Daniel Defoe

“ He cannot see that he is any enemy to the queen, in inquiring as diligently as possible, whether there are any attempts to depose her, or dangerous prospects of bringing in the hated rival of her glory and dominion. It is so far from that, that it is apparently the duty of every true subject of her majesty, to inquire seriously, whether the public peace, the queen's safety, her throne, or her person, is in any danger from the wicked design of her, and her people's enemies. ”

“ The queen raises no money without act of parliament, keeps up no standing army in time of peace, disseizes no man of his property or estate; but every man sits in safety under his own vine, and his fig-tree; and we doubt not but we shall do as long as her majesty lives. But what if the queen should die?
Possibly cavils may rise in the mouths of those whose conduct this nice question may seem to affect, that this is a question unfit to be asked, and questionless such people will have much to say upon that subject ”

“ We are told, that not the French king only, but even the whole French nation, are wonderfully forward to acknowledge the obligation they are under to the justice and favour which they have received from her majesty, in the putting an end to the war; a war which lay heavy upon them, and threatened the very name of the French nation with ruin, and much more threatened the glory of the French court, and of their great monarch, with an entire overthrow, a total eclipse. ”

“ The French king, however in honour and gratitude he may think himself bound not to encourage the pretender to insult her majesty's dominions, while the queen, with whom he personally is engaged by treaty, shall remain alive, will think himself fully at liberty from those obligations when the queen shall die. If we are not misinformed of the French affairs, and of the notions they have in France of these things, they are generally no otherwise understood than that the king of France is engaged by the peace now in view, not to disturb her majesty's possession during her reign and her life ”

“ They are become perfectly nauseous to read; the nation is surfeited of them, and the people begin to be tired with ill-using one another. Would any tolerable face appear upon things, we might expect the people would be inclined to be easy; and were the eyes of some great men open, they may see this was the opportunity they never had before, to make the nation easy, and themselves safe. The main thing which agitates the minds of men now, is the protestant succession and the pretender. ”

“ The people of Britain want only to be showed what imminent danger they are in, in case of the queen's decease: how much their safety and felicity depend upon the life of her majesty, and what a state of confusion, distress, and all sorts of dreadful calamities they will fall into at her majesty's death, if something be not done to settle them before her death; and if they are not during her majesty's life secured from the power of France, and the danger of the pretender. ”

“ That we are to have a peace, or that the peace is made, what sort of peace, or how it has been brought about; these are questions the world begins to have done with, they have been so much, so often, and to so little purpose banded about, and tossed like a shuttlecock, from one party to another; the parties themselves begin to want breath to rail and throw scandal. ”

“ What if the queen should die?
From religious matters, come we next to consider civil interest, liberties, privileges, properties; the great article that in the late revolution went always coupled in the nation's negative with that of religion, as if they were woven together, and was always cried upon by the mob in one breath, viz., No popery, no slavery. ”

“ And these things may tend to make some people easier than ordinary in the affair of the succession, believing that the French king stands in too much need of the favour of the queen of Great Britain, whose power it well behoves him to keep in friendship with him, and whose nation he will be very cautious of provoking a third time, as he has already done twice, to his fatal experience. All these things, we say, may seem pretty well to assure us that nothing is to be feared on that side so long as her majesty lives to sit upon the British throne. ”

“ Now that these loans are safe, no man that weighs the circumstances of the ministry and government, and the circumstances of the people, can doubt; the first being in a constant necessity of supporting the public credit for the carrying on the public affairs, on any sudden emergency that may happen, and being liable to the resentment of parliament, if any open infraction should be made upon the funds, which touches so nearly the honour of the parliaments, and the interest of most of the best families in the nation. ”

“ Since then it is most certain that the queen must die, and our safety and happiness in this nation depends so much upon the stability of our liberties, religion, and aforesaid dependencies after her majesty's life shall end, it cannot be a question offensive to any who has any concern in the public good, to inquire into what shall be the state of our condition, or the posture of our affairs, when the queen shall die ”

“ Nay, there seems more reason to be apprehensive of the dangerous attempts of these desperate people, at this time, than ever, even from the very reasons which are given all along in this work, for our being safe in our privileges, our religious and civil rights, during her majesty's life. It would be mispending your time to prove that the papists and jacobite parties in this nation, however they may, as we have said, be under ties and obligations of honour, interest, and gratitude, &c., not to make attempt upon us during the queen's life ”

“ And it can hardly be thought that even papists themselves, under the highest possessions of their religious zeal, can conquer the native aversions they must have to such abominable ingratitude, or to think of bringing in the pretender upon this protestant nation, even while the queen shall be on the throne. ”

“ Nay, the rather we believe this, because the ferment such a breach would put the whole nation into is not the safest condition the government can be in upon any account; and as the ministry cannot be supposed to desire to give uneasiness and provocation to the commons, but rather to keep them easy and quiet, and prevent the enemies of the present management from having any handle to take hold of to foment distractions and disturbances among the people, it cannot be thought that they will push at the toleration, so as to deprive the people of so considerable a thing. ”

“ It is well known that there are some people among us, who are so far from allowing that there is any such danger as the said question mentions, that they will have it to be a token of disaffection to the government to put the question, and are for loading whoever shall offer to start such a question, with characters and party-marks odious to good men, such as incendiary, promoter of discontents, raiser of faction, divider of the people, and the like: names which the writer of these sheets, at the same time, both contemns and abhors. ”

“ The enemies of the revolution are all the implacable enemies of the church establishment there: nay, many thousands are the declared enemies of the revolution, and of the queen's being upon the throne, from a mere implacable aversion to the presbyterian kirk, which is erected and established by that very revolution which has set the queen upon the throne. ”

“ Nor, as the Review well enough observed, does it follow that because the ministry have employed or joined with jacobites in the public affairs, that therefore they must have done it with a jacobite principle. But let the ministry employ these men by what necessity, or upon what occasion they will, though it may not follow that the ministry are therefore for the pretender, yet it does not also follow that there is no danger of the protestant succession from the employing those sort of people: For, what if the queen should die? ”

“ Now, as it is sure, that as before, while the queen lives, and the revolution influence carries its usual force in the kingdoms now united, the presbyterian kirk must and will remain, and all the little encroachments which have been made upon the kirk, as it may be observed, though they have created uneasiness enough, yet they still seem to suppose that the establishment itself cannot be overthrown. The union and the revolution settlement remain in Scotland, and must remain, as is said; while the queen lives we can have no apprehensions of them ”

“ First of all, it may be noticed, that the present safety of this nation, whether we respect liberty, religion, property, or public safety and prosperity, depends upon this one fundamental, viz., that alluding reverently to that text of Scripture, we are all built upon the foundation of the late revolution, established law and right being the chief corner-stone. ”

“ Much pains have been taken on both sides to amuse the world about this remaining dispute; one side to make us believe it is safe, and the other to convince us it is in danger. Neither side hath been able to expatiate upon the part they affirm. Those who say the protestant succession is secure, have not yet shown us any step taken, since these new transactions, for its particular security. Those who say it is in danger, have not so clearly determined, even among themselves, from what particular head of public management that danger chiefly proceeds. ”

“ As to what the pope, the Spaniard, and a few petty popish powers, who might pretend upon a religious prospect to assist him, and with whose aid, and the assistance of his party here, he may think fit to hazard an attempt here for the crown, it is evident, and his own friends will agree in it, that while the queen lives, it is nonsense, and ridiculous for them to attempt it; that it would immediately arm the whole nation against them, as one man ”

“ I believe that there are very few who alarm themselves much with the fears of the pretender, from the apprehension of his own strength from abroad, or from his own party and friends at home here, were they once sure that he should receive no assistance from the king of France. ”

“ If then we are satisfied that the revolution principle shall subsist as long as the queen lives, then for so long we may have good ground to believe we shall enjoy all those advantages and benefits which we received from the said revolution. ”

“ In like manner for our properties, our estates, inheritance, lands, goods, lives, liberties, &c. These are effectually secured by laws of the land, and the sovereign in this country, having no right, but by law, to any part of the subject's estate, causes that estate to be called PROPERTY. The kings and queens of Britain are monarchs limited to act by the laws. When they cease to rule by law, the constitution is broken, and they become tyrants, and arbitrary, despotic invaders of right. ”

“ The union, which has yet farther established that presbyterian kirk, is for that reason the aversion of the same people, as it is the aversion of the jacobites, by being a farther confirmation of the Hanover succession, and a farther fixing the queen upon the throne. ”

“ But after the present happy establishment shall have received such a fatal blow as that will be of the queen's death, and when popish pretenders, and French influences, shall prevail, it may well be expected then, that not toleration of dissenters only, but even of the whole protestant religion, may be in danger to be lost ”

“ The parliament, for the ease of the subjects, thought fit, rather to lay funds of interest to raise money upon, by way of loan, establishing those interests, payable as annuities and annual payments, for the benefit of those who advanced their money for the public service. ”

“ This is not meant as any reflection upon the ministry for making use of such men: the late ministry did the same, and every ministry will, and must employ men sometimes, not as they always join with them in their politic principles, but as either the men are found useful in their several employments, or as the ministry may be under other circumstances, which makes it necessary to them to employ them. ”

“ The matter then being laid down thus, as sincerely and plainly as possible, we come to the question point-blank, and think it our duty to say with the greatest sincerity, that we do not believe the ministry are in any kind, or with any prospect, near or remote, acting for or with a design or view to bring in the pretender. ”

“ This, we say, we believe is lost labour to speak of: the said people, the popish and tory party, will freely own and oppose it. They all take their obligations to the queen to end with her majesty's life. ”

“ A war which, by their own confession, it was impossible for them long to have supported the expenses of, and which, by the great superiority of the allies, became dreadful to them, and that every campaign more than the other ”