Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/260

224 was set on foot, to complete the slavery and destruction of a poor innocent country: is it, was it, can it, or will it ever be a question, not whether such a kingdom, or William Wood should be a gainer, but whether such a kingdom should be wholly undone, destroyed, sunk, depopulated, made a scene of misery and desolation, for the sake of William Wood? God of his infinite mercy avert this dreadful judgment; and it is our universal wish, that God would put it into your hearts, to be his instrument for so good a work.

"For my own part, who am but one man, of obscure condition, I do solemnly declare, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will suffer the most ignominious and torturing death, rather than submit to receive this accursed coin, or any other that shall be liable to the same objections, until they shall be forced upon me by a law of my own country; and if that shall ever happen, I will transport myself into some foreign land, and eat the bread of poverty among a free people.

"The great ignominy of a whole kingdom's lying so long at mercy under so vile an adversary, is such a deplorable aggravation, that the utmost expressions of shame and rage are too low to set it forth, and therefore I shall leave it to receive such a resentment, as is worthy of a parliament."

Upon the first tidings of the patent's being passed in so extraordinary a manner, Swift took up the pen, and under the feigned character of M. B. drapier, represented all the fatal consequences that would necessarily attend the carrying of it into execution, in