30. =; MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.

day counterfeit Whigs. It could not be! The nature of the thing could by
no means allow it; it must be monstrous. For these books I was prosecuted,
tuken into custody, and obliged to give 8002. bail.

“This matter making some noise, people began to inquire into it, and ask
what De Foc was prosecuted for, seeing the books were manifestly written
against the Pretender, and for the interest of the house of Hanover.—And my
friends expostulated freely with some of the men who appeared in it, who
answered with more truth than honesty, that they knew this book had nothing
in it, and that it was meant another way; but that De Foe had disobliged them
in other things, and they were resolved to take the advantage they had, both
to punish and expose him. They were no inconsiderable people who said this;
and had the case come to a trial, I had provided good evidence to prove the
words.

“Now, as this was the plot of a few men to see if they could brand me in
the world for a Jacobite, and persuade rash and ignorant people that I was
turned about for the Pretender, I think they might as casily have proved me
to be a Mohammedan; therefore, I say, this obliges me to state the matter as it
really stands, that impartial men may judge whether those books were written
for or against the Pretender. And this cannot be better done than by the
account of what followed after the information, which, in a few words, was
this :-—

“Upon the several days appointed, I appeared at the Queen’s Bench bar to
discharge my bail; and at last had an indictment for high crimes and mis-
demeanors exhibited against me by her majesty’s attorney-general, which, as I
was informed, contained two hundred sheets of paper.

“T was not ignorant that in such eases it is easy to make any book a libel,
and that the jury must have found the matter of fact in the indictment, viz.
that I had written such books, and then what might have followed I know not.
Wherefore, I thought it was my only way to cast myself on the clemency of
her majesty, of whose goodness I had so much experience many ways; repre-
senting in my petition, that I was far from the least intention to favour the
interest of the Pretender, but that the books were all written with a sincere
design to promote the interest of the house of Hanover; and humbly laid
before her majesty, as I do now before the rest of the world, the books them-
selves to plead in my behalf; representing further, that I was maliciously
informed against by those who were willing to put a construction upon the
expressions different from my true meaning; and therefore, flying to her
majesty’s goodness and clemency, I entreated her gracious pardon.

“It was not only the native disposition of her majesty to acts of clemency
and goodness that obtained me this pardon; but, as I was informed, her majesty
was pleased to express it in the council, ‘She saw nothing but private pique
in the first prosecution.’ 2

+ The reader must be struck by the resemblance between this prosecution and
the former one, for the publication of the “Shortest Way with the Dissenters.”
De Foe had been playing the same game and was caught in the same trap.