Headnote

Probably composed 1729; published posthumously, 1765; copy text 1765a (see Textual Account); the footnote that forms part of this text was provided by the editor, Deane Swift.

Hints of the process behind this unfinished essay can be found in a manuscript in the John Rylands Library, Manchester (see Associated Materials I, pp. 324–7). Maxims is usually dated to 1729, not least because of its connection to Swift's other writings of the time (for speculations, see Ferguson, p. 148, and Ehrenpreis, vol. III, p. 575). Swift is listing a number of supposedly axiomatic statements concerning the economy, which are inapplicable in Ireland because of the problems of governance and constitution he had previously discussed in other Irish texts of this period. The contemporary idea of using the supposedly incontrovertible maxim as a way of making plain Ireland's anomalous plight can be seen in pamphlets such as Remarks on some Maxims, Peculiar to the Ancient, as well asModern Inhabitants of Ireland. With a Seasonable Hint to G Bn about the Woollen trade, Dublin, 1730, otherwise unconnected to Swift, and signed by ‘Hibernicus’, following the pseudonym adopted by James Arbuckle in his influential letters in the Dublin Journal.

MAXIMS CONTROLLED IN IRELAND.

The Truth of some Maxims in State and Government, examined with reference to Ireland.

There are certainMaxims of State, founded upon long observation and experience, drawn from the constant practice of the wisest nations, and from the very principles of government, nor ever controlled by any writer upon politics. Yet all these Maxims do necessarily presuppose a kingdom, or commonwealth, to have the same natural rights common to the rest of mankind who have entered into civil society. For, if we could conceive a nation where each of the inhabitants had but one eye, one leg, and one hand, it is plain that, before you could institute them into a republic, an allowance must be made for those material defects, wherein they differed from other mortals. Or, imagine a legislator forming a system for the government of Bedlam, and, proceeding upon the maxim that man is a sociable animal, should draw them out of their cells, and form them into corporations or general assemblies; the consequence might probably be, that they would fall foul on each other, or burn the house over their own heads.