Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/81

Rh I shall continue in all humility to exhort and warn my fellow-subjects, never to receive or utter this coin, which will reduce the kingdom to beggary, by much quicker and larger steps, than have hitherto been taken.

But it is needless to argue any longer. The matter is come to an issue. His majesty, pursuant to the law, has left the field open between Wood and the kingdom of Ireland. Wood has liberty to offer his coin, and we have law, reason, liberty, and necessity to refuse it. A knavish jockey may ride an old foundered jade about the market, but none are obliged to buy it. I hope the words voluntary, and willing to receive it, will be understood and applied in their true natural meaning, as commonly understood by protestants. For, if a fierce captain comes to my shop to buy six yards of scarlet cloth, followed by a porter laden with a sack of Wood's coin upon his shoulders; if we are agreed about the price, and my scarlet lies ready cut upon the compter; if he then gives me the word of command to receive my money in Wood's coin, and calls me a disaffected, jacobite dog, for refusing it (although I am as loyal a subject as himself, and without hire) and thereupon seizes my cloth, leaving me the price in this odious copper, and bids me take my remedy: in this case I shall hardly be brought to think, that I am left to my own will. I shall therefore on such occasions first order the porter aforesaid to go off with his pack; and then see the money in silver and gold in my possession, before I cut or measure my cloth. But, if a common soldier drinks his pot first, and then offers payment in Wood's halfpence, the landlady may Rh