Seldom has so bold and skilful a soldier been enlisted in the cause of peace.
Defoe was not content with the _Review_ as a literary instrument of pacification.

He carried on the war in both capitals, answering the pamphlets of the Scotch patriots with counter-pamphlets from the Edinburgh press.

He published also a poem, "in honour of Scotland," entitled _Caledonia_, with an artfully flattering preface, in which he declared the poem to be a simple tribute to the greatness of the people and the country without any reference whatever to the Union.

Presently he found it expedient to make Edinburgh his head-quarters, though he continued sending the _Review_ three times a week to his London printer.
When the Treaty of Union had been elaborated by the Commissioners and had passed the English Parliament, its difficulties were not at an end.
It had still to pass the Scotch Parliament, and a strong faction there, riding on the storm of popular excitement, insisted on discussing it clause by clause.

Moved partly by curiosity, partly by earnest desire for the public good, according to his own account in the _Review_ and in his _History of the Union,_ Defoe resolved to undertake the "long, tedious, and hazardous journey" to Edinburgh, and use all his influence to push the Treaty through.