Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/379

Rh or retire to some cheap, distant part of the country, where necessaries are at half value?

Is there any mortal who can show me, under ths circumstances we stand with our neighbours, under their inclinations towards us, under laws never to be repealed, under the desolation caused by absentees, under many other circumstances not to be mentioned, that this kingdom can ever be a nation of trade, or subsist by any other method than that of a reduced family, by the utmost parsimony, in the manner I have already prescribed?

I am tired with letters from many unreasonable well meaning people, who are daily pressing me to deliver my thoughts in this deplorable juncture; which, upon many others, I have so often done in vain. What will it import, that half a score people in a coffeehouse, may happen to read this paper, and even the majority of those few, differ in every sentiment from me? If the farmer be not allowed to sow his corn, if half the little money among us be sent to pay rents to Irish absentees, and the rest for foreign luxury and dress for the women, what will our charitable dispositions avail, when there is nothing left to be given? when, contrary to all custom and example, all necessaries of life are so exorbitant, when money of all kinds was never known to be so scarce; so that gentlemen of no contemptible estates, are forced to retrench in every article (except what relates to their wives) without being able to show any bounty to the poor? . IX.