[19] The "absentee" landlord was an evil to Ireland on which much has been written. It was difficult to keep the country in order when the landed proprietors took so little interest in their possessions as to do nothing but exact rents from their tenants and spend the money so obtained in England. Two, and even three, hundred years before Swift's day "absenteeism" had been the cause of much of the rebellion in Ireland which harassed the English monarchs, who endeavoured to put a stop to the evil by confiscating the estates of such landlords. Acts were passed by Richard II. and Henry VIII. to this effect; but in later times, the statutes were ignored and not enforced, and the Irish landlord, in endeavours to obtain for himself social recognition and standing in England which, because of his Irish origin, were denied him, remained in England indulging himself in lavish expenditure and display. The consequences of this were the impoverishment of his estates and their eventual management by rack-renters. These rack-renters, whose only interest lay in squeezing money out of the impoverished tenants, became the bane of the agricultural holder.

Unfortunately, the spirit of "absenteeism" extended itself to the holders of offices in Ireland, and even the lord-lieutenant rarely took up his residence in Dublin for any time longer than necessitated by the immediate demands of his installation and speech-making, although he drew his emoluments from the Irish revenues. In the "List of Absentees" instances are given where men appointed to Irish offices would land on Saturday night, receive the sacrament on Sunday, take the oath in court on Monday morning, and be on their way back to England by Monday afternoon.

It has been calculated that out of a total rental of L1,800,000, as much as 33-1/3 per cent. was sent out of the country. [T. S.]

[20] Sheridan, in the sixth number of "The Intelligencer," contributes an account of the state of Ireland, written to the text, "O patria! O divum domus!"

"When I travel through any part of this unhappy kingdom, and I have now by several excursions made from Dublin, gone through most counties of it, it raises two passions in my breast of a different kind; an indignation against those vile betrayers and insulters of it, who insinuate themselves into favour, by saying, it is a rich nation; and a sincere passion for the natives, who are sunk to the lowest degree of misery and poverty, whose houses are dunghills, whose victuals are the blood of their cattle, or the herbs in the field; and whose clothing, to the dishonour of God and man, is nakedness. Yet notwithstanding all the dismal appearances, it is the common phrase of our upstart race of people, who have suddenly sprang up like the dragon's teeth among us, That Ireland was never known to be so rich as it is now; by which, as I apprehend, they can only mean themselves, for they have skipped over the channel from the vantage ground of a dunghill upon no other merit, either visible or divineable, than that of not having been born among us.

"This is the modern way of planting Colonies—Et ubi solitudinem faciunt, id Imperium vocant. When those who are so unfortunate to be born here, are excluded from the meanest preferments, and deemed incapable of being entertained even as common soldiers, whose poor stipend is but four pence a day. No trade, no emoluments, no encouragement for learning among the natives, who yet by a perverse consequence are divided into factions, with as much violence and rancour, as if they had the wealth of the Indies to contend for. It puts me in mind of a fable which I read in a monkish author. He quotes for it one of the Greek mythologists that once upon a time a colony of large dogs (called the Molossi) transplanted themselves from Epirus to AEtolia, where they seized those parts of the countries, most fertile in flesh of all kinds, obliging the native dogs to retire from their best kennels, to live under ditches and bushes, but to preserve good neighbourhood and peace; and finding likewise, that the AEtolian dogs might be of some use in the low offices of life, they passed a decree, that the natives should be entitled to the short ribs, tops of back, knuckle-bones, and guts of all the game, which they were obliged by their masters to run down. This condition was accepted, and what was a little singular, while the Molossian dogs kept a good understanding among themselves, living in peace and luxury, these AEtolian curs were perpetually snarling, growling, barking and tearing at each other's throats: Nay, sometimes those of the best quality among them, were seen to quarrel with as much rancour for a rotten gut, as if it had been a fat haunch of venison. But what need we wonder at this in dogs, when the same is every day practised among men?

"Last year I travelled from Dublin to Dundalk, through a country esteemed the most fruitful part of the kingdom, and so nature intended it. But no ornaments or improvements of such a scene were visible. No habitation fit for gentlemen, no farmers' houses, few fields of corn, and almost a bare face of nature, without new plantations of any kind, only a few miserable cottages, at three or four miles' distance, and one Church in the centre between this city and Drogheda. When I arrived at this last town, the first mortifying sight was the ruins of several churches, battered down by that usurper, Cromwell, whose fanatic zeal made more desolation in a few days, than the piety of succeeding prelates or the wealth of the town have, in more than sixty years, attempted to repair.

"Perhaps the inhabitants, through a high strain of virtue, have, in imitation of the Athenians, made a solemn resolution, never to rebuild those sacred edifices, but rather leave them in ruins, as monuments, to perpetuate the detestable memory of that hellish instrument of rebellion, desolation, and murder. For the Athenians, when Mardonius had ravaged a great part of Greece, took a formal oath at the Isthmus, to lose their lives rather than their liberty, to stand by their leaders to the last, to spare the cities of such barbarians as they conquered. And what crowned all, the conclusion of their oath was, We will never repair any of the Temples, which they have burned and destroyed, lest they may appear to posterity as so many monuments of these wicked barbarians. This was a glorious resolution; and I am sorry to think, that the poverty of my countrymen will not let the world suppose, they have acted upon such a generous principle; yet upon this occasion I cannot but observe, that there is a fatality in some nations, to be fond of those who have treated them with the least humanity. Thus I have often heard the memory of Cromwell, who has depopulated, and almost wholly destroyed this miserable country, celebrated like that of a saint, and at the same time the sufferings of the royal martyr turned into ridicule, and his murder justified even from the pulpit, and all this done with an intent to gain favour, under a monarchy; which is a new strain of politics that I shall not pretend to account for.

"Examine all the eastern towns of Ireland, and you will trace this horrid instrument of destruction, in defacing of Churches, and particularly in destroying whatever was ornamental, either within or without them. We see in the several towns a very few houses scattered among the ruins of thousands, which he laid level with their streets; great numbers of castles, the country seats of gentlemen then in being, still standing in ruin, habitations for bats, daws, and owls, without the least repairs or succession of other buildings. Nor have the country churches, as far as my eye could reach, met with any better treatment from him, nine in ten of them lying among their graves and God only knows when they are to have a resurrection. When I passed from Dundalk where this cursed usurper's handy work is yet visible, I cast mine eyes around from the top of a mountain, from whence I had a wide and a waste prospect of several venerable ruins. It struck me with a melancholy, not unlike that expressed by Cicero in one of his letters which being much upon the like prospect, and concluding with a very necessary reflection on the uncertainty of things in this world, I shall here insert a translation of what he says: 'In my return from Asia, as I sailed from AEgina, towards Megara, I began to take a prospect of the several countries round me. Behind me was AEgina; before me Megara; on the right hand the Piraeus; and on the left was Corinth; which towns were formerly in a most flourishing condition; now they lie prostrate and in ruin.

"'Thus I began to think with myself: Shall we who have but a trifling existence, express any resentment, when one of us either dies a natural death, or is slain, whose lives are necessarily of a short duration, when at one view I beheld the carcases of so many great cities?' What if he had seen the natives of those free republics, reduced to all the miserable consequences of a conquered people, living without the common defences against hunger and cold, rather appearing like spectres than men? I am apt to think, that seeing his fellow creatures in ruin like this, it would have put him past all patience for philosophic reflection.

"As for my own part, I confess, that the sights and occurrences which I had in this my last journey, so far transported me to a mixture of rage and compassion, that I am not able to decide, which had the greater influence upon my spirits; for this new cant, of a rich and flourishing nation, was still uppermost in my thoughts; every mile I travelled, giving me such ample demonstrations to the contrary. For this reason, I have been at the pains to render a most exact and faithful account of all the visible signs of riches, which I met with in sixty miles' riding through the most public roads, and the best part of the kingdom. First, as to trade, I met nine cars loaden with old musty, shrivelled hides; one car-load of butter; four jockeys driving eight horses, all out of case; one cow and calf driven by a man and his wife; six tattered families flitting to be shipped off to the West Indies; a colony of a hundred and fifty beggars, all repairing to people our metropolis, and by encreasing the number of hands, to encrease its wealth, upon the old maxim, that people are the riches of a nation, and therefore ten thousand mouths, with hardly ten pair of hands, or hardly any work to employ them, will infallibly make us a rich and flourishing people. Secondly, Travellers enough, but seven in ten wanting shirts and cravats; nine in ten going bare foot, and carrying their brogues and stockings in their hands; one woman in twenty having a pillion, the rest riding bare backed: Above two hundred horsemen, with four pair of boots amongst them all; seventeen saddles of leather (the rest being made of straw) and most of their garrons only shod before. I went into one of the principal farmer's houses, out of curiosity, and his whole furniture consisted of two blocks for stools, a bench on each side the fire-place made of turf, six trenchers, one bowl, a pot, six horn spoons, three noggins, three blankets, one of which served the man and maid servant; the other the master of the family, his wife and five children; a small churn, a wooden candlestick, a broken stick for a pair of tongs. In the public towns, one third of the inhabitants walking the streets bare foot; windows half built up with stone, to save the expense of glass, the broken panes up and down supplied by brown paper, few being able to afford white; in some places they were stopped with straw or hay. Another mark of our riches, are the signs at the several inns upon the road, viz. In some, a staff stuck in the thatch, with a turf at the end of it; a staff in a dunghill with a white rag wrapped about the head; a pole, where they can afford it, with a besom at the top; an oatmeal cake on a board at the window; and, at the principal inns of the road, I have observed the signs taken down and laid against the wall near the door, being taken from their post to prevent the shaking of the house down by the wind. In short, I saw not one single house, in the best town I travelled through, which had not manifest appearances of beggary and want. I could give many more instances of our wealth, but I hope these will suffice for the end I propose.

"It may be objected, what use it is of to display the poverty of the nation, in the manner I have done. I answer, I desire to know for what ends, and by what persons, this new opinion of our flourishing state has of late been so industriously advanced: One thing is certain, that the advancers have either already found their own account, or have been heartily promised, or at least have been entertained with hopes, by seeing such an opinion pleasing to those who have it in their power to reward.

"It is no doubt a very generous principle in any person to rejoice in the felicities of a nation, where themselves are strangers or sojourners: But if it be found that the same persons on all other occasions express a hatred and contempt of the nation and people in general, and hold it for a maxim—'That the more such a country is humbled, the more their own will rise'; it need be no longer a secret, why such an opinion, and the advantages of it are encouraged. And besides, if the bayliff reports to his master, that the ox is fat and strong, when in reality it can hardly carry its own legs, is it not natural to think, that command will be given, for a greater load to be put upon it?" [T. S.]

[21] This was a project for the establishment of a national bank for Ireland. Swift ridiculed the proposal (see p. 31), no doubt, out of suspicion of the acts of stock-jobbers and the monied interests which were enlisted on the side of the Whigs. His experience, also, of the abortive South Sea Schemes would tend to make his opposition all the stronger. But the plans for the bank were not ill-conceived, and had Swift been in calmer temper he might have seen the advantages which attached to the proposals. [T. S.]

[22] Thus in original edition. In Faulkner and the "Miscellanies" of 1735 the words are, "altogether imaginary." [T. S.]

[23] The motto round a crown piece, which was the usual price of permits. [Orig. edit.]

[24] The Dean of St. Patrick's. F

[25] Paul Lorrain, who was appointed ordinary of Newgate in 1698, compiled numerous confessions and dying speeches of prisoners condemned to be hanged. A letter to Swift, from Pope and Bolingbroke, dated December, 1725, mentions him as "the great historiographer," and Steele, in the "Tatler" and "Spectator," refers to "Lorrain's Saints." Lorrain attended some famous criminals to the scaffold, including Captain Kidd and Jack Sheppard. [T. S.]

[26] The following is an account of the proceedings of both the houses of the Irish parliament upon the subject of this proposed bank.

In the year 1720, James, Earl of Abercorn, Gustavus, Viscount Boyne, Sir Ralph Gore, Bart., Oliver St. George, and Michael Ward, Esqs., in behalf of themselves and others, presented a petition to his Majesty for a charter of incorporation, whereby they might be established as a bank, under the name and title of the Bank of Ireland. They proposed to raise a fund of L500,000 to supply merchants, etc., with money at five per cent., and agreed to contribute L50,000 to the service of government in consideration of their obtaining a charter. In their petition they state, that "the raising of a million for that purpose is creating a greater fund than the nation can employ." Soon after the above-mentioned petition was lodged, a second application was made by Lord Forbes and others, who proposed raising a million for that purpose, and offered to discharge "the L50,000 national debt of that kingdom, in five years from the time they should obtain a charter." The latter application, being subsequent in point of date, was withdrawn, Lord Forbes and his friends having acquainted the Lord-lieutenant that, "rather than, by a competition, obstruct a proposal of so general advantage, they were willing to desist from their application." The former was accordingly approved of, and the King, on the 29th of July, 1721, issued letters of Privy Seal, directing that a charter of incorporation should pass the Great Seal of Ireland. ("Comm. Journ.," vol. iii, Appendix ix, page cc, etc.)

When the parliament of Ireland met, on the 12th of September following, the Duke of Grafton, lord lieutenant, in his speech from the throne, communicated the intention of his Majesty to both houses, and concluded by saying, "As this is a matter of general and national concern, his Majesty leaves it to the wisdom of Parliament to consider what advantages the public may receive by erecting a bank, and in what manner it may be settled upon a safe foundation, so as to be beneficial to the kingdom." The commons, in their address, which was voted unanimously on the 14th, expressed their gratitude for his Majesty's goodness and royal favour in directing a commission to establish a bank, and on the 21st moved for the papers to be laid before them; they even, on the 29th, agreed to the following resolution of the committee they had appointed, "that the establishment of a bank upon a solid and good foundation, under proper regulations and restrictions, will contribute to restoring of credit, and support of the trade and manufacture of the kingdom;" but, when the heads of a bill for establishing the bank came to be discussed, a strenuous opposition was raised to it. On the 9th of December Sir Thomas Taylor, chairman of the committee to whom the matter had been referred, reported "that they had gone through the first enacting paragraph, and disagreed to the same." Accordingly, the question being proposed and put, the house (after a division, wherein there appeared 150 for the question and 80 against it) voted that "they could not find any safe foundation for establishing a public bank," and resolved that an address, conformable to this resolution, should be presented to the lord-lieutenant. (Comm. Journ., vol. iii, pp. 247-289.)

The proceedings of the House of Lords resembled that of the Commons; on the 8th of November they concurred with the resolution of their committee, which was unfavourable to the establishment of a bank. A protest was, however, entered, signed by four temporal and two spiritual peers, and when an address to his Majesty, grounded on that resolution, was proposed, a long debate ensued, which occupied two days. On the 9th December a list of the subscriptions was called for, and on the 16th they resolved, that if any lord, spiritual or temporal, should attempt to obtain a charter to erect a bank, "he should be deemed a contemnor of the authority of that house, and a betrayer of the liberty of his country." They ordered, likewise, that this resolution should be presented by the chancellor to the lord lieutenant. ("Lord's Journal," vol. ii, pp. 687-720.) Monck Mason's "Hist. St. Patrick's Cathedral," p. 325, note 3. [T. S.]

[27] The title, Esquire, according to a high authority, was anciently applied "to the younger sons of nobility and their heirs in the immediate line, to the eldest sons of knights and their heirs, to the esquire of the knights and others of that rank in his Majesty's service, and to such as had eminent employment in the Commonwealth, and were not knighted, such as judges, sheriffs, and justices of the peace during their offices, and some others. But now," says Sir Edward Walker, "in the days of Charles I., the addition is so increased, that he is a very poor and inconsiderable person who writes himself less."

Accordingly, most of the signatures for shares in the projected National Bank of Ireland, were dignified with the addition of Esquire, which, added to the obscurity of the subscribers, incurs the ridicule of our author in the following treatise. Ṣ

[28] SUBSCRIBERS TO THE BANK, PLACED ACCORDING TO THEIR ORDER AND QUALITY, WITH NOTES AND QUERIES.

A true and exact account of the nobility, gentry, and traders, of the kingdom of Ireland, who, upon mature deliberation, are of opinion, that the establishing a bank upon real security, would be highly for the advantage of the trade of the said kingdom, and for increasing the current species of money in the same. Extracted from the list of the subscribers to the Bank of Ireland, published by order of the commissioners appointed to receive subscriptions.

Nobility.

Archbishops 0 Marquisses 0 Earls 0 Viscounts 3 Barons 1 Bishops 2 French Baron 1

N. B.: The temporal Lords of Ireland are 125, the Bishops 22. In all 147, exclusive of the aforesaid French Count.

Gentry.

Baronets 1 Knights 1

N. B. Total of baronets and knights in Ireland uncertain; but in common computation supposed to be more than two.

Members of the House of Commons—41. One whereof reckoned before amongst the two knights.

N. B. Number of Commoners in all 300.

Esquires not Members of Parliament—37

N. B. There are at least 20 of the said 37 Esquires whose names are little known, and whose qualifications as Esqrs. are referred to the king at arms; and the said king is desired to send to the publisher hereof a true account of the whole number of such real or reputed Esqrs. as are to be found in this kingdom.

Clergy.

Deans 1 Arch-Deacons 2 Rectors 3 Curates 2

N. B. Of this number one French dean, one French curate, and one bookseller.

Officers not members of Parliament—16

N. B. Of the above number 10 French; but uncertain whether on whole or half pay, broken, or of the militia.

Women.

Ladies 1 Widows 3 whereof one qualified to be deputy-governor. Maidens 4

N. B. It being uncertain in what class to place the eight female subscribers, whether in that of nobility, gentry, &c. it is thought proper to insert them here betwixt the officers and traders.

Traders.

{ Dublin 1 a Frenchman. Aldermen of { Cork 1 { Limerick 1 Waterford 0 Drogheda 0 &c. 0

Merchants 29, viz. 10 French, of London 1, of Cork 1, of Belfast 1.

N. B. The place of abode of three of the said merchants, viz. of London, Cork and Belfast, being mentioned, the publisher desires to know where the rest may be wrote to, and whether they deal in wholesale or retail, viz.

Master dealers, &c. 59, cashiers 1, bankers 4, chemist 1, player 1, Popish vintner 1, bricklayer 1, chandler 1, doctors of physic 4, chirurgeons 2, pewterer 1, attorneys 4 (besides one esq. attorney before reckoned), Frenchmen 8, but whether pensioners, barbers, or markees, uncertain. As to the rest of the M——rs, the publisher of this paper, though he has used his utmost diligence, has not been able to get a satisfactory account either as to their country, trade or profession.

N. B. The total of men, women and children in Ireland, besides Frenchmen, is 2,000,000. Total of the land of Ireland acres 16,800,000. (Vide Reasons for a Bank, &c.)

Quaere, How many of the said acres are in possession of 1 French baron, 1 French dean, 1 French curate, 1 French alderman, 10 French merchants, 8 Messieurs Frances, 1 esq. projector, 1 esq. attorney, 6 officers of the army, 8 women, 1 London merchant, 1 Cork merchant, 1 Belfast merchant, 18 merchants whose places of abode are not mentioned, 1 cashier, 4 bankers, 1 gentleman projector, 1 player, 1 chemist, 1 Popish vintner, 1 bricklayer, 1 chandler, 4 doctors of physic, 2 chirurgeons, 1 pewterer, 4 gentlemen attorneys, besides 28 gentleman dealers, yet unknown, ut supra?

Dublin: Printed by John Harding in Molesworth's Court, in Fishamble Street. (Reprinted from original broadside, n.d.)

[29] In the capacity of a postillion, no doubt. [T. S.]

[30] Which means that she kept an eating-house or restaurant, and became eventually a bankrupt. [T. S.]

[31] The livery of a footman. [T. S.]

[32] As a constable. [T. S.]

[33] An innkeeper. [T. S.]

[34] This paragraph is printed as given by Faulkner in ed. 1735, vol. iv. [T. S.]

[35] See note on Paul Lorrain, p. 34. It was the duty of the Ordinary of a prison to compose such dying speeches. [T. S.]

[36] His parents were Dissenters, and gave him a good education. [T. S.]

[37] Sir Henry Craik remarks on this title: "In modern language this might well have been entitled, 'The theories of political economy proved to have no application to Ireland.'" The word "controlled" is used in the now obsolete sense of "confuted." [T. S.]

[38] Sir John Browne, in his "Scheme of the Money Matters of Ireland" (Dublin, 1729), calculated that the total currency, including paper, was about L914,000, but the author of "Considerations on Seasonable Remarks" stated that the entire currency could not be more than L600,000. Browne was no reliable authority; he is the writer to whom Swift wrote a reply. See p. 122. [T. S.]

[39] See "A Short View of the State of Ireland," p. 86. [T. S.]

[40] Lecky refers to a remarkable letter written by an Irish peer in the March of 1702, and preserved in the "Southwell Correspondence" in the British Museum, in which the writer complains that the money of the country is almost gone, and the poverty of the towns so great that it was feared the Court mourning for the death of William would be the final blow. (Lecky, vol. i., p. 181, 1892 ed.). [T. S.]

[41] Those of Charles II. and James II. in which, for political reasons on the part of the Crown, Ireland was peculiarly favoured. Ṣ

[42] This was Dr. Nicholas Barbou, the friend of John Asgill and author of two works on trade and money. After the Great Fire of London he speculated largely in building, and greatly assisted in making city improvements. He was the founder of fire insurance in England and was active in land and bank speculations. He died in 1698, leaving a will directing that none of his debts should be paid. [T. S.]

[43] The beggars of Ireland are spoken of by Bishop Berkeley. But Arthur Dobbs, in the second part of his "Essay on Trade," published in 1731, gives a descriptive picture of the gangs who travelled over Ireland as professional paupers. In the 2,295 parishes, there was in each an average of at least ten beggars carrying on their trade the whole year round; the total number of these wandering paupers he puts down at over 34,000. Computing 30,000 of them able to work, and assuming that each beggar could earn 4d. a day in a working year of 284 days, he calculates that their idleness is a loss to the nation of L142,000. (Pp. 444-445 of Thom's reprint; Dublin, 1861) [T. S.]

[44] See Swift's terrible satire on the "Modest Proposal for preventing Children of Poor People from being a burthen." [T. S.]

[45] A small country village about seven miles from Kells. [T. S.]

[46] Esther Johnson. [T. S.]

[47] Stella's companion and Swift's housekeeper. [T. S.]

[48] See Swift's "Directions to Servants." [T. S.]

[49] By Acts 18 Charles II c. 2, and 32 Charles II c. 2, enacted in 1665 and 1680, the importation into England from Ireland of all cattle, sheep, swine, beef, pork, bacon, mutton, cheese and butter, was absolutely prohibited. The land of Ireland being largely pasture land and England being the chief and nearest market, these laws practically destroyed the farming industry. The pernicious acts were passed on complaint from English land proprietors that the competition from Irish cattle had lowered their rents in England. "In this manner," says Lecky, "the chief source of Irish prosperity was annihilated at a single blow." [T. S.]

[50] The original Navigation Act treated Ireland on an equal footing with England. The act, however, was succeeded in 1663 by that of 15 Charles II c. 7, in which it was declared that no European articles, with few exceptions, could be imported into the colonies unless they had been loaded in English-built vessels at English ports. Nor could goods be brought from English colonies except to English ports. By the Acts 22 and 23 of Charles II. c. 26 the exclusion of Ireland was confirmed, and the Acts 7 and 8 of Will. III. c. 22, passed in 1696, actually prohibited any goods whatever from being imported to Ireland direct from the English colonies. These are the reasons for Swift's remark that Ireland's ports were of no more use to Ireland's people "than a beautiful prospect to a man shut up in a dungeon." [T. S.]

[51] See note on page 137 of vol. vi of this edition. "The Drapier's Letters." [T. S.]

[52] Lecky quotes from the MSS. in the British Museum, from a series of letters written by Bishop Nicholson, on his journey to Derry, to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The quotation illustrates the truth of Swift's remark. "Never did I behold," writes Nicholson, "even in Picardy, Westphalia, or Scotland, such dismal marks of hunger and want as appeared in the countenances of the poor creatures I met with on the road." In the "Intelligencer" (No. VI, 1728) Sheridan wrote: "The poor are sunk to the lowest degrees of misery and poverty—their houses dunghills, their victuals the blood of their cattle, or the herbs of the field." Of the condition of the country thirty years later, the most terrible of pictures is given by Burdy in his "Life of Skelton": "In 1757 a remarkable dearth prevailed in Ireland.... Mr. Skelton went out into the country to discover the real state of his poor, and travelled from cottage to cottage, over mountains, rocks, and heath.... In one cabin he found the people eating boiled prushia [a weed with a yellow flower that grows in cornfields] by itself for their breakfast, and tasted this sorry food, which seemed nauseous to him. Next morning he gave orders to have prushia gathered and boiled for his own breakfast, that he might live on the same sort of food with the poor. He ate this for one or two days; but at last his stomach turning against it, he set off immediately for Ballyshannon to buy oatmeal for them.... One day, when he was travelling in this manner through the country, he came to a lonely cottage in the mountains, where he found a poor woman lying in child-bed with a number of children about her. All she had, in her weak, helpless condition to keep herself and her children alive, was blood and sorrel boiled up together. The blood, her husband, who was a herdsman, took from the cattle of others under his care, for he had none of his own. This was a usual sort of food in that country in times of scarcity, for they bled the cows for that purpose, and thus the same cow often afforded both milk and blood.... They were obliged, when the carriers were bringing the meal to Pettigo, to guard it with their clubs, as the people of the adjacent parishes strove to take it by force, in which they sometimes succeeded, hunger making them desperate." (Burdy's Life of Skelton. "Works," vol. i, pp. lxxx-lxxxii.) [T. S.]

[53] See on this subject the agitation against Wood's halfpence in the volume dealing with "The Drapier's Letters." [T. S.]

[54] Faulkner and Scott print this word "irony," but the original edition has it as printed in the text. [T. S.]

[55] The original edition has this as "Island." Scott and the previous editors print it as in the text. Iceland is, no doubt, referred to. [T. S.]

[56] Bishop Nicholson, quoted by Lecky, speaks of the miserable hovels in which the people lived, and the almost complete absence of clothing. [T. S.]

[57] Hely Hutchinson, in his "Commercial Restraints of Ireland" (Dublin, 1779; new edit. 1888) points out that the scheme proposed by the government, and partly executed, by directing a commission under the great seal for receiving voluntary subscriptions in order to establish a bank, was a scheme to circulate paper without money. This and Wood's halfpence seem to have been the nearest approach made at the time for supplying what Swift here calls "the running cash of the nation." [T. S.]

[58] England.

[59] Scotland and Ireland.

[60] The Irish Sea.

[61] The Roman Wall.

[62] The Scottish Highlanders. [T. S]

[63] Charles I, who was delivered by the Scotch into the hands of the Parliamentary party. [T. S]

[64] See note to "A Short View of the State of Ireland." [T. S.]

[65] The King of England. [T. S.]

[66] The Lord-Lieutenant. [T. S.]

[67] The English Government filled all the important posts in Ireland with individuals sent over from England. See "Boulter's Letters" on this subject of the English rule. [T. S.]

[68] See notes to "A Short View of the State of Ireland," on the Navigation Acts and the acts against the exportation of cattle. [T. S.]

[69] The laws against woollen manufacture. [T. S.]

[70] Absentees and place-holders. [T. S.]

[71] The spirit of opposition and enmity to England, declared by the Scottish Act of Security, according to Swift's view of the relations between the countries, left no alternative but an union or a war. Ṣ

[72] The Act of Union between England and Scotland. [T. S.]

[73] The reference here is to the linen manufactories of Ireland which were being encouraged by England. [T. S.]

[74] Swift here refers to the sentiment, largely predominant in Scotland, for the return of the Stuarts. [T. S.]

[75] Alliances with France. [T. S.]

[76] Alluding to the 33rd Henry VIII, providing that the King and his successors should be kings imperial of both kingdoms, on which the enemies of Irish independence founded their arguments against it. Ṣ Scott cannot be correct in this note. The allusion is surely to the enactments known as Poyning's Law. See vol. vi., p. 77 (note) of this edition of Swift's works. [T. S.]

[77] Disturbances excited by the Scottish colonists in Ulster. Ṣ

[78] The subjugation of Scotland by Cromwell. Ṣ

[79] That is to say, to interpret Poyning's law in the spirit in which it was enacted, and give to Ireland the right to make its own laws. [T. S.]

[80] Free trade and the repeal of the Navigation Act. [T. S.]

[81] Office-holders should not be absentees. [T. S.]

[82] That the land laws of Ireland shall be free from interference by England, and the produce of the land free to be exported to any place. [T. S.]

[83] The laws prohibiting the importation of live cattle into England, and the restrictions as to the woollen industry, were the ruin of those who held land for grazing purposes. [T. S.]

[84] The Act of 10 and 11 William III., cap. 10, was the final blow to the woollen industry of Ireland. It was enacted in 1699, and prohibited the exportation of Irish wool to any other country. In the fifth letter of Hely Hutchinson's "Commercial Restraints of Ireland" (1779) will be found a full account of the passing of this Act and its consequences. [T. S.]

[85] Edward Waters and John Harding, the printers of Swift's pamphlets. See volume on "The Drapier's Letters." [T. S.]

[86] The text here given is that of the original manuscript in the Forster Collection at South Kensington, collated with that given by Deane Swift in vol. viii. of the 4to edition of 1765. [T. S.]

[87] The letter was written in reply to a letter received from Messrs. Truman and Layfield. [T. S.]

[88] Dr. William King, Archbishop of Dublin. [T. S.]

[89] Swift betrays here a lamentable knowledge of the geography of this part of America. Penn, however, may have known no better. [T. S.]

[90] William Burnet, at this time the Governor of Massachusetts, was the son of Swift's old enemy, Bishop Burnet. [T. S.]

[91] Burnet quarrelled with the Assembly of Massachusetts and New Hampshire because they would not allow him a fixed salary. The Assembly attempted to give him instead a fee on ships leaving Boston, but the English Government refused to allow this. [T. S.]

[92] The original MS. on which this text is based does not contain the passage here given in brackets. [T. S.]

[93] Swift is here supported by Arthur Dobbs, who in his "Essays on Trade," pt. ii. (1731) gives as one of the conditions prejudicial to trade, the luxury of living and extravagance in food, dress, furniture, and equipage by the Irish well-to-do. He describes it "as one of the principal sources of our national evils." His remedy was a tax on expensive dress, and rich equipage and furniture. [T. S.]

[94] The text of this tract is based on that given by Deane Swift in the eighth volume of his edition of Swift's works published in quarto in 1765. [T. S.]

[95] This refers to Whitshed. [T. S.]

[96] The Fourth. See vol. vi. of present edition. [T. S.]

[97] Some ten years after Swift wrote the above, the roads of Ireland were thought to be so good as to attract Whitefield's attention. Lecky quotes Arthur Young, who found Irish roads superior to those of England. (Lecky's "Ireland," vol. i., p. 330, 1892 ed.) [T. S.]

[98] Lecky (vol. i., pp. 333-335, 1892 edit.) gives a detailed account of the destruction of the fine woods in Ireland which occurred during the forty years that followed the Revolution. The melancholy sight of the denuded land drew the attention of a Parliamentary Commission appointed to inquire into the matter. The Act of 10 Will. III. 2, c. 12 ordered the planting of a certain number of trees in every county, "but," remarks Lecky, "it was insufficient to counteract the destruction which was due to the cupidity or the fears of the new proprietors." [T. S.]

[99] Swift always distinguished between the Irish "barbarians" and the Irish who were in reality English settlers in Ireland. Swift, for once, is in accord with the desires of the English Government, who wished to eradicate the Irish language. His friend the Archbishop of Dublin and his own college, that of Trinity, were in favour of keeping the language alive. (See Lecky's "Ireland," vol. i., pp. 331-332.) [T. S.]

[100] See Swift's "Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures." [T. S.]

[101] See Swift's "Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures." [T. S.]

[102] The text here given is that of Scott read by the "Miscellaneous Pieces" of 1789. The "Observations" were written, probably, in 1729. [T. S.]

[103] Monck Mason has an elaborate note on this subject ("Hist. of St. Patrick's Cathedral," pp. 320-321, ed. 1819), which is well worth reprinting here, since it is an excellent statement of facts, and is fully borne out by Hely Hutchinson's account in his "Commercial Restraints of Ireland," to which reference has already been made:

"In the year 1698 a bill was introduced into the English Parliament, grounded upon complaints, that the woollen manufacture in Ireland prejudiced the staple trade of England; the matter terminated at last in an address to the King, wherein the commons 'implored his majesty's protection and favour on this matter, and that he would make it his royal care, and enjoin all those whom he employed in Ireland, to use their utmost diligence, to hinder the exportation of wool from Ireland (except it be imported into England), and for the discouraging the woollen manufacture, and increasing the linen manufacture of Ireland.' Accordingly, on the 16th July, the King wrote a letter of instructions to the Earl of Galway, in which the following passage appears: 'The chief thing that must be tried to be prevented, is, that the Irish parliament takes no notice of what has passed in this here, and that you make effectual laws for the linen manufacture, and discourage as far as possible the woollen.'—The Earl of Galway and the other justices convened the parliament on the 27th of September; in their speech, they recommended a bill for the encouragement of the manufactures of linen and hemp, 'which,' say they, 'will be found more advantageous to this kingdom than the woollen manufacture, which, being the settled trade of England from whence all foreign markets are supplied, can never be encouraged here.' The house of commons so far concurred with the lords justices' sentiments as to say, in their address of thanks, that they would heartily endeavour to establish the linen manufacture, and to render the same useful to England, and 'we hope,' they add, 'to find such a temperament, with respect to the woollen trade here, that the same may not be injurious to England' ('Cont. Rapin's Hist.,' p. 376). 'And they did,' says Mr. Smith, 'so far come into a temperament in this case, as, hoping it would be accepted by way of compromise, to lay a high duty of ... upon all their woollen manufacture exported; under which, had England acquiesced, I am persuaded it would have been better for the kingdom in general. But the false notion of a possible monopoly, made the English deaf to all other terms of accommodation; by which means they lost the horse rather than quit the stable' ('Memoirs of Wool,' vol. ii., p. 30). The duties imposed by the Irish parliament, at this time, upon the export of manufactured wool, was four shillings on the value of twenty shillings of the old drapery, and two shillings upon the like value of the new, except friezes. But this concurrence of the people of Ireland seemed rather to heighten the jealousy between the two nations, by making the people of England imagine the manufactures of Ireland were arrived at a dangerous pitch of improvement, since they could be supposed capable of bearing so extravagant a duty: accordingly, in the next following year, the English parliament passed an Act (10-11 William III: cap. 10), that no person should export from Ireland wool or woollen goods, except to England or Wales, under high penalties, such goods to be shipped only from certain ports in Ireland, and to certain ports in England: But this was not the whole grievance; the old duties upon the import of those commodities, whether raw or manufactured, into Great Britain, were left in the same state as before, which amounted nearly to a prohibition; thus did the English, although they had not themselves any occasion for those commodities, prohibit, nevertheless, their being sent to any other nation.

"The discouragement of the woollen manufacture of Ireland, affected particularly the English settlers there, for the linen was entirely in the hands of the Scotch, who were established in Ulster, and the Irish natives had no share in either. It is stated in a pamphlet, entitled, 'A Discourse concerning Ireland, etc. in answer to the Exon and Barnstaple petitions,' printed 1697-8, that there were then, in the city and suburbs of Dublin, 12,000 English families, and throughout the nation, 50,000, who were bred to trades connected with the manufacture of wool, 'who could no more get their bread in the linen manufacture, than a London taylor by shoe-making.'

"Mr. Walter Scott says ('Life of Swift,' p. 278) that the Irish woollen manufacture produced an annual million, but this is not the fact; Mr. Dobbs in his 'Essay on the Trade of Ireland,' informs us, from the custom-house books, that in the year 1697 (which immediately preceded the year in which the address above-mentioned was transmitted to the king) the total value of Irish woollen exports, of all sorts, was only L23,614 9s. 6d., and in 1687, when they were at the highest, they did not exceed L70,521 14s. 0d. It moreover appears, that the greater part of these exports were of a sort which did not interfere with the trade of England, L56,415 16s. 0d. was in friezes, and L2,520 18s. 0d. coarse stockings, the rest consisted in serges and other stuffs of the new drapery, which affected not the trade of England generally, but only the particular interests of Exeter and its neighbourhood, and a very few other inconsiderable towns.

"But, whatever injury was intended, little prejudice was done to Ireland, except what followed immediately after the passing of this Act. It appears from Mr. Dobbs's pamphlet, that, a few years after, four times the quantity of woollen goods were shipped in each year, clandestinely, than had ever been exported, legally, before: moreover, the Irish vastly increased their manufactures for home consumption, and learned to make fine cloth from Spanish wool: it was only to England itself that any disadvantage redounded; many manufacturers who were unsettled by this measure, passed over to Germany, Spain, and to Rouen and other parts of France, 'from these beginnings they have, in many branches, so much improved the woollen manufactures of France, as to vie with the English in foreign markets.—Upon the whole, those nations may be justly said to have deprived Britain of millions since that time, instead of the thousands Ireland might possibly have made.'—What Mr. Dobbs has here asserted, relative to the removal of the manufacturers, has been confirmed by another tract, 'Letter from a Clothier a Member of Parliament,' printed in 1731, which informs us that, for some years after, the English seemed to engross all the woollen trade, 'but this appearance of benefit abated, as the foreign factories, raised on the ruin of the Irish, acquired strength': he shows too, that the importation of unmanufactured wool from Ireland to England had been gradually decreasing since that time, which was probably on account of the increase of the illicit trade to foreign parts, towards the encouragement of which the duties, or legal transportation, served to act as a bounty of 36 per cent. 'So true it is, that England can never fall into measures for unreasonably cramping the industry of the people of Ireland, without doing herself the greatest prejudice.'" (Note g, pp. 320-321). [T. S.]

[104] The causes for absenteeism are thus noted by Lecky ("Hist. of Ireland," p. 213, vol. i., ed. 1892): "The very large part of the confiscated land was given to Englishmen who had property and duties in England, and habitually lived there. Much of it also came into the market, and as there was very little capital in Ireland, and as Catholics were forbidden to purchase land, this also passed largely into the hands of English speculators. Besides, the level of civilization was much higher in England than in Ireland. The position of a Protestant landlord, living in the midst of a degraded population, differing from him in religion and race, had but little attraction, the political situation of the country closed to an Irish gentleman nearly every avenue of honourable ambition, and owing to a long series of very evident causes, the sentiment of public duty was deplorably low. The economical condition was not checked by any considerable movement in the opposite direction, for after the suppression of the Irish manufactures but few Englishmen, except those who obtained Irish offices, came to Ireland."

The amount of the rent obtained in Ireland that was spent in England is estimated elsewhere by Swift to have been at least one-third. In 1729, Prior assessed the amount at L627,000. In the Supplement to his "List of Absentees," Prior gives eight further "articles" by which money was "yearly drawn out of the Kingdom." See the "Supplement," pp. 242-245 in Thone's "Collection of Tracts," Dublin, 1861. [T. S.]

[105] John Erskine, Earl of Mar, has elsewhere been characterized by Swift as "crooked; he seemed to me to be a gentleman of good sense and good nature." The great rebellion of 1715, for which Mar was responsible, was stirred up by him in favour of the Pretender, and succeeded so far as to bring the Chevalier to Scotland. The Duke of Argyll, however, fought his forces, and though the victory remained undecided, Mar was compelled to seek safety in France. The rebellion caused so much disturbance in every part of the British Isles that Ireland suffered greatly from bad trade. [T. S.]

[106] Joshua, Lord Allen. See note on p. 175. [T. S.]

[107] See page 60 of vol. iii. of the present edition. [T. S.]

[108] Chief Justice Whitshed. [T. S.]

[109] See page 14. [T. S.]

[110] Edward Waters. [T. S.]

[111] See pages 96, 235-6, of vol. vi. of present edition. [T. S.]

[112] The person here intimated, Joshua, Lord Allen (whom Swift elsewhere satirizes under the name of Traulus), was born in 1685. He is said to have been a weak and dissipated man; and some particulars are recorded by tradition concerning his marriage with Miss Du Pass (whose father was clerk of the secretary of state's office in James the Second's reign, and died in India in 1699), which do very little honour either to his heart or understanding.

It is reported, that being trepanned into a marriage with this lady, by a stratagem of the celebrated Lionel, Duke of Dorset, Lord Allen refused, for some time, to acknowledge her as his wife. But the lady, after living some time in close retirement, caused an advertisement to be inserted in the papers, stating the death of a brother in the East Indies, by which Miss Margaret Du Pass had succeeded to a large fortune. Accordingly, she put on mourning, and assumed an equipage conforming to her supposed change of fortune. Lord Allen's affairs being much deranged, he became now as anxious to prove the marriage with the wealthy heiress, as he had formerly been to disown the unportioned damsel; and succeeded, after such opposition as the lady judged necessary to give colour to the farce. Before the deceit was discovered, Lady Allen, by her good sense and talents, had obtained such ascendance over her husband, that they ever afterwards lived in great harmony.

Lord Allen was, at the time of giving offence to Swift, a privy-counsellor; and distinguished himself, according to Lodge, in the House of Peers, by his excellent speeches for the benefit of his country. He died at Stillorgan, 1742. Ṣ

Swift did not allow Lord Allen to rest with this "advertisement." In the poem entitled "Traulus," Allen is gibbetted in some lively rhymes. He calls him a "motley fruit of mongrel seed," and traces his descent from the mother's side (she was the sister of the Earl of Kildare) as well as the father's (who was the son of Sir Joshua Allen, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1673):

"Who could give the looby such airs? Were they masons, were they butchers?

* * * * *

This was dexterous at the trowel, That was bred to kill a cow well: Hence the greasy clumsy mien In his dress and figure seen; Hence the mean and sordid soul, Like his body rank and foul; Hence that wild suspicious peep, Like a rogue that steals a sheep; Hence he learnt the butcher's guile, How to cut your throat and smile; Like a butcher doomed for life In his mouth to wear a knife; Hence he draws his daily food From his tenants' vital blood."

[T. S.]

[113] See note on page 66 of vol. vi. of present edition. The patent to Lord Dartmouth, granting him the right to coin copper coins, provided that he should give security to redeem these coins for gold or silver on demand. John Knox obtained this patent and Colonel Moore acquired it from Knox after the Revolution. [T. S.]

[114] Of ten pence in every two shillings. F

[115] But M'Culla hath still 30l. per cent. by the scheme, if they be returned. F

[116] Faulkner's edition adds here: "For the benefit of defrauding the crown never occurreth to the public, but is wholly turned to the advantage of those whom the crown employeth." [T. S.]

[117] See page 89 of vol. vi. of present edition. [T. S.]

[118] 1: Faulkner's edition adds here: "it being a matter wholly out of my trade." [T. S.]

[119] See "A Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures," p. 19. [T. S.]

[120] See Swift's letter to Archbishop King on the weavers, p. 137. [T. S.]

[121] Edward Waters. [T. S.]

[122] See note prefixed to pamphlet on p. 15. [T. S.]

[123] See notes on pp. 6, 7, 8 and 73 of vol. vi. of present edition. [T. S.]

[124] See Appendix V. in vol. vi. of present edition. [T. S.]

[125] See page 81. [T. S.]

[126] Nathaniel Mist was the publisher of the "Weekly Journal," for which Defoe wrote many important papers. The greater part of his career as a printer was spent in trials and imprisonments for the "libels" which appeared in his journal. This was largely due to the fact that his weekly newspaper became the recognized organ of Jacobites and "High-fliers." From 1716 to 1728 he was a pretty busy man with the government, and finally was compelled to go to France to escape from prosecution. In France he joined Wharton, but his "Journal" still continued to be issued until September 21st of the year 1728, which was the date of the last issue. On the 28th of the same month, however, appeared its continuation under the title, "Fog's Weekly Journal," and this was carried on by Mist's friends. Mist died in 1737. [T. S.]

[127] See notes on pp. 158-159. [T. S.]

[128] "Observations on the Precedent List: Together with a View of the Trade of Ireland, and the Great Benefits which accrue to England thereby; with some hints for the further improvement of the same." Dublin, second edition, 1729. Reprinted in Thom's "Tracts and Treatises of Ireland," 1861, vol. ii. [T. S]

[129] A reference to Alberoni's expedition in aid of the Jacobites made several years before Swift wrote. [T. S.]

[130] Sir W. Petty gives the population of Ireland as about one million, two hundred thousand ("Pol. Arithmetic," 1699). [T. S.]

[131] This is probably a Swiftian plausibility to give an air of truth to his remarks. Certain parts of America were at that time reputed to be inhabited by cannibals. [T. S.]

[132] This anecdote is taken from the Description of the Island of Formosa by that very extraordinary impostor George Psalmanazar, who for some time passed himself for a native of that distant country. He afterwards published a retractation of his figments, with many expressions of contrition, but containing certain very natural indications of dislike to those who had detected him. The passage referred to in the text is as follows: "We also eat human flesh, which I am now convinced is a very barbarous custom, though we feed only upon our open enemies, slain or made captive in the field, or else upon malefactors legally executed; the flesh of the latter is our greatest dainty, and is four times dearer than other rare and delicious meat. We buy it of the executioner, for the bodies of all public capital offenders are his fees. As soon as the criminal is dead, he cuts the body in pieces, squeezes out the blood, and makes his house a shambles for the flesh of men and women, where all people that can afford it come and buy. I remember, about ten years ago, a tall, well-complexioned, pretty fat virgin, about nineteen years of age, and tire-woman to the queen, was found guilty of high treason, for designing to poison the king; and accordingly she was condemned to suffer the most cruel death that could be invented, and her sentence was, to be nailed to a cross, and kept alive as long as possible. The sentence was put in execution; when she fainted with the cruel torment, the hangman gave her strong liquors, &c. to revive her; the sixth day she died. Her long sufferings, youth, and good constitution, made her flesh so tender, delicious, and valuable, that the executioner sold it for above eight tallies; for there was such thronging to this inhuman market, that men of great fashion thought themselves fortunate if they could purchase a pound or two of it." Lond. 1705, p. 112. Ṣ

[133] The English government had been making concessions to the Dissenters, and, of course, Swift satirically alludes here to the arguments used by the government in the steps they had taken. But the truth of the matter, Swift hints, was, that those who desired to abolish the test were more anxious for their pockets than their consciences. [T. S.]

[134] The inhabitants of a district of Brazil supposed to be savages, making the name synonymous with savage ignorance. [T. S.]

[135]

"Remove me from this land of slaves, Where all are fools, and all are knaves, Where every fool and knave is bought, Yet kindly sells himself for nought."

(From Swift's note-book, written while detained at Holyhead in September, 1727.) [T. S.]

[136] All these are proposals advocated, of course, by Swift himself, in previous pamphlets and papers. [T. S.]

[137] So that there would be no danger of an objection from England that the English were suffering from Irish competition. [T. S.]

[138] This was the celebrated periodical founded by Pulteney, after he had separated himself from Walpole, to which Bolingbroke contributed his famous letters of an Occasional Writer. The journal carried on a political war against Walpole's administration, and endeavoured to bring about the establishment of a new party, to consist of Tories and the Whigs who could not agree with Walpole's methods. Caleb D'Anvers was a mere name for a Grub Street hack who was supposed to be the writer. But Walpole had no difficulty in recognizing the hand of Bolingbroke, and his reply to the first number of the Occasional Writer made Bolingbroke wince. [T. S.]

[139] The "Modest Proposal." See page 207. [T. S.]

[140] Referring to the silks, laces, and dress of the extravagant women. See pp. 139, 198, 199. [T. S.]

[141] The chief source of income in Ireland came from the pasture lands on which cattle were bred. The cattle were imported to England. The English landlords, however, taking alarm, discovered to the Crown that this importation of Irish cattle was lowering English rents. Two Acts passed in 1665 and 1680 fully met the wishes of the landlords, and ruined absolutely the Irish cattle trade. Prevented thus from breeding cattle, the Irish turned to the breeding of sheep, and established, in a very short time, an excellent trade in wool. How England ruined this industry also may be seen from note on p. 158. [T. S.]

[142] Alluding to the facilities afforded for the recruiting of the French army in Ireland. [T. S.]

[143] The King of France. [T. S.]

[144] Buttermilk. The quotation from Virgil aptly applies to the food of the Irish peasants, who, in the words of Skelton, bled their cattle and boiled their blood with sorrel to make a food. [T. S.]

[145] At Christ Church. See note prefixed to this tract. [T. S.]

[146] Sheridan, in his life of Swift, gives an instance of this which is quoted by Scott. Carteret had appointed Sheridan one of his domestic chaplains, and the two would often spend hours together, or, in company with Swift, exchanging talk and knowledge. When Sheridan had one of the Greek tragedies performed by the scholars of the school he kept, Carteret wished to read the play over with him before the performance. At this reading Sheridan was surprised at the ease with which his patron could translate the original, and, asking him how he came to know it so well, Carteret told him "that when he was envoy in Denmark, he had been for a long time confined to his chamber, partly by illness, and partly by the severity of the weather; and having but few books with him, he had read Sophocles over and over so often as to be almost able to repeat the whole verbatim, which impressed it ever after indelibly on his memory." [T. S.]

[147] This refers to Richard Tighe, the gentleman who informed on poor Sheridan for preaching from the text on the anniversary of King George's accession, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." It was on this information that Sheridan lost his living. Swift never afterwards missed an opportunity to ridicule Tighe, and he has lampooned that individual in several poems. In "The Legion Club" Swift calls him Dick Fitzbaker, alluding to his descent from one of Cromwell's contractors, who supplied the army with bread. [T. S.]

[148] "The worst of times" was the expression used by the Whigs when they referred to Oxford's administration in the last four years of Queen Anne's reign. [T. S.]

[149] A famous rope-dancer of that time. Ḥ

[150] A justice of the peace, who afterwards gave Swift farther provocation. It was Hutcheson who signed Faulkner's committal to prison for printing "A New Proposal for the Better Regulation and Improvement of Quadrille," a pamphlet which Swift did not write, but which had his favour. A jeering insinuation was made against the famous Sergeant Bettesworth, whom Swift had already lampooned, and Bettesworth complained to the House of Commons. Hutcheson aided Bettesworth in this prosecution, causing Swift to be roused to a strong indignation against such unconstitutional proceedings.

"Better we all were in our graves, Than live in slavery to slaves."

These are the lines beginning one of his more trenchant lampoons against the magistrate. [T. S.]

[151] "The beast who had kicked him" is the expression Swift uses for Tighe in writing to Sheridan in a letter on September 25th, 1725. In that letter Swift urges Sheridan to revenge, and promises him his help. [T. S.]

[152] The word is spelt "Galloway" in the original edition. The earldom of Galway became extinct in 1720. For an account of the earl, see note on p. 20 of volume v. of this edition. [T. S.]

[153] Joshua, Lord Allen. See p. 175 [T. S.]

[154] Swift's poem entitled "Traulus" was published at this price, and gives in rhyme much the same matter as is here given in prose. See p. 176. [T. S.]

[155] Lord Allen was reputed to be wrong in his head. When Swift was once asked to excuse him for his conduct on the plea that he was mad, Swift replied: "I know that he is a madman; and, if that were all, no man living could commiserate his condition more than myself; but, sir, he is a madman possessed by the devil. I renounce him." (See Scott's "Life of Swift," p. 365.) [T. S.]

[156] The reader may compare what is stated in these two paragraphs with the same opinion expressed by the author in "The Public Spirit of the Whigs." Ṣ

[157] See notes on pp. 74, 232. [T. S.]

[158] See note on p. 232. [T. S.]

[159] Mr. Tickell and Mr. Ballaquer. Tickell was Addison's biographer, and a friend and correspondent of Swift. He was no mean poet, and though Pope did not care for him Swift did. Tickell was Secretary to the Lords Justices of Ireland, and Ballaquer Secretary to Carteret. [T. S.]

[160] The day of the anniversary of the accession of George I. In his "History of Solomon the Second" Swift censures his friend strongly for his indiscretion. [T. S.]

[161] The Richard Tighe afore-mentioned. [T. S.]

[162] Sheridan wrote a poem displeasing to Swift, which Swift thus animadverts on in the "History of the Second Solomon": "Having lain many years under the obloquy of a high Tory and a Jacobite, upon the present Queen's birthday, he [Dr. Sheridan] writ a song to be performed before the government and those who attended them, in praise of the Queen and King, on the common topics of her beauty, wit, family, love of England, and all other virtues, wherein the King and the royal children were sharers. It was very hard to avoid the common topics. A young collegian who had done the same job the year before, got some reputation on account of his wit. Solomon would needs vie with him, by which he lost the esteem of his old friends the Tories, and got not the least interest with the Whigs, for they are now too strong to want advocates of that kind; and, therefore, one of the lords-justices reading the verses in some company, said, 'Ah, doctor, this shall not do.' His name was at length in the title-page; and he did this without the knowledge or advice of one living soul, as he himself confesseth." [T. S.]

[163] Dr. Stopford, Bishop of Cloyne, one of Swift's intimate friends. Stopford always acknowledged that he owed his advancement entirely to Swift's kindness. He wrote an elegant Latin tribute to Swift, given by Scott in an appendix to the "Life." With Delany and others he was one of Swift's executors.

[164] Delany was a ripe scholar and much esteemed by Swift, though the latter had occasion to rebuke him for attempting to court favour with the Castle people, and for an attack on the "Intelligencer," a journal which Swift and Sheridan had started. Delany, however, was a little jealous of Sheridan's favour with the Dean. He was afterwards Chancellor of St Patrick's, and wrote a life of Swift. [T. S.]

[165] Sir Constantine Phipps, Lord Chancellor of Ireland when Queen Anne died. [Orig. Note.]

[166] Swift himself. [T. S.]

[167] Dr. William King, who died a year or so before Swift wrote. [T. S.]

[168] In 1724, two under-graduates were expelled from Trinity College for alleged insolence to the provost. Dr. Delany espoused their cause with such warmth that it drew upon him very inconvenient consequences, and he was at length obliged to give satisfaction to the college by a formal acknowledgment of his offence. Ṣ

[169] A very good friend of Swift, at whose place at Gosford, in the county of Antrim, Swift would often stay for months together. The reference here is to the project for converting a large house, called Hamilton's Bawn, situated about two miles from Sir Arthur Acheson's seat, into a barrack. The project gave rise to Swift's poem, entitled, "The Grand Question Debated," given by Scott in vol. xv., p. 171. [T. S.]

[170] Most of these expressions explain themselves. "Termagants" was applied to resisters, as used in the old morality plays. "Iconoclasts," the name given to those who defaced King William's statue. "White-rosalists," given to those who wore the Stuart badge on the 10th of June, the day of the Pretender's birthday. [T. S.]

[171] By fines is meant the increase made in rents on the occasion of renewals of leases. [T. S.]

[172] This document was copied by Sir Walter Scott from Dr. Lyon's papers. It is indorsed, "Queries for Mr. Lindsay," and "21st Nov., 1730, Mr. Lindsay's opinion concerning Mr. Gorman, in answer to my queries." Mr. Lindsay's answer was:

"I have carefully perused and considered this case, and am clearly of opinion, that the agent has not made any one answer like a man of business, but has answered very much like a true agent.

"Nov. 21, 1730. Robert Lindsay."

[173] Swift was born at No. 7, Hoey's Court, near the Castle grounds. [T. S.]

[174] A sort of sugar-cakes in the shape of hearts. F

[175] A new name for a modern periwig with a long black tail, and for its owner; now in fashion, Dec. 1, 1733. F

[176] Referring to the last four years of Anne's reign, when Harley was minister. The expression was a Whig one. [T. S.]

[177] "The squeezing of the orange" was literally a toast among the disaffected in the reign of William III. Ṣ

[178] The author's meaning is just contrary to the literal sense in the character of Lord Oxford; while he is in truth sneering at the splendour of Houghton, and the supposed wealth of Sir Robert Walpole. Ṣ

[179] The paragraph here printed in square brackets did not appear in the original Dublin edition of 1732. [T. S.]

[180] Was a gentleman of a very large estate, and left it to the poor people of England, to be distributed amongst them annually, as the Parliament of Great Britain, his executors, should think proper. F

[181] 4,060,000 in 1734 and 4,600,000 in edition of 1733. To make the total agree with the division below it, the item against Richard Norton has been altered from 60,000 to 6,000. [T. S.]

[182] See note on page 269. [T. S.]

[183] See note on page 271. [T. S.]

[184] Humphry French, Lord Mayor of Dublin for the year 1732-3, was elected to succeed Alderman Samuel Burton. F

[185] John Macarrell, Register of the Barracks, shortly after this date elected to the representation of Carlingford. F

[186] Edward Thompson, member of parliament for York, and a Commissioner of the Revenue in Ireland. F

[187] Mr. Thompson was presented with the freedom of several corporations in Ireland. F

[188] Upon the death of Mr. Stoyte, Recorder of the City of Dublin, in the year 1733, several gentlemen declared themselves candidates to succeed him; upon which the Dean wrote the above paper, and Eaton Stannard, Esq. (a gentleman of great worth and honour, and very knowing in his profession) was elected F

[189] Dr. William King. [T. S.]

[190] The following, from Deane Swift's edition, given by Sir Walter Scott in his edition of Swift's works, refers to this "very plain proposal." It is evidently written by Swift, and is dated, as from the Deanery House, September 26th, 1726, almost eleven years before the above tract was issued:

"DEANERY-HOUSE, Sept. 26, 1726.

"The continued concourse of beggars from all parts of the kingdom to this city, having made it impossible for the several parishes to maintain their own poor, according to the ancient laws of the land, several lord mayors did apply themselves to the lord Archbishop of Dublin, that his grace would direct his clergy, and his churchwardens of the said city, to appoint badges of brass, copper, or pewter, to be worn by the poor of the several parishes. The badges to be marked with the initial letters of the name of each church, and numbered 1, 2, 3, etc., and to be well sewed and fastened on the right and left shoulder of the outward garment of each of the said poor, by which they might be distinguished. And that none of the said poor should go out of their own parish to beg alms; whereof the beadles were to take care.

"His grace the lord Archbishop, did accordingly give his directions to the clergy; which, however, have proved wholly ineffectual, by the fraud, perverseness, or pride of the said poor, several of them openly protesting 'they will never submit to wear the said badges.' And of those who received them, almost every one keep them in their pockets, or hang them in a string about their necks, or fasten them under their coats, not to be seen, by which means the whole design is eluded; so that a man may walk from one end of the town to another, without seeing one beggar regularly badged, and in such great numbers, that they are a mighty nuisance to the public, most of them being foreigners.

"It is therefore proposed, that his grace the lord Archbishop would please to call the clergy of the city together, and renew his directions and exhortations to them, to put the affair of badges effectually in practice, by such methods as his grace and they shall agree upon. And I think it would be highly necessary that some paper should be pasted up in several proper parts of the city, signifying this order, and exhorting all people to give no alms except to those poor who are regularly badged, and only while they are in the precincts of their own parishes. And if something like this were delivered by the ministers in the reading-desk two or three Lord's-days successively, it would still be of further use to put this matter upon a right foot. And that all who offend against this regulation shall be treated as vagabonds and sturdy beggars." [T. S.]

[191] Spelt now St. Warburgh's. [T. S.]

[192] About the beginning of the eighteenth century, Dr. Gwythers, a physician, and fellow of the University of Dublin, brought over with him a parcel of frogs from England to Ireland, in order to propagate their species in that kingdom, and threw them into the ditches of the University Park; but they all perished. Whereupon he sent to England for some bottles of the frog-spawn, which he threw into those ditches, by which means the species of frogs was propagated in that kingdom. However, their number was so small in the year 1720, that a frog was nowhere to be seen in Ireland, except in the neighbourhood of the University Park: but within six or seven years after, they spread thirty, forty, or fifty miles over the country; and so at last, by degrees, over the whole country. [D. S.]

[193] Swift's uncle, Godwin Swift, for whose memory he had no special regard, seems to have been concerned in this ingenious anagram and unfortunate project. Ṣ

[194] This reproach has been certainly removed since the Dean flourished; for the titles of the Irish peerages of late creation have rather been in the opposite extreme, and resemble, in some instances, the appellatives in romances and novels.

Thomas O'Brien MacMahon, an Irish author, quoted by Mr. Southey in his Omniana, in a most angry pamphlet on "The Candour and Good-nature of Englishmen," has the following diverting passage, which may serve as a corollary to Swift's Tract:—"You sent out the children of your princes," says he, addressing the Irish, "and sometimes your princes in person, to enlighten this kingdom, then sitting in utter darkness, (meaning England) and how have they recompensed you? Why, after lawlessly distributing your estates, possessed for thirteen centuries or more, by your illustrious families, whose antiquity and nobility, if equalled by any nation in the world, none but the immutable God of Abraham's chosen, though, at present, wandering and afflicted people, surpasses: After, I say, seizing on your inheritances, and flinging them among their Cocks, Hens, Crows, Rooks, Daws, Wolves, Lions, Foxes, Rams, Bulls, Hoggs, and other beasts and birds of prey, or vesting them in the sweepings of their jails, their Small-woods, Do-littles, Barebones, Strangeways, Smarts, Sharps, Tarts, Sterns, Churls, and Savages; their Greens, Blacks, Browns, Greys and Whites; their Smiths, Carpenters, Brewers, Bakers, and Taylors; their Sutlers, Cutlers, Butlers, Trustlers and Jugglers; their Norths, Souths, and Wests; their Fields, Rows, Streets, and Lanes; their Toms-sons, Dicks-sons, Johns-sons, James-sons, Wills-sons, and Waters-sons; their Shorts, Longs, Lows, and Squabs; their Parks, Sacks, Tacks, and Jacks; and, to complete their ingratitude and injustice, they have transported a cargo of notorious traitors to the Divine Majesty among you, impiously calling them the Ministers of God's Word." Ṣ

[195] The Tholsel, where criminals for the city were tried, and where proclamations, etc., were posted. It was invariably called the Touls'el by the lower class. Ṣ

[196] This and the following piece were, according to Sir Walter Scott, found among the collection of Mr. Smith. The examples of English blunders which Scott also reprints were given by Sheridan by way of retaliation to these specimens of Irish blunders noted by Swift. [T. S.]

[197] This specimen of Irish-English, or what Swift condemned as such, is taken from an unfinished copy in the Dean's handwriting, found among Mr. Lyons's papers. Ṣ

[198] See note on p. 368. [T. S.]

[199] Dunkin was one of Swift's favourites, to judge by the efforts Swift made on his behalf. Writing to Alderman Barber (17th January, 1737-38), Swift speaks of him as "a gentleman of much wit and the best English as well as Latin poet in this kingdom." Several of Dunkin's poems were printed in Scott's edition of Swift's works, but his collected works were issued in 1774. Dunkin was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. [T. S.]

[200] The "Occasional Writer's" Letters are printed in Lord Bolingbroke's Works. Ṇ

[201] Sir Robert Walpole was by no means negligent of his literary assistants. But, unfortunately, like an unskilful general, he confided more in the number than the spirit or discipline of his forces. Arnall, Concanen, and Henley, were wretched auxiliaries; yet they could not complain of indifferent pay, since Arnall used to brag, that, in the course of four years, he had received from the treasury, for his political writings, the sum of L10,997 6s. 8d. Ṣ

[202] The authority for considering this "Account" to be the work of Swift is Mr. Deane Swift, the editor of the edition of 1765 of Swift's works. It is included in the eighth volume of the quarto edition issued that year. Burke also seems to have had no doubt at all about the authorship. Referring to the Dean's disposition to defend Queen Anne and to ridicule her successor, he says, "it is probable that the pieces in which he does it ('Account of the Court of Japan,' and 'Directions for making a Birth-day Song') were the occasion of most of the other posthumous articles having been so long withheld from the publick." Undoubtedly, there is much in this piece that savours of Swift's method of dealing with such a subject; but that could easily be imitated by a clever reader of "Gulliver." The style, however, in which it is written is not distinctly Swift's.

At the time this tract was written (1728) the Tory party was anxiously hoping that the accession of George II. would see the downfall of Walpole. But the party was doomed to a bitter disappointment. Walpole not only maintained but added to the power he enjoyed under George I. By what means this was accomplished the writer of this piece attempts to hint. Sir Walter Scott thinks the piece was probably left imperfect, "when the crisis to which the Tories so anxiously looked forward terminated so undesirably, in the confirmation of Walpole's power." [T. S.]

[203] King George. Ṣ

[204] Queen Anne. Ṣ

[205] Whigs and Tories. Anagrams of Huigse and Toryes. [T. S.]

[206] Hanover. Anagrams for Deuts = Deutsch = German. [T. S.]

[207] Bremen and Lubeck. Ṣ

[208] The quadruple alliance, usually accounted the most impolitic step in the reign of George I., had its rise in his anxiety for his continental dominions. Ṣ

[209] Through all the reign of George I., the Whigs were in triumphant possession of the government. Ṣ

[210] Sir Robert Walpole Ṣ

[211] When secretary at war, Walpole received L500 from the contractors for forage; and although he alleged that it was a sum due to a third party in the contract, and only remitted through his hands, he was voted guilty of corruption, expelled the House, and sent to the Tower, by the Tory Parliament. Ṣ

[212] King George II. Ṣ

[213] Sir Spencer Compton, Speaker of the House of Commons. Ṣ

[214] Sir Thomas Hanmer. Ṣ

[215] About a million sterling. [D. S.]

[216] This piece is included here on the authority of Mr. Deane Swift, and was accepted by Sir Walter Scott on the same authority. The writing is excellent and bears every mark of Swift's hand. In the note to the "Letter to the Writer of the Occasional Paper" was included the heads of a paper which Swift suggested, found by Sir H. Craik. The present "Answer" may serve as further evidence of Sir H. Craik's suggestion that Swift may have assisted Pulteney and Bolingbroke on more than one occasion.

The present text is that of the 1768 quarto edition. [T. S.]

[217] "Gasping," 1768; "grasping," Nichols, 1801. [T. S.]

[218]

"For neither man nor angel can discern Hypocrisy—the only evil that walks Invisible, except to God alone, By His permissive will, through heaven and earth, And oft, though Wisdom wake, Suspicion sleeps At Wisdom's gate, and to Simplicity Resigns her charge, while Goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems."—

Paradise Lost, Book III., 682-689. [T. S.]



CHISWICK PRESS: CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO.

TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

THE END