hing of the kind. This is what he did say: "I heard the
late Archbishop of Tuam mention a pleasant observation of somebody's
that 'Ireland would never be happy until a law were made for burning
everything that came from England, except their people and their
coals.' I must confess that, as to the former, I should not be sorry
if they would stay at home, and, for the latter, I hope in a little
time we shall have no occasion for them." Swift was not an Irish
patriot; he was not, indeed, an Irishman at all, except by the accident
of birth, and now by the accident of residence. He did not love the
country; he would not have lived there a week if he could. He had no
affection for the people, and, at first, very little sympathy with
them. He was always angry if anybody regarded him as an Irishman. His
friends were all found among what may be described as the English and
Protestant colony in Ireland. He felt towards the native Irish--the
Irish Catholics--very much as the official of an English Government
might feel towards some savage tribe whom he had been sent out to
govern. But at the same time it is an entire mistake to represent
Swift as insincere in the efforts which he made to ameliorate the
condition of the Irish people, and to redress some of the gross wrongs
which he saw inflicted on them. The administrator of whom we have
already spoken might have gone out to the savage country with nothing
but contempt for its wild natives, but if he were at all a humane and a
just man, it would be natural for him as time went on to feel keenly if
any injustice were inflicted on the poor creatures whom he despised,
and at last to stand up {244} with indignation as their defender and
their champion. So it was with Swift. [Sidenote: 1724--The drapier's
arguments] Little as he liked the Irish people in the beginning, yet he
had a temper and a spirit which made him intolerant of injustice and
oppression. That fierce indignation described by himself, and of which
such store was always laid up in his heart, was roused to its highest
point of heat by the sight of the miseries of the Irish people and of
the frequent acts of neglect and injustice by which their misery was
deepened. He felt the most sincere resentment at the arbitrary manner
in which the Government in London were dealing with Ireland in the
matter of Wood's patent and Wood's copper coin. Swift, of course, knew
well by what influence the patent had been obtained,