The warning and caution was expressly directed against the insinuations that the Ministry were in favour of the Pretender.

All who made these insinuations were assumed by the writer to be Papists, Jacobites, and enemies of Britain.

As these insinuations were the chief war-cry of the Whigs, and we now know that they were not without foundation, it is easy to understand why Defoe's pamphlets, though Anti-Jacobite, were resented by the party in whose interest he had formerly written.

He excused himself afterwards by saying that he was not aware of the Jacobite leanings of the Ministry; that none of them ever said one word in favour of the Pretender to him; that he saw no reason to believe that they did favour the Pretender.

As for himself, he said, they certainly never employed him in any Jacobite intrigue.