SAMUEL H. MONK, _University of Minnesota_

ERNEST MOSSNER, _University of Texas_

JAMES SUTHERLAND, _Queen Mary College, London_

H.T. SWEDENBERG, JR., _University of California, Los Angeles_




INTRODUCTION


_A Vindication of the Press_ is one of Defoe's most characteristic
pamphlets and for this reason as well as for its rarity deserves
reprinting. Besides the New York Public Library copy, here reproduced,
I know of but one copy, which is in the Indiana University Library.
Neither the Bodleian nor the British Museum has a copy.

Like many items in the Defoe canon, this tract must be assigned to him
on the basis of internal evidence; but this evidence, though
circumstantial, is convincing. W.P. Trent included _A Vindication_ in
his bibliography of Defoe in the _CHEL_, and later bibliographers of
Defoe have followed him in accepting it. Since the copy here
reproduced was the one examined by Professor Trent, the following
passage from his ms. notes is of interest:

The tract was advertised, for "this day," in the _St. James
Evening Post_, April 19-22, 1718. It is not included in the