d turn themselves, to breed Cattle to mount our
Troops, or draw our Carriages, they might indeed save us 5000_l._ a
Year, and do something truly beneficial to our Country; but, _Tom_,
they have Souls above the little Views of being useful, and managing
their Expences, and keeping our Cash in the Kingdom, are low Arts and
Tricks, fitter for the mean Notions of a Merchant or a Mechanick, than
Men of Fortune and Family, that are as proud and as thoughtless as so
many noble _Spaniards_.

PRIOR. Well, _Dean_, in spite of all your Objections, I think I have
nam'd several considerable Improvements, in our poor Country, which
gave me Reason to say, she was on the mending Hand; and I have not
nam'd all, for the very encrease of our Numbers of late Years, is a
vast Addition to our Strength, Credit, and Figure, as a Nation. I think
the Dealers in Political Arithmetick, compute that every Nation,
unwasted by Famines, Wars, or Plagues, doubles the Quantity of its
People in 250 Years; but I have seen Computations, that between our
early Marriages, the Breedyness of our People, the Importations of our
Neighbours, the Mildness of our Climate, and the Fertility of our Soil,
evidently prove, that we have frequently doubled the Amount of our
Inhabitants in half that Time. The Truth is, the matter of Fact is so
incontestable, that I need not recollect all the Proofs, on which they
ground their Assertion; but I shall only observe to you, _Dean_, that
this is a very singular Advantage, since it is certain, that we out
breed the _Jews_, and in spite of our Wars and Massacres, we seem to
multiply like the _Polypus_, by being cut to Pieces.

SWIFT. Stuff and Nonsense! To tell me of our Numbers, when they only
serve to multiply our Wretchedness and Miseries: Does this prove us on
the mending Hand, as you term it? Why you talk like a Physician, that
wanted more Fees for doing nothing! 'Tis hard, _Tom_, you cannot be in
the Right sometimes, and speak Truth now and then. Did ever Man before
you boast of having Crowds of Beggars? And what are we else? For I
verily think, tho' Sir _William Petty_ says, Nature never design'd
above one in 500 to beg by forcing them on the Charity of others,
(thro' some Lameness, Crookedness, or other accidental Debility, that
incapacitates them to Labour) that in _Ireland_ one in seventy are
Beggars, (at least for the Summer Season,) and sixty of the Remainder
incapable of relieving them, thro' their own Distresses. A