“What makes this discontented land appear
     Less happy now in times of peace, than war;
     Why civil feuds 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 pretentious 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 True-born 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.

He had always discovered a great inclination to engage in religious controversy, and the furious contest, civil and ecclesiastical, which ensued on the accession of Queen Anne, gave him an opportunity of gratifying his favourite passion.  He therefore published a tract entitled “The shortest Way with the Dissenters, or Proposals for the Establishment of the Church,” which contained an ironical recommendation of persecution, but written in so serious a strain, that many persons, particularly Dissenters, at first mistook its real intention.  The high church party however saw, and felt the ridicule, and, by their influence, a prosecution was commenced against him, and a proclamation published in the Gazette, offering a reward for his apprehension[1].  When De Foe found with how much rigour himself and his pamphlet were about to be treated, he at first secreted himself; but his printer and bookseller being taken into custody,