Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/354

344 a twelvemonth; and, for aught I know, are not yet discharged.

This is our case; insomuch, that although I am often without money in my pocket, I dare not own it in some company, for fear of being thought disaffected.

But, since I am determined to take care that the author of this paper shall not be discovered, (following herein the most prudent practice of the drapier) I will venture to affirm, that the three seasons wherein our corn has miscarried, did no more contribute to our present misery, than one spoonful of water thrown upon a rat already drowned, would contribute to his death: and that the present plentiful harvest, although it should be followed by a dozen ensuing, would no more restore us, than it would the rat aforesaid, to put him near the fire, which might indeed warm his fur coat, but never bring him back to life.

The short of the matter is this: The distresses of the kingdom are operating more and more every day, by very large degrees, and so have been doing for above a dozen years past.

If you demand whence these distresses have arisen, I desire to ask the following question:

If two thirds of any kingdom's revenue be exported to another country, without one farthing of value in return; and if the said kingdom be forbidden the most profitable branches of trade wherein to employ the other third, and only allowed to traffick in importing those commodities which are most ruinous to itself; how shall that kingdom stand?

If this question were formed into the first tion