At the beginning of the year 1700, Mr. De Foe published a satire in verse, which excited very considerable attention, called the “Trueborn Englishman.”  Its purpose was to furnish a reply to those who were continually abusing King William and some of his friends as foreigners, by showing that the present race of Englishmen was a mixed and heterogeneous brood, scarcely any of which could lay claim to native purity of blood.  The satire was in many parts very severe; and though it gave high offence, it claimed a considerable share of the public attention.  The reader will perhaps be gratified by a specimen of this production, wherein he endeavours to account for—­

     “What makes this discontented land appear
     Less happy now in times of peace, than war;
     Why civil fends disturb the nation more,
     Than all our bloody wars had done before: 
     Fools out of favour grudge at knaves in place,
     And men are always honest in disgrace: 
     The court preferments make men knaves in course,
     But they, who would be in them, would be worse. 
     ’Tis not at foreigners that we repine,
     Would foreigners their perquisites resign: 
     The grand contention’s plainly to be seen,
     To get some men put out, and some put in.”

It will be immediately perceived that De Foe could have no pretensions to the character of a poet; but he has, notwithstanding, some nervous and well-versified lines, and in choice of subject and moral he is in general excellent.  The Trueborn Englishman concludes thus: 

     Could but our ancestors retrieve their fate,
     And see their offspring thus degenerate;
     How we contend for birth and names unknown,
     And build on their past actions, not our own;
     They’d cancel records, and their tombs deface,
     And openly disown the vile degenerate race. 
     For fame of families is all a cheat;
     ’Tis personal virtue only makes us great.

For this defence of foreigners De Foe was amply rewarded by King William, who not only ordered him a pension, but, as his opponents denominated it, appointed him pamphlet-writer general to the court; an office for which he was peculiarly well calculated, possessing, with a strong mind and a ready wit, that kind of yielding conscience which allowed him to support the measures of his benefactors, though convinced they were injurious to his country.  De Foe now retired to Newington with his family, and for a short time lived at ease; but the death of his royal patron deprived him of a generous protector, and opened a scene of sorrow which probably embittered his future life.