[1] See the "Proposal for the Use of Irish Manufactures."
[2] Four score and ten thousand, this runs throughout the first edition.
[3] A coarse kind of barley.
[4] At that time the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.
[5] An allusion to the debasement of the coin by James II. during his
unfortunate campaign in Ireland.
[6] An equestrian statue of George I. at Essex Bridge, Dublin.
[7] The Duke of Grafton.
[8] Mr. Hopkins, the Duke of Grafton's secretary.
[9] Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl Granville. As the ally of Bolingbroke,
and opponent of Walpole, he was to some extent a favourite of Swift.
[10] This was especially the case in the reign of William III., when the
doctrine of English supremacy was assumed in order to discredit the
authority of the Irish Parliament summoned by James II.
[11] William Molineux, the friend of Locke, who wrote a pamphlet,
published in 1698, against the oppressive laws adopted by England in
regard to Irish Manufactures.
[12] There was a certain amount of truth in this. The Dean's butler acted
as amanuensis.
[13] Articles mentioned in the indictment and proclamation.
[14] His "Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures."
[15] The first "Letter."
[16] The second and third "Letters."
[17] The fourth "Letter," the cause of the indictment and proclamation.
[18] Printers.
[19] He probably speaks of himself.
[20] The "Proposal for the Use of Irish Manufactures."
[21] Though he signed the proclamation against the author of the Drapier's
Letters, Lord Middleton was himself inimical to Wood's project.
[22] The printer of the Drapier's Letters.
[23] Undertakers:--a name which was, in Charles II.'s time applied to
those ministers who gained power by undertaking to carry through pet
measures of the Crown. Swift here uses it ambiguously.
[24] The Earl of Sunderland.
[25] The obligation arising from their having sworn allegiance to him.
[26] The memorial was written by Sir John Browne.
[27] Ireland was, for political reasons, much favoured by the Crown,
during the reigns of Charles II. and James II.
[28] England.
[29] Scotland and Ireland.
[30] The Irish Sea.
[31] The Pict's Wall.
[32] An allusion to the border raids of the Highlanders.
[33] Charles I.
[34] The Lord-Lieutenant.
[35] An allusion to the strained relations between England and Scotland,
caused by the passing of the Scottish Act of Security.
[36] The Union.
[37] An allusion to the Irish linen trade.
[38] An allusion to the Scotch Colonists in Ulster.
[39] Dr. William King, the friend and correspondent of Swift.
[40] It was the practice among the farmers to wear out their ground with
ploughing, neither manuring nor letting it lie fallow; and when their
leases were nearly out, they even ploughed their meadows, so that the
landlords, unable to check them by other means, were obliged to resort to
this pernicious measure.
[41] Putting up at auction.
[42] A project for establishing an Irish Bank, which was soon after placed
before Parliament, but rejected.
[43] The Right Honourable Walter Carey. He was Secretary to the Duke of
Dorset when Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.