NOTE.
Perhaps in no literature is there to be found a piece of
writing in
any sense comparable to this “Modest Proposal.” Written,
apparently, in a light and comic vein, it might deceive the
casual
reader into the belief that Swift had achieved a joke. It has
the
air of a smiling and indifferent raconteur amusing an
after-dinner table. In truth, however, this piece of writing
is a
terrible indictment made by an advocate speaking against the
result
of a tyranny of power which, through wicked stupidity or
complacent
indifference, had afflicted a people almost to extinction. The
restraint of the writer evinced in this tract, is the more
remarkable, when we remember that he was Ireland's foremost
patriot, that he had been her champion for liberty and
independence, and that an indignation filled him at all times,
lacerating his heart, against the cruelty and oppression and
wretchedness of humanity generally. Here, he sits down and
writes
as calmly as if composing an ordinary sermon, and proposes, in
cold
blood, to alleviate the poverty of the Irish people by the
sale of
their children as table food for the rich. He even goes into
calculations as to cost of breeding, and shows how a mother
might
earn eight shillings a year on each child, by disposing of its
carcass for ten shillings. Of the million and a half people
who
inhabit the country, he assumes that there are 200,000 who
beget
children; of these about 30,000 are able to provide for their
offspring, but the balance of 170,000 must inevitably become a
burden. What is to become of them? Many schemes have been
proposed
to meet their case, but not one of them has answered. Trade
and
agriculture gave them no opportunity, since the trade of the
country was almost at a standstill, and land was now either
too
dear to keep or too poor to cultivate. At the time of Swift's
writing Ireland had passed through three frightful years of
famine.
Corn had become so dear that riots occurred at the ports where
what
corn remained was being exported. The land, as Swift wrote to
Pope
(August 11th, 1729) was in every place strewn with beggars.
The
poor labourer, had work been found for him, was too weak in
body to
undertake it. Thousands had already died of starvation and the
diseases consequent on hunger. Those that managed to exist did
so
in filth, and dying every day, as Swift wrote on another
occasion,
“and rotting, by cold and famine, and filth and vermin.”
No, there was only one way out of the difficulty, and that was
to
have these poor people breed children, which they could
profitably
dispose of for food. Let them fatten their offspring as best
they
could and sell them dead or alive for cooking. The irony of
the
proposition may sound appalling to us in this century, but
Swift
was not exaggerating the distress of his day. Even Primate
Boulter,
who was certainly the last man to overstate an Irish case,
sent
such reports as gave the English Government anxiety. To Swift
it
was no time for polite speeches and calm proposals. He had
already
given them in abundance. Now was the time for something merry
and
with laughter:
“I may storm and rage in vain;
It but stupifies your brain.
But with raillery to nettle,
Set your thoughts upon their mettle.”
It was in this spirit that the “Modest Proposal” was written.
Swift
concludes with a final touch by telling us that he has nothing
to
gain personally by his suggestion, since his “youngest child
is
nine and his wife past child-bearing.”
* * * * *
The text of the present edition is that of the original issue
collated with that given by Faulkner.
[T. S.]
A MODEST
PROPOSAL
For preventing the
CHILDREN
OF
POOR PEOPLE
From ~being a Burthen~ to
Their Parents or Country,
AND
For making them Beneficial to the
PUBLICK.
* * * * *
By Dr. Swift.
* * * * *
Dublin, Printed by S. Harding:
London, Reprinted; and sold by J. Roberts in
Warwick-lane, and the Pamphlet-Shops.
M.DCC.XXIX.
A MODEST PROPOSAL
FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE FROM BEING A BURTHEN TO
THEIR PARENTS OR COUNTRY, AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL TO THE PUBLIC.
It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great
town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads,
and cabin-doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by
three, four, or six children, all in rags, and importuning every
passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of being able to work for
their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in
strolling, to beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who, as they
grow up, either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear
Native Country to fight for the Pretender in Spain,[129] or sell
themselves to the Barbadoes.
I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of
children, in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their
mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable
state of the kingdom, a very great additional grievance; and therefore
whoever could find out a fair, cheap and easy method of making these
children sound useful members of the commonwealth would deserve so well
of the public, as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the
nation.
But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for
the children of professed beggars, it is of a much greater extent, and
shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age, who are
born of parents in effect as little able to support them, as those who
demand our charity in the streets.
As to my own part, having turned my thoughts, for many years, upon
this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of
other projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in their
computation. It is true a child, just dropped from its dam, may be
supported by her milk for a solar year with little other nourishment,
at most not above the value of two shillings, which the mother may
certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of
begging, and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide
for them, in such a manner, as, instead of being a charge upon their
parents, or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of
their lives, they shall, on the contrary, contribute to the feeding and
partly to the clothing of many thousands.
There as likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will
prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women
murdering their bastard children, alas, too frequent among us,
sacrificing the poor innocent babes, I doubt, more to avoid the
expense, than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most
savage and inhuman breast.
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one
million and a half,[130] of these I calculate there may be about two
hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders, from which number I
subtract thirty thousand couples, who are able to maintain their own
children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many under the
present distresses of the kingdom, but this being granted, there will
remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty
thousand for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by
accident, or disease within the year. There only remain an hundred and
twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born: The question
therefore is, how this number shall be reared, and provided for, which,
as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is
utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed, for we can
neither employ them in handicraft, or agriculture; we neither build
houses, (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they can very
seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing till they arrive at six years
old, except where they are of towardly parts, although, I confess they
learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can however
be properly looked upon only as probationers, as I have been
informed by a principal gentleman in the County of Cavan, who protested
to me, that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of
six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest
proficiency in that art.
I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl, before twelve
years old, is no saleable commodity, and even when they come to this
age, they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and
half-a-crown at most on the Exchange, which cannot turn to account
either to the parents or the kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags
having been at least four times that value.
I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope
will not be liable to the least objection.
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in
London,[131] that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a
most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed,
roasted, baked, or boiled, and I make no doubt that it will equally
serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.
I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration, that of the
hundred and twenty thousand children, already computed, twenty thousand
may be reserved for breed, whereof only one fourth part to be males,
which is more than we allow to sheep, black-cattle, or swine, and my
reason is that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a
circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will
be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred
thousand may at a year old be offered in sale to the persons of
quality, and fortune, through the kingdom, always advising the mother
to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them
plump, and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an
entertainment for friends, and when the family dines alone, the fore or
hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little
pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially
in winter.
I have reckoned upon a medium, that a child just born will weigh 12
pounds, and in a solar year if tolerably nursed increaseth to 28
pounds.
I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper
for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents,
seem to have the best title to the children.
Infants' flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more
plentiful in March, and a little before and after, for we are told by a
grave author an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolific
diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about
nine months after Lent, than at any other season; therefore reckoning a
year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because
the number of Popish infants, is at least three to one in this kingdom,
and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage by lessening
the number of Papists among us.
I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (in
which list I reckon all cottagers, labourers, and four-fifths of the
farmers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags included, and
I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the
carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said will make four
dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath only some particular
friend, or his own family to dine with him. Thus the Squire will learn
to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants, the mother
will have eight shillings net profit, and be fit for work till she
produces another child.
Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may
flay the carcass; the skin of which, artificially dressed, will make
admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.
As to our City of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this
purpose, in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be
assured will not be wanting, although I rather recommend buying the
children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting
pigs.
A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues
I highly esteem, was lately pleased, in discoursing on this matter, to
offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said, that many gentlemen of this
kingdom, having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the
want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies of young lads and
maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age, nor under twelve, so
great a number of both sexes in every country being now ready to
starve, for want of work and service: and these to be disposed of by
their parents if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But
with due deference to so excellent a friend, and so deserving a
patriot, I cannot be altogether in his sentiments; for as to the males,
my American acquaintance assured me from frequent experience, that
their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our schoolboys,
by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable, and to fatten them
would not answer the charge. Then as to the females, it would, I think
with humble submission, be a loss to the public, because they soon
would become breeders themselves: And besides, it is not improbable
that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice,
(although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering upon cruelty,
which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection
against any project, however so well intended.
But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this expedient
was put into his head by the famous Psalmanazar,[132] a native of the
island Formosa, who came from thence to London, above twenty years ago,
and in conversation told my friend, that in his country when any young
person happened to be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to
persons of quality, as a prime dainty, and that, in his time, the body
of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison
the emperor, was sold to his Imperial Majesty's Prime Minister of
State, and other great Mandarins of the Court, in joints from the
gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny, that if the
same use were made of several plump young girls in this town, who,
without one single groat to their fortunes, cannot stir abroad without
a chair, and appear at the playhouse, and assemblies in foreign
fineries, which they never will pay for, the kingdom would not be the
worse.
Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that
vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed, and I
have been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken, to
ease the nation of so grievous an encumbrance. But I am not in the
least pain upon that matter, because it is very well known, that they
are every day dying, and rotting, by cold, and famine, and filth, and
vermin, as fast as can be reasonably expected. And as to the younger
labourers they are now in almost as hopeful a condition. They cannot
get work, and consequently pine away for want of nourishment, to a
degree, that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common
labour, they have not strength to perform it; and thus the country and
themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come.
I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my subject.
I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious
and many, as well as of the highest importance.
For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the
number of Papists, with whom we are yearly over-run, being the
principal breeders of the nation, as well as our most dangerous
enemies, and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the
kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence
of so many good Protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their
country, than stay at home, and pay tithes against their conscience, to
an Episcopal curate.[133]
Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their
own, which by law may be made liable to distress, and help to pay their
landlord's rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and
money a thing unknown.
Thirdly, Whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand children,
from two years old, and upwards, cannot be computed at less than ten
shillings a piece per annum, the nation's stock will be thereby
increased fifty thousand pounds per annum, besides the profit of
a new dish, introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the
kingdom, who have any refinement in taste, and the money will circulate
among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and
manufacture.
Fourthly, The constant breeders, besides the gain of eight shillings
sterling per annum, by the sale of their children, will be rid
of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.
Fifthly, This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns,
where the vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best
receipts for dressing it to perfection, and consequently have their
houses frequented by all the fine gentlemen, who justly value
themselves upon their knowledge in good eating; and a skilful cook, who
understands how to oblige his guests will contrive to make it as
expensive as they please.
Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage, which all
wise nations have either encouraged by rewards, or enforced by laws and
penalties. It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers toward
their children, when they were sure of a settlement for life, to the
poor babes, provided in some sort by the public to their annual profit
instead of expense. We should see an honest emulation among the married
women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market, men
would become as fond of their wives, during the time of their
pregnancy, as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf,
or sows when they are ready to farrow, nor offer to beat or kick them
(as it is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.
Many other advantages might be enumerated: For instance, the
addition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of barrelled
beef; the propagation of swine's flesh, and improvement in the art of
making good bacon, so much wanted among us by the great destruction of
pigs, too frequent at our tables, which are no way comparable in taste,
or magnificence to a well-grown, fat yearling child, which roasted
whole will make a considerable figure at a Lord Mayor's feast, or any
other public entertainment. But this, and many others I omit being
studious of brevity.
Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant
customers for infants' flesh, besides others who might have it at
merry-meetings, particularly weddings and christenings, I compute that
Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses, and the
rest of the kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper)
the remaining eighty thousand.
I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised
against this proposal, unless it should be urged that the number of
people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own,
and was indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I
desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my remedy for this
one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is,
or, I think, ever can be upon earth. Therefore let no man talk to
me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a
pound: Of using neither clothes, nor household furniture, except what
is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the
materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the
expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: Of
introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Of learning
to love our Country, wherein we differ even from LAPLANDERS, and
the inhabitants of TOPINAMBOO:[134] Of quitting our animosities
and factions, nor act any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one
another at the very moment their city was taken: Of being a little
cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing:[135] Of
teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy toward their
tenants. Lastly of putting a spirit of honesty, industry and skill into
our shopkeepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only
our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in
the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought
to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly
invited to it.[136]
Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like
expedients, till he hath at least some glimpse of hope, that there will
ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them in practice.
But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with
offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly
despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which as
it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no expense
and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no
danger in disobliging ENGLAND. For this kind of commodity will
not bear exportation,[137] the flesh being of too tender a consistence,
to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a
country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.
After all I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion, as to
reject any offer, proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally
innocent, cheap, easy and effectual. But before something of that kind
shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better,
I desire the author, or authors will be pleased maturely to consider
two points. First, as things now stand, how they will be able to find
food and raiment for an hundred thousand useless mouths and backs. And
secondly, there being a round million of creatures in human figure,
throughout this kingdom, whose whole subsistence put into a common
stock, would leave them in debt two millions of pounds sterling adding
those, who are beggars by profession, to the bulk of farmers, cottagers
and labourers with their wives and children, who are beggars in effect.
I desire those politicians, who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be
so bold to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of
these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great
happiness to have been sold for food at a year old, in the manner I
prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of
misfortunes, as they have since gone through, by the oppression of
landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the
want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them
from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect
of entailing the like, or greater miseries upon their breed for ever.
I profess in the sincerity of my heart that I have not the least
personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work,
having no other motive than the public good of my country, by
advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and
giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children, by which I
can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old,
and my wife past child-bearing.