8

HIS OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS CONDUCT AT THIS TIME.

my generous benefactor, when he understood it, frankly told me, that I should by no means do so; for, said he, in the most engaging terms, 'My Lord-Treasurer will employ you in nothing but what is for the public service, and agreeable to your own sentiments of things. And besides, it is the queen you are serving, who has been very good to you. Pray apply yourself as you used to do; I shall not take it ill from you in the least.'

"Upon this, I went to wait on my Lord-Treasurer, who received me with great freedom, and told me smiling, he had not seen me a long while. I told his lordship very frankly the occasion. That the unhappy breach that had fallen out, had made me doubtful whether I should be acceptable to his lordship. That I knew it was usual, when great persons fall, that all who were in their interest fell with them. That his lordship knew the obligations I was under, and that I could not but fear my interest in his lordship was lessened on that account. Not all, Mr. De Foe,' replied his lordship, I always think a man honest, till I find to the contrary. Upon this, I attended his lordship as usual; and being resolved to remove all possible ground of suspicion that I kept any secret correspondence, I never visited, or wrote to, or any way corresponded with my principal benefactor, for above three years; which he so well knew the reason of, and so well approved that punctual behaviour in me, that he never took it ill from me at all.

"In consequence of this reception, my Lord Godolphin had the goodness, not only to introduce me for the second time to her majesty, and to the honour of kissing her hand, but obtained for me the continuance of an appointment which her majesty had been pleased to make me, in consideration of a former special service I had done, and in which I had run as much risk of my life, as a grenadier upon the counterscarp; and which appointment, however, was first obtained

IN FAVOUR WITH LORD GODOLPHIN.

9 for me at the intercession of my said first benefactor, and is all owing to that intercession, and her majesty's bounty. Upon this second introduction, her majesty was pleased to tell me, with a goodness peculiar to herself, that she had such satisfaction in my former services, that she had appointed me for another office, which was something nice, and that my Lord-Treasurer should tell me the rest; and so I withdrew. The next day, his lordship ordered me to attend, told me, that he must send me to Scotland, and gave me but three days to prepare myself. Accordingly, I went to Scotland, where neither my business, nor the manner of my discharging it, is material to this tract; nor will it be ever any part of my character, that I reveal what should be concealed. And yet, my errand was such as was far from being unfit for a sovereign to direct, or an honest man to perform ; and the service I did, upon that occasion, as it is not unknown to the greatest man now in the nation, under the king and the prince, so, I dare say, his Grace was never displeased with the part I had in it, and I hope will not forget it.

"These things I mention, upon this account, and no other, viz. to state the obligation I have been in all along to her majesty, personally, and to my first benefactor principally; by which I say, I think I was at least obliged not to act against them, even in those things which I might not approve. Whether I have acted with them farther than I ought, shall be spoken to by itself. Having said thus much of the obligations laid on me, and the persons by whom, I have this only to add, that I think no man will say, a subject could be under greater bonds to his prince, or a private person to a minister of state; and I shall ever preserve this principle, that an honest man cannot be ungrateful to his benefactor."* In this passage, De Foe alludes to the course he pursued during the last four years of this reign,

10

THREATENED INVASION OF THE PRETENDER.

for which he fell under the censure of the Whigs; but his defence against the charges brought against him, will be resumed in its proper place.

In the early part of the year, the government received intelligence of some hostile preparations at Dunkirk, which had for their object the invasion of Scotland. The French king, disheartened by his losses upon the continent, thought that such a diversion, headed by the Pretender, might have a favourable influence upon his affairs; and the opposition which the Scots had so lately offered to the Union, induced him to reckon too hastily upon their assistance. In the month of March, Admiral Fourbin appeared with a French fleet and army, off the Firth of Forth; but finding an English squadron ready to receive him, he steered his course to the north of Scotland, where an immediate insurrection was expected. But in this, also, he was disappointed; for a storm arising, his fleet was driven out to sea, and after braving the element for about a month, he was glad to return to Dunkirk, with the loss of one ship and about four thousand men. De Foe was so fully satisfied of the loyalty of the Scots, that he had no apprehension of the result, should a landing be effected. He thought they had been sufficiently surfeited by the tyranny of the late times, to set at rest any doubt upon the subject; and he recommended that a reward should be issued for the apprehension of the Pretender. He adds, "Let but forty or fifty of the chief heads of clans and known Jacobites, be secured, and he may come when he pleases; he'll meet with but cold entertainment in the north of Britain, in spite of all the imaginary discontents which are suggested by us of that people, of whom we are very forward to be scandalously abusive."*

* Review, iv. 670.

LOYALTY OF THE SCOTS.

11

The loyalty of the Scots having been brought into question in England, upon account of their refusing the abjuration oath, De Foe, who, from a long residence amongst them, was well acquainted with their sentiments, pleads their defence in the following passage: "The scruples raised among the Scots-Presbyterians, against the abjuration, is not from any inclination they have to the Popish Pretender, or any aversion to the present government; but from such circumstances in it, as seem to shock their consciences, in that they may come into such a condition, as may make it impossible to keep it." He therefore urges the government not to press it upon them, as a matter of policy. Grateful for the favours he had received from the Scots, and stimulated by his preference for their church establishment, he rejoices in every opportunity of doing honour to their nation. “I speak it without boasting," says he, "no man has concerned himself more than the author of this paper, to clear up the suspicions entertained among us in England, of the Presbyterians in Scotland joining with the French, and falling in with the Jacobite interest.†

In the midst of the general alarm, at the prospect of an invasion, De Foe published a short tract, intitled, "The union Proverb; viz:

“If Skiddaw has a Cap,

Scruffell wots full well of that."

Setting forth, I. The necessity of uniting. II. The good consequences of uniting. III. The happy union of England and Scotland, in case of a foreign invasion. Felix quem faciunt aliena Pericula cautum. London, 1708." Advertised the 12th of March. In a prefatory address, "To the true British reader," De Foe gives the following explanation of the proverb from Mr. Ray. "Skiddaw and Scruffell, are two neighbouring hills, or high mountains; the one in Cum

12

DE FOE PUBLISHES THE UNION PROVERB.

berland, in England; the other in Anandale, in Scotland: and if the former happens at any time to be capped with clouds or foggy mists, it will not be long ere rain, or the like, falls on the latter. It is also spoken of such who must expect to sympathize in their sufferings, by reason of the vicinity of their habitations." (A)

Our author, thinking the proverb would bear a moral and political accommodation, applies it to the union of the two kingdoms. He says, "It is an excellent lecture of mutual friendship on either side of the Tweed. It ingenuously tells us, what we are to trust to in troublesome times, either of oppression at home, or of miscarriage, affliction, and misfortune, from abroad. It is, likewise, a most politick and prudent caution against foreign invasions. It does not only, and that pathetically too, set forth the necessity of the two kingdoms uniting heartily in all cases of disastrous disturbance, but also manifestly shews the happy consequences of such an entire union, both in point of government and traffick, as will be able to defeat the turbulent designs of our greatest enemies, either in time of peace or of war. This is the main stock on which our common hopes ought

(A) Fuller has the following account of this proverb: "There is an hye hill in Cumberland, called Skiddaw, and another answering thereto, Scruffel by name, in Anandale, in Scotland, and the people dwelling by, have an old rythme,

If Skiddaw hath a cap,
Scruffel wotts full well of that.

Meaning that such the vicinity, (and as I may say, sympathy) betwixt these two hills, that if one be sick with a mist of clouds, the other soon after is sad on the like occasion. Thus none, seeing it now foul weather in Scotland, could expect it fair sunshine in England, but that she must share in the same miseries."-Church Hist. B. xi. p. 167.

The people of Somersetshire, in the vicinity of Yeovil, have a similar proverb :

"When Michael's hill wears a cap,

Martock folks will have a drap."