Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/55

Rh no mention made where the paper was printed; but I suppose it to have been in Dublin: and I have been told, that the copy did not come over in the Gazette, but in the London Journal, or some other print of no authority or consequence. And for any thing that legally appears to the contrary, it may be a contrivance to fright us; or a project of some printer, who has a mind to make a penny by publishing something upon a subject which now employs all our thoughts in this kingdom. Mr. Wood, in publishing this paper, would insinuate to the world, as if the committee had a greater concern for his credit, and private emolument, than for the honour of the privy-council, and both houses of parliament here, and for the quiet and welfare of this whole kingdom; for it seems intended as a vindication of Mr. Wood, not without several severe reflections on the houses of lords and commons of Ireland.

The whole is indeed written with the turn and air of a pamphlet; as if it were a dispute between William Wood on the one part, and the lords justices, privy-council, and both houses of parliament on the other: the design of it being to clear William Wood, and to charge the other side with casting rash and groundless aspersions upon him.

But if it be really what the title imports, Mr. Wood has treated the committee with great rudeness, by publishing an act of theirs in so unbecoming a manner, without their leave, and before it was communicated to the government and privycouncil of Ireland; to whom the committee advised that it should be transmitted. But, with all deference be it spoken, I do not conceive that a report of