Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/73

Rh the people of England enjoy by common law, we of Ireland have the same; so that, in my humble opinion, the word Ireland standing in that proposition, was, in the mildest interpretation, a lapse of the pen.

The report farther asserts, that the precedents are many, wherein cases of great importance to Ireland, and which immediately affected the interests of that kingdom, such as warrants, orders, and directions by the authority of the king and his predecessors, have been issued under the royal sign manual, without any previous reference or advice of his majesty's officers of Ireland, which have always had their due force, and have been punctually complied with and obeyed. It may be so, and I am heartily sorry for it; because it may prove an eternal source of discontent. However, among all these precedents, there is not one of a patent for coining money for Ireland.

There is nothing has perplexed me more than this doctrine of precedents. If a job is to be done, and upon searching records you find it has been done before, there will not want a lawyer to justify the legality of it by producing his precedents, without ever considering the motives and circumstances that first introduced them; the necessity, or turbulence, or iniquity of times; the corruptions of ministers, or the arbitrary disposition of the prince then reigning. And I have been told by persons eminent in the law, that the worst actions which human nature is capable of, may be justified by the same doctrine. How the first precedents began of determining cases of the highest importance to Ireland, and immediately affecting its interests, without