THE WORK S O F Dr. Jonathan Swift, Dean of St. PATRICK'S, Dublin. VOLUME X. LONDON, Printed for T. OSBORNE, W. BOWYER, MDCCLXV. A PROPOSAL[a] FOR THE UNIVERSAL USE OF IRISH MANUFACTURE, etc. IT Written in the Year 1721. T is the peculiar felicity and prudence of the people in this kingdom, that whatever commodities or productions lie under the [4] This treatife fpread very faft; upon which a perfon, in great office, fent in hafte for the chief juftice (Whitshed), and informed him of a feditious, factious, and virulent pamphlet lately published, with a defign of fetting the two kingdoms at variance; directing, at the fame time, that the printer fhould be profecuted with the utmost rigour.---The chief juftice had so quick an understanding, that he refolved, if poffible, to out-do his orders.---The printer was feized, and forced to give great bail :--the jury brought him in not guilty, although they had been culled with the utmost industry: the chief juftice fent them back nine times, and kept them eleven hours, until, being tired out, they were forced to leave the matter to the mercy of the judges VOL. X. B greatest greatest discouragements from England, thofe are what they are fure to be most industrious in cultivating and fpreading. Agriculture, which hath been the principal care of all wife nations, and for he encouragement whereof there are fo many ftatute-laws in England, we countenance fo well, that the landlords are every where, by penal clauses, absolutely prohibiting their tenants from ploughing [b], not fatisfied to confine them within certain limitations, as is the practice of the English; one effect of which is already” feen in the prodigious dearnefs of corn, and the importation of it from London, as the by what they call a special verdi. During the trial, the chief justice, among other fingularities, laid his hand on his breaft, and protefted folemnly, that the author's defign was to bring in the pretender: but the cause being so very odious and impopular, the trial of the verdict was deferred from one term to another, until, upon the (d. of G---ft-n) the lord lieutenant's arrival, his grace, after mature advice and permiffion from England, was pleased to grant a noli profequi. Pope's works, vol. ix. let ter 5. This piece firft turned the tide of popularity in the author's favour. Orrery. [b] It was the practice of Irish farmers to wear out their ground with ploughing, neither manuring nor letting it fie fallow; and when their leafes were near expired, they ploughed even the meadows, and made fuch havock, that the landlords, by their zeal to prevent it, were betrayed into this pernicious measure. cheaper market. And becaufe people are the riches of a country, and that our neighbours have done, and are doing, all that in them lies to make our wool a drug to us, and a monopoly to them; therefore the politic gentlemen of Ireland have depopulated vast tracts of the beft land, for the feeding of sheep. I could fill a volume, as large as the Hif tory of the wife men of Gotham, with a catalogue only of fome wonderful laws and cuftoms we have obferved within thirty years past. It is true, indeed, our beneficial traffick of wool with France hath been our only fupport for several years paft, furnishing us with all the little money we have to pay our rents, and go to market. But cur merchants affure me, This trade hath received a great damp by the prefent fufiuating condition of the coin in France: that most of their wine is paid for in fpecie, without carrying thither any commodity from hence. However, fince we are fo univerfally bent upon enlarging our flocks, it may be worth inquiring, what we thall do with our wool, in cafe Barnftable [c] fhould be over-stocked, and our French commerce fhould fail? I could with the parliament had thought fit to have fufpended their regulation of church matters, and enlargements of the prerogative, until a more convenient time, because [c] A fea-port in Devonshire, at that time the principal market in England for Irish wool, B 2 they |