Israelites, when they complained to his Majesty, that they were forced to make bricks without straw. England enjoys every one of these advantages for enriching a Nation, which I have above enumerated, and into the bargain, a good million returned to them every year without labour or hazard, or one farthing value received on our side. But how long we shall be able to continue the payment, I am not under the least concern. One thing I know, that when the hen is starved to death, there will be no more golden eggs. I think it a little unhospitable, and others may call it a subtile piece of malice, that, because there may be a dozen families in this Town, able to entertain their English friends in a generous manner at their tables, their guests upon their return to England, shall report that we wallow in riches and luxury. Yet I confess I have known an hospital, where all the household officers grew rich, while the poor for whose sake it was built, were almost starving for want of food and raiment. To conclude. If Ireland be a rich and flourishing Kingdom, its wealth and prosperity must be owing to certain causes, that are yet concealed from the whole race of mankind, and the effects are equally invisible. We need not wonder at strangers when they deliver such paradoxes, but a native and inhabitant of this Kingdom, who gives the same verdict, must be either ignorant to stupidity, or a man-pleaser at the expense of all honour, conscience and truth. NOTE. UNDER the guises of a gentleman and two ladies, Swift represents England, Scotland, and Ireland-England being the gentleman and Scotland and Ireland the two mistresses for whom he is affecting an honourable love. The Injured Lady is Ireland, who represents her rival, Scotland, as unworthy of her lover's attention. She expatiates on her own attractions and upbraids him also on his treatment of her. This affords Swift an opportunity for some searching and telling criticism on England's conduct towards Ireland. The fiction is admirably maintained throughout the story. In "The Answer to the Injured Lady" which follows "The Story," Swift takes it upon himself to give her proper advice for her future conduct towards her lover. In this advice he reiterates what he has always been saying to the people of Ireland, but formulates it in the language affected by the lady herself. He tells her that she should look to it that her "family and tenants have no dependence upon the said gentleman farther than by the old agreement [the Act of Henry VII], which obliges you to have the same steward, and to regulate your household by such methods as you should both agree to"; that she shall be free to carry her goods to any market she pleases; that she shall compel the servants to whom she pays wages to remain at home; and that if she make an agreement with a tenant, it shall not be in his power to break it. If she will only show a proper spirit, he assures her that there are gentlemen who would be glad of an occasion to support her in her re sentment. The text of both the tracts here given is based on that of the earliest edition I could find, namely, that of 1746, collated with that given by Faulkner. [T. S.] |