fordshire, a man
enterprising and rapacious, had, as is said, by a present to the Duchess
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 frightened 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 stayed 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, and begged that he might be confined in the
house while it was in his power to endanger the master; but the Dean
resolutely turned him out, without taking further notice of him, till
the term of the information had expired, and t