In his _Hymn to the Pillory_ he had declared that Sacheverell ought to stand there in his place.

His wish was now gratified; "the bar of the House of Commons is the worst pillory in the nation." In the two months which elapsed before the trial, during which the excitement was steadily growing, Sacheverell and his doctrines were the main topic of the _Review_.

If a popular tempest could have been allayed by brilliant argument, Defoe's papers ought to have done it.

He was a manly antagonist, and did not imitate coarser pamphleteers in raking up scandals about the Doctor's private life--at least not under his own name.

There was, indeed, a pamphlet issued by "a Gentleman of Oxford," which bears many marks of Defoe's authorship, and contains an account of some passages in Sacheverell's life not at all to the clergyman's credit.