Vili MEMOIR OF DE FOE.

Towards the close of the war in 1696-7, De Foe gave to the work:
his “ Essay upon Projects;” a work alike admirable for the novelty
of the subject, and the clearness and ingenuity with which it is treated. -
The projects of our author may be classed under the heads of poli-
tics, commerce, and benevolence; all having some reference to the
public improvement. The first relates to banks in general, and to
the royal or national bank in particular, which he wishes to be ren-
dered subservient to the relief of the merchant, and the interests of
commerce, as well as to the purposes of the state; his next project
relates to highways; a third, to the improvement of the bankrupt
laws ; a fourth, to the plan of friendly societies, formed by mutual
assurance, for the relief of the members in seasons of distress; a
fifth, for the establishment of an asylum for “fools,” or, more prop-
erly, “naturals,” whom he describes as “a particular rent charge on
the great family of mankind;” he next suggests the formation of
academies, to supply some neglected branches of education ; one of
these was for the improvement of the English tongue, “to polish
and refine it;” and this project combined a reformation a that
“foolish vice,” swearing: the next project of our author wa» an
academy for military studies; and, under the head of “ Academies,”
he suggested an institution for the education of females: “ We re-
proach the sex every day,” says he, “with folly and impertinence,
while, I am confident, had they the advantages ob education equal to
us, they would be guilty of less than ourselves.”

In January, 1700-1, appeared De Foe’s celebrated poem of ‘‘ The
True-Born Englishman.” It was composed in answer to “a vile,
abhorred pamphlet, in very ill verse, written by one Mr. Tutchin,
and called ‘The Foreigners,’ in which the author—who he then was
I knew not,” says De Foe—“fell personally upon the king and the
Dutch nation.” How many thousands familiar with the following
now proverbial lines, know not that with them opens “ The True-
Born Englishman !”—

“ Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The devil always builds a chapel there;
And ’twill be found, upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation |”

De Foe traces the rise of our ancient families to the Norman in-
vader, who cantoned out the country to his followers, and “every
soldier was adenizen.”’ The folly of indulging this pride of ancestry
is finely painted in the following lines :-—

“ These are the heroes who despise the Dutch,
And rail at new-come foreigners so much 3
Forgetting that themselves are all derived
From the most scoundrel race that ever lived,
A horrid crowd of rambling thieves and drones,
Who ransacked 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-haired off spring everywhere remains ;