In 1706 De Foe was recommended by Lord Godolphin to the queen as a fit and proper person to send to Scotland to promoto the Union. This beeriness being entrusted to him, ho resided iu Edinburgh until the end of 1707, when, returning to London, ho wrote an account of the subject with which lie had been engaged, which was published in 1709. For Lie services during this miesiou the queen granted him a pension, which political changes not long permitting him to enjoy, he was again compelled to gain his livelihood by writing. The attacks in his 'political pamphlet, now a second time got him into difficulties; for two papers, one entitled 'What If the Queen should die I' the other called ' What if the Pretender should come f' (the works were palpably ironical, but he was again misunderstood), he was find 8001., and in default of payment was committed to Newgate. His second was not eo long as his first imprisonment; ho was liberated by the queen in November 1713.
After the death of Anne, in 1714, his enemies so assailed him from every quarter, that he was compelled in self-defence to draw up an account of his political conduct, and of the sufferings he had eudurod. The continual attacks of his opponents so weighed upon his mind and depressed his spirits, that his health gave way, and an illness was brought on which terminated in an apoplectic fit. When he recovered, he continued to write, but thought it prudent to desert his old field of political satire and invective, and to enter upon new ones. His first production was of a religious character, the ' Family Instructer,' published anonymously iu 1715, which became so popular that in 1722 ho wrote 'Religious Courtship,' which was equally successful. To afford entertainment by tales of fiction was his next task, and he put forth, in 1719, when he was fifty-eight years old, the first part of his inimitable 'Adventures of Robinson Cruses, which no story h ever exceeded in popularity. The merits of this work have been disparaged on account of its want of originality ; "but really tho story of Selkirk, which had been published a few years before, appears to have furnished our author with so little beyond the bare idea of a man living on an uninhabited island, that it seems quite immaterial whether he took his hint from that or any other similar story." (Sir Walter Scott, 'Prose Worke.') The great success and profits arising from the first induced him to write a second and third part, each of which had loss merit than its predecessor, the last being a mere book making job. We have not apace to enumerate the multitude of pamphlets and books which our author ,published. The Adventures of Captain Singleton," The Fortunes of Moll Flandera," The history of Colonel Jack,' The Fortunate Mistress," The Memoirs of a Cavalier,' and 'The History of the Plague,' which were among the most popular of his works that succeeded Robinson Cruse,' form only a small portion of his writiugs. the biographers, Chalmers and Wilson, have published catalogues of the writings of De Foe, and one was also published as a pamphlet by Thomas Redd, but it is very probable that they are incomplete, and that many of his works which were only of a temporary interest have been lost.
De Foe died at the age of seventy, on the 24th of April 1731, in the parish of St.. Giles's, Cripplegate. Ho left a widow and several children, among whom was Norton Do Foe, the author of 'Memoirs of the Princes of the Houso of Orange,' who is thus satirised in Popu'e Dunciad " Norton from Daniel and Ostrma sprung, Dless'd with his father's front and mother's tongue." A greatagrancleou is yet (1856) living, reduced at the ago of seventy. eight from the position of a master tradesman to poverty, fur whom in 1854 and 1855 a fund was raised to prevent a descendant of so great au ornament to his couutry becoming like his ancestor a sufferer aml a sacrifice to extreme want.
De Foes powers as a writer are of no ordinary stamp. Ile was not a poet, but he could writo vigorous verse, and his satire ie bol.l and trenchant. If be had been in affluent circumstances he might have writteu lees and with more care, but his uceessities often drove him to the printing-press. The disputes of the time afforded an Inexhaustible fund of topics, and the violence of party spirit was dis played by all factions in pamphlets, which were the weapons of political warfare. To this style of writing De Foe had two reasons for applying himself ; first, because it was the surest to meet with a ready sale, and to bring him in a pecuniary return ; and secondly, because he was himself an eager politician. As a Whig, he opposed the House of Stuart ; as a Protestant, he wrote against Catholicism ; and as a Dissenter, against the church. His attention however was not confined to the hackneyed topics of the succession and the church: he treated of finance, trade, and bankruptcy, as well as of tho union with Scotland ; and all this, independently of his Review, which con tained articles on foreign and domestic intelligence, politics, and commerce. "The fertility of Do Foe," says Sir Walter Scott, "was astonishing. Ile wrote on all occasions, and on all subjects, and seemingly landlittle time for preparation ou the subject in hand, hut. treated it from the stores which his memory retained of early readiug, and such hints as he had caught up iu society, not one of which seems to have been lost upon him." ('Prose Works.') Of his Review, wa believe no complete copy is in existence : however great was the interest that it excited during the time of its publication, which con tinued for nine years. But it Is nut for the class of writings that wo have been speaking of, although they were of undoubted ability, that Do Foe chiefly is and will continuo to be celebrated ; it is by his popular narratives that his great fame has been obtained. Of these we may reckon three kinds :—let, The account of remarkable occurrences, as the ' Journal of the Plague Yoar,' and the 'Memoirs of it Cavalier ; ' 2nd, The account of mariners, privateers, thieves, swindlers, and robbers, ns 'Rohl:150u Crum,' the piracies of ' Captain Singleton,' the histories of ' Colonel Jack," Moll Flanders,' and 'Rosana ; ' 3rd, The descriptions of supernatural appearances, as the ' Life of Duncan Campbell,' a ' Treatise on Spirits and Apparitions,' the very degenerate third part of 'Robinson Crume,' and the Appa rition of Mrs. Veal.' De Foe's minute acid accurate knowledge of till lower walks of human life was no doubt acquired in the variott positions in which he was himself placed, joined to an acute obeerva Lion, and long treasured and matured in his mind, His style has colloquial ease, but also a colloquial negligence ; it is genuine English thoroughly idiomatic, but by no means faultless. The remarkable quality of his writiogs is, the appearance of reality that is given t< fiction. By a particularity and minntenesa of description which hit skill preventa from being tedious, he inereasea the probability of hit story, adds to its interest, and carries forward his reader. No author of imaginary tales has impressed so many persons with the belief that they have been reading a true rather than a fictitious narrative.
(Sir Walter Scott, Biog. prefixed to the edition of De Foe's Works, Wilson, Life of De Foe; Forster, Essoy on Do Foe.)