Dr. Johnson was probably right in describing the reign of Queen Anne as par excellence the age of pamphlets. The Revolution of 1688 had transferred political power to the House of Com mons; two great parties, Whig and Tory, had come into existence, depending for the retention of office upon the people: and by the lapse of the licensing act in 1695, the press had become practically free. As the newspaper had not yet become thoroughly organized, the pamphleteer was a necessity for explaining, defending, and attacking public policies. Party spirit extended to literary questions, and dissent from the State Church was assuming new forms. Under these circumstances, the pamphleteer reaped a harvest. To pass over the horde of minor writers, the Marquis of Halifax, already mentioned. paid his compliments to Whig and Tory, in Some Cau tions for the Choice of Members of 4'orliement (1695), gave the Dissenters some excellent advice in A Letter to a Dissenter (1687), a tract that went everywhere and provoked a score of replies. Defoe in The Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702) urged the complete extirpation of all Dissenters—a piece of irony surpassed only by Swift. Charles Leslie—"a reasoner not to be reasoned against," said Dr. Johnson—rode rough shod over Quakers and Deists. William Law at tacked the latitudinarian opinions of the Bishop of Bangor, and two hundred pamphlets followed from fifty different pens. Of all his contempo rary pamphleteers, Swift was easily the prince. His Argument to Prove that the Abolishing of Christianity . . . May be Attended with. Some Inconreniencrs (1708) is a superb ex ample of ironical humor. Swift also performed valuable services to the Tories in many pam phlets, of which may be mentioned 771e Conduct of the Allies (1711) and Some True Thoughts Upon the Present State of Affairs (1714). The
condition of Ireland was handled in a mas terly manner in the Drapier's Letters contain ing the famous "Modest Proposal." With Ar buthnot, Pope, and others, he joined in excel lent foolery aimed against literary quacks and poetasters. Of this joint work the best is per haps 7'he Art of Political Lying (1712), mostly from Arbuthnot, though Swift bore a hand.
Later in the eighteenth century there were other debates in which were active Bolingbroke. 'Junius.' who may have been Sir Philip Francis, and Burke, who defended the French Revolu tion. The rise of the great reviews soon after 1800 turned controversy into new channels. Still the war of pamphlets has never quite ceased. Bowles and Byron fought over the question as to whether Pope was a poet ; and pamphlets played an important part in the discussion over the poor laws, the corn laws, the Crimean War, the Irish laud laws, the Armenian massacres, and the struggles between the shifting parties in the Chureh. Even nowadays, a poet occasionally challenges his reader by issuing his verse in pamphlet form. Such, for example, seems to be the intent of John Davidson, who began in 1901 a series of .verse pamphlets dealing with the religious and philosophical questions of spe cial interest at this time. Consult Arthur Waugh, The Pamphlet Library (4 vols., Lon don, 1S97-98). This work contains examples of political, religious, and literary pamphlets, from Wielif to Newman. There are also historical essays under each division.