Quote 88
I desire those politicians who dislike my overture […] that they will first ask the parents of these mortals whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a year old in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided […] the oppression of the landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade (34)
In the final paragraphs, Swift reminds us of specific examples of greed. How does this impact your final impression of A Modest Proposal?
Quote 89
These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to […] beg sustenance for their helpless infants, who as they grow up, […] leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain (1)
Swift suggests that children who grow up blaming wealthy Protestants may eventually take extreme measures. After the Glorious Revolution, when James Francis Edward Stuart was deposed from the crown, many feared a Catholic army would restore him to power.
Quote 90
For we are told by a grave author […] that there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent than any other season; therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual because the number of popish infants is at least three to one in the kingdom, and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage of lessening the number of papists among us. (13)
Swift ridicules Protestant fears about the number of Catholic children in Ireland.