Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T22:27:21.731Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An Answer to a Paper, Called A Memorial of the Poor Inhabitants, Tradesmen and Labourers of the Kingdom of Ireland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2021

David Hayton
Affiliation:
Queen's University Belfast
Adam Rounce
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
Get access

Summary

Headnote

Composed March 1728 (dated 25 March); published March 1728; copy text 1728 (see Textual Account).

This is a product of the reaction to A Short View of the State of Ireland; after its publication in March 1728, Swift received a short pamphlet, To the R—d Dr. J—n S—t, The Memorial of the Poor Inhabitants, Tradesmen, and Labourers of the Kingdom of Ireland (see Appendix A, below), usually attributed to John Browne. The Answer to a Paper, Swift's refutation of the pamphlet's assertions, is dated less than a week after the publication of A Short View, and it was published quickly, appearing in Dublin only a few days later (see Ferguson, pp. 151–2).

The related rising price of corn after two bad harvests, complaints ofmonopolies and profiteering, and the issue of whether Ireland could feed itself, led to Swift recommending (as other writers were to do, and Parliament was to pick up on during the following session) the need to increase the amount of land in Ireland under tillage.

In the parliamentary session of 1727–8, two bills were brought forward to promote tillage: the first was rejected by the British privy council; the second eventually received the royal assent as I Geo. II c. 10 inMay 1728. The tillage bill was part of a broader concern with regulating the market in corn. A separate Act was passed for regulating the assize of bread, enacted 1728 (I Geo. II c. 16). The tillage bill was much solicited by Archbishop Boulter (see his letter to Newcastle, 24 Feb. 1727[/8] Boulter Letters, vol. I, p. 177)). Swift also comments on the monopolising of land by graziers to the detriment of the ordinary cottier and labourer. The context of this particular agricultural problem begins with the passage by the Irish Parliament in 1704 of an Act (II Anne c. 15) to prevent butchers becoming graziers, in an attempt to halt the process by which land in certain parts of Ireland was increasingly being let to large-scale graziers.

Type
Chapter
Information
Irish Political Writings after 1725
A Modest Proposal and Other Works
, pp. 27 - 39
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×