of his works (1771). When on the accession of Queen Anne commissioners were appointed to treat for a union with Scotland, Davenant, in a letter to Lord-treasurer Godolphin (Add. MS. 29588, f. 177), applied to be appointed their secretary, and he was successful in this application. During Anne's reign he continued the writing of political and economical tracts. His tone was now altered, however, and he was appointed in 1705 inspector-general of the exports and imports. This office he held till his death, 6 Nov. 1714. He was buried in the church of St. Bride's, Fleet Street, in the same vault with his mother (Gent. Mag. 1850, ii. 367). Davenant was married and had a family.
His other writings were: 1. ‘An Essay upon Ways and Means of Supplying the War,’ 1695, viz. the war with France concluded by the peace of Ryswick in 1697. In this he argued against the government practice of borrowing large sums of money, and urged that ‘excises seem the most proper ways and means to support the government in a long war’ (p. 62), and that it ‘were expedient to let land breathe a little’ (p. 80). 2. ‘An Essay on the East India Trade,’ 1697, in the form of a letter to the Marquis of Normanby. The East India trade in silk and cotton stuffs was growing in importance. Those who felt themselves injured by this endeavoured to obtain parliamentary measures to crush it. Their arguments were the usual arguments of the upholders of the mercantile system. Davenant, though he did not question the principles on which that system rested, yet believed that the traffic was of advantage to England. How it was so he pointed out in the ‘Essay.’ The question was a keenly debated one, and the pamphlet called forth various replies. A brief account of the controversy, with a list of the chief works on it, is given in McCulloch's ‘Literature of Political Economy;’ see also various references in ‘Brit. Mus. Cat.’ under ‘Davenant.’ 3. ‘An Essay upon the Probable Methods of Making the People Gainers in the Ballance of Trade,’ 1699. 4. ‘A Discourse upon Grants and Resumptions, showing how our ancestors have proceeded with such ministers as have procured to themselves grants of the Crown Revenue, and that the Forfeited Estates ought to be applied towards the Payment of Publick Debts,’ 1700. This was a protest against the policy by which a great quantity of forfeited lands had been gifted away by the crown. Precedents were quoted from the ‘History of England’ to show that such grants might be resumed. This treatise was replied to in ‘Jus Regium, or the King's Right to grant Forfeitures and other Revenues of the Crown, fully set forth and traced from the beginning,’ 1701. 5. ‘The True Picture of a Modern Whig in Two Parts,’ 1701–2; this is a bitter attack in the form of a dialogue on a section of the whig party, who have turned, he says, the revolution to their own interests. It is written in a very lively manner and contains incidental but graphic pictures of life and manners of the time. It was answered in pamphlets which attempted to imitate the style. It was continued in somewhat of the same strain in ‘New Dialogues upon the present posture of affairs, the species of money, national debts, public revenues, bank and East India Company, and the trade now carried on between France and Holland,’ 2 vols., 1710. 6. ‘Essays upon Peace at Home and War Abroad,’ 1704; this was written, it is said, at the request of Lord Halifax, and is dedicated to Queen Anne. It urged the necessity of all parties in the state uniting to carry on the great continental war in which England was then engaged. On account of Davenant's alleged change of sentiments he was attacked by many who had formerly supported him. He had been a keen party man, they complained, till he obtained something, and then he immediately urged that party warfare should cease (among other attacks see ‘Tom Double against Dr. D-v-n-t,’ 1704, p. 7). 7. ‘Reflections upon the Constitution and Management of the Trade to Africa, through the whole Course and Progress thereof, from the beginning of the last Century to this Time; wherein the Nature and Uncommon Circumstances of that Trade are particularly considered, and all the Arguments urged alternately by the two contending parties here, touching the different methods now proposed by them for carrying on the same to a national advantage, impartially stated and considered,’ Dr. D. (anonymously, three parts, 1709). 8. ‘A Report to the Honourable the Commissioners for putting in execution the Act, intituled an Act for the Taking, Examining, and Stating the Publick Accounts of the Kingdom (two parts, 1710, 1712). ‘The design of both is to give a general account of the trade of the kingdom from 1663 to 1711.’ The collected works of Davenant, edited by Charles Whitworth, M.P., were published in 1771.
[Biographia Britannica, ed. Kippis, iv. 647; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. col. 476. A number of minor references are collected in Musgrave's Obituary Notices, No. 15; Add. MS. 5730. A considerable amount of Davenant's correspondence is preserved in the British Museum MS. Ayscough, 4291, f. 3; Add. MSS. 7121 f. 19, 17767, 28055 f. 13, 29588 ff. 70, 177, 210, 238, 29597 f. 24; see also some scattered references in the State Papers of the period.]
