Defoe and government: propaganda and principle

This chapter discusses Daniel Defoe’s political work, mainly as a journalist and pamphleteer, and seeks to identify a consistency of political principles underlying a career which can appear opportunistic. Having evaluated Defoe’s writings in support of the 1688 Revolution, and his Whiggish defences of William III’s domestic and international policies, it moves to events after Anne’s accession, when Defoe’s controversial writings resulted in him being pilloried and imprisoned. Defoe accommodated himself to the government, writing under the patronage of Lord Godolphin and Robert Harley (later Earl of Oxford), as these politicians collaborated by turns with Whigs and Tories. The Anglo-Scottish Union (1707) and the Hanoverian succession (1714) were Defoe’s priorities: he was faithful to these causes although contemporaries accused him of being an unprincipled hireling, for example in defending the Tory peace campaign of 1711–13. The chapter concludes with Defoe’s dubious political dealings in the early years of the Whig ascendency under George I.