offered proposals both to your Grace and to me, are the hottest and
coldest generation of men that I have known. About a month ago they
attended your Grace, when I had the honour to be with you, and designed
me then the same favour. They desired you would recommend to your clergy
to wear gowns of Irish stuffs, which might probably spread the example
among all their brethren in the Kingdom, and perhaps among the lawyers
and gentlemen of the University and among the citizens of those
Corporations who appear in gowns on solemn occasions. I then mentioned a
kind of stuff, not above eightpence a yard, which I heard had been
contrived by some of the trade and was very convenient. I desired they
would prepare some of that or any sort of black stuff on a certain day,
when your Grace would appoint as many clergymen as could readily be
found to meet at your Palace, and there give their opinions; and that
your Grace's visitations approaching you could then have the best
opportunity of seeing what could be done in a matter of such
consequence, as they seemed to think, to the woollen manufacture. But
instead of attending, as was expected, they came to me a fortnight
after, with a new proposal; that something should be writ by an
acceptable and able hand to promote in general the wearing of home
manufactures, and their civilities would seem to fix that work upon me.
I asked whether they had prepared the stuffs, as they had promised, and
your Grace expected; but they had not made the least step in the matter,
nor as it appears thought of it more.
I did some years ago propose to the masters and principal dealers in the
home manufactures of silk and wool, that they should meet together, and
after mature consideration, publish advertisements to the following
purpose.[101] That in order to encourage the wearing of Irish
manufactures in silk and woollen, they gave notice to the nobility and
gentry of the Kingdom, That they the undersigned would enter into bonds,
for themselves and for each other, to sell the several sorts of stuffs,
cloths and silks, made to the best perfection they were able, for
certain fixed prices, and in such a manner, that if a child were sent to
any of their shops, the buyer might be secure of the value and goodness,
and measure of the ware, and lest this might be thought to look like a
monopoly any other member of the trade might be admitted upon such
conditions as should be agreed on. And if any person whatsoever should
complain that he was ill used in the value or goodness of what he
bought, the matter should be examined, the person injured be fully
satisfied, by the whole corporation without delay, and the dishonest
seller be struck out of the society, unless it appeared evidently that
the failure proceeded only from mistake.
The mortal danger is, that if these dealers could prevail by the
goodness and cheapness of their cloths and stuffs to give a turn to the
principal people of Ireland in favour of their goods, they would relapse
into the knavish practice peculiar to this Kingdom, which is apt to run
through all trades even so low as a common ale-seller, who as soon as he
gets a vogue for his liquor, and outsells his neighbour, thinks his
credit will put off the worst he can buy; till his customers will come
no more. Thus I have known at London in a general mourning, the drapers
dye black all their old damaged goods, and sell them at double rates,
and then complain and petition the Court, that they are ready to starve
by the continuance of the mourning.
Therefore I say, those principal weavers who would enter in such a
compact as I have mentioned, must give sufficient security against all
such practices; for if once the women can persuade their husbands that
foreign goods besides the finery will be as cheap, and do more service,
our last state will be worse than the first.
I do not here pretend to digest perfectly the method by which these
principal shopkeepers shall proceed in such a proposal; but my meaning
is clear enough, and cannot reasonably be objected against.
We have seen what a destructive loss the Kingdom received by the
detestable fraud of the merchants, or Northern weavers, or both,
notwithstanding all the care of the Governers at that Board; the whole
trade with Spain for our linen, when we had an offer of commerce with
the Spaniards, to the value as I am told of three hundred thousand
pounds a year. But while we deal like pedlars, we shall practise like
pedlars; and sacrifice all honesty to the present urging advantage.
What I have said may serve as an answer to the desire made me by the
Corporation of Weavers, that I would offer my notions to the public. As
to anything further, let them apply themselves to the Parliament in
their next Session. Let them prevail in the House of Commons to grant
one very reasonable request: And I shall think there is still some
spirit left in the Nation, when I read a vote to this purpose:
"Resolved, _nemine contradicente_, That this House will, for the future,
wear no clothes but such as are made of Irish growth, or of Irish
manufacture, nor will permit their wives or children to wear any other;
and that they will to the utmost endeavour to prevail with their
friends, relations, dependants and tenants to follow their example." And
if at the same time they could banish tea and coffee, and china-ware,
out of their families, and force their wives to chat their scandal over
an infusion of sage, or other wholesome domestic vegetables, we might
possibly be able to subsist, and pay our absentees, pensioners,
generals, civil officers, appeals, colliers, temporary travellers,
students, schoolboys, splenetic visitors of Bath, Tunbridge, and Epsom,
with all other smaller drains, by sending our crude unwrought goods to
England, and receiving from thence and all other countries nothing but
what is fully manufactured, and keep a few potatoes and oatmeal for our
own subsistence.
I have been for a dozen years past wisely prognosticating the present
condition of this Kingdom, which any human creature of common sense
could foretell with as little sagacity as myself. My meaning is that a
consumptive body must needs die, which hath spent all its spirits and
received no nourishment. Yet I am often tempted to pity when I hear the
poor farmer and cottager lamenting the hardness of the times, and
imputing them either to one or two ill seasons, which better climates
than ours are more exposed to, or to the scarcity of silver which to a
Nation of Liberty would be only a slight and temporary inconveniency, to
be removed at a month's warning.
Ap., 1729.
OBSERVATIONS,
OCCASIONED BY READING A PAPER ENTITLED, "THE
CASE OF THE WOOLLEN MANUFACTURES
OF DUBLIN," ETC.[102]
The paper called "The Case of the Woollen Manufactures," &c. is very
well drawn up. The reasonings of the authors are just, the facts true,
and the consequences natural. But his censure of those seven vile
citizens, who import such a quantity of silk stuffs and woollen cloth
from England, is an hundred times gentler than enemies to their country
deserve; because I think no punishment in this world can be great enough
for them, without immediate repentance and amendment. But, after all,
the writer of that paper hath very lightly touched one point of the
greatest importance, and very poorly answered the main objection, that
the clothiers are defective both in the quality and quantity of their
goods.
For my own part, when I consider the several societies of handicraftsmen
in all kinds, as well as shopkeepers, in this city, after eighteen
years' experience of their dealings, I am at a loss to know in which of
these societies the most or least honesty is to be found. For instance,
when any trade comes first into my head, upon examination I determine it
exceeds all others in fraud. But after I have considered them all round,
as far as my knowledge or experience reacheth, I am at a loss to
determine, and to save trouble I put them all upon a par. This I chiefly
apply to those societies of men who get their livelihood by the labour
of their hands. For, as to shopkeepers, I cannot deny that I have found
some few honest men among them, taking the word honest in the largest
and most charitable sense. But as to handicraftsmen, although I shall
endeavour to believe it possible to find a fair dealer among their
clans, yet I confess it hath never been once my good fortune to employ
one single workman, who did not cheat me at all times to the utmost of
his power in the materials, the work, and the price. One universal maxim
I have constantly observed among them, that they would rather gain a
shilling by cheating you, than twenty in the honest way of dealing,
although they were sure to lose your custom, as well as that of others,
whom you might probably recommend to them.
This, I must own, is the natural consequence of poverty and oppression.
These wretched people catch at any thing to save them a minute longer
from drowning. Thus Ireland is the poorest of all civilized countries in
Europe, with every natural advantage to make it one of the richest.
As to the grand objection, which this writer slubbers over in so
careless a manner, because indeed it was impossible to find a
satisfactory answer, I mean the knavery of our woollen manufacturers in
general, I shall relate some facts, which I had more opportunities to
observe than usually fall in the way of men who are not of the trade.
For some years, the masters and wardens, with many of their principal
workmen and shopkeepers, came often to the Deanery to relate their
grievances, and to desire my advice as well as my assistance. What
reasons might move them to this proceeding, I leave to public
conjecture. The truth is, that the woollen manufacture of this kingdom
sate always nearest my heart. But the greatest difficulty lay in these
perpetual differences between the shopkeepers and workmen they employed.
Ten or a dozen of these latter often came to the Deanery with their
complaints, which I often repeated to the shopkeepers. As, that they
brought their prices too low for a poor weaver to get his bread by; and
instead of ready money for their labour on Saturdays, they gave them
only such a quantity of cloth or stuff, at the highest rate, which the
poor men were often forced to sell one-third below the rate, to supply
their urgent necessities. On the other side, the shopkeepers complained
of idleness, and want of skill, or care, or honesty, in their workmen;
and probably their accusations on both sides were just.
Whenever the weavers, in a body, came to me for advice, I gave it
freely, that they should contrive some way to bring their goods into
reputation; and give up that abominable principle of endeavouring to
thrive by imposing bad ware at high prices to their customers, whereby
no shopkeeper can reasonably expect to thrive. For, besides the dread of
God's anger, (which is a motive of small force among them,) they may be
sure that no buyer of common sense will return to the same shop where he
was once or twice defrauded. That gentlemen and ladies, when they found
nothing but deceit in the sale of Irish cloths and stuffs, would act as
they ought to do, both in prudence and resentment, in going to those
very bad citizens the writer mentions, and purchase English goods.
I went farther, and proposed that ten or a dozen of the most substantial
woollen-drapers should join in publishing an advertisement, signed with
their names to the following purpose:--That for the better encouragement
of all gentlemen, &c. the persons undernamed did bind themselves
mutually to sell their several cloths and stuffs, (naming each kind) at
the lowest rate, right merchantable goods, of such a breadth, which they
would warrant to be good according to the several prices; and that if a
child of ten years old were sent with money, and directions what cloth
or stuff to buy, he should not be wronged in any one article. And that
whoever should think himself ill-used in any of the said shops, he
should have his money again from the seller, or upon his refusal, from
the rest of the said subscribers, who, if they found the buyer
discontented with the cloth or stuff, should be obliged to refund the
money; and if the seller refused to repay them, and take his goods
again, should publicly advertise that they would answer for none of his
goods any more. This would be to establish credit, upon which all trade
dependeth.
I proposed this scheme several times to the corporation of weavers, as
well as to the manufacturers, when they came to apply for my advice at
the Deanery-house. I likewise went to the shops of several
woollen-drapers upon the same errand, but always in vain; for they
perpetually gave me the deaf ear, and avoided entering into discourse
upon that proposal: I suppose, because they thought it was in vain, and
that the spirit of fraud had gotten too deep and universal a possession
to be driven out by any arguments from interest, reason, or conscience.
THE
PRESENT MISERABLE STATE
OF
IRELAND.
NOTE.
The following tract was taken by Sir Walter Scott "from a little
miscellaneous 12mo volume of pamphlets, communicated by Mr.
Hartsonge, relating chiefly to Irish affairs, the property at one
time of Thomas Kingsbury, Esq., son of Dr. Kingsbury, who attended
Swift in his last illness." The present editor came across a
similar volume while on a visit of research in Dublin, among the
collection of books which belonged to the late Sir W. Gilbert, and
which were being catalogued for auction by the bookseller, Mr.
O'Donoghue. The little 12mo contained this tract which had, as Sir
W. Scott points out, a portrait of Swift at the end, on the recto
of the last leaf.
According to Sir W. Scott, the friend in Dublin to whom the letter
is supposed to be addressed, was Sir Robert Walpole. If Scott be
correct, and there seems little reason to doubt his conjecture, the
tract must have been written in the second half of the year 1726.
In the early part of that year Swift had an interview with Walpole.
Our knowledge of what transpired at that interview is obtained from
Swift's letter of April 28th, 1726, to Lord Peterborough; from
Swift's letter to Dr. Stopford of July 20th, 1726; from Pope's
letter to Swift of September 3rd, 1726; and from Swift's letter to
Lady Betty Germaine of January 8th, 1732/3. From these letters we
learn that Swift was really invited by Walpole to meet him. Swift's
visit to England concerned itself mainly with the publication of
"Gulliver's Travels," but Sir Henry Craik thinks that Swift had
other thoughts. "As regards politics," says this biographer, "he
was encouraged to hope that without loss either of honour or
consistency, it was open to him to make terms with the new powers.
In the end, the result proved that he either over-estimated his own
capacity of surrendering his independence, or under-estimated the
terms that would be exacted." This remark would leave it open for a
reader to conclude that Swift would, at a certain price, have been
ready to join Walpole and his party. But the letters referred to do
not in the least warrant such a conclusion. Swift's thought was for
Ireland, and had he been successful with Walpole in his pleading
for Ireland's cause that minister might have found an ally in
Swift; but the price to be paid was not to the man. From Swift's
letter to Peterborough we are at once introduced to Ireland's case,
and his point of view on this was so opposed to Walpole's
preconceived notions of how best to govern Ireland, as well as of
his settled plans, that Swift found, as he put it, that Walpole
"had conceived opinions ... which I could not reconcile to the
notions I had of liberty." Not at all of his own liberty, but of
that of the liberty of a nation; for, as he says (giving now the
quotation in full): "I had no other design in desiring to see Sir
Robert Walpole, than to represent the affairs of Ireland to him in
a true light, not only without any view to myself, but to any party
whatsoever ... I failed very much in my design; for I saw that he
had conceived opinions, _from the example and practices of the
present, and some former governors_, which I could not reconcile to
the notions I had of liberty." The part given here in italics is
omitted by Sir H. Craik in his quotation.
Swift saw Walpole twice--once at Walpole's invitation at a dinner
at Chelsea, and a second time at his own wish, expressed through
Lord Peterborough. At the first meeting nothing of politics could
be broached, as the encounter was a public one. The second meeting
was private and resulted in nothing. The letter to Peterborough was
written by Swift the day after he had seen Walpole, and
Peterborough was requested to show it to that minister. The letter
is so pertinent to the subject-matter of this volume that it is
printed here:
"_April 28th, 1726._
"SWIFT TO THE EARL OF PETERBOROUGH.
"MY LORD,
"Your lordship having, at my request, obtained for me an hour from
Sir Robert Walpole, I accordingly attended him yesterday at eight
o'clock in the morning, and had somewhat more than an hour's
conversation with him. Your lordship was this day pleased to
inquire what passed between that great minister and me; to which I
gave you some general answers, from whence you said you could
comprehend little or nothing.
"I had no other design in desiring to see Sir Robert Walpole, than
to represent the affairs of Ireland to him in a true light, not
only without any view to myself, but to any party whatsoever: and,
because I understood the affairs of that kingdom tolerably well,
and observed the representations he had received were such as I
could not agree to; my principal design was to set him right, not
only for the service of Ireland, but likewise of England, and of
his own administration.
"I failed very much in my design; for I saw he had conceived
opinions, from the example and practices of the present, and some
former governors, which I could not reconcile to the notions I had
of liberty, a possession always understood by the British nation to
be the inheritance of a human creature.
"Sir Robert Walpole was pleased to enlarge very much upon the
subject of Ireland, in a manner so alien from what I conceived to
be the rights and privileges of a subject of England, that I did
not think proper to debate the matter with him so much as I
otherwise might, because I found it would be in vain. I shall,
therefore, without entering into dispute, make bold to mention to
your lordship some few grievances of that kingdom, as it consists
of a people who, beside a natural right of enjoying the privileges
of subjects, have also a claim of merit from their extraordinary
loyalty to the present king and his family.
"First, That all persons born in Ireland are called and treated as
Irishmen, although their fathers and grandfathers were born in
England; and their predecessors having been conquerors of Ireland,
it is humbly considered they ought to be on as good a foot as any
subjects of Britain, according to the practice of all other
nations, and particularly of the Greeks and Romans.
"Secondly, That they are denied the natural liberty of exporting
their manufactures to any country which is not engaged in a war
with England.
"Thirdly, That whereas there is a university in Ireland, founded by
Queen Elizabeth, where youth are instructed with a much stricter
discipline than either in Oxford or Cambridge, it lies under the
greatest discouragements, by filling all the principal employments,
civil and ecclesiastical, with persons from England, who have
neither interest, property, acquaintance, nor alliance, in that
kingdom; contrary to the practice of all other states in Europe
which are governed by viceroys, at least what hath never been used
without the utmost discontents of the people.
"Fourthly, That several of the bishops sent over to Ireland, having
been clergymen of obscure condition, and without other distinction
than that of chaplains to the governors, do frequently invite over
their old acquaintances or kindred, to whom they bestow the best
preferment in their gift. The like may be said of the judges, who
take with them one or two dependants, to whom they give their
countenance; and who, consequently, without other merit, grow
immediately into the chief business of their courts. The same
practice is followed by all others in civil employments, if they
have a cousin, a valet, or footman in their family, born in
England.
"Fifthly, That all civil employments, granted in reversion, are
given to persons who reside in England.
"The people of Ireland, who are certainly the most loyal subjects
in the world, cannot but conceive that most of these hardships have
been the consequence of some unfortunate representations (at least)
in former times; and the whole body of the gentry feel the effects
in a very sensible part, being utterly destitute of all means to
make provision for their younger sons, either in the Church, the
law, the revenue, or (of late) in the army; and, in the desperate
condition of trade, it is equally vain to think of making them
merchants. All they have left is, at the expiration of leases, to
rack their tenants, which they have done to such a degree, that
there is not one farmer in a hundred through the kingdom who can
afford shoes or stockings to his children, or to eat flesh, or
drink anything better than sour milk or water, twice in a year; so
that the whole country, except the Scottish plantation in the
north, is a scene of misery and desolation hardly to be matched on
this side of Lapland.
"The rents of Ireland are computed to about a million and a half,
whereof one half million at least is spent by lords and gentlemen
residing in England, and by some other articles too long to
mention.
"About three hundred thousand pounds more are returned thither on
other accounts; and, upon the whole, those who are the best versed
in that kind of knowledge agree, that England gains annually by
Ireland a million at least, which even I could make appear beyond
all doubt.
"But, as this mighty profit would probably increase, with tolerable
treatment, to half a million more, so it must of necessity sink,
under the hardships that kingdom lies at present.
"And whereas Sir Robert Walpole was pleased to take notice, how
little the king gets by Ireland, it ought, perhaps to be
considered, that the revenues and taxes, I think, amount to above
four hundred thousand pounds a-year; and, reckoning the riches of
Ireland, compared with England, to be as one to twelve, the king's
revenues there would be equal to more than five millions here;
which, considering the bad payment of rents, from such miserable
creatures as most of the tenants in Ireland are, will be allowed to
be as much as such a kingdom can bear.
"The current coin of Ireland is reckoned, at most, but at five
hundred thousand pounds; so that above four-fifths are paid every
year into the exchequer.
"I think it manifest, that whatever circumstances could possibly
contribute to make a country poor and despicable, are all united
with respect to Ireland. The nation controlled by laws to which
they do not consent, disowned by their brethren and countrymen,
refused the liberty not only of trading with their own
manufactures, but even their native commodities, forced to seek for
justice many hundred miles by sea and land, rendered in a manner
incapable of serving their king and country in any employment of
honour, trust, or profit; and all this without the least demerit;
while the governors sent over thither can possibly have no
affection to the people, further than what is instilled into them
by their own justice and love of mankind, which do not always
operate; and whatever they please to represent hither is never
called in question.
"Whether the representatives of such a people, thus distressed and
laid in the dust, when they meet in a parliament, can do the public
business with that cheerfulness which might be expected from
free-born subjects, would be a question in any other country except
that unfortunate island; the English inhabitants whereof have given
more and greater examples of their loyalty and dutifulness, than
can be shown in any other part of the world.
"What part of these grievances may be thought proper to be
redressed by so wise and great a minister as Sir Robert Walpole, he
perhaps will please to consider; especially because they have been
all brought upon that kingdom since the Revolution; which, however,
is a blessing annually celebrated there with the greatest zeal and
sincerity.