to
hang every Gentleman, and behead every Nobleman, who desert their
Country for their Amusement, I wou'd even be content to return to the
World, and sollicit Votes for it; but without taking up the Burden of
Life again, I shou'd feel Joy in my Grave, to have their Estates
saddled with a constant Tax as a Fine for Absence. How lightly soever
Gentlemen regard this Desertion of their native Soil, it is certainly a
Crime no good or great Mind can be capable of: And the Officer who
quits his Quarters, or the Sailor who forsakes his Ship, do not better
deserve to be mulk'd in their Pay than they do.

PRIOR. I think it a little odd, Mr. _Dean_, that while we see our
Countrymen deserting us so generally, and lament it so loudly, we yet
take such Measures as if we thought they did not go away fast enough;
and therefore send off our Criminals, to labour, and breed, and enrich
_America_. Tho' this wretched Island is the most improvable, and the
least improved Part of the habitable Earth, we drive away from us our
Felons, though, if we kept them confin'd to hard Labour, the Kingdom
wou'd receive all the Profit of their Work, and by this Means a
converted Criminal, like a penitent Sinner, wou'd be of more Use, and a
better Man, than if he had never transgressed at all.

SWIFT. There may be some ill Consequences in that Method of punishing
Felons, as well as some good ones; for in a Complication of Disorders,
such as _Ireland_ labours under, what helps the one is pernicious to
the other. It is our peculiar Misery, that the Desertion of some of our
People does not hurt us more, than the Sleepiness, the Inactivity and
Heedlessness of those that stay behind. Many of our common _Irish_ know
as little of the Benefits of useful Labour, as the Savages in the _West
Indies_; and are more inclined to live by Theft and Rapine, than by
using their Hands and toiling their Bodies. Nay, Crowds of our
Gentlemen are as indolent (as we observed on another Occasion) as their
Slaves are lazy; and seem as unwilling to improve their Estates, as if
they thought their Tenures were as uncertain, and as subject to Change,
as ever their Ancestors found them. At present, there are few Kingdoms
in _Europe_, where the Titles to them are so indisputably settled as
they are in _Ireland_, and yet they improve more in _France_, where all
depends on the King's Will, than in _Ireland_, where the Property of
the Subject is so impregnably secured by the Laws. Of such F