Having already written three letters upon so disagreeable a subject as Mr.
Wood and his halfpence, I conceived my task was at an end; but I find
that cordials must be frequently applied to weak constitutions, political
as well as natural. A people long used to hardships lose by degrees the
very notions of liberty. They look upon themselves as creatures at mercy,
and that all impositions, laid on them by a stronger hand, are, in the
phrase of the Report, legal and obligatory. Hence proceed that poverty and
lowness of spirit, to which a kingdom may be subject, as well as a
particular person. And when Esau came fainting from the field at the point
to die, it is no wonder that he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
I thought I had sufficiently shown, to all who could want instruction, by
what methods they might safely proceed, wherever this coin should be
offered to them; and, I believe, there has not been, for many ages, an
example of any kingdom so firmly united in a point of great importance, as
this of ours is at present against that detestable fraud. But, however, it
so happens, that some weak people begin to be alarmed anew by rumours
industriously spread. Wood prescribes to the newsmongers in London what
they are to write. In one of their papers, published here by some obscure
printer, and certainly with a bad design, we are told, "That the Papists
in Ireland have entered into an association against his coin," although it
be notoriously known, that they never once offered to stir in the matter;
so that the two Houses of Parliament, the Privy-council, the great number
of corporations, the Lord Mayor and aldermen of Dublin, the grand juries,
and principal gentlemen of several counties, are stigmatized in a lump
under the name of "Papists." This impostor and his crew do likewise give
out, that, by refusing to receive his dross for sterling, we "dispute the
King's prerogative, are grown ripe for rebellion, and ready to shake off
the dependency of Ireland upon the crown of England."
To countenance which reports, he has published a paragraph in another
newspaper, to let us know, that "the Lord-Lieutenant is ordered to come
over immediately to settle his halfpence."
I entreat you, my dear countrymen, not to be under the least concern upon
these and the like rumours, which are no more than the last howls of a dog
dissected alive, as I hope he has sufficiently been. These calumnies are
the only reserve that is left him. For surely our continued and (almost)
unexampled loyalty, will never be called in question, for not suffering
ourselves to be robbed of all that we have by one obscure ironmonger.
As to disputing the King's prerogative, give me leave to explain, to those
who are ignorant, what the meaning of that word _prerogative_ is.
The Kings of these realms enjoy several powers, wherein the laws have not
interposed. So, they can make war and peace without the consent of
Parliament--and this is a very great prerogative; but if the Parliament
does not approve of the war, the King must bear the charge of it out of
his own purse--and this is a great check on the crown.
So, the King has a prerogative to coin money without consent of
Parliament; but he cannot compel the subject to take that money, except it
be sterling gold or silver, because herein he is limited by law. Some
princes have, indeed, extended their prerogative farther than the law
allowed them; wherein, however, the lawyers of succeeding ages, as fond as
they are of precedents, have never dared to justify them. But, to say the
truth, it is only of late times that prerogative has been fixed and
ascertained; for, whoever reads the history of England will find, that
some former Kings, and those none of the worst, have, upon several
occasions, ventured to control the laws, with very little ceremony or
scruple, even later than the days of Queen Elizabeth. In her reign, that
pernicious counsel of sending base money hither, very narrowly failed of
losing the kingdom--being complained of by the lord-deputy, the council,
and the whole body of the English here; so that, soon after her death, it
was recalled by her successor, and lawful money paid in exchange.
Having thus given you some notion of what is meant by "the King's
prerogative," as far as a tradesman can be thought capable of explaining
it, I will only add the opinion of the great Lord Bacon: "That, as God
governs the world by the settled laws of nature, which He has made, and
never transcends those laws but upon high important occasions, so among
earthly princes, those are the wisest and the best, who govern by the
known laws of the country, and seldomest make use of their prerogative."
Now here you may see, that the vile accusation of Wood and his
accomplices, charging us with disputing the King's prerogative by refusing
his brass, can have no place--because compelling the subject to take any
coin which is not sterling, is no part of the King's prerogative, and I am
very confident, if it were so, we should be the last of his people to
dispute it; as well from that inviolable loyalty we have always paid to
his Majesty, as from the treatment we might, in such a case, justly expect
from some, who seem to think we have neither common sense nor common
senses. But, God be thanked, the best of them are only our
fellow-subjects, and not our masters. One great merit I am sure we have,
which those of English birth can have no pretence to--that our ancestors
reduced this kingdom to the obedience of England; for which we have been
rewarded with a worse climate--the privilege of being governed by laws to
which we do not consent--a ruined trade--a House of Peers without
jurisdiction--almost an incapacity for all employments--and the dread of
Wood's halfpence.
But we are so far from disputing the King's prerogative in coining, that
we own he has power to give a patent to any man for selling his royal
image and superscription upon whatever materials he pleases, and liberty
to the patentee to offer them in any country from England to Japan; only
attended with one small limitation--that nobody alive is obliged to take
them....
Let me now say something concerning the other great cause of some people's
fear, as Wood has taught the London newswriter to express it, that his
excellency the Lord-Lieutenant is coming over to settle Wood's halfpence.
We know very well, that the Lord-Lieutenants for several years past, have
not thought this kingdom worthy the honour of their residence longer than
was absolutely necessary for the King's business, which, consequently,
wanted no speed in the despatch. And therefore it naturally fell into
most men's thoughts, that a new governor, coming at an unusual time, must
portend some unusual business to be done; especially if the common report
be true, that the Parliament, prorogued to I know not when, is, by a new
summons, revoking that prorogation, to assemble soon after the arrival;
for which extraordinary proceeding, the lawyers on the other side the
water have, by great good fortune, found two precedents.
All this being granted, it can never enter into my head, that so little a
creature as Wood could find credit enough with the King and his ministers,
to have the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland sent hither in a hurry upon his
errand.
For, let us take the whole matter nakedly as it lies before us, without
the refinements of some people, with which we have nothing to do.
Here is a patent granted under the great seal of England, upon false
suggestions, to one William Wood for coining copper halfpence for Ireland.
The Parliament here, upon apprehensions of the worst consequences from the
said patent, address the King to have it recalled. This is refused; and a
Committee of the Privy-council report to his Majesty, that Wood has
performed the conditions of his patent. He then is left to do the best he
can with his halfpence, no man being obliged to receive them; the people
here, being likewise left to themselves, unite as one man, resolving they
will have nothing to do with his ware.
By this plain account of the fact it is manifest, that the King and his
ministry are wholly out of the case, and the matter is left to be disputed
between him and us. Will any man, therefore, attempt to persuade me, that
a Lord-Lieutenant is to be despatched over in great haste before the
ordinary time, and a Parliament summoned by anticipating a prorogation,
merely to put a hundred thousand pounds into the pocket of a sharper by
the ruin of a most loyal kingdom?
But, supposing all this to be true, by what arguments could a
Lord-Lieutenant prevail on the same Parliament, which addressed with so
much zeal and earnestness against this evil, to pass it into a law? I am
sure their opinion of Wood and his project is not mended since their last
prorogation; and, supposing those methods should be used, which detractors
tell us have been sometimes put in practice for gaining votes, it is well
known, that, in this kingdom, there are few employments to be given; and,
if there were more, it is as well known to whose share they must fall.
But, because great numbers of you are altogether ignorant of the affairs
of your country, I will tell you some reasons why there are so few
employments to be disposed of in this kingdom. All considerable offices
for life are here possessed by those to whom the reversions were granted;
and these have been generally followers of the chief governors, or persons
who had interest in the Court of England. So, the Lord Berkeley of
Stratton holds that great office of Master of the rolls; the Lord
Palmerstown is first remembrancer, worth near 2000_l._ per annum. One
Doddington, secretary to the Earl of Pembroke, begged the reversion of
clerk of the pells, worth 2500_l._ a-year, which he now enjoys by the
death of the Lord Newtown. Mr. Southwell is secretary of State, and the
Earl of Burlington lord high treasurer of Ireland by inheritance. These
are only a few among many others which I have been told of, but cannot
remember. Nay, the reversion of several employments, during pleasure, is
granted the same way. This, among many others, is a circumstance, whereby
the kingdom of Ireland is distinguished from all other nations upon earth;
and makes it so difficult an affair to get into a civil employ, that Mr.
Addison was forced to purchase an old obscure place, called keeper of the
records in Bermingham's Tower, of 10_l._ a year, and to get a salary of
400_l._ annexed to it, though all the records there are not worth
half-a-crown, either for curiosity or use. And we lately saw a favourite
secretary descend to be master of the revels,[8] which, by his credit and
extortion, he has made pretty considerable. I say nothing of the
under-treasurership, worth about 9000_l._ a year, nor of the commissioners
of the revenue, four of whom generally live in England, for I think none
of these are granted in reversion; but the jest is, that I have known,
upon occasion, some of these absent officers as keen against the interest
of Ireland, as if they had never been indebted to her for a single groat.
I confess, I have been sometimes tempted to wish that this project of
Wood's might succeed; because I reflected with some pleasure, what a jolly
crew it would bring over among us of lords and squires, and pensioners of
both sexes, and officers civil and military, where we should live together
as merry and sociable as beggars, only with this one abatement, that we
should neither have meat to feed, nor manufactures to clothe us, unless we
could be content to prance about in coats of mail, or eat brass as
ostriches do iron.
I return from this digression to that which gave me the occasion of making
it. And I believe you are now convinced, that if the Parliament of
Ireland were as temptable as any other assembly within a mile of
Christendom (which God forbid!), yet the managers must of necessity fail
for want of tools to work with. But I will yet go one step farther, by
supposing that a hundred new employments were erected on purpose to
gratify compliers, yet still an insuperable difficulty would remain. For
it happens, I know not how, that money is neither Whig nor Tory--neither
of town nor country party, and it is not improbable that a gentleman would
rather choose to live upon his own estate, which brings him gold and
silver, than with the addition of an employment, when his rents and salary
must both be paid in Wood's brass, at above eighty per cent. discount.
For these, and many other reasons, I am confident you need not be
under the least apprehension from the sudden expectation of the
Lord-Lieutenant,[9] while we continue in our present hearty disposition,
to alter which no suitable temptation can possibly be offered. And if, as
I have often asserted from the best authority, the law has not left a
power in the crown to force any money, except sterling, upon the subject,
much less can the crown devolve such a power upon another....
Another slander spread by Wood and his emissaries is, "That by opposing
him we discover an inclination to throw off our dependence upon the crown
of England." Pray observe how important a person is this same William
Wood, and how the public weal of two kingdoms is involved in his private
interest. First, all those who refuse to take his coin are Papists; for he
tells us, "That none but Papists are associated against him." Secondly,
"they dispute the King's prerogative." Thirdly, "they are ripe for
rebellion." And, fourthly "they are going to shake off their dependence
upon the crown of England;" that is to say, they are going to choose
another king, for there can be no other meaning in this expression,
however some may pretend to strain it.
And this gives me an opportunity of explaining to those who are ignorant,
another point, which has often swelled in my breast. Those who come over
hither to us from England, and some weak people among ourselves, whenever
in discourse we make mention of liberty and property, shake their heads,
and tell us that Ireland is a depending kingdom; as if they would seem by
this phrase to intend that the people of Ireland are in some state of
slavery or dependence different from those of England; whereas a depending
kingdom is a modern term of art, unknown, as I have heard, to all ancient
civilians, and writers upon government; and Ireland is, on the contrary,
called in some statutes "an imperial crown," as held only from God, which
is as high a style as any kingdom is capable of receiving. Therefore, by
this expression, "a depending kingdom," there is no more to be understood
than that, by a statute made here in the thirty-third year of Henry VIII.,
the King and his successors are to be kings imperial of this realm, as
united and knit to the imperial crown of England. I have looked over all
the English and Irish statutes, without finding any law that makes Ireland
depend upon England, any more than England does upon Ireland. We have,
indeed, obliged ourselves to have the same King with them, and
consequently they are obliged to have the same King with us. For the law
was made by our own Parliament, and our ancestors then were not such fools
(whatever they were in the preceding reign) to bring themselves under I
know not what dependence, which is now talked of, without any ground of
law, reason, or common sense. Let whoever thinks otherwise, I, M. B.,
Drapier, desire to be excepted; for I declare, next under God, I depend
only on the King my sovereign, and on the laws of my own country. And I
am so far from depending on the people of England, that if ever they
should rebel against my sovereign (which God forbid!) I would be ready, at
the first command from his Majesty, to take arms against them, as some of
my countrymen did against theirs at Preston. And if such a rebellion
should prove so successful as to fix the Pretender on the throne of
England, I would venture to transgress that statute so far as to lose
every drop of my blood to hinder him from being King of Ireland.
It is true, indeed, that within the memory of man, the Parliaments of
England have sometimes assumed the power of binding this kingdom by laws
enacted there;[10] wherein they were at first openly opposed (as far as
truth, reason and justice,[11] are capable of opposing) by the famous Mr.
Molineux, an English gentleman born here, as well as by several of the
greatest patriots and best Whigs in England; but the love and torrent of
power prevailed. Indeed the arguments on both sides were invincible. For,
in reason, all government without the consent of the governed, is the very
definition of slavery; but, in fact, eleven men well armed will certainly
subdue one single man in his shirt. But I have done; for those who have
used to cramp liberty, have gone so far as to resent even the liberty of
complaining; although a man upon the rack was never known to be refused
the liberty of roaring as loud as he thought fit.
And as we are apt to sink too much under unreasonable fears, so we are too
soon inclined to be raised by groundless hopes, according to the nature of
all consumptive bodies like ours. Thus it has been given about, for
several days past, that somebody in England empowered a second somebody,
to write to a third somebody here, to assure us that we should no more be
troubled with these halfpence. And this is reported to have been done by
the same person, who is said to have sworn some months ago, "that he would
ram them down our throats," though I doubt they would stick in our
stomachs; but whichever of these reports be true or false, it is no
concern of ours. For, in this point, we have nothing to do with English
ministers; and I should be sorry to leave it in their power to redress
this grievance, or to enforce it; for the report of the Committee has
given me a surfeit.
The remedy is wholly in your own hands; and therefore I have digressed a
little, in order to refresh and continue that spirit so seasonably raised
among you; and to let you see, that by the laws of GOD, of NATURE, of
NATIONS, and of your COUNTRY, you ARE, and OUGHT to be, as FREE a people
as your brethren in England....