Part 9

166. The Protestant Monastery; or, a Complaint against the Brutality of the present Age, particularly the Pertness and Insolence of our Youth to aged Persons. With a Caution to People in Years how they give the Staff out of their own Hands, and leave themselves at the Mercy of others; concluding with a Proposal for erecting a Protestant Monastery, where Persons of small Fortunes may end their Days in Plenty, Ease, and Credit, without burthening their Relations, or accepting Public Charities. By Andrew Moreton, Esq., Author of 'Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business.' London: printed for W. Meadows, at the Angel, in Cornhill; and other Booksellers. 1727. 8vo. pp. 31.

167. Parochial Tyranny; or, the Housekeeper's Complaint against the insupportable Exactions and partial Assessments of Select Vestries, &c., with a plain Detection of many Abuses committed in the Distribution of Public Charities: together with a practicable Proposal for Amendment of the same, which will not only take off great part of the Parish Taxes now subsisting, but ease Parishioners from serving troublesome offices, or paying exorbitant Fines. By Andrew Moreton, Esq. London: printed for W. Meadows, at the Angel, in Cornhill; and other Booksellers, 8vo.

168. A New Family Instructor. In Familiar Discourses between a Father and his Children, on the most Essential Points of the Christian Religion. In Two Parts. Part I. Containing a Father's Instructions to his Son upon his going to Travel into Popish Countries; and to the rest of his Children on his Son's turning Papist; confirming them in the Protestant Religion, against the Absurdities of Popery. Part II. Instructions against the Three Grand Errors of the Times; viz.: 1. Asserting the Divine Authority of the Scripture against the Deists. 2. Proofs that the Messias is already come, &c.; against the Atheists and Jews. 3. Asserting the Divinity of Jesus Christ, that He was really the same with the Messias, and that Messias was to be really God; against our modern heretics. With a Poem on the Divine Nature of Jesus Christ; in Blank Verse. By the Author of 'The Family Instructor.' London: printed for T. Warner, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster-row. 1727. 8vo. pp. 384.

A second edition, with a varying title, was published in 1732, by C. Rivington and T. Warner. It is there called 'A New Family Instructor: containing a Brief and Clear Defence of the Christian Religion in general, against the Errors of the Atheists, Jews, Deists, and Sceptics: and of the Protestant Religion in particular, against the Superstitions of the Church of Rome. In Familiar Discourses between a Father and his Children. In Two Parts, &c.

169. A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed; showing, 1. The Nature of Matrimony, its sacred Original, and the true Meaning of its Institution. 2. The gross Abuse of Matrimonial Chastity, from the wrong Notions which have possessed the World, degenerating even to Whoredom. 3. The Diabolical Practice of attempting to prevent Child-bearing by Physical Preparations. 4. The fatal Consequences of clandestine or forced Marriages, through the Persuasion, Interest, or Influence of Parents and Relations, to wed the Person they have no Love for, but often an Aversion to. 5. Of unequal Matches as in the Disproportion of Age; and how such many ways occasion a Matrimonial Whoredom. 6. How married Persons may be guilty of Conjugal Lewdness, and that a Man may, in effect, make a Whore of his own Wife. Also many other Particulars of Family concern. London: printed for T. Warner, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster-row. 1727. Price 5s. 8vo. pp. 406.

This work was at first called 'Conjugal Lewdness; or, Matrimonial Whoredom;' but this title being considered offensive to delicacy, the author immediately cancelled it, and substituted the above title.

170. The Complete English Tradesman: in Familiar Letters, directing him in all the several Parts and Professions of Trade; viz.: 1. Of acquainting him with the Business during his Apprenticeship. 2. Of Writing to Correspondents in a Trading Style. 3. Of Diligence and Application, as the Life of all Business. 4. Cautions against Over-trading. 5. Of the ordinary Occasions of a Tradesman's Ruin; such as Expensive Living, too early Marrying, Innocent Diversions, too much Credit, being above Business, Dangerous Partnerships, &c. 6. Directions in several Distresses of a Tradesman, when he comes to fail. 7. Of Tradesmen compounding with other Tradesmen, and why they are so particularly severe upon one another. 8. Of Tradesmen ruining one another by Rumours and Scandal. 9. Of the customary Frauds of Trade, and particularly of Trading Lies. 10. Of Credit, and how it is only to be supported by Honesty. 11. Of Punctual Paying Bills, and thereby Maintaining Credit. 12. Of the Dignity and Honour of Trade in England more than in other Countries. To which is added, a Supplement; containing, 1. A Warning against Tradesmen's borrowing Money upon Interest. 2. A Caution against that destructive Practice of Drawing and Remitting, as also Discounting Promissory Bills, merely for a Supply of Cash. 3. Directions for the Tradesman's Accounts, with brief, but plain Examples and Specimens for Bookkeeping. 4. Of keeping a Duplicate or Pocket Ledger, in case of Fire. London: printed for C. Rivington, at the Bible and Crown, St. Paul's Church-yard. 1727. 8vo. pp. 474.

171. The Complete English Tradesman, Vol. II. In Two Parts. Part I. Directed chiefly to the more experienced Tradesman; with Cautions and Advices to them after they are thriven, and suppose to be grown rich, viz., 1. Against running out of their Business into needless Projects and dangerous Adventures, no Tradesman being above Disaster. 2. Against Oppressing one another by Engrossing, Underselling, Combinations in Trade, &c. 3. Advices, that when he leaves off Business, he should part Friends with the World; the great Advantages of it; with a Word of the scandalous Character of a Purse-proud Tradesman. 4. Against being Litigious and Vexatious, and apt to go to Law for Trifles; with some Reasons why Tradesmen's Differences should, if possible, be all ended by Arbitration. Part II. Being useful generals in Trade, describing the Principles and Foundation of the Home Trade of Great Britain; with large Tables of our Manufactures, Calculations of the Product, Shipping, Carriage of Goods by Land, Importation from Abroad, Consumption at Home, &c., by all which the infinite number of our Tradesmen are employed, and the general Wealth of the Nation raised and increased. The whole calculated for the Use of all our Inland Tradesmen, as well in the City as in the Country. London: Charles Rivington. 1727. 8vo. pp. 474.

172. A Plan of the English Commerce. Being a Complete Prospect of the Trade of this Nation, as well the Home Trade as the Foreign. In Three Parts: 1. Containing a View of the present Magnitude of the English Trade as it respects the Exportation of our own Growth and Manufacture. 2. The Importation of Merchant Goods from Abroad. 3. The prodigious Consumption of both at Home. Part II. Containing an Answer to that great and important Question now depending, whether our Trade, and especially our Manufactures, are in a declining Condition, or no? Part III. Containing several Proposals, entirely new, for Extending and Improving our Trade, and Promoting the Consumption of our Manufactures in Countries wherewith we have hitherto had no Commerce. Humbly offered to the Consideration of King and Parliament. London: printed for Charles Rivington. 1728. 8vo. pp. 368.

To the second edition in 1730, were added 'An Appendix, containing a View of the Increase of Commerce, not only of England, but of all the Trading Nations of Europe since the Peace with Spain.' A third edition in 8vo. was printed by Rivington in 1737; in which it is called, by mistake, the _second_.

173. Augusta Triumphans: or, the Way to make London the most Flourishing City in the Universe. 1. By establishing a University, where Gentlemen may have an Academical Education, under the Eye of their Friends. 2. To prevent much, &c., by an Hospital for Foundlings. 3. By suppressing pretended Mad-Houses, where many of the Fair Sex are unjustly Confined, while their Husbands keep Mistresses, &c., and many Widows are locked up for the sake of their Jointures. 4. To save our Children from Destruction, by clearing the Streets of Impudent Strumpets, suppressing Gambling-Tables, and Sunday Debauches. 5. To avoid the expensive Importation of Foreign Musicians, by forming an Academy of our own. 6. To save our Lower Class of People from utter Ruin, and render them useful, by preventing the immoderate use of Geneva; with a frank Exposure of many other common Abuses, and incontestible Rules for Amendment. Concluding with an effectual Method to prevent Street Robberies; and a Letter to Colonel Robinson, on account of the Orphan's Tax. London: printed for J. Roberts and other Booksellers. 1728. 8vo. pp. 63.

174. Second Thoughts are Best; or, a further Improvement of a late Scheme to prevent Street Robberies. By which our Streets will be so strongly guarded, and so gloriously illuminated, that any part of London will be as safe and pleasant at Midnight as at Noonday, and Burglary totally impracticable. With some Thoughts for suppressing Robberies in all the Public Roads of England, &c. Humbly offered for the Good of his Country, submitted to the Consideration of Parliament, and dedicated to his Sacred Majesty King George II. By Andrew Moreton, Esq. London: printed for W. Meadows, at the Angel, in Cornhill, and sold by J. Roberts, in Warwick-lane. 1729. Price 6d. 8vo. pp. 24.

Besides the above, De Foe left behind him, prepared for the press, a work on the 'Conduct of a Gentleman,' which is now in the possession of Dawson Turner, Esq., of Yarmouth.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is at last discovered, by searching the chamberlain's books, which have since been burnt, that our author was the son of James Foe, of the parish of Cripplegate, London, citizen and butcher; who was himself the son of Daniel Foe, of Elton, in the county of Northampton, yeoman; and who obtained his freedom by serving his apprenticeship with John Levit, citizen and butcher. Daniel Foe, the son of James, was admitted to his freedom by birth, on the 26th of January, 1687-8. I was led to these discoveries by observing that De Foe had voted at an election for a representative of London; whence I inferred, that he must have been a citizen either by birth or service. But in the parish books I could find no notice of his baptism; as his parents were dissenters.

[2] In his preface to More Reformation, De Foe complains, that some dissenters had reproached him, as if he had said, "that the gallows and the galleys ought to be the penalty of going to the conventicle; forgetting, that I must design to have my father, my wife, six innocent children, and myself, put into the same condition. To such dissenters I can only regret," says he, "that when I had drawn the picture, I did not, like the Dutchman with his man and bear, write under them, This is the man; and this is the bear." De Foe expressly admits that he was a dissenter, though no independent-fifth-monarchy man, or leveller. [De Foe, Works, edit. 1703. p. 326-448.] His grandfather, however, seems to have been of different feelings, as he kept a pack of hounds. From this fact it is inferred by his learned and laborious biographer Mr. Walter Wilson, that he was of the royal party, as the puritans did not indulge in that amusement; and also that he moved in a respectable station of life. De Foe himself thus alludes to his grandfather [Review, vol. vii. preface], "I remember my grandfather had a huntsman that used the same familiarity with his dogs, and he had his Roundhead and his Cavalier, his Goring and his Waller, and all the generals of both armies were hounds in his pack, till the times turning, the old gentleman was fain to scatter the pack and make them up of more doglike surnames." It seems also probable, that the property to which De Foe alludes as possessed by himself, was inherited from this grandfather. "I have both a native and an acquired right of election in more than one place in Britain, and as such am a part of the body that honourable house (of commons) represents, and from hence I believe may claim a right in due manner to represent, complain, address, or petition them." [Review, vol. vi. p. 477.] Mr. Wilson corrects the mistake of Mr. Chalmers and other biographers, as to the date of De Foe's birth, which really took place in 1661, and not as stated by them in 1663.--ED.

[3] Works, 3rd. edit. vol. ii. p. 276. He was placed there when about fourteen years old, and appears to have been educated to his own satisfaction in afterlife. He described it as an academy where all the lectures, whether in philosophy or divinity, were given in English, and where consequently "though the scholars were not destitute of the languages, yet it is observed of them that they were by this made masters of the English tongue, and more of them excelled in that particular than of any school at that time." Certainly no man ever better understood how to use plain, racy, thorough English style, than De Foe. But still he was not deficient in learning. He boldly asserts himself on this point, in the passage from which Mr. Chalmers has made an extract in the text: "I have no concern to tell Dr. Browne I can read English, nor to tell Mr. Tutchin, I understand Latin; _non ita Latinus, sum ut Latine loqui_. I easily acknowledge myself blockhead enough to have lost the fluency of expression in the Latin, and so far trade has been a prejudice to me, and yet I think I owe this justice to my ancient father, still living (1705), and in whose behalf I freely testify, that if I am a blockhead, it was nobody's fault but my own; he having spared nothing in my education that might qualify me to match the accurate Dr. Browne, or the learned Observator. As to Mr. Tutchin, I never gave him the least affront; I have, even after base usage, in vain invited him to peace; in answer to which he returns unmannerly insults, calumnies, and reproach. As to my little learning, and his great capacity, I freely challenge him to translate with me any Latin, French, and Italian author, and after that, to retranslate them crossways, for 20_l._ each book; and by this he shall have an opportunity to show the world how much De Foe, the hosier, is inferior in learning to Mr. Tutchin, the gentleman." [Review vol. ii. p. 149.] He also vindicated Mr. Morton's academy from the charge made against it by the Rev. Samuel Wesley, father of the celebrated founder of Methodism, that antimonarchical and unconstitutional doctrines were taught there. De Foe especially denies this. His domestic education seems to have been according to the system then pursued by the strict and pious dissenters. He mentions that he began the task performed by many others of that then persecuted body, of copying the Bible in shorthand, and that he finished the Pentateuch. [Review vol. vi. p. 573.] He was intended for the ministry; but for what reason he relinquished that profession is not known. "It was his disaster," he says, "first, to be set apart for, and then to be set apart from, the honour of that sacred employ."--ED.

[4] Review, vol. ii. p. 150.

[5] Appeal, p. 51. This was not the first occasion of his appearing in print. His earliest effort as an author was an answer to Roger L'Estrange's Guide to the Inferior Clergy, and was intituled, _Speculum Crape Gownorum_; or, A Looking-glass for the Young Academicks, new Foyl'd, with Reflections on some of the late high-flown Sermons; to which is added, An Essay towards a Sermon of the newest fashion. By a Guide to the Inferior Clergy. _Ridentem discere verum, quis vitat?_ It was published in 1682. This work, as might be anticipated, was a satiric attack on the clergy of that day.

De Foe's object in the pamphlet mentioned in the text, was to assert the policy of defending the house of Austria, then closely and vigorously attacked by the Turks. The "prevailing sentiment," referred to by Mr. Chalmers, was a dissatisfaction with the emperor for his cruel persecution of the protestants in Hungary; and which carried the national feeling so far as to make any assistance rendered to the emperor, even against the threatening Turks, extremely unpopular. De Foe, then very young, took the field on the weaker side, and strenuously maintained the danger to Christendom arising from the Mahommedan power being allowed to enter Vienna. Happily, the courage of John Sobieski, king of Poland, prevented that, once imminent, danger. De Foe, in a late period of his life, thus refers to his conduct on this occasion. "The first time I had the misfortune to differ from my friends, was about the year 1683, when the Turks were besieging Vienna, and the whigs in England, generally speaking, were for the Turks taking it; whilst I, having read the history of the cruelty and perfidious dealings of the Turks in their wars, and how they had rooted out the name of the Christian religion in above threescore and ten kingdoms, could by no means agree with, and though then but a young man and a young author, I opposed it and wrote against it, which was taken very unkind indeed." [Vide Appeal to Honour and Justice.]--ED.

[6] Appeal.

[7] The title of De Foe's pamphlet, or pamphlets, on this subject, does not seem to be known, but he more than once in afterlife proudly refers to his efforts on that important matter. "The next time I differed with my friends, was when king James was wheedling the dissenters to take off the penal laws and test, which I could by no means come into. And as in the first I used to say, I had rather the popish house of Austria should ruin the protestants in Hungary, than that the infidel house of Ottoman should ruin both protestant and papist, by overrunning Germany, so in the other I told the dissenters I had rather the Church of England should pull our clothes off by fines and forfeitures, than that the papists should fall both upon the church and the dissenters, and pull our skins off by fire and fagot." [Appeal to Honour and Justice.] And again: "I never would have had the dissenters to join with king James, to take off the penal laws and test. No; no: I thank God I was of age then to bear my testimony against it, and to affront some who were of a different opinion." [Review, vol. viii. p. 694.]--ED.

[8] History, vol. ii. p. 37. The following is the passage in Oldmixon: "Their majesties, attended by their royal highnesses and a numerous train of nobility and gentry, went first to a balcony prepared for them at the Angel in Cheapside, to see the show; which for the great number of liverymen, the full appearance of the militia, and the artillery company, the rich adornments of the pageants, and the splendour and good order of the whole proceedings, outdid all that had been seen before, on that occasion; and what deserved to be particularly remembered, says a reverend historian, was a royal regiment of volunteer horse, made up of the chief citizens, who being gallantly mounted and richly accoutred, were led by the earl of Monmouth, now earl of Peterborough, and attended there majesties from Whitehall. Among these troopers, who were for the most part dissenters, was Daniel De Foe, at that time a hosier in Freeman's Yard, Cornhill." [History of England, vol. iii. p. 36.]

[9] Being reproached by Tutchin, in his Observator, with having been bred an apprentice to a hosier, De Foe asserts, in May, 1705, that he never was a hosier, or an apprentice, but admits that he had been a trader. [Review, vol. ii. p. 149.] Oldmixon, who never speaks favourably of De Foe, allows that he had never been a merchant, otherwise than peddling a little to Portugal. [Hist. vol. ii. p. 519.] But, peddling to Portugal makes a trader.

[10] These views of Mr. Chalmers seem confirmed by De Foe's own severe comments on the distraction caused to tradesmen by an over-indulgence in literary pursuits. In his Complete Tradesman, one of the most valuable practical books that was ever published, and which should be the manual of every young man beginning business, he says, "a wit turned tradesman! no apron-strings will hold him; it is in vain to lock him behind the counter, he is gone in a moment. Instead of journal and ledger, he runs away to his Virgil and Horace; his journal entries are all Pindarics, and his ledger is all heroics. He is truly dramatic from one end to the other through the whole scene of his trade; and as the first part is all comedy, so the two last acts are always made up with tragedy; a statute of bankrupt is his _exeunt omnes_, and he generally repeats the epilogue in the Fleet prison or the Mint." [See ante, vol. xvii.] He is also very severe against tradesmen who are led away into expensive pleasures and idle company. But Mr. Wilson vindicates De Foe, in some degree, by showing from his own statements that he had been the victim of the fraud of others, as well as of his own imprudent habits. In one of the Reviews, [vol. iii. p. 70.] he says, that "nothing was more frequent than for a man in full credit to buy all the goods he could lay his hands on, and carry them directly from the house he bought them at into the Fryars, and then send for his creditors, and laugh at them, insult them, showing them their own goods untouched, offer them a trifle in satisfaction, and if they refuse it, bid them defiance. I cannot refrain vouching this of my own knowledge, _since I have more than many times been served so myself_." Certainly under such a monstrous system of abuse, an honest tradesman must have been at great disadvantage.--ED.

[11] The Mercator, No. 101.

[12] Reply to Lord Haversham's Vindication.