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the arbitrary will and power of those to whom it owes its very being and subsistence.

Fourthly, It is highly probable, that this is presumed, and actually is now, a Protestant bank; it may drain the greatest part of the species of money from the Protestants, and leave them in lieu thereof only paper, which can be of no effect in times of confusion, either for their defence or subsistence; and consequently the ready money, which must be allowed the sinews of war, being in the hands of the Irish Papists, may render them more formidable upon such a juncture to the English Protestant interest of Ireland, than they have ever been since the Reformation.

Besides these reasons his lordship farther added, that he could not well understand how a country wholly crampt in every branch of its trade, of large extent, ill peopled, and abounding in commodities, which they had neither liberty to export, nor encouragement to manufacture, could be benefited by a bank, which, by all he had read, or heard, or observed in his travels, was only useful in free countries where the territory was small, and the trade general and unlimited; and consequently where the profit consisted in the buying and selling of goods imported from other nations, and wholly accrued to the public; whereas the bank proposed amongst us was to be the monopoly of a few. He added, that Mr Maxwell, in his letter to Mr Rowley, had in several particulars given up the cause; but especially in one, where he allowed, that, before the convulsion occasioned by the South-Sea, from the natural advantages of peace, and the very small share of trade allowed us, the interest of money fell of itself to 6 and 5 per cent. which came very near to the only advantage the bank proposed; and his lordship saw no reason why he might not now hope for the same effect from time, and our natural advantages, when we have recovered this loss, as well as we did the ruins of a long war, upon the Revolution, without venturing upon new experiments, under which France, Holland, and England have sunk, and which our poor crazy constitution is ill able to support, and less able to retrieve. He said plainly, that he looked upon Mr Maxwell as a gentleman whose intentions were better than his abilities; that from poring upon Davenant, Petty, Child, and other reasoners from political arithmetic, he hath

drawn conclusions by no means calculated for the circumstances and condition of Ireland.

As a great part of what he said was above my capacity, so I could never have repeated it, if he had not been at the trouble, at my request, to have given it me in writing, together with Mr Rowley's letter, where, he told me, the subject was treated in so handsome a manner, that he was sure it would both please and convince me.

After these general arguments, he got up and shut the door, and, in a very low voice, told me, in confidence, the history of this project, from its first commencement, comparing it to the machine of a watch, with its various wheels and movements, while the main spring was out of sight, yet plainly discovered where the hands pointed and directed. I dare not trust to your eyes what he could hardly trust to his own ears; but I was so thoroughly convinced from what he whispered, that I instantly wrote a note to your friend, and told him you had altered your opinion, and would not subscribe to the bank, desiring he would give himself no farther trouble.

After this I presumed to ask his lordship two questions; first, whether the report were true, that the lord-lieutenant had interested himself in favour of the bank? He assured me it was notoriously false and groundless; for his grace had behaved himself with the utmost candour and indifferency, which appeared throughout the whole transaction betwixt his grace and the negotiators, leaving it to the wisdom of the nation to determine what might be profitable for us, whereof I hope the whole kingdom, without distinction of party, will ever retain a grateful remembrance.

My second question was, How came it to pass that the commissioners and managers of the bank opened the books and proceeded to take subscriptions, after the king, in his speech, in tenderness to his people, had left it to the consideration of parliament; and, after it appeared that a great majority of both houses, with the voice of the nation without doors, had declared against it. He answered, with a smile, that, for his own part, he could conceive no possible reason for this proceeding, but that the managers were resolved, at all hazards, to recover the expences they had been at, in negotiating the affair of the bank in England; that, by this

bold attempt, they seemed wholly to misrepresent and misapply the gracious intentions of his majesty, as if, after he had loudly proclaimed, in his speech from the throne, that the people of Ireland should have a bank if they pleased, he did at the same time whisper to the managers that they should have a bank whether we pleased or no.

I took leave of his lordship, and in a few days found a great deal of what he told me to be true. For a list of the subscribers being published by order of the governors and directors, there came out soon after a printed paper, with notes and queries, wherein the subscribers were ranked in their proper classes, which placed them in so ridiculous a light, that they all began to be ashamed of one another. I took pains to examine that paper very carefully by the original list, and found it in every article to be a notorious truth, but not the whole truth, for the author hath omitted, One French corn-cutter,

One French drawer,
One Deal merchant,
One French Apothecary,
One Anabaptist clothier,
One barrack-master,
One butcher,

One agent's-clerk,

Besides several South-Seaers and Mississippians.

When I saw this list, and observed the situation of the subscribing ladies betwixt the soldiers and traders, I was highly delighted that you were not one of the number. I was intimately acquainted with one of them, and, going to pay her a visit, was, with some difficulty, admitted. She told me she had kept her chamber some days since the publishing of that scandalous list; that she had been rallied to death by all her acquaintance; that she had endeavoured to get her money back, or at least her bond and judgment, but could prevail for neither; that she resolved to petition the lord chancellor for relief, and confessed freely to me, that a proposal was made her of a very advantageous match, which was brought almost to a conclusion, but broke off when the gentleman came to know that her fortune was in

* See the preceding Tract.

the bank, alleging, that he could not depend upon it, because that her bond and judgment was lodged in the bank, and that any part, or the whole thereof, was liable to the demands of the directors. I am, Madam, &c.

APPENDIX, No. VI.

ADDITIONAL TRACTS BY DEAN SWIFT, RESPECTING WOOD'S PROJECT, AND IRISH AFFAIRS OF THE SAME PERIOD.

NOW FIRST PUBLISHED WITH HIS WORKS.

[For the two first of these curious tracts the editor is obliged to Mr Barrett, by whose unceasing diligence of research they were re. covered from rare pamphlets. The others are reprinted from broadside copies. The stile and matter appear fully to vindicate our ascribing them to Swift.]

Woods Revived, or a short Defence of his Proceedings in London, Bristol, &c. in reference to the Kingdom of Ireland. Printed in the year 1725.

A Short Defence of woOD'S CONDUCT.

GENTLEMEN,-The chief reason why, in this late controversy between my brass and your silver, I was so long silent, is this: When my patent was on foot, and all my barrels ready charged, waiting only for the word of command, if I should have offered any thing in my own defence for such an unusual attack, you would justly have thought it a political stratagem, since my private interest was so principally concerned; but that fear (to my sorrow) being now blown over, my patent being on its last legs, as plain Will Wood, brazier, I offer this to your consideration. About five years ago my thoughts were as humble as any one of my vocation, till my wife, thinking my name something ominous, out of natural affection to her dear husband, would needs persuade me to get above the reach of her suspicion, often telling me,

she knew not what might happen, but what could she or young Sapharia, my child, do, in case I should die a violent death. This, Sirs, you must confess, was a very moving argument; so that, by her continual persuasions, the frequent admonitions of three or four Irish runagate rogues, who were copartners, and my own natural aversion to standing timber and its appurtenances, I at last consented to put in a claim for my patent, thinking by that means to free myself from such an unfortunate destiny, (which more than once threatened me and my companions). Now, I think these reasons were very sufficient, and I am as certain that even the disinterested Drapier himself would have accepted of a lordship, and been content to be honest on less terms than those that compelled me to be a coiner, and made me a rogue. I had no sooner got this patent, but my head run upon politics. My Irish confidants represented your kingdom as a poor, pliable, soft people, in love with imposition; they said, when they were in the kingdom they were the only knaves were in it, they had all the stings to themselves; and that when they came away they left only poor simple honest men behind them.*

Upon hearing of this, gentlemen, I took into my serious consideration the softness of your tempers, and the shallowness of your judgments, and after a short debate between my authority and your stupidity, I concluded that the coin prescribed in my patent was too good for you. I thought if I gave you the worth of your money, or any thing beyond the worst trash a brazier could prepare, i should in my conscience be guilty of a great extravagance, since my honesty would be lost upon you; for I was assured there was not one among you knew the difference, or could tell when you were well used. I could not believe your mechanics were men of speculation, or that your Drapiers pretended to law and letters, and so I coined on, and, to say the truth, mended by experience; for the last parcel I coined were of just the same value I thought your worships deserved, not worth a peck of potatoes. By this you may see how great was my opinion of you. But, though your Drapier be a very shrewd counsellor for others, I think he is not very wise for himself; for

See the Drapier's animadversions on the character of the witnesses from Ireland, examined on behalf of Wood.

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