Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/179

Rh kingdom, where the passage is not of three hours from Britain, and a kingdom where papists have less power and less land than in England? can it be denied, or doubted, that his majesty's ministers understood and proposed the same end, the good of this nation, when they advised the passing of this patent? can the person of Wood be otherwise regarded, than as the instrument, the mechanick, the head workman, to prepare his furnace, his fuel, his metal, and his stamps? if I employ a shoeboy, is it in view to his advantage, or to my own convenience? I mention the person of William Wood alone; because no other appears, and we are not to reason upon surmises; neither would it avail, if they had a real foundation.

Allowing therefore (for we cannot do less) that this patent for the coining of halfpence was wholly intended by a gracious king, and a wise publick-spirited ministry, for the advantage of Ireland; yet when the whole kingdom to a man, for whose good the patent was designed, do, upon maturest consideration, universally join in openly declaring, protesting, addressing, petitioning against these halfpence, as the most ruinous project that ever 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