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
_£23,614 9s. 6d._, and in 1687, when they were at the highest, they
did not exceed _£70,521 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, _£56,415 16s. 0d._ was in friezes, and
_£2,520 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 £627,000. 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. [S.]
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. [S.]
[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.]