th or stuff, should be obliged to refund the
money; and if the seller refused to repay them, and take his goods
again, should publicly advertise that they would answer for none of his
goods any more. This would be to establish credit, upon which all trade
dependeth.

I proposed this scheme several times to the corporation of weavers, as
well as to the manufacturers, when they came to apply for my advice at
the Deanery-house. I likewise went to the shops of several
woollen-drapers upon the same errand, but always in vain; for they
perpetually gave me the deaf ear, and avoided entering into discourse
upon that proposal: I suppose, because they thought it was in vain, and
that the spirit of fraud had gotten too deep and universal a possession
to be driven out by any arguments from interest, reason, or conscience.

THE

PRESENT MISERABLE STATE

OF

IRELAND.

NOTE.

The following tract was taken by Sir Walter Scott "from a little
miscellaneous 12mo volume of pamphlets, communicated by Mr.
Hartsonge, relating chiefly to Irish affairs, the property at one
time of Thomas Kingsbury, Esq., son of Dr. Kingsbury, who attended
Swift in his last illness." The present editor came across a
similar volume while on a visit of research in Dublin, among the
collection of books which belonged to the late Sir W. Gilbert, and
which were being catalogued for auction by the bookseller, Mr.
O'Donoghue. The little 12mo contained this tract which had, as Sir
W. Scott points out, a portrait of Swift at the end, on the recto
of the last leaf.

According to Sir W. Scott, the friend in Dublin to whom the letter
is supposed to be addressed, was Sir Robert Walpole. If Scott be
correct, and there seems little reason to doubt his conjecture, the
tract must have been written in the second half of the year 1726.
In the early part of that year Swift had an interview with Walpole.
Our knowledge of what transpired at that interview is obtained from
Swift's letter of April 28th, 1726, to Lord Peterborough; from
Swift's letter to Dr. Stopford of July 20th, 1726; from Pope's
letter to Swift of September 3rd, 1726; and from Swift's letter to
Lady Betty Germaine of January 8th, 1732/3. From these letters we
learn that Swift was really invited by Walpole to meet him. Swift's
visit to England concerned itself mainly with the