Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/324

314 their new King diſcovered to his countrymen. The popular diſcontent roſe to ſuch a heighth, that King William was obliged to diſmiſs his Dutch guards, and though he died in poſſeſſion of the crown of England, yet it proved to him a crown of thorns, and he ſpent fewer peaceful moments in his regal ſtation, than before his head was environed with an uneaſy diadem. De Foe, who ſeems to have had a very true notion of civil liberty, engaged the enemies of the new government, and levelled the force of his ſatire againſt thoſe, who valued themſelves for being true-born Engliſhmen. He expoſes the fallacy of that prepoſſeſſion, by laying open the ſources from whence the Engliſh have ſprung. ‘Normans, Saxons, and Danes, ſays he, were our forefathers; we are a mixed people; we have no genuine origin; and why ſhould not our neighbours be as good as we to derive from? and I muſt add, that had we been an unmixed nation, I am of opinion, it had been to our diſadvantage: for to go no farther, we have three nations about us clear from mixture of blood, as any in the world, and I know not which of them we could wiſh ourſelves to be like; I mean the Scotch, Welſh, and Iriſh, and if I were to write a reverſe to the ſatire, I would examine all the nations of Europe, and prove, that theſe nations which are the moſt mixed, are the beſt, and have leaſt of barbariſm and brutality amongſt them.’ Mr. De Foe begins his ſatire with the following lines, After