Defoe

Between June 1713 and August 1714 when the fall of Harley and the death of Queen Anne brought a change to his fortunes, Defoe wrote about 20 pamphlets (four of them forming an interesting•(General History of Trade') and labored upon two newspapers, Mercator, or Commerce Retrieved, and a sham Flying Post. He warmly welcomed the new king and, feeling that he must as far as possible clear himself from the charges of being a turncoat and a mercenary writer, he published in February 1715 his eloquent if not wholly ingenuous to Honor and Justice.' He was also the author of the three parts of the much criticized 'Secret History of the White Staff' (1714-15), a defense of Harley, which that unpopular person felt obliged to declare the work of an opponent. Whether he was nearly so ill from apoplexy as he wished readers of his to believe is very doubtful, but there can be no doubt that he was in an equiv ocal position, distrusted by all parties and de pendent upon his wits for the support of an expensive family.

• Defoe's bibliography now becomes exceed ingly complicated. In the four years that elapsed before the appearance of the first part of (Robinson Crusoe> (25 April 1719) he pub lished anonymously over 90 pamphlets, at least six books — including his popular (Family In structor,' the exemplary (Memoirs of the Church of Scotland' and the forged (Minutes' worked on a series of political (Annals of King edited the monthly Mer curius Politicus and Mercurius Brilaunicus and contributed to at least three newspapers. He was one of the most conspicuous figures of the time, but was at no period admitted to • the brilliant literary circles of Swift and Pope and of Addison and Steele. Meanwhile he had been convicted (July 1715) of libeling Lord Annesley by the declaration that his lordship had tam pered with the Irish troops in the interest of the Pretender, and it would have gone hard with him if he had not thrown himself on the mercy of Chief Justice Parker. The latter commended him to the Secretary of State, Lord Townshend, who found him very ready to serve the new government in a hazardous employment, to wit, as a spy in the offices of Jacobite newspapers. His chief connection of this sort was with Mist's Journal from 1717 to 1724, with intermissions. He took the sting out of articles and kept the government informed of what the disaffected Tories were doing and writing, doubtless justi fying himself by the thought that he was serving the best interests of Great Britain and the Protestant religion. There is simply no defense for Defoe's conduct; but it should be remem bered that as Harley's man he had become inured to intrigue, and it is at least to his credit that his skill made Mist's Journal popular.

He continued to labor as an anonymous and outwardly renegade journalist, now editing his own paper—e.g., The Whitehall Evening Post— now contributing leading articles to Applebee's Journal, until 1726, long after his fiction had obtained popularity. Our knowledge of this portion of his career is largely due to the researches of Mr. William Lee, who in the second and third volumes of his great work published the choicest of Defoe's articles in which will be found some of the best of all his writings. Under the protection of Harley he had made himself the ablest political journalist of his time; left to his own devices, he became the ablest journalistic commentator on the gen eral news of the day and on morals that Eng land had yet known, with the exception, in certain particulars, of Addison. The later phase of his activity naturally fitted in with his writing of fiction and of utilitarian manuals, and in the combined functions he has probably exerted an almost unrivaled influence on English literature.

Defoe had shown in 'Mrs. Veal' and in his description of the supposed destruction of the island of Saint Vincent (Mist's Journal, 1718) his ability to write realistic narratives; but it was 'Robinson Crusoe,' founded mainly on the adventures of Alexander Selkirk on Juan Fernandez, as told by Captain Woodes Rogers, that gave the great journalist a high standing among world authors. The book, concerning the origin of which we know almost nothing, became popular at once, was pirated, printed as a serial and translated into French and German, and subsequent editions, transla tions and imitations have been almost number less. A second part, 'The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,' was added in August 1719, and a third part, the 'Serious Reflections,' a group of essays now little read, appeared a year later. Neither the story that the first and best part was by Harley, nor the notion that Defoe used Selkirk's manuscripts, nor the theory that he gave in 'Robinson an elaborate allegory of his own life (partly sup ported by his language) will bear close investi gation. That in his most famous book he made admirable use of a theme of universal interest, and that he employed in writing it all his resources as a realistic reporter and an imagi native projector, is proved by the position it has attained as a classic.