Hello and welcome to the Discourse. While Jonathan Swift’s both parents were British, he took birth in Dublin, Ireland, and for a long period, he worked in Dublin as the Dean of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. No wonder he had strong feelings for the autonomy of Ireland while British colonialist colonial restrictions on Ireland’s economy were proving to be harmful to the common Irish people. During the same time, a British entrepreneur William Wood who owned copper and iron works throughout Britain, obtained a patent from the Crown in July 1722 to mint more than £100,000 of copper halfpence for Ireland over fourteen years. William Wood was considered to be close to Walpole who was known for venality and corruption. Irish people noticed that there were no safeguards to ensure the value of the coins and they believes that William Wood had his patent through government bribery and corruption. Jonathan Swift was the Dean of the Cathedral at that time and he became the voice of the Irish people.
Jonathan Swift took charge of raising Irish people’s concerns systematically and to do so, he chose to acquire the pseudonym of M.B Drapier by which he published a series of 7 Pamphlets opposing the patent of William Wood. These pamphlets were mostly successful and resulted in the culmination of William Wood’s patent on his halfpence for Ireland in 1727.
Swift chose the pseudonym M.B. Drapier because he wished to avoid any political repercussions. He was a known Tory sympathizer while Walpole’s Whigs party was in power. Swift chose Drapier especially because it meant a skilled 'daper' representing a retailer or wholesaler. Swift wished the pseudonym to resemble a common Irish man and thus chose M. B. Drapier, a middle-class tradesman and cloth dealer (whose initials perhaps stand for “Marcus Brutus”.
Jonathan Swift published 7 letters or pamphlets related to the matter from March 1724 to June 1725. The first four letters were published by Thomas Harding who was then arrested by British forces and a bounty was announced for the head of M. B Drapier who had been declared a secessionist and fugitive. Everybody knew that the actual Drapier is Jonathan Swift but the Walpole government didn’t have any legal proof against him. Furthermore, Swift was a prominent Torie supporter who had the backing of Queen Anne. Hardin published Drapier’s fifth letter in December 1724 and then he died of illness. After that George Faulkner published two more pamphlets by Drapier in 1735.
Summary of Drapier’s Letters:
The First Pamphlet was titled To the Shop-keepers, Tradesmen, Farmers, and Common-People of Ireland and it was printed in March 1724. In April 1724, it was retitled and republished as "Fraud Detected: or, The Hibernian Patriot." In the pamphlet, Drapier deliberately tries to avoid voicing anything against the Monarch of Ireland or Britain but he does mention that "It is no treason to rebel against Mr. Wood.” In the pamphlet, Swift descriptively expressed how debased coins would cause silver and gold coinage to be hoarded or removed from Ireland which would further debase the currency. He further expresses his worries and says that tenant farmers would no longer be able to pay their landlords, and, after the tenants were removed, there would be fewer crops grown in Ireland; the increase in poverty and the decrease of food supply would completely ruin Ireland's economy. Drapier maintained that he is totally devoted to the British king as the leader and respects the Irish church, he asserted strong protest against William Wood.
The matter was such that could badly affect all the farmers, wholesalers, and petty grocers of Ireland and thus it touched the nerves of Irish people who gathered against Wood’s halfpence to protest.
The Second Pamphlet was titled A Letter to Mr. Harding the Printer, upon Occasion of a Paragraph in his News-Paper of Aug. 1st, Relating to Mr. Wood's Half-Pence and it was published on 4 April 1724. After the initial protests against Wood’s Half Pence, Prime Minister Walpole managed a Privy Council to check any corruption in the patenting and minting of copper coins. The Privy Council included Sir Issac Newton who was a respectful and trustworthy person. Drapier attacked the report of the Privy Council without maligning Sir Issac Newton and suggested how Issac Newton was misguided in believing that the halfpence include no fraud. Swift directly attacked the Whigs Party headed by Walpole in this second pamphlet because the Privy Council was headed by Walpole. In this pamphlet, Swift succeeded in establishing that the report of the Privy Council is nothing but propaganda to hide the corruption behind Wood’s coin patent. However, Swift chose to remain extra cautious to avoid inciting the ire of the king because the king himself issued the legal tender for minting the coins. He maintains that he is truly loyal to the monarch but cannot trust Wood’s tricks. He maintained that though it is the King’s Prerogative to issue the legal tender, but the king cannot force his people to accept any copper-based currency. To support his point, Drapier mentioned the Irish constitution which limits the Monarch’s power and forces the people of Ireland to use only gold or silver coins as official currency. This second pamphlet by M.B. Drapier further gathered support from all the bankers of Ireland who announced that they won't accept copper halfpence.
The Third Pamphlet was titled To the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom of Ireland: Some Observations Upon a Paper, Call'd, The Report of the Committee of the Most Honourable the Privy-Council in England relating to Wood's Half-pence, and it was printed on 25 August 1724. In this pamphlet too, Drapier continued to oppose the report of the Privy Council which was still making rounds in power galleries. In this pamphlet, Drapier directly accused Walpole of trying to defend his fraudulent practices at the expense of the poor people of Ireland by misusing the respectful Privy Council. Furthermore, Drapier didn’t attack the minting of Walpole’s coin in England but he limited his attack on Wood’s patent for half pence to be issued in Ireland.
The Fourth Pamphlet was titled To the Whole People of Ireland, A Word or Two to the People of Ireland, A Short Defense of the People of Ireland and it was published on 21 October 1724. This letter proved to be the most important pamphlet of the whole series which established Jonathan Swift as the "Hibernian patriot" of Ireland. He became the Darling of the Irish people who compared him to David fighting against Goliath. The Archbishop of Ireland nicknamed Jonathan Swift "Our Irish Copper-Farthen Dean." In this pamphlet, M.B. Drapier openly called for the independence of the Irish people. However, he maintained the Irish deserve to be granted independence from British control but not King George II. What Swift meant was that though the Irish people have a divine duty to be loyal to the monarch, they cannot be forced to accept the authority of the British Parliament. Jonathan Swift was a known Tori supporter and this fresh assault and accusation against the Whigs government incited Walpole’s ire who immediately ordered the arrest of the publisher of these pamphlets and a death sentence to the author. Everybody knew Jonathan Swift is the actual author but there was no legal proof to establish it.
The Fifth pamphlet was titled A Letter To the Honourable the Lord Viscount Molesworth, at his House at Brackdenstown, near Swords and it was published on 31 December 1724. The Walpole government had indicated its willingness to take back the patent of Wood’s halfpence after the publication of the fourth letter. Yet, Drapoer wanted to ascertain that Walpole would not back down from his promise of removing the patent. In this letter, he expressed the whole scenario as his defense against the Walpole Government’s charges of treason in front of the Irish people. He called for more support for the Irish cause; he sought more attention so that the greater liberty of Ireland would be respected. In the letter, Drapier expressed himself as a common Irish man who is and always will be on the correct side of the argument.
The Sixth Pamphlet was titled To the Lord Chancellor Middleton and was published on 26 October 1724. Swift wrote it and published it with the help of George Faulkner but he didn’t publish it by the pseudonym of M.B. Drapier. It was anonymously written in which the author asserted that Lord Chancellor Middleton will maintain his opposition to Wood’s coin patent. Middleton himself was an opponent of Wood’s halfpence and always maintained that it will harm the Irish people.
The Seventh Pamphlet was titled An Humble Address to Both Houses of Parliament and was written in June 1725 but was not published. Drapier wrote it before the culmination of Wood’s patent. But Jonathan Swift got the affirming news of the cancellation of the patent before he could publish this seventh pamphlet and thus, he didn’t publish the pamphlet then. However, it was published after 10 years. In this pamphlet, Drapier asked the British parliament to check how Wood’s patent was accepted in the first place while it was a known fact that he used bribery to attain that.
These letters by Drapier proved to be influential enough to force the Walpole government to take back their decision to grant the patent for William Wood’s halfpence.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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