question that this tract may well stand by the side of the "Modest
Proposal," both for force of argument and pungency of satire. In its way
and within the limits of its more restricted argument it is one of the
ablest pieces of writing Swift has given us on behalf of Irish liberty.

The title of Irish patriot which Swift obtained was not sought for by
him. It was given him mainly for the part he played, and for the success
he achieved in the Wood's patent agitation. He was acclaimed the
champion of the people, because he had stopped the foolish manoeuvres
of the Walpole Administration. So to label him, however, would be to do
him an injustice. In truth, he would have championed the cause of
liberty and justice in any country in which he lived, had he found
liberty and justice wanting there. The matter of the copper coinage
patent was but a peg for him to hang arguments which applied almost
everywhere. It was not to the particular arguments but to the spirit
which gave them life that we must look for the true value of Swift's
work. And that spirit--honest, brave, strong for the right--is even more
abundantly displayed in the writings we have just considered. They
witness to his championship of liberty and justice, to his impeachment
of selfish office-holders and a short-sighted policy. They gave him his
position as the chief among the citizens of Dublin to whom he spoke as
counsel and adviser. They proclaim him as the friend of the common
people, to whom he was more than the Dean of St. Patrick's. He may have
begun his work impelled by a hatred for Whiggish principles; but he
undoubtedly accomplished it in the spirit of a broad-minded and
far-seeing statesman. The pressing needs of Ireland were too urgent and
crying for him to permit his personal dislike of the Irish natives to
divert him from his humanitarian efforts. If he hated the beggar he was
ready with his charity. The times in which he lived were not times in
which, as he told the freemen of Dublin, "to expect such an exalted