THE THIRD DRAPIER’S LETTERWITH OTHER PAMPHLETS ON WOOD’S COINAGE,RARE IRISH IMPRINTS, DEFOE
[SWIFT, Jonathan.]
Some Observations upon a Paper, call’d, the Report of the Committee of the most honourable Privy-Council in England, relating to Wood’s Half-pence. By M. B. Drapier …
Dublin, Printed by John Harding … [1724].
[Bound with ten other pamphlets, 1719–25.]
Small 8vo, pp. 32; cut very close, shaving the outer edge of several leaves and cropping or shaving the last lines of most pages in the first gathering. Bound with ten other works, 8vo., in contemporary panelled calf, worn, corners and headcaps chipped; small wormhole through front third of volume, occasionally touching a letter, sense always recoverable; ownership inscription in monogram to title-page of first-bound work (Bradley, The Artificial Gardiner, 1717), dated 1720.
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Some Observations upon a Paper, call’d, the Report of the Committee of the most honourable Privy-Council in England, relating to Wood’s Half-pence. By M. B. Drapier …
First edition of the third of Swift’s Drapier’s letters, bound with other works including two further pamphlets on Wood’s coinage (Remarks upon Mr. Wood’s Coyn and Proceedings by Sir Michael Creagh, and A Word or two to the People of Ireland, concerning the Brass Money), two very rare Belfast imprints on the Presbyterian subscription controversy of 1720, and Dublin editions of a Defoe pamphlet and Charles Gildon’s Life and strange surprizing Adventures of Mr. D– De F–.
The notorious Patent granted to the Englishman William Wood in 1722 for coining copper half-pence for Ireland, a measure imposed without consultation or consent, could have debased the whole currency. Despite a general clamour against the measure Wood continued his preparations throughout 1723, as there was no effective opposition from official circles. Early in 1724 Swift entered the campaign with A Letter to the Shop-Keepers, advocating a boycott of the currency, followed by four more pseudonymous Letters, all written in the guise of a Dublin linen draper and published between March and December. Blocking Wood’s half-pence became so important to Swift that he interrupted the writing of Gulliver’s Travels for the cause.
In the earlier letters, apart from the key proposal that the Irish should boycott the currency, Swift argued against the compromise of restricting the amount coined, pointed out the dangers of fraud, and challenged the assay. The third Letter, printed on 25 August 1724, was in written in response to the defence of Wood’s coin by a privy-council committee, which had not been issued officially but only in the London Journal.
The ‘Drapier’ argued here that the rights of the Irish people have been abnegated by the passing of the patent without recourse to the Irish Parliament (‘Am I a Free-Man in England, and do I become a Slave in six Hours by crossing the Channel?’), and points to Wood’s embroilment in a similar scheme for Massachusetts: ‘He hath already tried his Faculty in New-England, and I hope he will meet with an EQUAL RECEPTION here; what That was [i.e. a boycott] I leave to the Publick Intelligence’. Swift closes with one of the most famous images of the Drapier’s letters, presenting himself as David, with ‘a Sling and a Stone’ and Wood as Goliath, with a ‘Helmet of Brass … a Coat of Mail … Greaves of Brass … and a Target of Brass …. In short … all over Brass.’
After the fourth letter, the printer Harding was arrested, and a £300 reward was offered for the discovery of the author; but no one gave Swift away. By the fifth, in December, his cause was almost won, and early in 1725 Carteret recommended to the English government that the Patent should be cancelled; Wood finally surrendered it in August. Swift still had two further letters in reserve, but they remained in manuscript until the collected Works of 1735.
Separate editions of the Drapier’s letters are all very scarce in commerce. The Swift collector T. A. Hollick had the first, second, and fifth (sale, Sotheby’s, 19 May 1980), but no other examples are noted in auction records since 1975. Of the present letter, which was reprinted three times within the year, ESTC records only thirteen copies, and there are none in auction records since 1913.
It is even rarer to find one, as here, in a contemporary tract volume, especially one that includes two other scarce works on Wood’s coinage. Remarks upon Mr. Wood’s Coyn and Proceedings by Sir Michael Creagh, a former Lord Mayor of Dublin, draws pointed parallels between Wood’s scheme and ‘John Laws Missipissy (sic) Company’, even going so far as to suggest that Law, who was then back in England, might actually be behind the scheme, so devious is it. Equally significant, and ‘probably written by one of Swift’s friends’ (Herbert Davis) is A Word or two to the People of Ireland, concerning the Brass Money, which was published on 19 August, before Swift’s third letter, and mentions ‘M. B. the Drapier’s two Letters, which I don’t doubt have been carefully perused by all in this City’. The author also presages Swift’s adoption of David and Goliath imagery – Wood (a ‘Dealer in Dross’ and a ‘little domineering Tyrant’) ‘only thinks to tread the Stage as their great Goliah, but who knows but he may meet with a David among us, who thus defies all our Hosts’ – suggesting the author may have seen Swift’s third letter in draft.
A full list of contents is available upon request.
