Wool, Irish, exportation of,
    forbidden by law, 17, 18, 110, 111, 157, 158;
    effect of the prohibition on England, 160.

  Woollen manufactures, Irish people should use their own, 137 et seq.;
    Observations on the case of the, 147-150.

  Wynne, Rev. Dr. John, Sub-dean of St. Patrick’s, 370.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] “Unpublished Letters of Swift,” edited by Dr. Birkbeck Hill, 1899.

[2] Mr. Murray’s MSS., quoted by Craik.

[3] It appeared almost impossible for Swift to see the injustice of this test clause.  In reality, it had been the outcome of the legislation against the Irish Roman Catholics.  In 1703 the Irish parliament had passed a bill by which it was enacted, “that all estates should be equally divided among the children of Roman Catholics, notwithstanding any settlements to the contrary, unless the persons to whom they were to descend, would qualify, by taking the oaths prescribed by government, and conform to the established church” (Crawford’s “History of Ireland,” 1783, vol. ii., p. 256).  The bill was transmitted to England, for approval there, at a time when Anne was asking the Emperor for his indulgence towards the Protestants of his realms.  This placed the Queen in an awkward position, since she could hardly expect indulgence from a Roman Catholic monarch towards Protestants when she, a Protestant monarch, was persecuting Roman Catholics.  To obviate this dilemma, the Queen’s ministers added a clause to the bill, “by which all persons in Ireland were rendered incapable of any employment under the crown, or, of being magistrates in any city, who, agreeably to the English test act, did not receive the sacrament as prescribed by the Church of England” (ibid.).  Under this clause, of course, came all the Protestant Dissenters, including the Presbyterians “from the north.”  The bill so amended passed into law; but its iniquitous influence was a disgrace to the legislators of the day, and his advocacy of it, however much he was convinced of its expediency, proves Swift a short-sighted statesman wherever the enemies of the Church of England were concerned. [T.  S.]

[4] Colonel John Birch (1616-1691) was of Lancashire.  Swift calls him “of Herefordshire,” because he had been appointed governor of the city of Hereford, after he had captured it by a stratagem, in 1654.  Devotedly attached to Presbyterian principles, Birch was a man of shrewd business abilities and remarkable oratorical gifts.  On the restoration of Charles II., in which he took a prominent part on account of Charles’s championship of Presbyterianism, Birch held important business posts.  He sat in parliament for Leominster and Penrhyn, and his plans for the rebuilding of London after the Great Fire, though they were not adopted, were yet such as would have been extremely salutary had they been accepted.  Of his eloquence, Burnet says:  “He was the roughest and boldest speaker in the house, and talked in the language and phrases of a carrier, but with a beauty and eloquence, that was always acceptable.”  The reference to the carrier is purposely made, since Birch did not hide the fact that he had once pursued that occupation.  Swift was twenty-four years of age when Birch died, so that he must have been a very young man when he heard Birch make the remark he quotes. [T.  S.]