Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 9.djvu/348

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
338
THE ANSWER TO

an annual draught, according to the number born every year, be exported to whatever place will bear the carriage, or transplanted to the English dominions on the American continent, as a screen between his majesty's English subjects and the savage Indians.

I advise likewise, that no commodity whatsoever, of this nation's growth, should be sent to any other country, except England, under the penalty of high treason; and that all the said commodities shall be sent in their natural state, the hides raw, the wool uncombed, the flax in the stub; excepting only fish, butter, tallow, and whatever else will be spoiled in the carriage. On the contrary, that no goods whatsoever shall be imported hither, except from England, under the same penalty: That England should be forced, at their own rates, to send us over clothes ready made, as well as shirts and smocks, to the soldiers and their trulls; all iron, wooden, and earthen ware; and whatever furniture may be necessary for the cabins of graziers, with a sufficient quantity of gin, and other spirits, for those who can afford to get drunk on holidays.

As to the civil and ecclesiastical administration, which I have not yet fully considered, I can say little; only with regard to the latter, it is plain, that the article of paying tithe for supporting speculative opinions in religion, which is so insupportable a burden to all true protestants, and to most churchmen, will be very much lessened by this expedient; because dry cattle pay nothing to the spiritual hireling, any more than imported corn; so that the industrious shepherd and cowherd may sit every man under his own blackberry bush, and on his own

potatoe