[96] The Fourth.  See vol. vi. of present edition. [T.  S.]

[97] Some ten years after Swift wrote the above, the roads of Ireland were thought to be so good as to attract Whitefield’s attention.  Lecky quotes Arthur Young, who found Irish roads superior to those of England.  (Lecky’s “Ireland,” vol. i., p. 330, 1892 ed.) [T.  S.]

[98] Lecky (vol. i., pp. 333-335, 1892 edit.) gives a detailed account of the destruction of the fine woods in Ireland which occurred during the forty years that followed the Revolution.  The melancholy sight of the denuded land drew the attention of a Parliamentary Commission appointed to inquire into the matter.  The Act of 10 Will.  III. 2, c. 12 ordered the planting of a certain number of trees in every county, “but,” remarks Lecky, “it was insufficient to counteract the destruction which was due to the cupidity or the fears of the new proprietors.” [T.  S.]

[99] Swift always distinguished between the Irish “barbarians” and the Irish who were in reality English settlers in Ireland.  Swift, for once, is in accord with the desires of the English Government, who wished to eradicate the Irish language.  His friend the Archbishop of Dublin and his own college, that of Trinity, were in favour of keeping the language alive. (See Lecky’s “Ireland,” vol. i., pp. 331-332.) [T.  S.]

[100] See Swift’s “Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures.” [T.  S.]

[101] See Swift’s “Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures.” [T.  S.]

[102] The text here given is that of Scott read by the “Miscellaneous Pieces” of 1789.  The “Observations” were written, probably, in 1729. [T.  S.]

[103] Monck Mason has an elaborate note on this subject ("Hist. of St. Patrick’s Cathedral,” pp. 320-321, ed. 1819), which is well worth reprinting here, since it is an excellent statement of facts, and is fully borne out by Hely Hutchinson’s account in his “Commercial Restraints of Ireland,” to which reference has already been made: 

“In the year 1698 a bill was introduced into the English Parliament, grounded upon complaints, that the woollen manufacture in Ireland prejudiced the staple trade of England; the matter terminated at last in an address to the King, wherein the commons ’implored his majesty’s protection and favour on this matter, and that he would make it his royal care, and enjoin all those whom he employed in Ireland, to use their utmost diligence, to hinder the exportation of wool from Ireland (except it be imported into England), and for the discouraging the woollen manufacture, and increasing the linen manufacture of Ireland.’  Accordingly, on the 16th July, the King wrote a letter of instructions to the Earl of Galway, in which the following passage appears:  ’The chief thing that must be tried to be prevented, is, that the Irish parliament takes no notice of what has passed in this here, and that you make effectual laws for the linen manufacture, and discourage as far