Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/258

222 through the kingdom, are all together laid aside, as of no weight, consequence, or consideration whatsoever, and the whole kingdom of Ireland nonsuited in default of appearance; as if it were a private cause between John Doe, plaintiff, and Richard Roe, defendant.

"With great respect to those honourable persons, the committee of council in London, I have not understood them to be our governors, counsellors, or judges. Neither did our case turn at all upon the question, whether Ireland wanted halfpence: for there is no doubt but we do want both halfpence, gold, and silver; and we have numberless other wants, and some that we are not so much as allowed to name, although they are peculiar to this nation; to which, no other is subject, whom God hath blessed with religion and laws, or any degree of soil and sunshine: but for what demerits on our side, I am altogether in the dark.

"But I do not remember that our want of halfpence, was either affirmed or denied, in any of our addresses, or declarations against those of Wood. We alleged the fraudulent obtaining and executing of his patent; the baseness of his metal; and the prodigious sum to be coined, which might be increased by stealth, from foreign importation, and his own counterfeits, as well as those at home; whereby we must infallibly lose all our little gold and silver, and all our poor remainder of a very limited and discouraged trade. We urged that the patent was passed without the least reference hither; and without mention of any security given by Wood to receive his own halfpence upon demand, " both