Ireland, and the Great Benefits which accrue to England
thereby; with some hints for the further improvement of the same."
Dublin, second edition, 1729. Reprinted in Thom's "Tracts and Treatises
of Ireland," 1861, vol. ii. [T. S]

[129] A reference to Alberoni's expedition in aid of the Jacobites made
several years before Swift wrote. [T. S.]

[130] Sir W. Petty gives the population of Ireland as about one million,
two hundred thousand ("Pol. Arithmetic," 1699). [T. S.]

[131] This is probably a Swiftian plausibility to give an air of truth
to his remarks. Certain parts of America were at that time reputed to be
inhabited by cannibals. [T. S.]

[132] This anecdote is taken from the Description of the Island of
Formosa by that very extraordinary impostor George Psalmanazar, who for
some time passed himself for a native of that distant country. He
afterwards published a retractation of his figments, with many
expressions of contrition, but containing certain very natural
indications of dislike to those who had detected him. The passage
referred to in the text is as follows: "We also eat human flesh, which
I am now convinced is a very barbarous custom, though we feed only upon
our open enemies, slain or made captive in the field, or else upon
malefactors legally executed; the flesh of the latter is our greatest
dainty, and is four times dearer than other rare and delicious meat. We
buy it of the executioner, for the bodies of all public capital
offenders are his fees. As soon as the criminal is dead, he cuts the
body in pieces, squeezes out the blood, and makes his house a shambles
for the flesh of men and women, where all people that can afford it come
and buy. I remember, about ten years ago, a tall, well-complexioned,
pretty fat virgin, about nineteen years of age, and tire-woman to the
queen, was found guilty of high treason, for designing to poison the
king; and accordingly she was condemned to suffer the most cruel death
that could be invented, and her sentence was, to be nailed to a cross,
and kept alive as long as possible. The sentence was put in execution;
when she fainted with the cruel torment, the hangman gave her strong
liquors, &c. to revive her; the sixth day she died. Her long sufferings,
youth, and good constitution, made her flesh so tender, delicious, and
valuable, that the executioner sold it for above eight tallies; for
there was such thronging to this inhuman market, that men of great
fashion tho