Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/424



T has been a general complaint, that the poorhouse (especially since the new constitution by act of parliament) has been of no benefit to this city, for the ease of which it was wholly intended. I had the honour to be a member of it many years before it was new modelled by the legislature; not from any personal regard, but merely as one of the two deans, who are of course put into most commissions that relate to the city; and I have likewise the honour to have been left out of several commissions upon the score of party, in which my predecessors time out of mind have always been members.

The first commission was made up of about fifty persons, which were, the lord mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs, and some few other citizens; the judges, the two archbishops, the two deans of the city, and one or