validity of their resentment towards Wood and his coins, were quickly dissipated when they read “A Letter to the Shop Keepers, Tradesmen, Farmers, and Common People of Ireland, concerning the Brass Half-pence coined by Mr. Wood,” and signed, “M.B.  Drapier.”  The letter, as Lord Orrery remarked, acted like the sound of a trumpet.  At that sound “a spirit arose among the people, that in the eastern phrase, was like unto a trumpet in the day of the whirlwind.  Every person of every rank, party, and denomination was convinced, that the admission of Wood’s copper must prove fatal to the Commonwealth.  The papist, the fanatic, the Tory, the Whig, all listed themselves volunteers under the banners of M.B.  Drapier, and were all equally zealous to serve the Common cause.”

The present text of the first of the Drapier’s letters is based on that given by Sir W. Scott, carefully collated with two copies of the first edition which differed from each other in many particulars.  One belonged to the late Colonel F. Grant, and the other is in the British Museum.  It has also been read with the collection of the Drapier’s Letters issued by the Drapier Club in 1725, with the title, “Fraud Detected”; with the London edition of “The Hibernian Patriot” (1730), and with Faulkner’s text issued in his collected edition of Swift’s Works in 1735.

[T.S.]

[Illustration: 
                  A
               LETTER
                to the
Shop-Keepers, Tradesmen, Farmers
  and Common-People of IRELAND,

Concerning the
Brass Half-pence
Coined by

**Mr. Woods,**

WITH
A Design to have them Pass in this
KINGDOM.

Wherein is shewn the Power of the said PATENT,
  the Value of the HALF-PENCE, and
  how far every Person may be oblig’d to take the
  same in Payments, and how to behave in Case
  such an Attempt shou’d be made by WOODS
  or any other Person.

[Very Proper to be kept in every FAMILY.]

        By M.B. Drapier.

DUBLIN:  Printed by J.  Harding
  in Molesworth’s-Court.
]

LETTER I.

TO THE TRADESMEN, SHOP-KEEPERS, FARMERS, AND COMMON-PEOPLE IN GENERAL OF
IRELAND.

BRETHREN, FRIENDS, COUNTRYMEN AND FELLOW-SUBJECTS,

What I intend now to say to you, is, next to your duty to God, and the care of your salvation, of the greatest concern to yourselves, and your children, your bread and clothing, and every common necessary of life entirely depend upon it.  Therefore I do most earnestly exhort you as men, as Christians, as parents, and as lovers of your country, to read this paper with the utmost attention, or get it read to you by others; which that you may do at the less expense, I have ordered the printer to sell it at the lowest rate.