He bears some resemblance to Cobbett, but he had none of Cobbett's brutality; his faculties were more adroit, and his range of vision infinitely wider.

Cobbett was a demagogue, Defoe a popular statesman.

The one was qualified to lead the people, the other to guide them.

Cobbett is contained in Defoe as the less is contained in the greater.
King William obtained a standing army from Parliament, but not so large an army as he wished, and it was soon afterwards still further reduced.
Meantime, Defoe employed his pen in promoting objects which were dear to the King's heart.

His _Essay on Projects_--which "relate to Civil Polity as well as matters of negoce"-- was calculated, in so far as it advocated joint-stock enterprise, to advance one of the objects of the statesmen of the Revolution, the committal of the moneyed classes to the established Government, and against a dynasty which might plausibly be mistrusted of respect for visible accumulations of private wealth.
Defoe's projects were of an extremely varied kind.