subjects which then attracted the attention of mankind were of a
political cast, they were of opinion that no species of writing could so
soon recommend them to public notice; and in order to make their trade
more profitable, they resolved to espouse different interests; one
should oppose, and the other defend the ministry. They determined the
side of the question each was to espouse, by tossing up a half-penny,
and it fell to the share of Mr. Concanen to defend the ministry, which
task he performed with as much ability, as political writers generally
discover.

He was for some time, concerned in the British, and London Journals, and
a paper called The Speculatist. These periodical pieces are long since
buried in neglect, and perhaps would have even sunk into oblivion, had
not Mr. Pope, by his satyrical writings, given them a kind of
disgraceful immortality. In these Journals he published many
scurrilities against Mr. Pope; and in a pamphlet called, The Supplement
to the Profound, he used him with great virulence, and little candour.
He not only imputed to him Mr. Brome's verses (for which he might indeed
seem in some degree accountable, having corrected what that gentleman
did) but those of the duke of Buckingham and others. To this rare piece
some body humorously perswaded him to take for his motto, De profundis
clamavi. He afterwards wrote a paper called The Daily Courant, wherein
he shewed much spleen against lord Bolingbroke, and some of his friends.
All these provocations excited Mr. Pope to give him a place in his
Dunciad. In his second book, l. 287, when he represents the dunces
diving in the mud of the Thames for the prize, he speaks thus of
Concanen;

True to the bottom see Concanen creep,
A cold, long winded, native of the deep!