against
civil liberty for religious dissenters (II, vi). He recommends this
passage as a proper explanation of the principle restricting the civil
liberty of potentially subversive dissidents, adding, furthermore,
that "the Sectaries" themselves were "averse to all the Modes" of
religion and opposed religious diversity.[5]

All these remarks figured prominently in what may be considered the
earliest debate on the religious meaning of the _Travels_. Certainly,
some contemporary readers of Swift's major work were not insensitive
to its religious significance, as even the commentary on the religious
instruction of the upper classes--a relatively minor part of the
satire which twentieth-century readers would easily overlook, as well
as the more serious observations on the Endian dispute between
Catholics and Protestants over the Eucharist demonstrate. Yet like all
the early critics of the _Travels_, this author has nothing to say
about this episode of central importance in the narrative about
Lilliput, the reason probably being that its meaning was taken for
granted by the Protestants of Swift's England. Thus the author of
_Gulliver Decypher'd_ merely says the obvious: "The Reflections that
will accrue to every Reader, upon this Conference [with Reldresal], is
[_sic_] so obvious, that we shall not so much as hint at them."[6]
Thus it is also not strange for the antagonistic clergyman to say
nothing in his _Letter_ about the heart of the Lilliputian
narrative--the profound allegory on the religious wars over the
Eucharist and the serious issues raised by Swift. No doubt, however,
he probably read Swift's interpretation of Gulliver's role in this
conflict as a Tory version of history, and resented it accordingly.
That is, like the Whigs of the day, he would object to an easy peace
for Catholic France and would conclude that the Treaty of Utrecht
concluding the War of the Spanish Succession, was not sufficiently
punitive.

Among the works that capitalized on the popularity of the _Travels_
were the imitative _Memoirs of Lilliput_ (1727) and _A Voyage to
Cacklogallinia_ (1727). The author of the _Memoirs_ emphasizes the
evil character of the Lilliputians, particularly their lecherous
clergy, and concludes with an account of the sufferings of Big-Endian
exiles and extensive observations on the dangers of political
factionalism. But he is most attracted by prurient sexual adventures.
A vulgar work obviously meant to appeal to