nted that its charter would be
repealed, and Ireland find itself in a worse state than it was
before.

The pamphlets written by these gentlemen bear the following titles:

(1) Reasons offer'd for erecting a Bank in Ireland; in a letter to
Hercules Rowley, Esq., by Henry Maxwell, Esq. Dublin, 1721.

(2) An Answer to a Book, intitled Reasons offered for erecting a
Bank in Ireland. In a Letter to Henry Maxwell, Esq. By Hercules
Rowley, Esq. Dublin, 1721.

(3) Mr. Maxwell's Second Letter to Mr. Rowley, wherein the
objections against the Bank are answered. Dublin, 1721.

(4) An answer to Mr. Maxwell's Second Letter to Mr. Rowley,
concerning the Bank. By Hercules Rowley, Esq. Dublin, 1721.

* * * * *

Sir Walter Scott, in his edition of Swift's works, reprints these
pamphlets. The text of the present edition of "The Swearer's Bank"
is based on that published in London in 1720.

[T. S.]

THE

_Swearer's_-Bank:

OR,

Parliamentary Security

FOR

Establishing a new BANK

IN

_IRELAND_.

WHEREIN

The Medicinal Use of OATHS is considered.

(WITH

The _Best in Christendom_. A TALE.)

* * * * *

_Written by Dean_ SWIFT.

* * * * *

_Si Populus vult decipi decipiatur._

* * * * *

To which is prefixed,

An ESSAY upon _English_ BUBBLES.

_By_ THOMAS HOPE, _Esq_;

* * * * *

_DUBLIN_:

Printed by THOMAS HUME, next Door to the _Walsh's-Head_ in
_Smock-Alley_. 1720. Reprinted at _London_ by J. ROBERTS in
_Warwick-Lane_.

THE SWEARER'S BANK.

"To believe everything that is said by a certain set of men, and to
doubt of nothing they relate, though ever so improbable," is a maxim
that has contributed as much for the time, to the support of Irish
banks, as it ever did to the Popish religion; and they are not only
beholden to the latter for their foundation, but they have the happiness
to have the same patron saint: For Ignorance, the reputed mother of the
devotion of the one, seems to bear the same affectionate relation to the
credit of the other.

To subscribe to banks, without knowing the scheme or design of them, is
not unlike to some gentlemen's signing addresses without knowing the
c