these Bills, but they are of a high nature, and carry such dreadful
innuendos, that I dare not mention them, resolving to give no offence
because I well know how obnoxious I have long been (although I conceive
without any fault of my own) to the zeal and principles of those, who
place all difference in opinion concerning public matters, to the score
of disaffection, whereof I am at least as innocent as the loudest of my
detractors.

DUBLIN,
_Feb_. 24, 1731-2.

***** ***** ***** *****

SOME

REASONS

AGAINST

THE BILL FOR SETTLING THE TITHE

OF

HEMP, FLAX, &c., BY A MODUS.

NOTE.

About the end of 1733 the Irish House of Commons had under consideration
a bill for the encouragement of the growth of flax and the manufacture
of linen. This bill contained a clause by which the tithe upon flax
should be commuted by a _modus_ or money composition. The clergy, to
whom this tithe was an important source of revenue, and, naturally, not
wishing to lose its advantage, took steps to petition Parliament to be
heard by counsel against the bill. Swift signed the petition, which set
forth the injury which would be done to their order if the clause in the
bill, then before the House, were allowed to become law. In addition to
this he committed and arranged his arguments to writing, and issued them
in the following pamphlet. The activity against the bill proved so
efficacious that the House of Commons dropped it. It may be remarked
that Swift's interference was purely disinterested, since no part of the
revenue of St. Patrick's, as Monck Mason points out, comes from the
"district appropriated to the culture of flax;" nor did Swift, "or any
of his predecessors or successors, ever receive one shilling upon
account of that tithe."

This attempt on the part of the House of Commons to regulate the affairs
of the clergy of Ireland seems to have been one of a series which
divided laity and clergy into two strongly opposing parties. On the one
side were the House of Commons and its supporters, on the other the
general body of the Irish clergy, with, for a time, at any rate, Swift
at the head. The tithe of pasturage, or, as it was called, the tithe of
agistment, was being strongly resisted at the time, and many of the
clergy were forced to sue in court before they could obtain it. The
matter of this tithe had been already before an Irish court in 1707, and
had been settled in favour of the suing c