Soon afterwards the Parliament--Parliaments were then triennial--was dissolved, and the canvass for a general election set in amidst unusual excitement.

Defoe abandoned the quiet topic of trade, and devoted the _Review_ to electioneering articles.
But he did not take a side, at least not a party side.

He took the side of peace and his country.

"I saw with concern," he said, in afterwards explaining his position, "the weighty juncture of a new election for members approach, the variety of wheels and engines set to work in the nation, and the furious methods to form interests on either hand and put the tempers of men on all sides into an unusual motion; and things seemed acted with so much animosity and party fury that I confess it gave me terrible apprehensions of the consequences." On both sides "the methods seemed to him very scandalous." "In many places most horrid and villainous practices were set on foot to supplant one another.

The parties stooped to vile and unbecoming meannesses; infinite briberies, forgeries, perjuries, and all manner of debauchings of the principles and manners of the electors were attempted.