oint not quite so clear; for it was well known the dean could write
finely upon a broomstick.'"

The great acquisition of esteem and influence was made by the Drapier's
Letters, in 1724. One Wood, of Wolverhampton, in Staffordshire, a man
enterprising and rapacious, had, as is said, by a present to the
dutchess of Munster, obtained a patent, empowering him to coin one
hundred and eighty thousand pounds of halfpence and farthings for the
kingdom of Ireland, in which there was a very inconvenient and
embarrassing scarcity of copper coin; so that it was possible to run in
debt upon the credit of a piece of money; for the cook or keeper of an
alehouse could not refuse to supply a man that had silver in his hand,
and the buyer would not leave his money without change.

The project was therefore plausible. The scarcity, which was already
great, Wood took care to make greater, by agents who gathered up the old
halfpence; and was about to turn his brass into gold, by pouring the
treasures of his new mint upon Ireland; when Swift, finding that the
metal was debased to an enormous degree, wrote letters, under the name
of M. B. Drapier, to show the folly of receiving, and the mischief that
must ensue by giving gold and silver for coin worth, perhaps, not a
third part of its nominal value.

The nation was alarmed; the new coin was universally refused; but the
governors of Ireland considered resistance to the king's patent as
highly criminal; and one Whitshed, then chief justice, who had tried the
printer of the former pamphlet, and sent out the jury nine times, till,
by clamour and menaces, they were frighted into a special verdict, now
presented the Drapier, but could not prevail on the grand jury to find
the bill.

Lord Carteret and the privy council published a proclamation, offering
three hundred pounds for discovering the author of the fourth letter.
Swift had concealed himself from his printers, and trusted only his
butler, who transcribed the paper. The man, immediately after the
appearance of the proclamation, strolled from the house, and staid out
all night, and part of the next day. There was reason enough to fear
that he had betrayed his master for the reward; but he came home, and
the dean ordered him to put off his livery, and leave the house; "for,"
says he, "I know that my life is in your power, and I will not bear, out
of fear, either your insolence or negligence." The man excused his fault
with great submission