publication aroused much indignation, and a controversy ensued in which Swift’s friend, Dr. William King, took part.  In 1695 Molesworth returned to Ireland, became a Privy Councillor in 1697, sat in the Irish parliament in 1703-1705, and in the English House of Commons from 1705 to 1708.  In 1713 he was removed from the Irish Privy Council on a charge of a treasonable utterance, which Steele vindicated in “The Englishman” and “The Crisis.”  The accession of George I., however, brought Molesworth into his honours again, and he was created Baron Molesworth of Philipstown, and Viscount Molesworth of Swords, in 1719.  His work entitled “Considerations for Promoting Agriculture,” issued in 1723, was considered by Swift as “an excellent discourse, full of most useful hints.”  At the time Swift addressed him this sixth letter, Molesworth was living in retirement at Brackdenstown. [T.S.]]

It will sometimes happen, I know not how in the course of human affairs, that a man shall be made liable to legal animadversions, where he has nothing to answer for, either to God or his country; and condemned at Westminster-hall for what he will never be charged with at the Day of Judgment.

After strictly examining my own heart, and consulting some divines of great reputation, I cannot accuse myself of any “malice or wickedness against the public;” of any “designs to sow sedition,” of “reflecting on the King and his ministers,” or of endeavouring “to alienate the affections of the people of this kingdom from those of England."[7] All I can charge myself with, is a weak attempt to serve a nation in danger of destruction by a most wicked and malicious projector, without waiting until I were called to its assistance; which attempt, however it may perhaps give me the title of pragmatical and overweening will never lie a burthen upon my conscience.  God knows whether I may not with all my caution have already run myself into danger, by offering thus much in my own vindication.  For I have heard of a judge, who, upon the criminal’s appeal to the dreadful Day of Judgment, told him he had incurred a premunire for appealing to a foreign jurisdiction:  And of another in Wales, who severely checked the prisoner for offering the same plea, taxing him with reflecting on the Court by such a comparison, because “comparisons were odious.”

[Footnote 7:  The quotations are from the charges stated in the indictment and proclamation against the writer and printer of the previous letters. [T.S.] ]

But in order to make some excuse for being more speculative than others of my condition, I desire your lordship’s pardon, while I am doing a very foolish thing, which is, to give you some little account of myself.