descended from many races : —

Introduction xvii

* From a mixture of all kinds began That heterogeneous thing, an Englishman ; A T?ue-Born Ettglishnian 's a contradiction ! In speech an irony ! in fact, a fiction ! '

The conclusion of the whole was that ' 'Tis personal virtue only makes us great.' * I am one,' says Defoe in the Preface, 'that would be glad to see Englishmen behave themselves better to strangers, and to governors also : that one might not be reproached in foreign countries for belonging to a nation that wants manners.' The publica- tion of the poem led to Defoe's introduction to William III., ' whose goodness to me,' he says, ' I never forgot, neither can forget ; whose memory I never patiently heard abused, nor ever can do so.'

A new Parliament met in February 1701, with Robert Harley as Speaker. The majority was opposed to the King, and came into conflict with the House of Lords. Five Kentish gentlemen, who brought up a petition urging the House of Commons to give His Majesty such supplies as would enable him to provide for the interests of the country and assist his allies, were ordered to be taken into custody by the sergeant-at-arms, and were afterwards, on May the 13th, committed to the Gate-House prison, under the Speaker's warrant. Next day Defoe, accompanied by sixteen gentlemen, went to the House and delivered to the Speaker his Leg-ion's Memorial, in which it was pointed out, in very plain language, that ' Englishmen are no more to be slaves to Parliament than to a king. Our name is Legion, and we are many.' The House seems to have been cowed ; supplies were voted ; Parliament rose, and the prisoners were released. Defoe's account of the whole matter will be found in his History of the Kentish Petition.

xviii Later Stuart Tracts

King William's death in March 1702 was a serious blow to Defoe. The friends of Queen Anne were among the Tories, and she was a strong churchwoman. War was declared against France and Spain in May, and in the new Parliament the Tories had a large majority. In November a Bill for the prevention of Occasional Con- formity was brought in, but it was lost through the dis- agreement of the Lords. This bill disabled from holding their employments all office-holders who had conformed as required by the Act of 1673, but who afterwards went to any meeting for worship not conducted in accordance with the liturgy of the Church of England ; it also made them liable to penalties, and debarred them from holding office until they had conformed for a year. Public feeling ran high ; chapel windows were broken, and some of the more moderate bishops were accused of betraying their Church. Defoe followed up his Enquiry into Occasional Conformity by his famous pamphlet, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, published on the ist of December 1702. Writing ironically in the guise of an extreme churchman, he showed the absurdity of the prevalent intolerance by pushing the argument against Dissenters to extremes. The Church, he said, had been humiliated for fourteen years ; she had too long harboured her enemies under her wing. 'The time of mercy is past! Your day of grace is over!' If James i. had rooted the Puritans from the face of the land they could not since have vexed the Church. The French king had effectually cleared France of Pro- testants: ' If ever you will leave your posterity free from friction and rebellion, this is the time ! ' Fines were use- less ; the proper remedy was a law that whoever was found at a conventicle should be banished, and the preacher be

Introduction xix

hanged. At first, such severity might seem hard, but the contagion would be rooted out.

It is not surprising that the pamphlet deceived many. Dissenters regarded it as an attack, and when it was found to be by a dissenter, they did not agree with the writer's views on Occasional Conformity. On the other hand, violent churchmen were furious when they found that the piece which they had greatly valued was a satire upon them. Defoe made an unavailing appeal to the Earl of Nottingham, the Secretary of State, in which he described himself as ' a zealous, faithful, and thankful servant of the Queen,' and offered to plead guilty if he might receive a sentence 'a little more tolerable to me as a gentleman than prisons, pillories, and such like.' A reward was offered for his apprehension, and the pamphlet was ordered to be burnt by the common hangman. Then Defoe surrendered, 'rather than others should be ruined by his mistake,' and in July 1703, after he had published A Brief Explanation of the Shortest Way, he was tried, fined, and ordered to stand thrice in the pillory, and to find sureties for good behaviour for seven years. Defoe again prayed to be excused from the pillory without result ; but when the time came, it was found to be a triumph instead of a punishment, for the mob received him with enthusiasm. On the first day on which he stood in the pillory (July 19) he published The Shortest Way to Peace and Union, by which he meant common charity and tolerance, and A Hymn to the Pillory^ where it is suggested that many of those opposed to him better deserved such punishment.

But Defoe had to go back to prison, and there he wrote various pamphlets, which need not be mentioned here. In September 1703 Harley wrote to Godolphin, the Lord

XX Later Stuart Tracts

Treasurer, that Defoe was much oppressed with his usage at Newgate, and was willing to serve the Queen. If his fine were satisfied by the Queen's bounty, ' he may do service, and this may perhaps engage him better than any after rewards, and keep him more under the power of an obligation.' Some months later Harley, who had succeeded Defoe's enemy Nottingham, as Secretary of State, wrote to ask Defoe what he could do for him, and made arrange- ments for the relief of his family. In August 1704 Defoe was released from prison, when he published A Hymn to Victory. In his Appeal to Honour and Justice he describes his gratitude to Harley and to the Queen, by whose bounty his fine was paid, and he asks how he could ever act against those to whom he owed so much. The Queen, too, took Defoe into her service, and he was employed, at Harley 's suggestion, ' in several honourable, though secret services.'

In the meantime Defoe had begun, on February 19, 1704, while in prison, the famous periodical known as the Review, a paper which lasted until 171 3, and was the immediate forerunner of the Tatler and the Spectator and all subsequent periodical essays. The paper was at first called A Review of the Affairs of France aud of all Europe, as influenced by that nation ; it treated of politics, news, and trade, but there was also a lighter element, contrived to 'bring people to read with delight' 'After our serious matters we shall, at the end of every paper, present you with a little diversion, as anything occurs to make the world merry ; and whether friend or foe, one party or another, if anything happens so scandalous as to require an open reproof, the world will meet with it there.' These essays on 'the immediate subject then on the tongues of the town' were called Advice from the Scandalous Club, or, later on,

Introduction xxi

Advice from the Scandal Club, and there were monthly Supplementary Journals. When the Tatler appeared Defoe welcomed Steele's lighter touch, and devoted himself more and more to politics.

The Reviezv began as a weekly paper ; after the eighth number it appeared twice a week, and after the eighth number of the second volume thrice weekly. The passing of the Stamp Act in 17 12 brought the paper to an end in its original form ; but it was soon revived, as a single leaf, and was published twice a week until June 11, 1713. Defoe wrote the whole himself, a truly marvellous feat when we remember that he was often travelling about the country, and that while the Review was appearing he wrote pamphlets and books containing, as he calculated, nearly five thousand pages.

The first volume dealt largely with the question of English Trade ; and Defoe, answering criticisms on his carelessness respecting language and polite phraseology, said that while he was on the subject of Trade he felt free from the bonds of cadence and perfections of style ; it was enough to be ' explicit, easy, free, and very plain.' In his second volume, struck by the growth of animosity and party fury, Defoe endeavoured to ' prevail on all people in general to study Peace,' and to beware of Tackers and Tories, In the third volume he dealt at length with the Union with Scotland. 'If I thought myself obliged, in duty to the public interest, to use my utmost endeavour to quiet the minds of enraged parties, I found myself under a stronger necessity to embark in the same design, between too much enraged nations.' Seeing that those carrying on the negotiations were at last approaching the subject in a spirit likely to lead to success, he felt he must do his part

xxli Later Stuart Tracts

without doors, by attempting to remove national prejudices. With this object he wrote pamphlets, and went to Edin- burgh, where he helped the Government by smoothing over difficulties for many months, both before and after the signing of the Treaty of Union,

The seventh volume of the Review was concerned with the controversy that arose out of the prosecution of Dr. Sacheverell in 1710. Defoe's writings against the 'exploded ridiculous doctrine of Non-Resistance' brought upon him many threats, but did not move him to change his attitude. 'You should first answer the argument,' he wrote ; ' that is the best way of murdering the author ! To kill him first is to own you could not answer him. If your doctrine of Non-Resistance will subsist, it will uphold itself; . . . for Truth will prevail,' But ' whether in this work I meet with punishment or praise, safety or hazard, life or death, Te Deum Laudamus' He could not but feel it hard, however, that one who endeavoured to steer the middle course between all parties, and to press either side to pursue the public interest, should be maltreated by any, and still more by both sides, ' But so shall it fare with any man that will not run into the same excess of riot with any people,'

In the interesting preface to the eighth volume of the Review, Defoe again defended himself against attacks from those who might have been expected to be his friends. He consoled himself with the knowledge that he had always written his free and undirected opinions, and with the hope that the sincerity of his conduct would be yet cleared to the world. No ill-treatment could make him an enemy of the Dissenters, and he awaited a better understanding with patience and resignation. In the meantime he expressed

Introduction xxiii

his resentment at the Occasional Conformity Bill, which was a more barbarous measure than the Dissenters realised. 'The people I have served, and love to serve, cut my throat every day, because I will not cut the throat of those that have served and assisted me. . . . And now I live under universal contempt, which contempt I have learned to contemn.' He was called *a fighting fellow'; but truth makes any man bold, and with a bad cause he felt he would have been a coward. ' In defence of truth, I think (pardon me that I dare go no further, for who knows himself?) I say, I think I could dare to die, but a child may beat me if I am in the wrong.' The hostility of the patriots of the cause he served did not move him, because he served 'the cause, and not the men.'

During the negotiations for a peace with France in 17 12 Defoe wrote pamphlets in favour of ' a good peace,' with the result that he was charged with being a hireling. This, he said, 'was abominably false ' ; he had 'suffered deeply for cleaving to principles.' At the close of the year, and early in 171 3, he wrote an opposition to the schemes of the friends of the Pretender, sometimes in very plain-spoken pieces, like A Seasonable Warning and Caution ; sometimes ironically, as in Reasons against the Succession of the House of Hanover ; What if the Pretender should come ? and WJiat if the Queen should die ? As in the case of The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, the irony was misunderstood — really misunderstood by some stupid readers, and wilfully misunderstood by others who wanted an excuse for attacking the writer. It was held that the pamphlets were scandalous, wicked, and treasonable libels, and Defoe was committed for trial. Eventually, however, in December 1713, Harley — now Earl of Oxford — procured for him a pardon of 'all crimes and offences.'

xxiv Later Stuart Tracts

Though Defoe did not approve of the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, he thought it the duty of a loyal subject to make the best of it when it was signed ; but when he wrote to that effect he was charged with being in the French interest, often, as he says, on the supposition that he was the author of pamphlets of which he knew nothing. His whole attitude is summed up towards the close of the Appeal to Honour and Justice : ' I was from my first entering into the knowledge of public matters, and have ever been to this day, a sincere lover of the constitution of my country, zealous for liberty and the Protestant interest, but a constant follower of moderate principles, a vigorous opposer of hot measures of all parties. I never once changed my opinion, my principles, or my party ; and let what will be said of changing sides, this I maintain, that I never once deviated from the Revolution principles, nor from the doctrine of liberty and property on which they were founded.' And again : ' A constant, steady adhering to personal virtue and to public peace, which (I thank God ! I can appeal to Him !) has always been my practice, will, at last, restore me to the opinion of sober and impartial men ; and that is all I desire.'

The Earl of Oxford's fall in July 1714 was shortly followed by the death of the Queen and the accession of George I. Defoe's Appeal to Honour and Justice appeared early in 17 15, and here we must leave him, merely noting that four years afterwards, when in his sixtieth year, he began, with Robinson Crusoe, the wonderful series of romances by which he is most widely known. For five years these books succeeded one another with astonishing rapidity ; and besides the stories, he wrote books and pamphlets on historical and moral subjects, on commerce,

Introduction xxv

on politics, on magic, and on literature. The busy life came to an end in 173 1. He was too independent, and his views were too much in advance of his time, for him to be viewed with anything but doubt by mere party-men. One opponent, John Dunton, said : ' I cannot but own his thoughts are always surprising, new, and singular ; and though he writes for bread, he could never be hired to wrong his conscience, or disgrace the quill, and, which crowns his panegyric, he is a person of true courage.'

Arbuthnot was a fellow-writer with Defoe in favour of a peace with France ; but they had little in common. Defoe's position was naturally one of isolation ; he was outside the literary circle of his day ; and Swift and Pope, though he was writing on their side, mention him, on the rare occasions on which they refer to him, only in terms of opprobrium Apart from other reasons, he would be looked down upon as a Dissenter and as a man of the people, who was not a member of any university. In 1712, when the pamphlets given in this volume were published, Arbuthnot was a fashionable physician of forty-five, an intimate friend of Swift, Pope, and the wits in general, as well as of Oxford and Bolingbroke.^

Arbuthnot's father was one of the clergy who were expelled from their churches and manses at the Revolution in 1689, because he would not conform to the Presbyterian system. John, the eldest son, came to London, where he taught mathematics for a time, and then entered University College, Oxford. In 1696 he took the degree of M.D. at St. Andrews ; in 1704 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and next year became Physician-Extraordinary to

1 The fullest life of Arbuthnot is in T^e Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, Oxford, 1892, by the present writer.

xxvi Later Stuart Tracts

the Queen. In 1706 he was a fellow-worker with Defoe in the endeavour to remove the prejudices against the Union entertained by the Scotch. In his Sermon preached to the people at the Mercai- Cross at Edinburgh, on the subject of the Union, he pointed out to his fellow-countrymen the intimate relations between Pride, Poverty, and Idleness, 'a worse Union a great deal than that which we are to discourse of at present ' ; the text was, * Better is he that laboureth, and aboundeth in all things, than he that boasteth himself, and wanteth bread.' In due course Arbuthnot became Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen, and enjoyed great influence at court ; Swift more than once refers to him as 'the Queen's physician and favourite.' Early in 17 12 active negotiations were in progress with a view to the settlement of a peace with France, and Arbuthnot rendered material aid by a series of pamphlets which were afterwards collected under the title of The History of John Bull. They are often printed with Swift's works, but Pope said, * Dr. Arbuthnot was the sole writer of John Bull.' On the loth of March 17 12 Swift wrote to Stella, 'You must buy a small twopenny pamphlet, called Law is a Bottomless Pit. It is very prettily written, and there will be a second part.' The piece was advertised in the Examiner for March 6, with the title Law is a Bottoju- less Pit, exemplified in the case of the Lord Strutt, John Bull, Nicholas Frog, and Lewis Baboon, who spent all they had in a Law Suit. Lord Strutt was the late King of Spain ; John Bull, the English ; Nicholas Frog, the Dutch ; Lewis Baboon, the French King ; Philip Baboon, the Duke of Anjou ; Esquire South, the King of Spain ; Humphrey Hocus, the Duke of Marlborough ; and Sir Roger Bold, the Earl of Oxford. The lawsuit was, of course, the war ;

Introduction xxvii

John Bull's first wife stood for the late Ministry, and his second wife for the present Tory Ministry; his mother was the Church ; his sister Peg, the Scottish nation. Arbuthnot tells very amusingly of the cause of the lawsuit; of its success, which made John Bull think of leaving off his trade to become lawyer ; of his discovery that Hocus had an intrigue with his wife ; of the annoying attorney's bill ; and of the steps taken by the lawyers to persuade John Bull not to accept any composition, and so end the law- suit. Arbuthnot first applied the name of John Bull to the English people. John was generally ruddy and plump ; fond of his bottle, and generous with his money; an honest, plain-dealing man, but choleric and of inconstant temper. He was not afraid of the French, but often quarrelled with his best friends. In spite of good business capacity, he was careless about accounts, and was often cheated by partners and servants.

The second part of 'John Bull ' was c^W^d John Bull in his Senses. On the 17th of March Swift wrote that it was 'just now printed, and better, I think, than the first' It deals with the doctrine of non-resistance, the Barrier Treaty, Lord Nottingham's opposition to the Peace, and the arguments used by Marlborough, Godolphin, and Cowper, the guardians to John's three daughters by his first wife (War, Discord, and Usury), and by the King of Spain. John Bull still in his Senses : Being the third part of Law is a Bottomless Pit, was published in the middle of April. On the title-page was the misleading statement that this, as well as the two former parts, was by the author of the New Atalantis — Mrs. Manley, who was also a minor writer of Tory pamphlets. The chapters include an account of John Bull's mother (the Church of England), of his sister

xxviii Later Stuart Tracts

Peg (the Scottish Church and nation), and her lover Jack (Presbyterianism) ; of the early quarrels of John and Peg; of their reconciliation (at the Union), and their subsequent disagreements. The remainder of the pamphlet relates to the Partition Treaty; to Oxford's services to his country; to Church troubles, and to the difficulties in bringing about a peace.

An Appendix to John Bull still in his Senses appeared in May. On the loth Swift wrote to Stella, ' The appendix to the third part of "John Bull" was published yesterday; it is equal to the rest. I hope you read "John Bull." It was a Scotch gentleman, a friend of mine, that wrote it; but they put it upon me.' This pamphlet deals with the history of the differences between Church and Dissent, and with the Bill against Occasional Conformity. The last of the series was published at the end of July : Lewis Baboon turned honest, and John Bull politician : Being the