Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/302

296 And we farther hope, that frequent funerals will not be discouraged, as it is by this bill proposed, it being the only method left of carrying some people to church.

We are afraid, that, by the hardships of this bill our company will be reduced to leave their business here, and practice at York and Bristol, where the free use of bad medicines will be still allowed.

It is therefore hoped, that no specious pretence whatsoever will be thought sufficient to introduce an arbitrary and unlimited power for people to live (in defiance of art) as long as they can by the course of nature, to the prejudice of our company and the decay of trade.

That as our company are likely to suffer, in some measure, by the power given to physicians to dissect the bodies of malefactors, we humbly hope, that the manufacture of cases for skeletons will be reserved solely to the coffin makers.

We likewise humbly presume, that the interest of the several trades and professions, which depend upon ours, may be regarded; such as that of herses, coaches, coffins, epitaphs, and bell-ropes, stonecutters, feathermen, and bell-ringers; and especially the manufacturers of crapes; and the makers of snuff; who use great quantities of old coffins, and who, considered in the consumption of their drugs, employ by far the greatest number of hands of any manufacture of the kingdom.