FullReads

Now they have Returnd their Number, it were to be Wished they Could have Avoided a few who are Declar’d profest Jacobites, Such as 197 [Marischal], Kilsyth, Blantire, Hume etc. who are known to aim in all they do at the Pretender, and whose being Now Chosen has many ill Effects here What Ever may be as to Over-ruleing them in England, I mean as to Encreasing the Insolence of Jacobitisme in the North, where its Strength is far from being Contemptible.[7]

What Defoe hoped to obtain from Harley by this and succeeding letters on this subject is not clear. He may have been seeking Harley’s public repudiation of the Jacobite peers, or at least some private assurances that what Argyll had told the peers did not represent the new Ministry’s policies. Whatever it was he sought, by late December it was obviously not forthcoming from Harley or his Ministry. And on 20 December Argyll was made a Knight of the Garter. It was during this December that the bulk of Atalantis Major was written, most probably between 30 November and 26 December. On 26 December 1710 Defoe wrote Harley of the existence of “Two Vile Ill Natur’d Pamphlets … both of which have fallen into My hands in Manuscript, and I think I have prevented both their Printing. The first Was advertised in the Gazette here and Called the Scots atalantis[8] … The Other Pamphlet is called Atalantis Major.” The letter concludes with a short description of the work, a disavowal of any knowledge of its authorship, and the hope that he can suppress its publication:

The Other Pamphlet is called Atalantis Major; and is a Bitter Invective against the D of Argyle, the E of Mar, and the Election of the Peers. It is Certainly Written by Some English man, and I have Some Guess at the Man, but dare not be positive. I have hitherto kept this also from the Press, and believe it will be Impossible for them to get it printed here after the Measures I have Taken. The Party I Got it of pretends the Coppy Came from England, But I am of Another Opinion. I shall Trouble you no farther about it because if possible I can get it Coppyed, I will Transmit the Coppy by Next post, for I have the Originall in My hand. They Expect I shall Encourage and assist them in the Mannageing it, and Till I can Take a Coppy I shall not Undeciev them.[9]

There is no evidence to suggest that Harley doubted Defoe’s disclaimer or that Defoe sent the copy to Harley.

Since Defoe was back in London on 13 February 1711, Atalantis Major must have been seen through the press sometime between 26 December and the end of January, not, as Moore lists it, “before 26 December 1710.”[10] Internal evidence suggests an even narrower range of probable dates of publication. The last four pages of Atalantis Major deal with the Duke of Argyll being given command of the English forces in Spain and the singular lack of grace with which he undertook this command. Since Argyll was not given command of the Peninsula campaign until 11 January 1711, it could not be until after this date that the manuscript could have been finished and printed.

The work bears few signs of being hastily printed. There are only nine typographical errors,[11] and four of these are catchwords. There is no evidence to suggest that there was more than one printing of the pamphlet,[12] and the use of several Scotticisms[13] seems to offer support for the contention that the pamphlet was intended for a primarily Scottish audience.

William Lee was the first to ascribe the work to Defoe, and this ascription has been accepted by both Dottin and Moore.[14] The evidence for assigning this work to Defoe seems to rest on the two letters to Harley quoted above. Another proof of Defoe’s authorship of Atalantis Major is to be found in the remark it contains, “That the Southern Part of the Island [that is, England] was the most remarkable of any, as to the Policy of their Government, and the Character of the People; and excepting Englishmen and Polanders, there is not such another Nation in the World” (p. 12). In 1704 Defoe had written The Dyet of Poland, a poem in which he had made a similar unflattering comparison between England and Poland. A far more substantial case for Defoe’s authorship can be made from the existence of the anecdote of John White, Edinburgh’s hangman, in both a letter to Harley (18 November 1710) and the Review (for 30 November 1710), as well as in Atalantis Major (pp. 22-3).