represented to us, that he, with a sincere design to propagate the
interest of the Hanover succession, and to animate the people
against the designs of the pretender, whom he always looked on as
an enemy to our sacred person and government, did publish the said
pamphlets: in all which books, although the titles seemed to look
as if written in favour of the pretender, and several expressions,
as in all ironical writing it must be, may be wrested against the
true design of the whole, and turned to a meaning quite different
from the intention of the author, yet the petitioner humbly
assures us, in the solemnest manner, that his true and only design
in all the said books was, by an ironical discourse of recommending
the pretender, in the strongest and most forcible manner to expose
his designs, and the ruinous consequences of his succeeding
therein; which, as the petitioner humbly represents, will appear to
our satisfaction by the books themselves, where the following
expressions are very plain: viz:, 'That the pretender is
recommended as a person proper to amass the English liberties into
his own sovereignty; supply them with the privilege of wearing
wooden shoes; easing them of the trouble of choosing parliaments;
and the nobility and gentry of the hazard and expense of winter
journeys, by governing them in that more righteous method, of his
absolute will, and enforcing the laws by a glorious standing army;
paying all the nation's debts at once by stopping the funds and
shutting up the exchequer; easing and quieting their differences in
religion, by bringing them to the union of popery, or leaving them
at liberty to have no religion at all:' that these were some of the
very expressions in the said books, which the petitioner sincerely
designed to expose and oppose, and as far as in him lies, the
interest of the pretender, and with no other intention;
nevertheless, the petitioner, to his great surprise, has been
misrepresented, and his said books misconstrued, as if written in
favour of the pretender; and the petitioner is now under
prosecution for the same; which prosecution, if further carried on,
will be the utter ruin of the petitioner and his family. Wherefore,
the petitioner, humbly assuring us of the innocence of his design
as aforesaid, flies to our clemency, and most humbly prays our most
gracious and free pardon.
"We, taking the premises and the circumstances of the petitioner
into our royal consideration, are graciously pleased to extend our
royal mercy to the petitioner. Our will and pleasure therefore is,
that you prepare a bill for our royal signature, to pass our great
seal, containing our gracious and free pardon unto him, the said
Daniel De Foe, of the offences aforementioned, and of all
indictments, convictions, pains, penalties, and forfeitures
incurred thereby; and you are to insert therein all such apt
beneficial clauses as you shall deem requisite to make this our
intended pardon more full, valid, and effectual; and for so doing,
this shall be your warrant. Given at our castle at Windsor, the
twentieth day of November, 1713, in the twentieth year of our
reign. By her majesty's command.
BOLINGBROKE.
Let any indifferent man judge whether I was not treated with particular
malice in this matter; who was, notwithstanding this, reproached in the
daily public prints with having written treasonable books in behalf of
the pretender; nay, and in some of those books, as before, the queen
herself was reproached with having granted her pardon to an author who
writ for the pretender.
I think I might with much more justice say, I was the first man that
ever was obliged to seek a pardon for writing for the Hanover
succession, and the first man that these people ever sought to ruin for
writing against the pretender. For, if ever a book was sincerely
designed to further and propagate the affection and zeal of the nation
against the pretender, nay, and was made use of, and that with success
too, for that purpose, these books were so; and I ask no more favour of
the world to determine the opinion of honest men for or against me, than
what is drawn constructively from these books. Let one word, either
written or spoken by me, either published or not published, be produced,
that was in the least disrespectful to the protestant succession, or to
any branch of the family of Hanover, or that can be judged to be
favourable to the interest or person of the pretender, and I will be
willing to waive her majesty's pardon, and render myself to public
justice, to be punished for it, as I should well deserve.
I freely and openly challenge the worst of my enemies to charge me with
any discourse, conversation, or behaviour, in my whole life, which had
the least word in it injurious to the protestant succession, unbecoming
or disrespectful to any of the persons of the royal family of Hanover,
or the least favourable word of the persons, the designs, or friends of
the pretender. If they can do it, let them stand forth and speak; no
doubt but that they may be heard; and I, for my part, will relinquish
all pleas, pardons, and defences, and cast myself into the hands of
justice. Nay, to go further, I defy them to prove that I ever kept
company, or had any society, friendship, or conversation, with any
jacobite. So averse have I been to the interest and the people, that I
have studiously avoided their company on all occasions.
As nothing in the world has been more my aversion than the society of
jacobites, so nothing can be a greater misfortune to me than to be
accused and publicly reproached with what is, of all things in the
world, most abhorred by me; and that which has made it the more
afflicting is, that this charge arises from those very things which I
did with the sincerest design to manifest the contrary.
But such is my present fate, and I am to submit to it; which I do with
meekness and calmness, as to a judgment from heaven, and am practising
that duty which I have studied long ago, of forgiving my enemies, and
praying for them that despitefully use me.
Having given this brief history of the pardon, &c., I hope the impartial
part of the world will grant me, that being thus graciously delivered a
second time from the cruelty of my implacable enemies, and the ruin of a
cruel and unjust persecution, and that by the mere clemency and
goodness, my obligation to her majesty's goodness was far from being
made less than it was before.
I have now run through the history of my obligation to her majesty, and
to the person of my benefactor aforesaid. I shall state everything that
followed this with all the clearness I can, and leave myself liable to
as little cavil as I may; for I see myself assaulted by a sort of people
who will do me no justice. I hear a great noise made of punishing those
that are guilty, but, as I said before, not one word of clearing those
that are innocent; and I must say, in this part they treat me, not only
as I were no Christian, but as if they themselves were not Christians.
They will neither prove the charge nor hear the defence, which is the
unjustest thing in the world.
I foresee what will be alleged to the clause of my obligation, &c., to
great persons, and I resolve to give my adversaries all the advantage
they can desire by acknowledging beforehand, that no obligation to the
queen, or to any benefactor, can justify any man's acting against the
interest of his country, against his principles, his conscience, and his
former profession.
I think this will anticipate all that can be said upon that head, and it
will then remain to tell the fact, as I am not chargeable with it; which
I shall do as clearly as possible in a few words.
It is none of my work to enter into the conduct of the queen or of the
ministry in this case; the question is not what they have done, but what
I have done; and though I am very far from thinking of them as some
other people think, yet, for the sake of the present argument, I am to
give them all up, and suppose, though not granting, that all which is
suggested of them by the worst temper, the most censorious writer, the
most scandalous pamphlet or lampoon should be true; and I'll go through
some of the particulars, as I meet with them in public.
1st. That they made a scandalous peace, unjustly broke the alliance,
betrayed the confederates, and sold us all to the French.
God forbid it should be all truth, in the manner that we see it in
print; but that I say is none of my business. But what hand had I in all
this? I never wrote one word for the peace before it was made, or to
justify it after it was made; let them produce it if they can. Nay, in a
Review upon that subject while it was making, I printed it in plainer
words than other men durst speak it at that time, that I did not like
the peace, nor did I like any peace that was making since that of the
partition, and that the protestant interest was not taken care of either
in that or the treaty of Gertrudenburgh before it.
It is true that I did say, that since the peace was made, and we could
not help it, that it was our business and our duty to make the best of
it, to make the utmost advantage of it by commerce, navigation, and all
kind of improvement that we could, and this I say still; and I must
think it is more our duty to do so than the exclamations against the
thing itself, which it is not in our power to retrieve. This is all that
the worst enemy I have can charge me with. After the peace was made, and
the Dutch and the emperor stood out, I gave my opinion of what I
foresaw would necessarily be the consequence of that difference, viz.,
that it would inevitably involve these nations in a war with one or
other of them; any one who was master of common sense in the public
affairs might see that the standing out of the Dutch could have no other
event. For if the confederates had conquered the French, they would
certainly have fallen upon us by way of resentment, and there was no
doubt but the same councils that led us to make a peace would oblige us
to maintain it, by preventing too great impressions upon the French.
On the other hand, I alleged, that should the French prevail against the
Dutch, unless he stopped at such limitations of conquest as the treaty
obliged him to do, we must have been under the same necessity to renew
the war against France; and for this reason, seeing we had made a peace,
we were obliged to bring the rest of the confederates into it, and to
bring the French to give them all such terms as they ought to be
satisfied with.
This way of arguing was either so little understood, or so much
maligned, that I suffered innumerable reproaches in print for having
written for a war with the Dutch, which was neither in the expression,
nor ever in my imagination; but I pass by these injuries as small and
trifling compared to others I suffer under.
However, one thing I must say of the peace, let it be good or ill in
itself, I cannot but think we have all reason to rejoice in behalf of
his present majesty, that at his accession to the crown he found the
nation in peace, and had the hands of the king of France tied up by a
peace so as not to be able, without the most infamous breach of
articles, to offer the least disturbance to his taking a quiet and
leisurely possession, or so much as to countenance those that would.
Not but that I believe, if the war had been at the height, we should
have been able to have preserved the crown for his present majesty, its
only rightful lord; but I will not say it should have been so easy, so
bloodless, so undisputed as now; and all the difference must be
acknowledged to the peace, and this is all the good I ever yet said of
it.
I come next to the general clamour of the ministry being for the
pretender. I must speak my sentiments solemnly and plainly, as I always
did in that matter, viz., that if it was so, I did not see it, nor did I
ever see reason to believe it; this I am sure of, that if it was so, I
never took one step in that kind of service, nor did I ever hear one
word spoken by any one of the ministry that I had the honour to know or
converse with, that favoured the pretender; but have had the honour to
hear them all protest that there was no design to oppose the succession
of Hanover in the least.
It may be objected to me, that they might be in the interest of the
pretender for all that; it is true they might, but that is nothing to
me. I am not vindicating their conduct, but my own; as I never was
employed in anything that way, so I do still protest I do not believe it
was ever in their design, and I have many reasons to confirm my thoughts
in that case, which are not material to the present case. But be that as
it will, it is enough to me that I acted nothing in any such interest,
neither did I ever sin against the protestant succession of Hanover in
thought, word, or deed; and if the ministry did, I did not see it, or so
much as suspect them of it.
It was a disaster to the ministry, to be driven to the necessity of
taking that set of men by the hand, who nobody can deny, were in that
interest; but as the former ministry answered, when they were charged
with a design to overthrow the church, because they favoured, joined
with, and were united to the dissenters; I say they answered, that they
made use of the dissenters, but granted them nothing (which, by the way,
was too true;) so these gentlemen answer, that it is true they made use
of jacobites, but did nothing for them.
But this by the by. Necessity is pleaded by both parties for doing
things which neither side can justify. I wish both sides would for ever
avoid the necessity of doing evil; for certainly it is the worst plea in
the world, and generally made use of for the worst things.
I have often lamented the disaster which I saw employing jacobites was
to the late ministry, and certainly it gave the greatest handle to the
enemies of the ministry to fix that universal reproach upon them of
being in the interest of the pretender. But there was no medium. The
whigs refused to show them a safe retreat, or to give them the least
opportunity to take any other measures, but at the risk of their own
destruction; and they ventured upon that course in hopes of being able
to stand alone at last without help of either the one or the other; in
which they were no doubt, mistaken.
However, in this part, as I was always assured, and have good reason
still to believe, that her majesty was steady in the interest of the
house of Hanover, and as nothing was ever offered to me, or required of
me, to the prejudice of that interest, on what ground can I be
reproached with the secret reserved designs of any, if they had such
designs, as I still verily believe they had not?
I see there are some men who would fain persuade the world, that every
man that was in the interest of the late ministry, or employed by the
late government, or that served the late queen, was for the pretender.
God forbid this should be true; and I think there needs very little to
be said in answer to it. I can answer for myself, that it is notoriously
false; and I think the easy and uninterrupted accession of his majesty
to the crown contradicts it. I see no end which such a suggestion aims
at, but to leave an odium upon all that had any duty or regard to her
late majesty.
A subject is not always master of his sovereign's measures, nor always
to examine what persons or parties the prince he serves employs, so be
it that they break not in upon the constitution; that they govern
according to law, and that he is employed in no illegal act, or have
nothing desired of him inconsistent with the liberties and laws of his
country. If this be not right, then a servant of the king's is in a
worse case than a servant to any private person.
In all these things I have not erred; neither have I acted or done
anything in the whole course of my life, either in the service of her
majesty or of her ministry, that any one can say has the least deviation
from the strictest regard to the protestant succession, and to the laws
and liberties of my country.
I never saw an arbitrary action offered at, a law dispensed with,
justice denied, or oppression set up, either by queen or ministry, in
any branch of the administration, wherein I had the least concern.
If I have sinned against the whigs, it has been all negatively, viz.,
that I have not joined in the loud exclamations against the queen and
against the ministry, and against their measures; and if this be my
crime, my plea is twofold.
1. I did not really see cause for carrying their complaints to that
violent degree.
2. Where I did see what, as before, I lamented and was sorry for, and
could not join with or approve,--as joining with jacobites, the peace,
&c.,--my obligation is my plea for my silence.
I have all the good thoughts of the person, and good wishes for the
prosperity of my benefactor, that charity and that gratitude can inspire
me with. I ever believed him to have the true interest of the protestant
religion and of his country in his view; and if it should be otherwise,
I should be very sorry. And I must repeat it again, that he always left
me so entirely to my own judgment, in everything I did, that he never
prescribed to me what I should write, or should not write, in my life;
neither did he ever concern himself to dictate to or restrain me in any
kind; nor did he see any one tract that I ever wrote before it was
printed; so that all the notion of my writing by his direction is as
much a slander upon him as it is possible anything of that kind can be;
and if I have written anything which is offensive, unjust, or untrue, I
must do that justice as to declare, he has no hand in it; the crime is
my own.
As the reproach of his directing me to write is a slander upon the
person I am speaking of, so that of my receiving pensions and payments
from him for writing, is a slander upon me; and I speak it with the
greatest sincerity, seriousness, and solemnity that it is possible for a
Christian man to speak, that except the appointment I mentioned before,
which her majesty was pleased to make me formerly, and which I received
during the time of my lord Godolphin's ministry, I have not received of
the late lord treasurer, or of any one else by his order, knowledge, or
direction, one farthing, or the value of a farthing, during his whole
administration; nor has all the interest I have been supposed to have in
his lordship been able to procure me the arrears due to me in the time
of the other ministry. So help me God.
I am under no necessity of making this declaration. The services I did,
and for which her majesty was pleased to make me a small allowance, are
known to the greatest men in the present administration; and some of
them were then of the opinion, and I hope are so still, that I was not
unworthy of her majesty's favour. The effect of those services, however
small, is enjoyed by those great persons and by the whole nation to this
day; and I had the honour once to be told, that they should never be
forgotten. It is a misfortune that no man can avoid, to forfeit for his
deference to the person and services of his queen, to whom he was
inexpressibly obliged; and if I am fallen under the displeasure of the
present government for anything I ever did in obedience to her majesty
in the past, I may say it is my disaster; but I can never say it is my
fault.
This brings me again to that other oppression which, as I said, I suffer
under, and which, I think, is of a kind that no man ever suffered under
so much as myself; and this is to have every libel, every pamphlet, be
it ever so foolish, so malicious, so unmannerly, or so dangerous, be
laid at my door, and be called publicly by my name. It has been in vain
for me to struggle with this injury; it has been in vain for me to
protest, to declare solemnly, nay, if I would have sworn that I had no
hand in such a book or paper, never saw it, never read it, and the like,
it was the same thing.
My name has been hackneyed about the street by the hawkers, and about
the coffeehouses by the politicians, at such a rate as no patience could
bear. One man will swear to the style; another to this or that
expression; another to the way of printing; and all so positive that it
is to no purpose to oppose it.
I published once, to stop this way of using me, that I would print
nothing but what I set my name to, and held it for a year or two; but it
was all one; I had the same treatment. I now have resolved for some time
to write nothing at all, and yet I find it the same thing; two books
lately published being called mine, for no other reason that I know of
than that at the request of the printer, I revised two sheets of them at
the press, and that they seemed to be written in favour of a certain
person; which person, also, as I have been assured, had no hand in them,
or any knowledge of them, till they were published in print.
This is a flail which I have no fence against, but to complain of the
injustice of it, and that is but _the shortest way_ to be treated with
more injustice.
There is a mighty charge against me for being author and publisher of a
paper called the 'Mercator.' I will state the fact first, and then speak
to the subject.
It is true, that being desired to give my opinion in the affair of the
commerce with France, I did, as I often had done in print many years
before, declare that it was my opinion we ought to have an open trade
with France, because I did believe we might have the advantage by such a
trade; and of this opinion I am still. What part I had in the Mercator
is well known; and could men answer with argument, and not with personal
abuse, I would at any time defend every part of the Mercator which was
of my doing. But to say the Mercator was mine, is false; I neither was
the author of it, had the property of it, the printing of it, or the
profit by it. I had never any payment or reward for writing any part of
it, nor had I the power to put what I would into it. Yet the whole
clamour fell upon me, because they knew not who else to load with it.
And when they came to answer, the method was instead of argument, to
threaten and reflect upon me, reproach me with private circumstances and
misfortunes, and give language which no Christian ought to give, and
which no gentleman ought to take.
I thought any Englishman had the liberty to speak his opinion in such
things, for this had nothing to do with the public. The press was open
to me as well as to others; and how or when I lost my English liberty of
speaking my mind, I know not; neither how my speaking my opinion without
fee or reward, could authorise them to call me villain, rascal, traitor,
and such opprobrious names.
It was ever my opinion, and is so still, that were our wool kept from
France, and our manufactures spread in France upon reasonable duties,
all the improvements which the French have made in the woollen
manufactures would decay, and in the end be little worth; and
consequently, the hurt they could do us by them would be of little
moment.
It was my opinion, and is so still, that the ninth article of the treaty
of commerce was calculated for the advantage of our trade, let who will
make it. That is nothing to me. My reasons are because it tied up the
French to open the door to our manufactures at a certain duty of
importation there, and left the parliament of Britain at liberty to shut
theirs out by as high duties as they pleased here, there being no
limitation upon us as to duties on French goods; but that other nations
should pay the same.
While the French were thus bound, and the British free, I always thought
we must be in a condition to trade to advantage, or it must be our own
fault. This was my opinion, and is so still; and I would venture to
maintain it against any man upon a public stage, before a jury of fifty
merchants, and venture my life upon the cause, if I were assured of fair
play in the dispute. But that it was my opinion that we might carry on a
trade with France to our great advantage, and that we ought for that
reason to trade with them, appears in the third, fourth, fifth, and
sixth volumes of the Review, above nine years before the Mercator was
thought of. It was not thought criminal to say so then; how it come to
be villanous to say so now, God knows; I can give no account of it. I am
still of the same opinion, and shall never be brought to say otherwise,
unless I see the state of trade so altered as to alter my opinion; and
if ever I do I shall be able to give good reasons for it.
The answer to these things, whether mine or no, was all pointed at me,
and the arguments were generally in the terms villain, rascal,
miscreant, liar, bankrupt, fellow, hireling, turncoat, &c. What the
arguments were bettered by these methods, I leave others to judge of.
Also, most of those things in the Mercator, for which I had such usage,
were such as I was not the author of.
I do grant, had all the books which had been called by my name been
written by me, I must of necessity have exasperated every side; and
perhaps have deserved it; but I have the greatest injustice imaginable
in this treatment, as I have in the perverting the design of what I have
really written.
To sum up, therefore, my complaint in a few words:--