Note 35 — THE LIFE OF DE FOE, BY GEORGE CHALMERS, ESQ.

The collection contains the following pieces: 1. The True-born Englishman. 2. The Mock Mourners. 3. Reformation of Manners. 4. Character of Dr. Annesley. 5. The Spanish Descent. 6. Original Power of the People of England. 7. The Freeholders' Plea. 8. Reasons against a War with France. 9. Argument on a Standing Army. 10. Danger of the Protestant Religion. 11. Villany of Stock-jobbers. 12. Six Distinguishing Characters of a Parliament Man. 13. Poor Man's Plea. 14. Inquiry into Occasional Conformity; with a Preface to Mr. How. 15. Letter to Mr. How, by way of Reply to his Considerations on the Preface. 16. Two Great Questions considered. 17. Two Great Questions further considered. 18. Inquiry into Occasional Conformity. 19. New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty. 20. Shortest Way with the Dissenters. 21. Brief Explanation of the Shortest Way. 22. Shortest Way to Peace and Union. In the year 1705, another and fuller edition of his works was published. In 1703, and before the publication of the Review, next referred to by Mr. Chalmers, De Foe wrote More Short Ways with the Dissenters, a pamphlet chiefly intended to vindicate the system of education then pursued among the dissenters, and which had been impugned for its alleged disloyalty by the Rev. Samuel Wesley. It was in this work that De Foe so generously alluded to his old master, Mr. Morton, in the passage we have referred to, supra, p. 3, note [2]. During his confinement he engaged with his usual warmth in the controversies of that time. The old dispute of Occasional Conformity still occupied him. He replied to Mr. Owen's pamphlet, Moderation a Virtue, &c., in The Sincerity of the Dissenters vindicated from the Scandal of Occasional Conformity; with some Considerations on a late book, entituled, Moderation a Virtue. 1703. Several other controvertists took the field. In the course of the same year, anxious to put an end if possible to the furious disputes between the church and dissenters, he published, A Challenge of Peace, addressed to the whole Nation, with an Inquiry into Ways and Means of bringing it to pass; and afterwards replied to sir Humphrey Mackworth's Peace at Home, in a pamphlet entituled, Peace without Union. He also reasserted the great principles advocated in his former work on the Original Power of the People, in another published in 1704, which he called Original Right: or the Reasonableness of Appeals to the People: being an Answer to the First Chapter in Dr. Davenant's Essays, entituled, Peace at Home and War Abroad. In this same year, 1704, he had again to vindicate the dissenters, which he did in his pamphlet, The Dissenters' Answer to the High Church Challenge; and honoured the memory of his royal benefactor, William III., by bearing his testimony to his religious principles, which he did in a pamphlet entitled, Royal Religion. He also maintained the claims of the Scotch dissenters, in a pamphlet called The Liberty of Episcopal Dissenters in Scotland truly stated, 1703. And he had to wield his unwearied pen on behalf of the Irish dissenters, against a bill introduced avowedly to prevent the growth of popery, in which were contained some stringent provisions against the protestant dissenters. De Foe ironically headed his pamphlet, The Parallel: or Persecution of Protestants the Shortest Way to prevent the Growth of Popery in Ireland. 1704.—Ed.