Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/181

Rh coining even gold and silver, is possessed by every petty prince abroad; and was always practised by Scotland to the very time of the union: yet surely Scotland, as to soil, climate, and extent, is not in itself a fourth part the value of Ireland, for bishop Burnet says, it is not above the fortieth part in value to the rest of Britain; and with respect to the profit that England gains from hence, not the forty thousandth part. Although I must confess, that a mote in the eye, or a thorn in the side, is more dangerous and painful, than a beam or a spike at a distance.

The histories of England, and of most other countries, abound in relating the miserable, and sometimes the most tragical effects from the abuses of coin by debasing the metal, by lessening or enhancing the value upon occasions, to the publick loss; of which we have an example within our own memory in England, and another very lately in France. It is the tenderest point of government, affecting every individual in the highest degree. When the value of money is arbitrary or unsettled, no man can well be said to have any property at all; nor is any wound so suddenly felt, so hardly cured, or that leaves such deep and lasting scars behind it.

I conceive this poor unhappy island to have a title to some indulgence from England; not only upon the score of Christianity, natural equity, and the general rights of mankind, but chiefly on account of that immense profit they receive from us; without which, that kingdom would make a very different figure in Europe, from what it does at present.

The rents of land in Ireland, since they have been of late so enormously raised and screwed up, may be