A MEMORIAL OF THE POOR INHABITANTS,
TRADESMEN, AND LABOURERS OF
THE KINGDOM OF IRELAND.

SIR,

Dublin, March 25, 1728.

I RECEIVED a paper from you, whoever you are, printed without any name of author or printer; and sent, I suppose, to me among others without any particular distinction. It contains a complaint of the dearness of corn; and some schemes for making it cheaper, which I cannot approve of.

But pray permit me, before I go farther, to give you a short history of the steps by which we arrived at this hopeful situation.

It was indeed the shameful practice of too many Irish farmers, to wear out their ground with ploughing; while, either through poverty, laziness, or ignorance, they neither took care to manure it as they ought, nor gave time to any part of the land to recover itself; and when their leases were near expiring, being assured that their landlords would not renew, they ploughed even the meadows, and made such havoc, that many landlords were considerable sufferers by it.

This

gave

birth to that abominable race of graziers, who, upon expiration of the farmers' leases, wcre ready

The memorial was written by Sir John Browne.

to engross great quantities of land; and the gentlemen: having been before often ill paid, and their land worn out of heart, were too easily tempted, when a rich grazier made an offer to take all their land, and give them security for payment. Thus, a vast tract of land, where twenty or thirty farmers lived, together with their cottagers and labourers in their several cabins, became all desolate, and easily managed by one or two herdsmen and their boys; whereby the master grazier, with little trouble, seized to himself the livelihood of a hundred people.

It must be confessed, that the farmers were justly punished for their knavery, brutality, and folly. But neither are the squires and laudlords to be excused; for to them is owing the depopulating of the country, the vast number of beggars, and the ruin of those few sorry improvements we had.

That farmers should be limited in ploughing, is very reasonable, and practised in England; and might have easily been done here by penal clauses in their leases : but to deprive them in a manner altogether from tilling their lands, was a most stupid want of thinking.

Had the farmers been confined to plough a certain quantity of land, with a penalty of ten pounds an acre for whatever they exceeded, and farther limited for the three or four last years of their leases, all this evil had been prevented; the nation would have saved a million of money; and been more populous by above two hundred thousand souls.

For a people, denied the benefit of trade, to manage their lands in such a manner as to produce nothing but what they are forbidden to trade with, or only such things, as they can neither export, nor manufacture to advantage, is an absurdity that a wild Indian would be ashamed of; especially, when we add, that we are con

THE

WORKS

OF THE

REV. JONATHAN SWIFT, D. D.

DEAN OF ST. PATRICK'S, DUBLIN.

ARRANGED BY

THOMAS SHERIDAN, A. M:

WITH

NOTES, HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL

NEW EDITION, IN TWENTY-FOUR VOLUMES.

CORRECTED AND REVISED

BY JOHN NICHOLS, F. A. S.

EDINBURGH AND PERTH.

VOLUME XIII.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM DURELL AND CO.

C. S. VAN WINKLE, PRINTER, Water-street, New-York.

other occasions in London, beside a huge balance of trade this year against us. Will foreigners take our bankers' paper? I suppose they will value it at little more than so much a quire. Where are these rich farmers and engrossers of corn, in so bad a year, and so little sowing?

You are in pain for two shillings premium, and forget the twenty shillings for the price; find me out the latter, and I will engage for the former.

Your scheme for a tax for raising such a sum is all visionary, and owing to a great want of knowledge in the miserable state of this nation. Tea, coffee, sugar, spices, wine, and foreign cloths, are the particulars you mention, upon which this tax should be raised. I will allow the two first; because they are unwholesome; and the last, because I should be glad if they were all burned; but I beg you will leave us our wine to make us a while forget our misery; or give your tenants leave to plough for barley. But I will tell you a secret, which I learned many years ago from the commissioners of the customs in London; they said, when any commodity appeared to be taxed above a moderate rate, the consequence was, to lessen that branch of the revenue by one half; and one of those gentlemen pleasantly told me, that the mistake of parliaments, on such occasions, was owing to an error of computing two and two to make four; whereas in the business of laying impositions, two and two never made more than one; which happens by lessening the import, and the strong temptation of running such goods as paid high duties, at least in this kingdom. Although the women are as vain and extravagant, as their lovers or their husbands can deserve; and the men are fond enough of wine; yet the number of both, who can afford such expenses, is so small, that the major part must refuse gratifying themselves, and the duties will rather be lessened than increased. But, allowing