ught themselves fortunate if they could purchase a pound or
two of it." Lond. 1705, p. 112. [S.]

[133] The English government had been making concessions to the
Dissenters, and, of course, Swift satirically alludes here to the
arguments used by the government in the steps they had taken. But the
truth of the matter, Swift hints, was, that those who desired to abolish
the test were more anxious for their pockets than their consciences.
[T. S.]

[134] The inhabitants of a district of Brazil supposed to be savages,
making the name synonymous with savage ignorance. [T. S.]

[135]

"Remove me from this land of slaves,
Where all are fools, and all are knaves,
Where every fool and knave is bought,
Yet kindly sells himself for nought."

(_From Swift's note-book, written while detained at Holyhead in
September, 1727._) [T. S.]

[136] All these are proposals advocated, of course, by Swift himself, in
previous pamphlets and papers. [T. S.]

[137] So that there would be no danger of an objection from England that
the English were suffering from Irish competition. [T. S.]

[138] This was the celebrated periodical founded by Pulteney, after he
had separated himself from Walpole, to which Bolingbroke contributed his
famous letters of an Occasional Writer. The journal carried on a
political war against Walpole's administration, and endeavoured to bring
about the establishment of a new party, to consist of Tories and the
Whigs who could not agree with Walpole's methods. Caleb D'Anvers was a
mere name for a Grub Street hack who was supposed to be the writer. But
Walpole had no difficulty in recognizing the hand of Bolingbroke, and
his reply to the first number of the Occasional Writer made Bolingbroke
wince. [T. S.]

[139] The "Modest Proposal." See page 207. [T. S.]

[140] Referring to the silks, laces, and dress of the extravagant women.
See pp. 139, 198, 199. [T. S.]

[141] The chief source of income in Ireland came from the pasture lands
on which cattle were bred. The cattle were imported to England. The
English landlords, however, taking alarm, discovered to the Crown that
this importation of Irish cattle was lowering English rents. Two Acts
passed in 1665 and 1680 fully met the wishes of the landlords, and
ruined absolutely the Irish cattle trade. Prevented thus from breeding
cattle, the Irish turned to the breeding of sheep, and established, in a
very short time, an excellent trade in wool. How England ruin