Chapter XII: Part 12

DEERFIELD, a township of Franklin county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers, about 33 m. N. of Springfield. Pop. (1900) 1969; (1910 U.S. census) 2209. Deerfield is served by the Boston & Maine and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railways. The natural beauty and the historic interest of Deerfield attract many visitors. There are several villages and hamlets in the township, the oldest and most interesting of which is that known as "The Street" or "Old Street." This extends along one wide thoroughfare over a hill and across a plateau or valley that is hemmed in on the E. by a range of highlands known as East Mountain and on the W. by the foothills of Hoosac Mountain. Many of the houses in this village are very old. In Memorial Hall, a building erected in 1797-1798 for the Deerfield academy, the Pocumtuck Valley memorial association (incorporated in 1870) has gathered an interesting collection of colonial and Indian relics. Deerfield was one of the first places in the United States to enter into the modern "arts and crafts movement"; in 1896 many of the old household industries were revived and placed upon a business basis. Most of the work is done by women in the homes. The products, including needlework and embroidery, textiles, rag rugs, netting, wrought iron, furniture, and metal-work in gold and silver embellished with precious and semi-precious stones, are annually exhibited in an old-fashioned house built in 1710, and a large portion of them are sold to tourists. There is an arts and crafts society, but the profits from the sales go entirely to the workers.

The territory which originally constituted the township of Deerfield (known as Pocumtuck until 1674) was a tract of 8000 acres granted in 1654 to the town of Dedham in lieu of 2000 acres previously taken from that town and granted to Rev. John Eliot to further his mission among the Natick Indians. The rights of the Pocumtuck Indians to the Deerfield tract were purchased at about fourpence per acre, settlement was begun upon it in 1669, and the township was incorporated in 1673. For many years, Deerfield was the N.W. frontier settlement of New England. It was slightly fortified at the beginning of King Philip's War, and after an attack by the Indians on the 1st of September 1675 it was garrisoned by a small force under Captain Samuel Appleton. A second attack was made on the 12th of September, and six days later, as Captain Thomas Lothrop and his company were guarding teams that were hauling wheat from Deerfield to the English headquarters at Hadley, they were surprised by Indians in ambush at what has since been known as Bloody Brook (in the village of South Deerfield), and Lothrop and more than sixty of his men were slain. From this time until the end of the war Deerfield was abandoned. In the spring of 1677 a few of the old settlers returned, but on the 19th of September some were killed and the others were captured by a party of Indians from Canada. Resettlement was undertaken again in 1682. On the 15th of September 1694 Deerfield narrowly escaped capture by a force of French and Indians from Canada. In the early morning of the 29th of February 1703-1704, Deerfield was surprised by a force of French and Indians (under Hertel de Rouville), who murdered 49 men, women and children, captured 111, burned the town, and on the way back to Canada murdered 20 of the captured. Among the captives was the Rev. John Williams (1664-1729), the first minister of Deerfield, who (with the other captives) was redeemed in 1706 and continued as pastor here until his death; in 1707 he published an account of his experiences as a prisoner, _The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion_, which has frequently been reprinted. From the original township of Deerfield the territory of the following townships has been taken: Greenfield (1753 and 1896), Conway (1767, 1791 and 1811), Shelburne (1768) and a part of Whately (1810).

See George Sheldon, _A History of Deerfield_ (Deerfield, 1895); the
_History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association_
(Deerfield, 1890 et seq.); and Pauline C. Bouve, "The Deerfield
Renaissance," in _The New England Magazine_ for October 1905.

DEER PARK, an enclosure of rough wooded pastureland for the accommodation of red- or fallow-deer. The distinction between a deer "park" and a deer "forest" is that the former is always enclosed either by a wall or fence, and is relatively small, whereas the forest covers a much larger area, and is not only open but sometimes contains practically no trees at all. Originally, the possession of a deer park in England was a royal prerogative, and no subject could enclose one without a direct grant from the crown--a licence to impark, like a licence to embattle a house, was always necessary. When Domesday Book was compiled, there were already thirty-one deer parks in England, some of which may have existed in Saxon times; about one-fourth of them belonged to the king. After the Conquest they increased rapidly in number, but from about the middle of the 11th century this tendency was reversed. In the middle of the 16th century it was conjectured that one-twentieth of England and Wales was given up to deer and rabbits. Upon Saxton's maps, which were made between 1575 and 1580, over 700 parks are marked, and it is not improbable that the number was understated. Mr Evelyn Philip Shirley enumerated only 334 in his book on _English Deer Parks_ published in 1867. To these Mr Joseph Whitaker, in _A Descriptive List of the Deer Parks of England_ (1892), has added another fifty, and the total is believed to be now about 400. It is a curious circumstance that despite the rather minute detail of Domesday none of the parks there enumerated can now be identified. There is, however, a plausible case for Eridge Park in Sussex as the Reredfelle of Domesday. The state and consequence of the great barons of the middle ages depended in some measure upon the number of deer parks which they possessed. Most bishops and abbots had one or two, and at one time more than twenty were attached to the archbishopric of Canterbury. When the power of the barons was finally broken and a more settled period began with the accession of the house of Tudor, the deer park began to fall into decay. By Queen Elizabeth's time a considerable proportion of the ancestral acres of the great houses had passed into the possession of rich merchants and wealthy wool-staplers, and it had become more profitable to breed bullocks than to find pasture for deer, and even where the new men retained, and even in some cases created, deer parks, they reduced their area in order that more land might be available for grazing or for corn. Thus began that decadence of the deer park which has continued down to the present time. More than anything, however, the strife between Charles I. and parliament contributed to reduce both the number and size of English parks containing deer. By the Restoration the majority of the parks in England had for the time being been destroyed, the palings pulled down, the trees felled, and the deer stolen. Of the duke of Newcastle's eight parks seven were ruined, that at Welbeck alone remaining intact. Not a tree was left in Clipston Park, although the timber had been valued at L20,000. One of the results of the Restoration was to empty the parks of the Roundhead squires to replenish those of the Royalists, but this measure helped little, and great numbers of deer had to be brought from Germany to replenish the depleted stocks. A gentleman of the Isle of Ely was indeed given a baronetcy in return for a large present of deer which he made to Charles II. The largest existing deer park in England is that at Savernake (4000 acres), next comes Windsor, which contains about 2600 acres in addition to the 1450 acres of Windsor Forest. Lord Egerton of Tatton's park at Tatton in Cheshire, and Lord Abergavenny's at Eridge, each contain about 2500 acres. Other parks which are much about the same size are those of Blenheim, Richmond, Eastwell, Duncombe, Grimsthorpe, Thoresby and Knowsley. All these parks are famous either for their size, their beauty, or the number and long descent of the deer which inhabit them. The size of English parks devoted to deer varies from that of these historic examples down to a very few acres. A small proportion of the older enclosures contains red- as well as fallow-deer. In some of the larger ones many hundreds of head browse, whereas those of the smallest size may have only a dozen or two. Although many enclosures were disparked in very recent times, the 19th century saw the making of a considerable number of new ones, usually of small dimensions. The tendency, however, is still towards diminution both in number and extent, cattle taking the place of deer.

DEFAMATION (from the classical Lat. _diffamare_, to spread abroad an evil report--the English form in _de_ is taken from the Late Lat. _defamare_), the saying or writing something of another, calculated to injure his reputation or expose him to public hatred, contempt and ridicule. (See LIBEL AND SLANDER.)

DEFAULT (Fr. _defaut_, from _defailler_, to fail, Lat. _fallere_), in English law, a failure to do some act required by law either as a regular step in procedure or as being a duty imposed. Parties in an action may be in default as to procedure by failure to appear to the writ, or to take some other step, within the prescribed time. In such cases the opposing party gains some advantage by being allowed to sign judgment or otherwise. But as a rule, unless the party is much in default and is under a peremptory order to proceed, the penalty for default is by order to pay the costs occasioned. When there is default in complying with the terms of a judgment the remedy is by executing it by one of the processes admitted by the law. (See EXECUTION.) In the case of judgments in criminal or quasi-criminal cases, where a fine is imposed, it is in most cases legal and usual to order imprisonment if the fine is not paid or if the property of the defendant is insufficient to realize its amount. Default in compliance with a statute renders the defaulter liable to action by the person aggrieved or to indictment if the matter of command is of public concern, subject in either case to the qualification that the statute may limit the remedy for the default to some particular proceeding specifically indicated; and in some instances, e.g. in the case of local authorities, default in the execution of their public duties is dealt with administratively by a department of the government, and only in the last resort, if at all, by recourse to judicial tribunals.

DEFEASANCE, or DEFEAZANCE (Fr. _defaire_, to undo), in law, an instrument which defeats the force or operation of some other deed or estate; as distinguished from _condition_, that which in the same deed is called a condition is a defeasance in another deed. A defeasance should recite the deed to be defeated and its date, and it must be made between the same parties as are interested in the deed to which it is collateral. It must be of a thing defeasible, and all the conditions must be strictly carried out before the defeasance can be consummated. Defeasance in a bill of sale is the putting an end to the security by realizing the goods for the benefit of the mortgagee. It is not strictly a defeasance, because the stipulation is in the same deed; it is really a condition in the nature of a defeasance.

DEFENCE (Lat. _defendere_, to defend), in general, a keeping off or defending, a justification, protection or guard. Physical defence of self is the right of every man, even to the employment of force, in warding off an attack. A person attacked may use such force as he believes to be necessary for the warding off an attack, even to the extent of killing an assailant. The same right of reciprocal defence extends not only to defence of one's own person, but also to the defence of a husband or wife, parent or child, master or servant. (See ASSAULT; HOMICIDE.) As a legal term in English pleading, "defence" means the denial by the party proceeded against of the validity of a charge, or the steps taken by an accused person or his legal advisers for defending himself. In civil actions, a statement of defence is the second step in proceedings, being the answer of the defendant to the plaintiff's statement of claim. In the statement of defence must be set out every material fact upon which the defendant intends to rely at the trial. Every fact alleged in the statement of claim must be dealt with, and either admitted or denied; further facts may be pleaded in answer to those admitted; the whole pleading of the plaintiff may be objected to as insufficient in law, or a set-off or counter-claim may be advanced. A statement of defence must be delivered within ten days from the delivery of the statement of claim, or appearance if no statement of claim be delivered.

By the Poor Prisoners' Defence Act 1903, where it appears, having regard to the nature of the defence set up by any poor prisoner, as disclosed in the evidence given or statement made by him before the committing justices, that it is desirable in the interests of justice that he should have legal aid in the preparation and conduct of his defence, and that his means are insufficient to enable him to obtain such aid, it may be ordered either (1) on committal for trial by the committing justices, or (2) after reading the depositions by the judge or quarter sessions chairman. The defence includes the services of solicitor and counsel and the expenses of witnesses, the cost being payable in the same manner as the expenses of a prosecution for felony. Briefly, the object of the act is, not to give a prisoner legal assistance to find out if he has got a defence, but in order that a prisoner who has a defence may have every inducement to tell the truth about it at the earliest opportunity. Legal assistance under the act is only given where both (1) the nature of the defence as disclosed is such that in the interests of justice the prisoner should have legal aid to make his defence clear, and (2) where also his means are insufficient for that end (Lord Alverstone, C. J., at Warwick Summer Assizes, _The Times_, July 26, 1904).

DEFENDANT, in law, a person against whom proceedings are instituted or directed; one who is called upon to answer in any suit. At one time the term "defendant" had a narrower meaning, that of a person sued in a personal action only, the corresponding term in a real action being "tenant," but the distinction is now practically disregarded, except in a few states of the United States.

DEFENDER OF THE FAITH (_Fidei Defensor_), a title belonging to the sovereign of England in the same way as _Christianissimus_ belonged to the king of France, and _Catholicus_ belongs to the ruler of Spain. It seems to have been suggested in 1516, and although certain charters have been appealed to in proof of an earlier use of the title, it was first conferred by Pope Leo X. on Henry VIII. The Bull granting the title is dated the 11th of October 1521, and was a reward for the king's treatise, _Assertio, septem sacramentorum_, against Luther. When Henry broke with the papacy, Pope Paul III. deprived him of this designation, but in 1544 the title of "Defender of the Faith" was confirmed to Henry by parliament, and has since been used by all his successors on the English throne.

DEFERENT (Lat. _deferens_, bearing down), in ancient astronomy, the mean orbit of a planet, which carried the epicycle in which the planet revolved. It is now known to correspond to the actual orbit of the planet round the sun.

DEFFAND, MARIE ANNE DE VICHY-CHAMROND, MARQUISE DU (1697-1780), a celebrated Frenchwoman, was born at the chateau of Chamrond near Charolles (department of Saone-et-Loire) of a noble family in 1697. Educated at a convent in Paris, she showed, along with great intelligence, a sceptical and cynical turn of mind. The abbess, alarmed at the freedom of her views, arranged that Massillon should visit and reason with her, but he accomplished nothing. Her parents married her at twenty-one years of age to her kinsman, Jean Baptiste de la Lande, marquis du Deffand, without consulting her inclination. The union proved an unhappy one, and resulted in a separation as early as 1722. Madame du Deffand, young and beautiful, is said by Horace Walpole to have been for a short time the mistress of the regent, the duke of Orleans (Walpole to Gray, January 25, 1766). She appeared in her earlier days to be incapable of any strong attachment, but her intelligence, her cynicism and her _esprit_ made her the centre of attraction of a brilliant circle. In 1721 began her friendship with Voltaire, but their regular correspondence dates only from 1736. She spent much time at Sceaux, at the court of the duchesse du Maine, where she contracted a close friendship with the president Henault. In Paris she was in a sense the rival of Madame Geoffrin, but the members of her salon were drawn from aristocratic society more than from literary cliques. There were, however, exceptions. Voltaire, Montesquieu, Fontenelle and Madame de Staal-Delaunay were among the habitues. When Henault introduced D'Alembert, Madame du Deffand was at once captivated by him. With the encyclopaedists she was never in sympathy, and appears to have tolerated them only for his sake. In 1752 she retired from Paris, intending to spend the rest of her days in the country, but she was persuaded by her friends to return. She had taken up her abode in 1747 in apartments in the convent of St Joseph in the rue St Dominique, which had a separate entrance from the street. When she lost her sight in 1754 she engaged Mademoiselle de Lespinasse to help her in entertaining. This lady's wit made some of the guests, D'Alembert among others, prefer her society to that of Madame du Deffand, and she arranged to receive her friends for an hour before the appearance of her patron. When this state of things was discovered Mademoiselle de Lespinasse was dismissed (1764), but the salon was broken up, for she took with her D'Alembert, Turgot and the literary clique generally. From this time Madame du Deffand very rarely received any literary men. The principal friendships of her later years were with the duchesse de Choiseul and with Horace Walpole. Her affection for the latter, which dated from 1765, was the strongest and most durable of all her attachments. Under the stress of this tardy passion she developed qualities of style and eloquence of which her earlier writings had given little promise. In the opinion of Sainte-Beuve the prose of her letters ranks with that of Voltaire as the best of that classical epoch without excepting any even of the great writers. Walpole refused at first to acknowledge the closeness of their intimacy from an exaggerated fear of the ridicule attaching to her age, but he paid several visits to Paris expressly for the purpose of enjoying her society, and maintained a close and most interesting correspondence with her for fifteen years. She died on the 23rd of September 1780, leaving her dog Tonton to the care of Walpole, who was also entrusted with her papers. Of her innumerable witty sayings the best known is her remark on the cardinal de Polignac's account of St Denis's miraculous walk of two miles with his head in his hands,--_Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute_.

The _Correspondance inedite_ of Madame du Deffand with D'Alembert,
Henault, Montesquieu, and others was published in Paris (2 vols.) in
1809. _Letters of the marquise du Deffand to the Hon. Horace Walpole,
afterwards earl of Orford, from the year 1766 to the year 1780_ (4
vols.), edited, with a biographical sketch, by Miss Mary Berry, were
published in London from the originals at Strawberry Hill in 1810.

The standard edition of her letters is the _Correspondance complete de
la marquise du Deffand ..._ by M. de Lescure (1865); the
_Correspondance inedite_ with M. and Mme de Choiseul and others was
edited in 1859 and again in 1866 by the marquis de Ste-Aulaire. Other
papers of Madame du Deffand obtained at the breaking up of Walpole's
collection are in private hands. Madame du Deffand returned many of
Walpole's letters at his request, and subsequently destroyed those
which she received from him. Those in his possession appear to have
been destroyed after his death by Miss Berry, who printed fragments
from them as footnotes to the edition of 1810. The correspondence
between Walpole and Madame du Deffand thus remains one-sided, but
seven of Walpole's letters to her are printed for the first time in
the edition (1903) of his correspondence by Mrs Paget Toynbee, who
discovered a quantity of her unedited letters. See Sainte-Beuve,
_Causeries du lundi_, vols. i. and xiv.; and the notice by M. de
Lescure in his edition of the correspondence.

DEFIANCE, a city and the county seat of Defiance county, Ohio, U.S.A., at the confluence of the Auglaize and Tiffin rivers with the Maumee, about 50 m. S.W. of Toledo. Pop. (1890) 7694; (1900) 7579 (960 foreign-born); (1910) 7327. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio and the Wabash railways, and by the Ohio Electric railway to Lima (42 m.). The city commands a fine view of the rivers and the surrounding country, which is well adapted to agriculture; and has large machine shops and several flour mills, besides manufactories of agricultural implements, waggons, sashes and blinds, and wood-working machinery for the manufacture of artillery wheels. Here, too, is Defiance College, an institution of the Christian Denomination, opened in 1885. Defiance was long the site of an Indian village. In 1794 General Anthony Wayne built a fort here and named it Defiance. In 1822 Defiance was laid out as a town; in 1845 it was made the county seat of the newly erected county; and in 1881 it became a city of the second class.

DEFILE, a military expression for a passage, to march through which troops are compelled to "defile," or narrow their front (from the Fr. _defiler_, to march in a line, or by "files"). The word is usually applied to a ravine or gorge in a range of hills, but a causeway over a river, a bridge and even a village may equally be called a defile. The term is also used to express, without any special reference to military operations, a gorge in mountains. The verb "to defile" is used of troops marching on a narrow front, or narrowing their front, under all circumstances, and in this sense is the contrary of "deploy."

"Defile," in the sense of "pollute," is another form of "defoul"; though spelt alike, the two words are pronounced differently, the accent being on the first syllable for the former and on the second for the latter.

DEFINITION (Lat. _definitio_, from _de-finire_, to set limits to, describe), a logical term used popularly for the process of explaining, or giving the meaning of, a word, and also in the concrete for the proposition or statement in which that explanation is expressed. In logic, definition consists in determining the qualities which belong to given concepts or universals; it is not concerned with individuals, which are marked by an infinity of peculiarities, any one or all of which might be predicated of another individual. Individuals can be defined only in so far as they belong to a single kind. According to Aristotle, definition is the statement of the essence of a concept ([Greek: horismos men gar tou ti esti kai ousias], _Posterior Analytics_, B iii. 90 b 30); that is, it consists of the genus and the differentia. In other words, "man" is defined as "animal _plus_ rationality," or "rational animal,"[1] i.e. the concept is (1) referred to the next higher genus, and (2) distinguished from other modes in which that genus exists, i.e. from other species. It is sometimes argued that, there being no definition of individuals as such, definition is of names (see J. S. Mill, _Logic_, i. viii. 5), not of things; it is generally, however, maintained that definition is _of things, regarded as, or in so far as they are, of a kind_. Definition of words can be nothing more than the explanation of terms such as is given in a dictionary.

The following rules are generally given as governing accurate definition. (1) _The definition must be equivalent or commensurate with that which is defined_; it must be applicable to all the individuals included in the concept and to nothing else. Every man, and nothing else, is a rational animal. "Man is mortal" is not a definition, for mortality is predicable of irrational animals. (2) _The definition must state the essential attributes_; a concept cannot be defined by its accidental attributes; those attributes must be given which are essential and primary. (3) _The definition must be per genus et differentiam_ (or _differentias_), as we have already seen. These are the important rules. Three minor rules are: (4) _The definition must not contain the name of the concept to be defined_; if it does, no information is given. Such a proposition as "an archdeacon is one who performs archidiaconal functions" is not a definition. Concepts cannot be defined by their correlatives. Such a definition is known as a _circulus in definiendo_. (5) _Obscure and figurative language must be avoided_, and (6) _Definitions must not be in the negative when they can be in the affirmative_.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] "Rational animal" is thus the predicate of the statement
constituting the definition. Sometimes the word "definition" is used
to signify merely the predicate.

DEFOE, DANIEL (c. 1659-1731), English author, was born in the parish of St Giles, Cripplegate, London, in the latter part of 1659 or early in 1660, of a nonconformist family. His grandfather, Daniel Foe, lived at Etton, Northamptonshire, apparently in comfortable circumstances, for he is said to have kept a pack of hounds. As to the variation of name, Defoe or Foe, its owner signed either indifferently till late in life, and where his initials occur they are sometimes D. F. and sometimes D. D. F. Three autograph letters of his are extant, all addressed in 1705 to the same person, and signed respectively D. Foe, de Foe and Daniel Defoe. His father, James Foe, was a butcher and a citizen of London.

Daniel was well educated at a famous dissenting academy, Mr Charles Morton's of Stoke Newington, where many of the best-known nonconformists of the time were his schoolfellows. With few exceptions all the known events of Defoe's life are connected with authorship. In the older catalogues of his works two pamphlets, _Speculum Crapegownorum_, a satire on the clergy, and _A Treatise against the Turks_, are attributed to him before the accession of James II., but there seems to be no publication of his which is certainly genuine before _The Character of Dr Annesley_ (1697). He had, however, before this, taken up arms in Monmouth's expedition, and is supposed to have owed his lucky escape from the clutches of the king's troops and the law, to his being a Londoner, and therefore a stranger in the west country. On the 26th of January 1688 he was admitted a liveryman of the city of London, having claimed his freedom by birth. Before his western escapade he had taken up the business of hosiery factor. At the entry of William and Mary into London he is said to have served as a volunteer trooper "gallantly mounted and richly accoutred." In these days he lived at Tooting, and was instrumental in forming a dissenting congregation there. His business operations at this period appear to have been extensive and various. He seems to have been a sort of commission merchant, especially in Spanish and Portuguese goods, and at some time to have visited Spain on business. In 1692 he failed for L17,000. His misfortunes made him write both feelingly and forcibly on the bankruptcy laws; and although his creditors accepted a composition, he afterwards honourably paid them in full, a fact attested by independent and not very friendly witnesses. Subsequently, he undertook first the secretaryship and then the management and chief ownership of some tile-works at Tilbury, but here also he was unfortunate, and his imprisonment in 1703 brought the works to a standstill, and he lost L3000. From this time forward we hear of no settled business in which he engaged.

The course of Defoe's life was determined about the middle of the reign of William III. by his introduction to that monarch and other influential persons. He frequently boasts of his personal intimacy with the "glorious and immortal" king, and in 1695 he was appointed accountant to the commissioners of the glass duty, an office which he held for four years. During this time he produced his _Essay on Projects_ (1698), containing suggestions on banks, road-management, friendly and insurance societies of various kinds, idiot asylums, bankruptcy, academies, military colleges, high schools for women, &c. It displays Defoe's lively and lucid style in full vigour, and abounds with ingenious thoughts and apt illustrations, though it illustrates also the unsystematic character of his mind. In the same year Defoe wrote the first of a long series of pamphlets on the then burning question of occasional conformity. In this, for the first time, he showed the unlucky independence which, in so many other instances, united all parties against him. While he pointed out to the dissenters the scandalous inconsistency of their playing fast and loose with sacred things, yet he denounced the impropriety of requiring tests at all. In support of the government he published, in 1698, _An Argument for a Standing Army_, followed in 1700 by a defence of William's war policy called _The Two Great Questions considered_, and a set of pamphlets on the Partition Treaty. Thus in political matters he had the same fate as in ecclesiastical; for the Whigs were no more prepared than the Tories to support William through thick and thin. He also dealt with the questions of stock-jobbing and of electioneering corruption. But his most remarkable publication at this time was _The True-Born Englishman_ (1701), a satire in rough but extremely vigorous verse on the national objection to William as a foreigner, and on the claim of purity of blood for a nation which Defoe chooses to represent as crossed and dashed with all the strains and races in Europe. He also took a prominent part in the proceedings which followed the Kentish petition, and was the author, some say the presenter, of the _Legion Memorial_, which asserted in the strongest terms the supremacy of the electors over the elected, and of which even an irate House of Commons did not dare to take much notice. The theory of the indefeasible supremacy of the freeholders of England, whose delegates merely, according to this theory, the Commons were, was one of Defoe's favourite political tenets, and he returned to it in a powerfully written tract entitled _The Original Power of the Collective Body of the People of England examined and asserted_ (1701).

At the same time he was occupied in a controversy on the conformity question with John How (or Howe) on the practice of "occasional conformity." Defoe maintained that the dissenters who attended the services of the English Church on particular occasions to qualify themselves for office were guilty of inconsistency. At the same time he did not argue for the complete abolition of the tests, but desired that they should be so framed as to make it possible for most Protestants conscientiously to subscribe to them. Here again his moderation pleased neither party.

The death of William was a great misfortune to Defoe, and he soon felt the power of his adversaries. After publishing _The Mock Mourners_, intended to satirize and rebuke the outbreak of Jacobite joy at the king's death, he turned his attention once more to ecclesiastical subjects, and, in an evil hour for himself, wrote the anonymous _Shortest Way with the Dissenters_ (1702), a statement in the most forcible terms of the extreme "high-flying" position, which some high churchmen were unwary enough to endorse, without any suspicion of the writer's ironical intention. The author was soon discovered; and, as he absconded, an advertisement was issued offering a reward for his apprehension, and giving the only personal description we possess of him, as "a middle-sized spare man about forty years old, of a brown complexion and dark brown-coloured hair, but wears a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth." In this conjuncture Defoe had really no friends, for the dissenters were as much alarmed at his book as the high-flyers were irritated. He surrendered, and his defence appears to have been injudiciously conducted; at any rate he was fined 200 marks, and condemned to be pilloried three times, to be imprisoned indefinitely, and to find sureties for his good behaviour during seven years. It was in reference to this incident that Pope, whose Catholic rearing made him detest the abettor of the Revolution and the champion of William of Orange, wrote in the _Dunciad_--

"Earless on high stands unabash'd Defoe"

--though he knew that the sentence to the pillory had long ceased to entail the loss of ears. Defoe's exposure in the pillory (July 29, 30, 31) was, however, rather a triumph than a punishment, for the populace took his side; and his _Hymn to the Pillory_, which he soon after published, is one of the best of his poetical works. Unluckily for him his condemnation had the indirect effect of destroying his business at Tilbury.

He remained in prison until August 1704, and then owed his release to the intercession of Robert Harley, who represented his case to the queen, and obtained for him not only liberty but pecuniary relief and employment, which, of one kind or another, lasted until the termination of Anne's reign. Defoe was uniformly grateful to the minister, and his language respecting him is in curious variance with that generally used. There is no doubt that Harley, who understood the influence wielded by Defoe, made some conditions. Defoe says he received no pension, but his subsequent fidelity was at all events indirectly rewarded; moreover, Harley's moderation in a time of the extremest party-insanity was no little recommendation to Defoe. During his imprisonment he was by no means idle. A spurious edition of his works having been issued, he himself produced a collection of twenty-two treatises, to which some time afterwards he added a second group of eighteen more. He also wrote in prison many short pamphlets, chiefly controversial, published a curious work on the famous storm of the 26th of November 1703, and started in February 1704 perhaps the most remarkable of all his projects, _The Review_. This was a paper which was issued during the greater part of its life three times a week. It was entirely written by Defoe, and extends to eight complete volumes and some few score numbers of a second issue. He did not confine himself to news, but wrote something very like finished essays on questions of policy, trade and domestic concerns; he also introduced a "Scandal Club," in which minor questions of manners and morals were treated in a way which undoubtedly suggested the _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_ which followed. Only one complete copy of the work is known to exist, and that is in the British Museum. It is probable that if bulk, rapidity of production, variety of matter, originality of design, and excellence of style be taken together, hardly any author can show a work of equal magnitude. After his release Defoe went to Bury St Edmunds, though he did not interrupt either his _Review_ or his occasional pamphlets. One of these, _Giving Alms no Charity, and Employing the Poor a Grievance to the Nation_ (1704), is extraordinarily far-sighted. It denounces both indiscriminate alms-giving and the national work-shops proposed by Sir Humphrey Mackworth.

In 1705 appeared _The Consolidator, or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon_, a political satire which is supposed to have given some hints for Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_; and at the end of the year Defoe performed a secret mission, the first of several of the kind, for Harley. In 1706 appeared the _True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs Veal_, long supposed to have been written for a bookseller to help off an unsaleable translation of Drelincourt, _On Death_, but considerable doubt has been cast upon this by William Lee. Defoe's next work was _Jure divino_, a long poetical argument in (bad) verse; and soon afterwards (1706) he began to be much employed in promoting the union with Scotland. Not only did he write pamphlets as usual on the project, and vigorously recommend it in _The Review_, but in October 1706 he was sent on a political mission to Scotland by Sidney Godolphin, to whom Harley had recommended him. He resided in Edinburgh for nearly sixteen months, and his services to the government were repaid by a regular salary. He seems to have devoted himself to commercial and literary as well as to political matters, and prepared at this time his elaborate _History of the Union_, which appeared in 1709. In this year Henry Sacheverell delivered his famous sermons, and Defoe wrote several tracts about them and attacked the preacher in his _Review_.

In 1710 Harley returned to power, and Defoe was placed in a somewhat awkward position. To Harley himself he was bound by gratitude and by a substantial agreement in principle, but with the rest of the Tory ministry he had no sympathy. He seems, in fact, to have agreed with the foreign policy of the Tories and with the home policy of the Whigs, and naturally incurred the reproach of time-serving and the hearty abuse of both parties. At the end of 1710 he again visited Scotland. In the negotiations concerning the Peace of Utrecht, Defoe strongly supported the ministerial side, to the intense wrath of the Whigs, displayed in an attempted prosecution against some pamphlets of his on the all-important question of the succession. Again the influence of Harley saved him. He continued, however, to take the side of the dissenters in the questions affecting religious liberty, which played such a prominent part towards the close of Anne's reign. He naturally shared Harley's downfall; and, though the loss of his salary might seem a poor reward for his constant support of the Hanoverian claim, it was little more than his ambiguous, not to say trimming, position must have led him to expect.

Defoe declared that Lord Annesley was preparing the army in Ireland to join a Jacobite rebellion, and was indicted for libel; and prior to his trial (1715) he published an apologia entitled _An Appeal to Honour and Justice_, in which he defended his political conduct. Having been convicted of the libel he was liberated later in the year under circumstances that only became clear in 1864, when six letters were discovered in the Record Office from Defoe to a Government official, Charles Delafaye, which, according to William Lee, established the fact that in 1718 at least Defoe was doing not only political work, but that it was of a somewhat equivocal kind--that he was, in fact, sub-editing the Jacobite _Mist's Journal_, under a secret agreement with the government that he should tone down the sentiments and omit objectionable items. He had, in fact, been released on condition of becoming a government agent. He seems to have performed the same not very honourable office in the case of two other journals--_Dormer's Letter_ and the _Mercurius Politicus_; and to have written in these and other papers until nearly the end of his life. Before these letters were discovered it was supposed that Defoe's political work had ended in 1715.

Up to that time Defoe had written nothing but occasional literature, and, except the _History of the Union_ and _Jure Divino_, nothing of any great length. In 1715 appeared the first volume of _The Family Instructor_, which was very popular during the 18th century. The first volume of his most famous work, the immortal story--partly adventure, partly moralizing--of _The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe_, was published on the 25th of April 1719. It ran through four editions in as many months, and then in August appeared the second volume. Twelve months afterwards the sequel _Serious Reflections_, now hardly ever reprinted, appeared. Its connexion with the two former parts is little more than nominal, Crusoe being simply made the mouth-piece of Defoe's sentiments on various points of morals and religion. Meanwhile the first two parts were reprinted as a _feuilleton_ in _Heathcote's Intelligencer_, perhaps the earliest instance of the appearance of such a work in such a form. The story was founded on Dempier's _Voyage round the World_ (1697), and still more on Alexander Selkirk's adventures, as communicated by Selkirk himself at a meeting with Defoe at the house of Mrs Damaris Daniel at Bristol. Selkirk afterwards told Mrs Daniel that he had handed over his papers to Defoe. _Robinson Crusoe_ was immediately popular, and a wild story was set afloat of its having been written by Lord Oxford in the Tower. A curious idea, at one time revived by Henry Kingsley, is that the adventures of Robinson are allegorical and relate to Defoe's own life. This idea was certainly entertained to some extent at the time, and derives some colour of justification from words of Defoe's, but there seems to be no serious foundation for it. _Robinson Crusoe_ (especially the story part, with the philosophical and religious moralizings largely cut out) is one of the world's classics in fiction. Crusoe's shipwreck and adventures, his finding the footprint in the sand, his man "Friday,"--the whole atmosphere of romance which surrounds the position of the civilized man fending for himself on a desert island--these have made Defoe's great work an imperishable part of English literature. Contemporaneously appeared _The Dumb Philosopher_, or _Dickory Cronke_, who gains the power of speech at the end of his life and uses it to predict the course of European affairs.

In 1720 came _The Life and Adventures of Mr Duncan Campbell_. This was not entirely a work of imagination, its hero, the fortune-teller, being a real person. There are amusing passages in the story, but it is too desultory to rank with Defoe's best. In the same year appeared two wholly or partially fictitious histories, each of which might have made a reputation for any man. The first was the _Memoirs of a Cavalier_, which Lord Chatham believed to be true history, and which William Lee considers the embodiment at least of authentic private memoirs. The Cavalier was declared at the time to be Andrew Newport, made Lord Newport in 1642. His elder brother was born in 1620 and the Cavalier gives 1608 as the date of his birth, so that the facts do not fit the dates. It is probable that Defoe, with his extensive acquaintance with English history, and his astonishing power of working up details, was fully equal to the task of inventing it. As a model of historical work of a certain kind it is hardly surpassable, and many separate passages--accounts of battles and skirmishes--have never been equalled except by Carlyle. _Captain Singleton_, the last work of the year, has been unjustly depreciated by most of the commentators. The record of the journey across Africa, with its surprising anticipations of subsequent discoveries, yields in interest to no work of the kind known to us; and the semi-piratical Quaker who accompanies Singleton in his buccaneering expeditions is a most life-like character. There is also a Quaker who plays a very creditable part in _Roxana_ (1724), and Defoe seems to have been well affected to the Friends. In estimating this wonderful productiveness on the part of a man sixty years old, it should be remembered that it was a habit of Defoe's to keep his work in manuscript sometimes for long periods.

In 1721 nothing of importance was produced, but in the next twelvemonth three capital works appeared. These were _The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders_, _The Journal of the Plague Year_, and _The History of Colonel Jack_. _Moll Flanders_ and _The Fortunate Mistress_ (Roxana), which followed in 1724, have subjects of a rather more than questionable character, but both display the remarkable art with which Defoe handles such subjects. It is not true, as is sometimes said, that the difference between the two is that between gross and polished vice. The real difference is much more one of morals than of manners. Moll is by no means of the lowest class. Notwithstanding the greater degradation into which she falls, and her originally dependent position, she has been well educated, and has consorted with persons of gentle birth. She displays throughout much greater real refinement of feeling than the more high-flying Roxana, and is at any rate flesh and blood, if the flesh be somewhat frail and the blood somewhat hot. Neither of the heroines has any but the rudiments of a moral sense; but Roxana, both in her original transgression and in her subsequent conduct, is actuated merely by avarice and selfishness--vices which are peculiarly offensive in connexion with her other failing, and which make her thoroughly repulsive. The art of both stories is great, and that of the episode of the daughter Susannah in _Roxana_ is consummate; but the transitions of the later plot are less natural than those in _Moll Flanders_. It is only fair to notice that while the latter, according to Defoe's more usual practice, is allowed to repent and end happily, Roxana is brought to complete misery; Defoe's morality, therefore, required more repulsiveness in one case than in the other.

In the _Journal of the Plague Year_, more usually called, from the title of the second edition, _A History of the Plague_, the accuracy and apparent veracity of the details is so great that many persons have taken it for an authentic record, while others have contended for the existence of such a record as its basis. But here too the genius of Mrs Veal's creator must, in the absence of all evidence to the contrary, be allowed sufficient for the task. _The History of Colonel Jack_ is an unequal book. There is hardly in _Robinson Crusoe_ a scene equal, and there is consequently not in English literature a scene superior, to that where the youthful pickpocket first exercises his trade, and then for a time loses his ill-gotten gains. But a great part of the book, especially the latter portion, is dull; and in fact it may be generally remarked of Defoe that the conclusions of his tales are not equal to the beginning, perhaps from the restless indefatigability with which he undertook one work almost before finishing another.

To this period belong his stories of famous criminals, of Jack Sheppard (1724), of Jonathan Wild (1725), of the Highland Rogue i.e. Rob Roy (1723). The pamphlet on the first of these Defoe maintained to be a transcript of a paper which he persuaded Sheppard to give to a friend at his execution.

In 1724 appeared also the first volume of _A Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain_, which was completed in the two following years. Much of the information in this was derived from personal experience, for Defoe claims to have made many more tours and visits about England than those of which we have record; but the major part must necessarily have been dexterous compilation. In 1725 appeared _A New Voyage round the World_, apparently entirely due to the author's own fertile imagination and extensive reading. It is full of his peculiar verisimilitude and has all the interest of Anson's or Dampier's voyages, with a charm of style superior even to that of the latter.

In 1726 Defoe published a curious and amusing little pamphlet entitled _Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business, or Private Abuses Public Grievances, exemplified in the Pride, Insolence, and Exorbitant Wages of our Women-Servants, Footmen, &c._ This subject was a favourite one with him, and in the pamphlet he showed the immaturity of his political views by advocating legislative interference in these matters. Towards the end of this same year _The Complete English Tradesman_, which may be supposed to sum up the experience of his business life, appeared, and its second volume followed two years afterwards. This book has been variously judged. It is generally and traditionally praised, but those who have read it will be more disposed to agree with Charles Lamb, who considers it "of a vile and debasing tendency," and thinks it "almost impossible to suppose the author in earnest." The intolerable meanness advocated for the sake of the paltriest gains, the entire ignoring of any pursuit in life except money-getting, and the representation of the whole duty of man as consisting first in the attainment of a competent fortune, and next, when that fortune has been attained, in spending not more than half of it, are certainly repulsive enough. But there are no reasons for thinking the performance ironical or insincere, and it cannot be doubted that Defoe would have been honestly unable even to understand Lamb's indignation. To 1726 also belongs _The Political History of the Devil_. This is a curious book, partly explanatory of Defoe's ideas on morality, and partly belonging to a series of demonological works which he wrote, and of which the chief others are _A System of Magic_ (1726), and _An Essay on the History of Apparitions_ (1728), issued the year before under another title. In all these works his treatment is on the whole rational and sensible; but in _The History of the Devil_ he is somewhat hampered by an insufficiently worked-out theory as to the nature and personal existence of his hero, and the manner in which he handles the subject is an odd and not altogether satisfactory mixture of irony and earnestness. _A Plan of English Commerce_, containing very enlightened views on export trade, appeared in 1728.

During the years from 1715 to 1728 Defoe had issued pamphlets and minor works too numerous to mention. The only one of them perhaps which requires notice is _Religious Courtship_ (1722), a curious series of dialogues displaying Defoe's unaffected religiosity, and at the same time the rather meddling intrusiveness with which he applied his religious notions. This was more flagrantly illustrated in one of his latest works, _The Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed_ (1727), which was originally issued with a much more offensive name, and has been called "an excellent book with an improper title." The _Memoirs of Captain Carleton_ (1728) were long attributed to Defoe, but the internal evidence is strongly against his authorship. They have been also attributed to Swift, with greater probability as far as style is concerned. _The Life of Mother Ross_, reprinted in Bohn's edition, has no claim whatever to be considered Defoe's.