A LETTER

FROM A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN IRELAND TO

A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN ENGLAND

CONCERNING THE

SACRAMENTAL TEST.

WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1708.


NOTE.

In the "foreword" to the reprint of this tract in the "Miscellanies" of
1711, Swift remarks: "I have been assured that the suspicion which the
supposed author lay under for writing this letter absolutely ruined him
with the late ministry." The "late ministry" was the Whig ministry of
which Godolphin was the Premier. To this ministry the repeal of the Test
Act was a matter of much concern. To test the effect of such a repeal it
was determined to try it in Ireland first. There the Presbyterians had
distinguished themselves by their loyalty to William and the Protestant
succession. These, therefore, offered a good excuse for the introduction
of such a measure, particularly when, in 1708, an invasion was rumoured,
they were the first to send in loyal addresses to the Queen. Swift
likened this method to "that of a discreet physician, who first gives a
new medicine to a dog, before he prescribes it to a human creature."