TO THE HONOURABLE HOUSE OF COMMONS, &c.

     
      The Humble Petition of the Footmen in and about the City of Dublin.
     
     
           NOTE.
     
           Swift may have written the following mock petition by way of satire
     against the many absurd petitions which were presented at the time
     to the Irish House of Commons, and of which two examples were
     quoted in the note to a previous tract. If coal-porters and
     hackney-coachmen might address the Honourable House, why not
     footmen?
             * * * * *
           The present text is based on that found at the end of Swift's
     “Serious and Useful Scheme to make an Hospital for Incurables,”
     issued by George Faulkner in 1733. Faulkner reprinted this volume
     in 1734.
           [T. S.]