pired merely
by disapproval of the introduction of one hundred and eight thousand
pounds in copper coin, must have very little understanding of Swift's
temper or Swift's purpose, or the condition of the times in which Swift
lived. "I will shoot Mr. Wood and his deputies through the head, like
highwaymen or house-breakers, if they dare to force one farthing of
their coin on me in the payment of a hundred pounds. It is no loss of
honor to submit to the lion, but who in the figure of a man can think
with patience of being devoured alive by a rat?" . . . "If the famous
Mr. Hampden rather chose to go to prison than pay a few shillings to
King Charles I., without authority of Parliament, I will {247} rather
choose to be hanged than have all my substance taxed at seventeen
shillings in the pound, at the arbitrary will and pleasure of the
venerable Mr. Wood." Mr. Gladstone, perhaps, did not observe this
allusion to "the famous Mr. Hampden." If he had done so, he would have
better understood the inspiration of the "Drapier's Letters." Mr.
Hampden was not so ignorant a man as to believe that the mere
collection of the ship-money--the mere withdrawal of so much money from
the pockets of certain tax-payers--would really ruin the trade and
imperil the national existence of England. What Mr. Hampden objected
to, and would have resisted to the death, was the unconstitutional and
despotic system which the levy of the ship-money represented. The
American colonists did not rise in rebellion against the Government of
George III. merely because they had eaten of the insane root, and
fancied that a trifling tax upon tea would destroy the trade of Boston
and New York. They rose in arms against the principle represented by
the imposition of the tax. We can all understand why there should have
been a national rebellion against ship-money, and a national rebellion
against a trumpery duty on tea, but English writers and English public
men seem quite unable to explain the national outcry against Wood's
patent, except on the theory that a clever writer, pouring forth
captivating nonsense, bewitched the Irish Parliament and the Irish
people, and sent them out of their senses for a season.

Swift followed up his first letter by others in rapid succession. Lord
Carteret arrived in Ireland when the agitation was at its height. He
issued a proclamation against the "Drapier's Letters," offered a reward
of three hundred pounds for the discover