THE PRESENT MISERABLE STATE OF IRELAND.

     
     
     
           NOTE.
     
           The following tract was taken by Sir Walter Scott “from a little
     miscellaneous 12mo volume of pamphlets, communicated by Mr.
     Hartsonge, relating chiefly to Irish affairs, the property at one
     time of Thomas Kingsbury, Esq., son of Dr. Kingsbury, who attended
     Swift in his last illness.” The present editor came across a
     similar volume while on a visit of research in Dublin, among the
     collection of books which belonged to the late Sir W. Gilbert, and
     which were being catalogued for auction by the bookseller, Mr.
     O'Donoghue. The little 12mo contained this tract which had, as Sir
     W. Scott points out, a portrait of Swift at the end, on the recto
     of the last leaf.
           According to Sir W. Scott, the friend in Dublin to whom the letter
     is supposed to be addressed, was Sir Robert Walpole. If Scott be
     correct, and there seems little reason to doubt his conjecture, the
     tract must have been written in the second half of the year 1726.
     In the early part of that year Swift had an interview with Walpole.
     Our knowledge of what transpired at that interview is obtained from
     Swift's letter of April 28th, 1726, to Lord Peterborough; from
     Swift's letter to Dr. Stopford of July 20th, 1726; from Pope's
     letter to Swift of September 3rd, 1726; and from Swift's letter to
     Lady Betty Germaine of January 8th, 1732/3. From these letters we
     learn that Swift was really invited by Walpole to meet him. Swift's
     visit to England concerned itself mainly with the publication of
     “Gulliver's Travels,” but Sir Henry Craik thinks that Swift had
     other thoughts. “As regards politics,” says this biographer, “he
     was encouraged to hope that without loss either of honour or
     consistency, it was open to him to make terms with the new powers.
     In the end, the result proved that he either over-estimated his own
     capacity of surrendering his independence, or under-estimated the
     terms that would be exacted.” This remark would leave it open for a
     reader to conclude that Swift would, at a certain price, have been
     ready to join Walpole and his party. But the letters referred to do
     not in the least warrant such a conclusion. Swift's thought was for
     Ireland, and had he been successful with Walpole in his pleading
     for Ireland's cause that minister might have found an ally in
     Swift; but the price to be paid was not to the man. From Swift's
     letter to Peterborough we are at once introduced to Ireland's case,
     and his point of view on this was so opposed to Walpole's
     preconceived notions of how best to govern Ireland, as well as of
     his settled plans, that Swift found, as he put it, that Walpole
     “had conceived opinions ... which I could not reconcile to the
     notions I had of liberty.” Not at all of his own liberty, but of
     that of the liberty of a nation; for, as he says (giving now the
     quotation in full): “I had no other design in desiring to see Sir
     Robert Walpole, than to represent the affairs of Ireland to him in
     a true light, not only without any view to myself, but to any party
     whatsoever ... I failed very much in my design; for I saw that he
     had conceived opinions, from the example and practices of the
     present, and some former governors
, which I could not reconcile to
     the notions I had of liberty.” The part given here in italics is
     omitted by Sir H. Craik in his quotation.
           Swift saw Walpole twice—once at Walpole's invitation at a dinner
     at Chelsea, and a second time at his own wish, expressed through
     Lord Peterborough. At the first meeting nothing of politics could
     be broached, as the encounter was a public one. The second meeting
     was private and resulted in nothing. The letter to Peterborough was
     written by Swift the day after he had seen Walpole, and
     Peterborough was requested to show it to that minister. The letter
     is so pertinent to the subject-matter of this volume that it is
     printed here:
     
                           “April 28th, 1726.
            “SWIFT TO THE EARL OF PETERBOROUGH.
           “MY LORD,
           “Your lordship having, at my request, obtained for me an hour from
     Sir Robert Walpole, I accordingly attended him yesterday at eight
     o'clock in the morning, and had somewhat more than an hour's
     conversation with him. Your lordship was this day pleased to
     inquire what passed between that great minister and me; to which I
     gave you some general answers, from whence you said you could
     comprehend little or nothing.
           “I had no other design in desiring to see Sir Robert Walpole, than
     to represent the affairs of Ireland to him in a true light, not
     only without any view to myself, but to any party whatsoever: and,
     because I understood the affairs of that kingdom tolerably well,
     and observed the representations he had received were such as I
     could not agree to; my principal design was to set him right, not
     only for the service of Ireland, but likewise of England, and of
     his own administration.
           “I failed very much in my design; for I saw he had conceived
     opinions, from the example and practices of the present, and some
     former governors, which I could not reconcile to the notions I had
     of liberty, a possession always understood by the British nation to
     be the inheritance of a human creature.
           “Sir Robert Walpole was pleased to enlarge very much upon the
     subject of Ireland, in a manner so alien from what I conceived to
     be the rights and privileges of a subject of England, that I did
     not think proper to debate the matter with him so much as I
     otherwise might, because I found it would be in vain. I shall,
     therefore, without entering into dispute, make bold to mention to
     your lordship some few grievances of that kingdom, as it consists
     of a people who, beside a natural right of enjoying the privileges
     of subjects, have also a claim of merit from their extraordinary
     loyalty to the present king and his family.
           “First, That all persons born in Ireland are called and treated as
     Irishmen, although their fathers and grandfathers were born in
     England; and their predecessors having been conquerors of Ireland,
     it is humbly considered they ought to be on as good a foot as any
     subjects of Britain, according to the practice of all other
     nations, and particularly of the Greeks and Romans.
           “Secondly, That they are denied the natural liberty of exporting
     their manufactures to any country which is not engaged in a war
     with England.
           “Thirdly, That whereas there is a university in Ireland, founded by
     Queen Elizabeth, where youth are instructed with a much stricter
     discipline than either in Oxford or Cambridge, it lies under the
     greatest discouragements, by filling all the principal employments,
     civil and ecclesiastical, with persons from England, who have
     neither interest, property, acquaintance, nor alliance, in that
     kingdom; contrary to the practice of all other states in Europe
     which are governed by viceroys, at least what hath never been used
     without the utmost discontents of the people.
           “Fourthly, That several of the bishops sent over to Ireland, having
     been clergymen of obscure condition, and without other distinction
     than that of chaplains to the governors, do frequently invite over
     their old acquaintances or kindred, to whom they bestow the best
     preferment in their gift. The like may be said of the judges, who
     take with them one or two dependants, to whom they give their
     countenance; and who, consequently, without other merit, grow
     immediately into the chief business of their courts. The same
     practice is followed by all others in civil employments, if they
     have a cousin, a valet, or footman in their family, born in
     England.
           “Fifthly, That all civil employments, granted in reversion, are
     given to persons who reside in England.
           “The people of Ireland, who are certainly the most loyal subjects
     in the world, cannot but conceive that most of these hardships have
     been the consequence of some unfortunate representations (at least)
     in former times; and the whole body of the gentry feel the effects
     in a very sensible part, being utterly destitute of all means to
     make provision for their younger sons, either in the Church, the
     law, the revenue, or (of late) in the army; and, in the desperate
     condition of trade, it is equally vain to think of making them
     merchants. All they have left is, at the expiration of leases, to
     rack their tenants, which they have done to such a degree, that
     there is not one farmer in a hundred through the kingdom who can
     afford shoes or stockings to his children, or to eat flesh, or
     drink anything better than sour milk or water, twice in a year; so
     that the whole country, except the Scottish plantation in the
     north, is a scene of misery and desolation hardly to be matched on
     this side of Lapland.
           “The rents of Ireland are computed to about a million and a half,
     whereof one half million at least is spent by lords and gentlemen
     residing in England, and by some other articles too long to
     mention.
           “About three hundred thousand pounds more are returned thither on
     other accounts; and, upon the whole, those who are the best versed
     in that kind of knowledge agree, that England gains annually by
     Ireland a million at least, which even I could make appear beyond
     all doubt.
           “But, as this mighty profit would probably increase, with tolerable
     treatment, to half a million more, so it must of necessity sink,
     under the hardships that kingdom lies at present.
           “And whereas Sir Robert Walpole was pleased to take notice, how
     little the king gets by Ireland, it ought, perhaps to be
     considered, that the revenues and taxes, I think, amount to above
     four hundred thousand pounds a-year; and, reckoning the riches of
     Ireland, compared with England, to be as one to twelve, the king's
     revenues there would be equal to more than five millions here;
     which, considering the bad payment of rents, from such miserable
     creatures as most of the tenants in Ireland are, will be allowed to
     be as much as such a kingdom can bear.
           “The current coin of Ireland is reckoned, at most, but at five
     hundred thousand pounds; so that above four-fifths are paid every
     year into the exchequer.
           “I think it manifest, that whatever circumstances could possibly
     contribute to make a country poor and despicable, are all united
     with respect to Ireland. The nation controlled by laws to which
     they do not consent, disowned by their brethren and countrymen,
     refused the liberty not only of trading with their own
     manufactures, but even their native commodities, forced to seek for
     justice many hundred miles by sea and land, rendered in a manner
     incapable of serving their king and country in any employment of
     honour, trust, or profit; and all this without the least demerit;
     while the governors sent over thither can possibly have no
     affection to the people, further than what is instilled into them
     by their own justice and love of mankind, which do not always
     operate; and whatever they please to represent hither is never
     called in question.
           “Whether the representatives of such a people, thus distressed and
     laid in the dust, when they meet in a parliament, can do the public
     business with that cheerfulness which might be expected from
     free-born subjects, would be a question in any other country except
     that unfortunate island; the English inhabitants whereof have given
     more and greater examples of their loyalty and dutifulness, than
     can be shown in any other part of the world.
           “What part of these grievances may be thought proper to be
     redressed by so wise and great a minister as Sir Robert Walpole, he
     perhaps will please to consider; especially because they have been
     all brought upon that kingdom since the Revolution; which, however,
     is a blessing annually celebrated there with the greatest zeal and
     sincerity.
           “I most humbly entreat your lordship to give this paper to Sir
     Robert Walpole, and desire him to read it, which he may do in a few
     minutes. I am, with the greatest respect, my lord,
                           “Your lordship's
                     “most obedient and humble servant,
                     “JON. SWIFT.”
           Scott thinks that had Swift been anxious for personal favours from
     Walpole he could easily have obtained them; “but the minister did
     not choose to gain his adherence at the expense of sacrificing the
     system which had hitherto guided England in her conduct towards the
     sister kingdom, and the patriot of Ireland was not to be won at a
     cheaper rate than the emancipation of his country.”
           The original pamphlet bears neither date nor printer's name.
           [T. S.]
     
      THE PRESENT MISERABLE STATE OF IRELAND.
      SIR,
      By the last packets I had the favour of yours, and am surprised that you should apply to a person so ill qualified as I am, for a full and impartial account of the state of our trade. I have always lived as retired as possible; I have carefully avoided the perplexed honour of city-offices; I have never minded anybody's business but my own; upon all which accounts, and several others, you might easily have found among my fellow-citizens, persons more capable to resolve the weighty questions you put to me, than I can pretend to be.
      But being entirely at leisure, even at this season of the year, when I used to have scarce time sufficient to perform the necessary offices of life, I will endeavour to comply with your requests, cautioning you not implicitly to rely upon what I say, excepting what belongs to that branch of trade in which I am more immediately concerned.
      The Irish trade is, at present, in the most deplorable condition that can be imagined; to remedy it, the causes of its languishment must be inquired into: But as those causes (you may assure yourself) will not be removed, you may look upon it as a thing past hopes of recovery.
      The first and greatest shock our trade received, was from an act passed in the reign of King William, in the Parliament of England, prohibiting the exportation of wool manufactured in Ireland. An act (as the event plainly shews) fuller of greediness than good policy; an act as beneficial to France and Spain, as it has been destructive to England and Ireland.[103] At the passing of this fatal act, the condition of our trade was glorious and flourishing, though no way interfering with the English; we made no broad-cloths above 6s. per yard; coarse druggets, bays and shalloons, worsted damasks, strong draught works, slight half-works, and gaudy stuffs, were the only product of our looms: these were partly consumed by the meanest of our people, and partly sent to the northern nations, from which we had in exchange, timber, iron, hemp, flax, pitch, tar, and hard dollars. At the time the current money of Ireland was foreign silver, a man could hardly receive 100l., without finding the coin of all the northern powers, and every prince of the empire among it. This money was returned into England for fine cloths, silks, &c. for our own wear, for rents, for coals, for hardware, and all other English manufactures, and, in a great measure, supplied the London merchants with foreign silver for exportation.
      The repeated clamours of the English weavers produced this act, so destructive to themselves and us. They looked with envious eyes upon our prosperity, and complained of being undersold by us in those commodities, which they themselves did not deal in. At their instances the act was passed, and we lost our profitable northern trade. Have they got it? No, surely, you have found they have ever since declined in the trade they so happily possessed; you shall find (if I am rightly informed) towns without one loom in them, which subsisted entirely upon the woollen manufactory before the passing of this unhappy bill; and I will try if I can give the true reasons for the decay of their trade, and our calamities.
      Three parts in four of the inhabitants of that district of the town where I dwell were English manufacturers, whom either misfortunes in trade, little petty debts, contracted through idleness, or the pressures of a numerous family, had driven into our cheap country: These were employed in working up our coarse wool, while the finest was sent into England. Several of these had taken the children of the native Irish apprentices to them, who being humbled by the forfeiture of upward of three millions by the Revolution, were obliged to stoop to a mechanic industry. Upon the passing of this bill, we were obliged to dismiss thousands of these people from our service. Those who had settled their affairs returned home, and overstocked England with workmen; those whose debts were unsatisfied went to France, Spain, and the Netherlands, where they met with good encouragement, whereby the natives, having got a firm footing in the trade, being acute fellows, soon became as good workmen as any we have, and supply the foreign manufactories with a constant recruit of artisans; our island lying much more under pasture than any in Europe. The foreigners (notwithstanding all the restrictions the English Parliament has bound us up with) are furnished with the greatest quantity of our choicest wool. I need not tell you, sir, that a custom-house oath is held as little sacred here as in England, or that it is common for masters of vessels to swear themselves bound for one of the English wool ports, and unload in France or Spain. By this means the trade in those parts is, in a great measure, destroyed, and we were obliged to try our hands at finer works, having only our home consumption to depend upon; and, I can assure you, we have, in several kinds of narrow goods, even exceeded the English, and I believe we shall, in a few years more, be able to equal them in broad cloths; but this you may depend upon, that scarce the tenth part of English goods are now imported, of what used to be before the famous act.
      The only manufactured wares we are allowed to export, are linen cloth and linen yarn, which are marketable only in England; the rest of our commodities are wool, restrained to England, and raw hides, skins, tallow, beef, and butter. Now, these are things for which the northern nations have no occasion; we are therefore obliged, instead of carrying woollen goods to their markets, and bringing home money, to purchase their commodities.
      In France, Spain, and Portugal, our wares are more valuable, though it must be owned, our fraudulent trade in wool is the best branch of our commerce; from hence we get wines, brandy, and fruit, very cheap, and in great perfection; so that though England has constrained us to be poor, they have given us leave to be merry. From these countries we bring home moydores, pistoles, and louisdores, without which we should scarce have a penny to turn upon.
      To England we are allowed to send nothing but linen cloth, yarn, raw hides, skins, tallow, and wool. From thence we have coals, for which we always pay ready money, India goods, English woollen and silks, tobacco, hardware, earthenware, salt, and several other commodities. Our exportations to England are very much overbalanced by our importations; so that the course of exchange is generally too high, and people choose rather to make their remittances to England in specie, than by a bill, and our nation is perpetually drained of its little running cash.
      Another cause of the decay of trade, scarcity of money, and swelling of exchange, is the unnatural affectation of our gentry to reside in and about London.[104] Their rents are remitted to them, and spent there. The countryman wants employment from them; the country shopkeeper wants their custom. For this reason he can't pay his Dublin correspondent readily, nor take off a great quantity of his wares. Therefore, the Dublin merchant can't employ the artisan, nor keep up his credit in foreign markets.
      I have discoursed some of these gentlemen, persons esteemed for good sense, and demanded a reason for this their so unaccountable proceeding,—expensive to them for the present, ruinous to their country, and destructive to the future value of their estates,—and find all their answers summed up under three heads, curiosity, pleasure, and loyalty to King George. The two first excuses deserve no answer; let us try the validity of the third. Would not loyalty be much better expressed by gentlemen staying in their respective countries, influencing their dependents by their examples, saving their own wealth, and letting their neighbours profit by their necessary expenses, thereby keeping them from misery, and its unavoidable consequence, discontent? Or is it better to flock to London, be lost in a crowd, kiss the King's hand, and take a view of the royal family? The seeing of the royal house may animate their zeal for it; but other advantages I know not. What employment have any of our gentlemen got by their attendance at Court, to make up to them their expenses? Why, about forty of them have been created peers, and a little less than a hundred of them baronets and knights. For these excellent advantages, thousands of our gentry have squeezed their tenants, impoverished the trader, and impaired their own fortunes!
      Another great calamity, is the exorbitant raising of the rents of lands. Upon the determination of all leases made before the year 1690, a gentleman thinks he has but indifferently improved his estate if he has only doubled his rent-roll. Farms are screwed up to a rack-rent, leases granted but for a small term of years, tenants tied down to hard conditions, and discouraged from cultivating the lands they occupy to the best advantage, by the certainty they have of the rent being raised, on the expiration of their lease, proportionably to the improvements they shall make. Thus is honest industry restrained; the farmer is a slave to his landlord; 'tis well if he can cover his family with a coarse home-spun frieze. The artisan has little dealings with him; yet he is obliged to take his provisions from him at an extravagant price, otherwise the farmer cannot pay his rent.
      The proprietors of lands keep great part of them in their own hands for sheep-pasture; and there are thousands of poor wretches who think themselves blessed, if they can obtain a hut worse than the squire's dog-kennel, and an acre of ground for a potato-plantation, on condition of being as very slaves as any in America. What can be more deplorable, than to behold wretches starving in the midst of plenty!
      We are apt to charge the Irish with laziness, because we seldom find them employed; but then we don't consider they have nothing to do. Sir William Temple, in his excellent remarks on the United Provinces, inquires why Holland, which has the fewest and worst ports and commodities of any nation in Europe, should abound in trade, and Ireland, which has the most and best of both, should have none? This great man attributes this surprising accident to the natural aversion man has for labour; who will not be persuaded to toil and fatigue himself for the superfluities of life throughout the week, when he may provide himself with all necessary subsistence by the labour of a day or two. But, with due submission to Sir William's profound judgment, the want of trade with us is rather owing to the cruel restraints we lie under, than to any disqualification whatsoever in our inhabitants.
      I have not, sir, for these thirty years past, since I was concerned in trade, (the greatest part of which time distresses have been flowing in upon us,) ever observed them to swell so suddenly to such a height as they have done within these few months. Our present calamities are not to be represented; you can have no notion of them without beholding them. Numbers of miserable objects crowd our doors, begging us to take their wares at any price, to prevent their families from immediate starving. We cannot part with our money to them, both because we know not when we shall have vent for their goods; and, as there are no debts paid, we are afraid of reducing ourselves to their lamentable circumstances. The dismal time of trade we had during Marr's Troubles in Scotland, are looked upon as happy days when compared with the present.[105]
      I need not tell you, sir, that this griping want, this dismal poverty, this additional woe, must be put to the accursed stocks, which have desolated our country more effectually than England. Stockjobbing was a kind of traffic we were utterly unacquainted with. We went late to the South Sea market, and bore a great share in the losses of it, without having tasted any of its profits.
      If many in England have been ruined by stocks, some have been advanced. The English have a free and open trade to repair their losses; but, above all, a wise, vigilant, and uncorrupted Parliament and ministry, strenuously endeavouring to restore public trade to its former happy state. Whilst we, having lost the greatest part of our cash, without any probability of its returning, must despair of retrieving our losses by trade, and have before our eyes the dismal prospect of universal poverty and desolation.
      I believe, sir, you are by this time heartily tired with this indigested letter, and are firmly persuaded of the truth of what I said in the beginning of it, that you had much better have imposed this task on some of our citizens of greater abilities. But perhaps, sir, such a letter as this may be, for the singularity of it, entertaining to you, who correspond with the politest and most learned men in Europe. But I am satisfied you will excuse its want of exactness and perspicuity, when you consider my education, my being unaccustomed to writings of this nature, and, above all, those calamitous objects which constantly surround us, sufficient to disturb the cleanest imagination, and the soundest judgment.
      Whatever cause I have given you, by this letter, to think worse of my sense and judgment, I fancy I have given you a manifest proof that I am, sir,
                           Your most obedient humble servant,
                           J. S.