Notes and Queries, Number 138, June 19, 1852 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

It is impossible to read Chalmers' and Wilson's Lives of Defoe without being constantly struck not merely by the want of all critical acumen and ordinary knowledge of the characteristics of Defoe's style which they display, but also by the absence of research on almost every point of importance connected with his career. Out of innumerable instances, I may mention his pamphlet on the subject of the Septennial Bill. Chalmers, and after him Wilson, are satisfied with repeating Boyer's statement that Defoe was the author of The Triennial Bill Impartially Stated , London, 1716; but neither of them appears to have referred to the pamphlet itself, and Wilson does not seem to have even consulted Boyer. He observes, Mr. Chalmers thinks the pamphlet was not his. Whatever Chalmers might think, he does not certainly say so in express terms. The point itself is a curious one; and as it has not hitherto been gone into, perhaps I shall not trespass too much upon your space if I give your readers the results of my examination of it. In Boyer's Political State for April , 1716 (p. 484.), he enumerates in the following terms the pamphlets on the Septennial Bill:—
A Letter to a Country Gentleman, showing the Inconveniences which attend the Last Act for Triennial Parliaments , which, I am informed, was written by the learned Dr. Tyndal. This was followed with others intitled, An Epistle to a Whig Member of Parliament ; Some Considerations on a Law for Triennial Parliaments ; The Suspension of the Triennial Bill, the Properest Means to unite the Nation ; A First and Second Letter to a Friend in Suffolk ; The Alterations in the Triennial Act Considered ; The Innkeeper's Opinion of the Triennial Act ; and a few others. The only pamphlet that was published on the other side was called The Triennial Act Impartially Stated , &c. This pamphlet was judged, from its loose style and way of arguing, to be written by that prostituted fool of the last ministry, D—— D— F—; but whatever was offered either in print, or vivâ voce, against the Septennial Bill, was fully answered and confuted by the following writing, generally fathered on the ingenious and judicious Joseph Addison, Esq.