SPEECH DELIVERED BY DEAN SWIFT TO AN ASSEMBLY OF MERCHANTS MET AT THE GUILDHALL, TO DRAW UP A PETITION TO THE LORD LIEUTENANT ON THE LOWERING OF COIN, APRIL 24TH, 1736.

     
     
     
           NOTE.
     
           Writing to Sheridan, under date April 24th, 1736, in a letter
     written partly by herself and partly by Swift, Mrs. Whiteway,
     Swift's housekeeper, refers to the occasion of this speech in the
     following words:
           “The Drapier went this day to the Tholsel[195] as a merchant, to
     sign a petition to the government against lowering the gold, where
     we hear he made a long speech, for which he will be reckoned a
     Jacobite. God send hanging does not go round.” (Scott's edition,
     vol. xviii., p. 470. 1824.)
           The occasion for this agitation against the lowering of the gold
     arose thus. Archbishop Boulter had, for a long time, been much
     concerned about the want of small silver in Ireland. The subject
     seemed to weigh on him greatly, since he refers to it again and
     again in his correspondence with Carteret, Newcastle, Dorset, and
     Walpole. On May 25th, 1736, he wrote to Walpole to inform him that
     the Lord Lieutenant had taken with him to England “an application
     from the government for lowering the gold made current here, by
     proclamation, and raising the foreign silver.” Silver, being
     scarce, bankers and tradesmen were accustomed to charge a premium
     for the changing of gold, as much as sixpence and sevenpence in the
     pound sterling being obtained. (See Boulter's “Letters,” vol. ii.,
     p. 122. Dublin, 1770.)
           There was no question about the benefit of Boulter's scheme in the
     minds of the two Houses of Commons and Lords: Swift, however,
     opposed it vehemently, because he thought the advantage to be
     obtained by this lowering of the gold would accrue to the
     absentees. In 1687 James had issued a proclamation by which an
     English shilling was made the equivalent of thirteen pence in
     Ireland, and an English guinea to twenty-four shillings. Primate
     Boulter's object (gained by the proclamation of the order on
     September 29th, 1737) was to reduce the value of the guinea from
     twenty-three shillings (at which it then stood) to £1 2s. 9d.
     Swift, thinks Monck Mason, considered the absentees would benefit
     by this “from the circumstances of the reserved rents, being
     expressed in the imaginary coin, called a pound, but actually paid
     in guineas, when the value of guineas was lowered, it required a
     proportionately greater number to make up a specific sum" (“History
     of St. Patrick's,” p. 401, note c.)
           Swift, as he wrote to Sheridan, “battled in vain with the duke and
     his clan.” He thought it “just a kind of settlement upon England of
     £25,000 a year for ever; yet some of my friends,” he goes on to
     say, “differ from me, though all agree that the absentees will be
     just so much gainers.” (Letter of date May 22nd, 1737.)
           In a note to Boulter's letter to the Duke of Newcastle (September
     29th, 1737) the editor of those letters (Ambrose Phillips) remarks:
     “Such a spirit of opposition had been raised on this occasion by
     Dean Swift and the bankers, that it was thought proper to lodge at
     the Primate's house, an extraordinary guard of soldiers.” This,
     probably, was after the open exchange of words between Boulter and
     Swift. The Primate had accused Swift of inflaming the minds of the
     people, and hinted broadly that he might incur the displeasure of
     the government. “I inflame them!” retorted Swift, “had I but lifted
     my finger, they would have torn you to pieces.” The day of the
     proclaiming of the order for the lowering of the gold was marked by
     Swift with the display of a black flag from the steeple of St.
     Patrick's, and the tolling of muffled bells, a piece of conduct
     which Boulter called an insult to the government.
           It is à propos to record here the revenge Swift took on Boulter
     for the accusation of inflaming the people. The incident was put by
     him into the following verse:
             “At Dublin's high feast sat primate and dean,
       Both dressed like divines, with hand and face clean:
       Quoth Hugh of Armagh, 'the mob is grown bold.'
       'Ay, ay,' quoth the Dean, 'the cause is old gold.'
       'No, no,' quoth the primate, 'if causes we sift,
       The mischief arises from witty Dean Swift.'
       The smart one replies, 'There's no wit in the case;
       And nothing of that ever troubled your grace.
       Though with your state sieve your own motions you s—t,
       A Boulter by name is no bolter of wit.
       It's matter of weight, and a mere money job;
       But the lower the coin, the higher the mob.
       Go to tell your friend Bob and the other great folk,
       That sinking the coin is a dangerous joke.
       The Irish dear joys have enough common sense,
       To treat gold reduced like Wood's copper pence.
       It's pity a prelate should die without law;
       But if I say the word—take care of Armagh!”
           With the lowering of the gold the Primate imported £2,000 worth of
     copper money for Irish consumption. Swift was most indignant at
     this, and his protest, printed by Faulkner, brought that publisher
     before the Council, and gave Swift a fit of “nerves.” (MS. Letter,
     March 31st, 1737, to Lord Orrery, quoted by Craik in Swift's
     “Life,” vol. ii., p. 160.) Swift's objection against the copper was
     due to the fact that it was not minted in Ireland. “I quarrel not
     with the coin, but with the indignity of its not being coined
     here.” (Same MS. Letter.)
           Among the pamphlets in the Halliday collection in the Royal Irish
     Academy, Dublin, is a tract with the following title:
           “Reasons why we should not lower the Coins now Current in this
     Kingdom ... Dublin: Printed and Sold by E. Waters in Dame-street.”
           At the end of this tract is printed Swift's speech to “an Assembly
     of above one Hundred and fifty eminent persons who met at the Guild
     Hall, on Saturday the 24th April, 1736, in order to draw up their
     Petition, and present it to his grace the Lord Lieutenant against
     lowering said Coin.” It is from this tract that the present text
     has been taken. The editor is obliged to Sir Henry Craik's “Life of
     Swift” for drawing attention to this hitherto uncollected piece.
           [T. S.]
     
      SPEECH DELIVERED ON THE LOWERING OF THE COIN.
      I beg you will consider and very well weigh in your hearts, what I am going to say and what I have often said before. There are several bodies of men, among whom the power of this kingdom is divided—1st, The Lord-Lieutenant, Lords Justices and Council; next to these, my Lords the Bishops; there is likewise my Lord Chancellor, and my Lords the Judges of the land—with other eminent persons in the land, who have employments and great salaries annexed. To these must be added the Commissioners of the Revenue, with all their under officers: and lastly, their honours of the Army, of all degrees.
      Now, Gentlemen, I beg you again to consider that none of these persons above named, can ever suffer the loss of one farthing by all the miseries under which the kingdom groans at present. For, first, until the kingdom be entirely ruined, the Lord-Lieutenant and Lords Justices must have their salaries. My Lords the Bishops, whose lands are set at a fourth part value, will be sure of their rents and their fines. My Lords the Judges and those of other employments in the country must likewise have their salaries. The gentlemen of the revenue will pay themselves, and as to the officers of the army, the consequence of not paying them is obvious enough. Nay, so far will those persons I have already mentioned be from suffering, that, on the contrary, their revenues being no way lessened by the fall of money, and the price of all commodities considerably sunk thereby, they must be great gainers. Therefore, Gentlemen, I do entreat you that as long as you live, you will look on all persons who are for lowering the gold, or any other coin, as no friends to this poor kingdom, but such, who find their private account in what will be detrimental to Ireland. And as the absentees are, in the strongest view, our greatest enemies, first by consuming above one-half of the rents of this nation abroad, and secondly by turning the weight, by their absence, so much on the Popish side, by weakening the Protestant interest, can there be a greater folly than to pave a bridge of gold at your own expense, to support them in their luxury and vanity abroad, while hundreds of thousands are starving at home for want of employment.
     
     

MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.