s the common luxury of every chambermaid, sempstress,
and tradesman's wife, both in town and country, however they come by it,
must needs cost the kingdom double that sum. Coffee is somewhere above
seven thousand pounds. I have seen no account of the chocolate, and some
other Indian or American goods. The drapery imported is about
four-and-twenty thousand pounds. The whole amounts (with one or two
other particulars) to one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The
lavishing of all which money is just as prudent and necessary, as to see
a man in an embroidered coat, begging out of Newgate in an old shoe.

I allow that the thrown and raw silk is less pernicious, because we have
some share in the manufacture: but we are not now in circumstances to
trifle. It costs us above forty thousand pounds a-year; and if the
ladies, till better times, will not be content to go in their own
country shifts, I wish they may go in rags.

Let them vie with each other in the fineness of their native linen:
their beauty and gentleness will as well appear, as if they were covered
over with diamonds and brocade.

I believe no man is so weak, as to hope or expect that such a
reformation can be brought about by a law. But a thorough hearty,
unanimous vote, in both houses of Parliament, might perhaps answer as
well: every senator, noble or plebeian, giving his honour, that neither
himself, nor any of his family, would, in their dress, or furniture of
their houses, make use of anything except what was of the growth and
manufacture of this kingdom; and that they would use the utmost of their
power, influence, and credit, to prevail on their tenants, dependants,
and friends, to follow their example.

A

MODEST PROPOSAL

FOR PREVENTING THE CHILDREN OF POOR PEOPLE

FROM BEING A BURTHEN TO THEIR PARENTS

OR COUNTRY, AND FOR MAKING THEM BENEFICIAL

TO THE PUBLIC.

NOTE.

Perhaps in no literature is there to be found a piece of writing in
any sense comparable to this "Modest Proposal." Written,
apparently, in a light and comic vein, it might deceive the casual
reader into the belief that Swift had achieved a joke. It has the
air of a smiling and indifferent _raconteur_ amusing an
after-dinner table. In truth, however, this piece of writing is a
terrible indictment made by an advocate speaking against the result
of a tyranny of power which, through wicked stupidity or complacent
i