Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/374

364 men of spirit, who desire and expect, and think they deserve the common privileges of human nature, would be of more force than any you have yet named, to drive them out of this kingdom. But, as these speculations may probably not much affect the brains of your people, I shall choose to let them pass unmentioned. Yet, I cannot but observe, that my very good and virtuous friend, his excellency Burnet (O fili, nec tali indigne parente!) has not hitherto been able to persuade his vassals, by his oratory in the style of a commander, to settle a revenue on his viceroyal person. I have been likewise assured, that in one of those colonies on the continent, which nature has so far favoured, as (by the industry of the inhabitants) to produce a great quantity of excellent rice, the stubborn people, having been told that the world was wide, took it into their heads that they might sell their own rice at whatever foreign market they pleased, and seem, by their practice, very unwilling to quit that opinion.

But, to return to my subject: I must confess to you both, that if one reason of your people's deserting us, be, the despair of things growing better in their own country, I have not one syllable to answer; because that would be to hope for what is impossible; and so I have been telling the publick these ten years. For there are three events which must precede any such blessing: First, A liberty of trade; secondly, A share of preferments in all kinds, equal to the British natives; and thirdly, A return of those absentees, who take away almost one half of