16 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.

 

These are the heroes that despise the Dutch,

And rail at new-come foreignei? so much;

Forgetting that themselves are all derived

From the most scoundrel race that ever lived;

A horrid crowd of rambling thieves and drones,

Who ransack’d kingdoms and dispeopled towns

The Pict and painted Briton, treach’rous Scot,

By hunger, theft, and rapine hither brought;

Norwegian pirates, buccaneering Danes,

Whose red-hair’d offspring everywhere remains;

Who, join’d with Norman-French compound the breed,
_ From whence your True-Born Englishmen proceed.

And lest, by length of time, it be pretended

The climate may the modern race have mended,

Wise Providence, to keep us where we are,

Mixes us daily with exceeding care.”

The first edition was comprised in sixty pages, quarto; and such was ‘ts
popularity, that in four years the author had printed nine editions, the copies
of which he sold at a shilling each, while he calculated that not less than eighty
thousand copies of pirated editions, sold at from sixpence to a penny, were
disposed of in the streets of London. The loss he sustained by this conduct
must have been considerable. He tells us, that “had he been allowed to enjoy
the profit of his own labour, he had gained above a thousand pounds.” This
poem having met the eye of King William, inspired him with the desire to
become acquainted with the author; he was accordingly presented to him,
and was ever after cordially received by him and his consort, and employed in
various secret services.

In his “ Appeal to Honour and Justice,” in 1715, he says, “How this poem
was the occasion of my being known to his majesty; how I was aftérwards
received by him; how employed; and how, above my capacity of deserving,
rewarded, is no part of the present case, and it is only mentioned here, as I
take all occasions to do, for the expressing the honour I ever preserved for the
immortal and glorious memory of that greatest and best of princes, and whom
it was my honour and advantage to call master as well as sovereign; whose
goodness to me I never forgot, neither can forget; and whose memory I
never patiently heard abused, nor ever can do so; and who, had he lived,
would never have suffered ime to be treated as I have been in the world.”

Between the publication of “The True-Born Englishman” and the death of
his patron, in March 1702, he published ten pamphlets, in one of which,
“Reasons against a War with France,” notwithstanding his passionate attach-
ment to William, he ventured, on patriotic grounds, to oppose the views of the
court. °

The life and labours of De Foe are so interwoven with the political history of
his country, that the most satisfactory way of considering his life is by dividing
it into periods, commensurate with the reigns in which he flourished. We
have now arrived at the accession of Queen Anne. She had been educated
by Compton bishop of London, and immediately threw all the influence of the