University of Huddersfield Repository Muller, Andreas Karl Ewald The public voices of Daniel Defoe Original Citation Muller, Andreas Karl Ewald (2005) The public voices of Daniel Defoe. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/9142/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. 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For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ The Public Voices of Daniel Defoe by Andreas Karl Ewald Müller Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Huddersfield March 2005 Contents Page Acknowledgements i Note on text i Abstract ii Abbreviations iii Introduction 1 `Exchanging for Chapter I one Tyrant Three hundred' - Defoe 22 and the Standing Army Controversy, 1697-99' Chapter II `Old Britannia's Youthful Days': The True Born 70 Englishman and Country Whig Historiography' Chapter III `The Scepter of our Minds': Religious Dissent and 104 Jure Divino' Chapter IV `That his Conduct might be rectified': Jacobitism, 153 Social Unrest and The Family Instructor' Chapter V `One would have thought this had been an Irony': 202 The Whig Schism, Toland and Defoe' Conclusion 235 Bibliography 242 Acknowledgements There are many people and organisations who through their help, advice and criticism have enabled me to complete this thesis. Many thanks to: My supervisors Dr Philip Woodfine and Dr Glynis Ridley for their support, advice and criticism. Without their faith in my academic ability, this thesis might not have seen the light of day. The University of Huddersfield for the invaluable financial assistance it provided with a bursary. The Queen's University of Belfast and the University of Louisville for allowing Dr Ridley to continue the supervision of my thesis. My colleagues in the Department of Humanities, University College Worcester, for their moral support and academic advice (special thanks to Dr Mehreen Mirza). Staff within Huddersfield University library for obtaining photocopies of even the most obscure pamphlets. Staff within the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, and the University Library, Birmingham, for their knowledgeable assistance. Particular thanks must go to my parents, Rudi and Karola Müller, for their financial and emotional support throughout my time as an undergraduate and postgraduate student. This dissertation is dedicated to them. Finally, but not last, thanks to my wife Tina and my son Ethan, who have put up with a whole range of Ph.D. induced mood swings, financial restrictions and hours of neglect. Note on Text Unless otherwise noted, the place of publication for primary sources is London. I have reproduced as faithfully as possible contemporary spelling and punctuation, but have used the intrusive [sic] as little as possible. I ask the reader to take on trust the fact that all vagaries of spelling are there in the original. Dates are given in the old style throughout but I have taken the year to begin on I January. Abstract This is a study of Daniel Defoe's political rhetoric and polemical strategies between the years 1697 and 1717. It explores and analyses a representative selection of what may be termed Defoe's `public voices'. In its broadest definition, these public voices are understood to be the opinions expressed and the rhetorical stances taken by Defoe in those pieces of his writing which directly or indirectly relate to the sphere of official, governmental and national discourse and activity. In the most basic sense, this thesis attempts to highlight and explain the way in which the language, imagery and concerns of Defoe's publications were shaped by the events and attitudes of the historical moment at which they were produced. In the process, this study re-situates, and thus necessarily re-evaluates, the voices and apparent meanings of some of Defoe's better known texts, while offering extensive investigations of the rhetorical strategies of publications which have previously been neglected by Defoe scholars. In the context of the above, an attempt is made to demonstratethat the poem The True-Born Englishman (1701) was not only a response to xenophobic sentiments prevalent in English society at the turn of the century but did, in fact, represent Defoe's final, summative contribution to the standing army controversy of the late 1690s. On a similar note, this thesis aims to show that the verse satire Jure Divino (1706) was the culmination of Defoe's involvement in the occasional conformity controversy of the early 1700s and constituted on important element of his campaign in favour of religious toleration. In addition, I argue that volume one of The Family Instructor (1715) was Defoe's response to the Jacobite-inspired unrest of the years 1714-15 and, as such, represented an important political act. Finally, this study offers an extensive investigation of one of Defoe's most problematic publications, An Argument Proving that the Design of Employing and Tnobling Foreigners, Is a Treasonable Conspiracy (1717). The pamphlet, I suggest, represented a highly ironic attack on one of Defoe's old adversaries, John Toland, and only develops its full rhetorical force if read in the context of the standing army controversy. 11 Abbreviations Backscheider Paula R. Backscheider, Daniel Defoe: His Life (Baltimore & London, 1989) Critical P.N. Furbank and W. R Owens, A Critical Bibliography of Bibliography Daniel Defoe (London, 1998) Dickinson H. T. Dickinson, Liberty and Property. Political Ideology in Eighteenth-Century Britain (London, 1977) Hatton Ragnhild Hatton, George I, Elector and King (New edition: New Haven & London, 2001) Harris Tim Harris, Politics under the later Stuarts: Party Conflict in a Divided Society 1660-1715 (London & New York, 1993) Holmes Geoffrey Holmes, British Politics in the Age of Anne (revised ed., London & Ronceverte, 1987) Horwitz Henry Horwitz, Parliament, Policy and Politics in the reign of William III (Manchester, 1977) Novak Maximillian E. Novak, Daniel Defoe: Master of Fictions (Oxford, 2001) Political & W. R. Owens & F.N. Furbank (eds) Political and Economic Economic Writings Writings of Daniel Defoe, Vols. 1-8 (London, 2000) Rose Craig Rose, England in the 1690s: Revolution, Religion and War (Malden, Mass. & Oxford, 1999) Satire W. R. Owens & F. N. Furbank (eds), Satire, Fantasy and Writings on the Supernatural, Vols. 1-8 (London, 2003-4) 111 Introduction This is a study of Daniel Defoe's political rhetoric and polemical strategies between the years 1697 and 1717. It explores and analyses a representative selection of what may be termed Defoe's `public voices'. In its broadest definition, these public voices are understood to be the opinions expressed and the rhetorical stances taken by Defoe in those pieces of his writing which directly or indirectly relate to the sphere of official, governmental and national discourse and activity. In the most basic sense, this thesis attempts to highlight and explain the way in which the language, imagery and concerns of Defoe's publications were shaped by the events and attitudes of the historical moment at which they were produced. In the process, this study re-situates, and thus necessarily re-evaluates, the voices and apparent meanings of some of Defoe's better known texts, while offering extensive investigations of the rhetorical strategies of publications which have previously been neglected by Defoe scholars. The origins of this thesis may be found in a notion voiced by Geoffrey Holmes, namely that `in the language of early-eighteenth-century politics are to be found some 1 of the most valuable clues to its character. ' Holmes' foregrounding of language offers the point of departure for the individual discussions contained in this study and it is with this emphasis in mind that Defoe's rhetorical and polemical practices are examined in order to offer an insight into the character of his political writings. Moreover, the general importance Holmes attaches to the manner in which politicians and commentators spoke and wrote about political issues and events is echoed in Defoe's own development as a writer. From a young age, the concept of manipulating language to achieve a specific rhetorical effect represented a dominant aspect of Defoe's Weltanschauung. One of the main features of the non-conformist education he received at Charles Morton's Newington Green Academy was a focus on the classical humanist practice of conducting debates by considering at least two divergent points of view on a particular topic. A passage in one of Defoe's late pieces describes how Morton's pupils were actively encouraged to develop the ability to Holmes, 13 2 articulate a range of public voices, providing them with `early practice in the 2 assumption of authorial masks' and convincingly relating entirely fabricated stories: [Morton] had a class for eloquence, and his pupils declaim'd weekly in the English tongue, made orations, and wrot [sic] epistles twice every week upon such subjects as he prescrib'd to them or upon such as they themselves chose to write upon. Sometimes they were ambassadors and agents abroad at foreign Courts, and wrote accounts of their negotiacions and recepcion [sic] in foreign Courts directed to the Secretary of State and some times to the Soveraign himself.