hetic to France. To have men with such beliefs in Parliament
meant, to Defoe, the chance that Marlborough's victories in France
would be negotiated away, the loss of what the Toleration Act of 1689
had gained, and finally, the spector of the Pretender on the throne. In
short, such men could mean the loss of all that the Revolution and the
war with France had won. Yet, in the late autumn of 1710, Defoe found
himself in Edinburgh, the agent and propagandist of the man on whose
behalf Argyll had engineered the election of men of such politics.

Defoe's mission in Edinburgh that autumn was to allay the fears of the
Presbyterian clergy and Whig merchants about the new Tory Ministry. His
message to them was, in Professor Sutherland's words, that

What the country needed ... was steady, moderate men, whether they
called themselves Whig or Tory, men who would uphold the Protestant
succession and avoid extreme measures; and that on the whole was
what it had now got [appearances to the contrary notwithstanding].
The Ministry was not going to give way to the clamours of the High
Tory rank and file; and the Queen would certainly not countenance
any form of persecution.[5]

In short, Defoe was charged with convincing his Scottish friends and
associates (and, by means of the _Review_, the nation at large) the
opposite of all that Argyll's actions and words bespoke of Harley's
intentions.

Defoe wrote Harley from Edinburgh on 18 November (eight days after the
election of the peers) to voice his dismay at the tactics that had been
used by Argyll. By them his own mission on Harley's behalf had been
impaired:

I hint this Sir to Confirm my Censure of the Conduct aforesaid as
Imprudent and as what has rendred [sic] the quieting these people,
which was Easy before, Very Difficult now.[6]

Further, he suggests that Harley's heretofore moderate allies, the
Squadrone, have been pushed by Argyll into league with the old Court
Party that had supported the Godolphin Ministry. This letter also
contains a brief summary of the main events which were to form the plot
of _Atalantis Major_, but it does not attack Argyll with the same
bitterness that the longer work does. Defoe writes:

In the late Election, the Conduct of the D of 60 [Argyll], the E of
163 [Islay], and the Earle of 194 [Mar] is Very Perticular....
[They] Declared Openly [that] the Quallification of those to be
Chosen ...