to 5,000L., but these sums included liabilities resulting from the failure of his pantile factory.
Defoe's first conspicuous literary service to King William, after he obtained Government employment, was a pamphlet on the question of a Standing Army raised after the Peace of Ryswick in 1697.

This Pen and Ink War, as he calls it, which followed close on the heels of the great European struggle, had been raging for some time before Defoe took the field.

Hosts of writers had appeared to endanger the permanence of the triumph of William's arms and diplomacy by demanding the disbandment of his tried troops, as being a menace to domestic liberties.

Their arguments had been encountered by no less zealous champions of the King's cause.

The battle, in fact, had been won when Defoe issued his _Argument showing that a Standing Army, with consent of Parliament, is not inconsistent with a Free Government_.