26 THE RECOMPENSE OF A VETERAN,

hesitate to oppose him, when his actions were contrary to true liberal prin-
ciples. As I have before said, I cannot enumerate all the pamphlets which
issued from his prolific pen. They are marked by his peculiar qualities of
mind and intellect, but to a great extent deal with temporary topics, and,
consequently, have no value except for the historical student. His warm
advocacy of a Protestant Succession to the throne procured him the honour
of a second imprisonment in Newgate; but Harley interfered, and procured
his release. Then came, in 1714, the end of the political crisis which had
marked the last years of Queen Anne. The Tories and Jacobites were defeated
with unexpected ease, and instead of a Stuart, who had learned nothing
by exile, George I. reigned on the throne of Great Britain, representing in his
person, however inadequately, the triumph of the principles of constitutional
government. For the present, therefore, De Foe’s work as a politician was
done. He had fought the battle, almost unaided, for two and thirty years,
and retired from it with nothing to show but honourable scars. Less
earnest men, such as Addison, and Steele, and Rowe, and Tickell, came in for
places and pensions; but the foremost soldier, the truest and most enthusi-
astic patriot, reaped nothing but the consciousness of having done his duty.
In surveying the long struggle of his matured manhood, he was able to
say :—

“I was, from my first entering into the knowledge of public matters, and
have ever been to this day, a sincere lover to the constitution of my country—
zealous for liberty and the Protestant interest; but a constant follower of
moderate principles, and a vigorous opposer of hot measures in all. 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 it was founded.”

Pausing here, at the close of the first period of De Foe’s career, I verrture
to adopt some remarks by Mr. Forster as fairly descriptive of the character
of the man :—*

After all the objections that may justly be made to his opinions, on the
grounds of short-coming or excess, we believe that in the main features of
~ his history will be recognized a noble English example of the qualities
most prized by Englishmen. De Foe is our only famous politician and man
of letters, who represented, in its inflexible constancy, sturdy dogged resolu-
tion, unwearied perseverance, and obstinate contempt of danger and of
tyranny, the great middle-class English character. We believe it to be no
mere national pride to say, that, whether in its defects or its surpassing
merits, the world has had none other to compare with it. He lived in the
thickest stir of the conflict of the four most violent party reigns of English
history; and if we have at last entered into peaceful possession of most

* John Forster ‘‘ Biographical Essays,” ii. 90, 91.