Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/219



RECEIVED a paper from you, whoever you are, printed without any name of author or printer; and sent, I suppose, to me among others without any particular distinction. It contains a complaint of the dearness of corn; and some schemes for making it cheaper, which I cannot approve of.

But pray permit me, before I go farther, to give you a short history of the steps by which we arrived at this hopeful situation.

It was indeed the shameful practice of too many Irish farmers, to wear out their ground with ploughing; while, either through poverty, laziness, or ignorance, they neither took care to manure it as they ought, nor gave time to any part of the land to . IX.