S.]

[4] Colonel John Birch (1616-1691) was of Lancashire. Swift calls him
"of Herefordshire," because he had been appointed governor of the city
of Hereford, after he had captured it by a stratagem, in 1654. Devotedly
attached to Presbyterian principles, Birch was a man of shrewd business
abilities and remarkable oratorical gifts. On the restoration of Charles
II., in which he took a prominent part on account of Charles's
championship of Presbyterianism, Birch held important business posts. He
sat in parliament for Leominster and Penrhyn, and his plans for the
rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, though they were not adopted,
were yet such as would have been extremely salutary had they been
accepted. Of his eloquence, Burnet says: "He was the roughest and
boldest speaker in the house, and talked in the language and phrases of
a carrier, but with a beauty and eloquence, that was always acceptable."
The reference to the carrier is purposely made, since Birch did not hide
the fact that he had once pursued that occupation. Swift was twenty-four
years of age when Birch died, so that he must have been a very young man
when he heard Birch make the remark he quotes. [T. S.]

[5] Sir Thomas Littleton (1647?-1710) was chosen Speaker of the English
House of Commons by the junto in 1698. Onslow, in a note to Burnet's
"History," speaks of the good work he did as treasurer of the navy.
Macky describes him as "a stern-looked man, with a brown complexion,
well shaped" (see "Characters"). At the time of Swift's writing the
above letter, Littleton was member for Portsmouth. [T. S.]

[6] Viscount Molesworth, in his "Considerations for promoting the
Agriculture of Ireland" (1723), pointed out, that even with the added
expense of freight, it was cheaper to import corn from England, than to
grow it in Ireland itself. [T. S.]

[7] Mr. Lecky points out that in England, after the Revolution, the
councils were directed by commercial influence. At that time there was
an important woollen industry in England which, it was feared, the
growing Irish woollen manufactures would injure. The English
manufacturers petitioned for their total destruction, and the House of
Lords, in response to the petition, represented to the King that "the
growing manufacture of cloth in Ireland, both by the cheapness of all
sorts of necessaries of life, and goodness of materials for making all
manner of cloth, doth invite your subjects of England, with their
f