The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume IV | Page 8

Church of England, with an
indulgence for scrupulous consciences; such a man we think acts upon
right principles, and may be justly allowed a Whig: And I believe there
are not six members in our House of Commons, who may not fairly
come under this description. So that the parties among us are made up,
on one side, of moderate Whigs, and on the other, of Presbyterians and
their abettors; by which last I mean, such who can equally go to a
Church or Conventicle, or such who are indifferent to all religion in
general, or lastly such who affect to bear a personal rancour toward the
clergy: These last are a set of men not of our own growth, their
principles at least have been imported of late years; yet this whole party
put together will not, I am confident, amount to above fifty men in

Parliament, which can hardly be worked up into a majority of three
hundred.
[Footnote 15: The passage beginning with "I remember when I was last
in England," and ending with "within our definition," is omitted by
Faulkner. [T.S.]]
As to the House of Lords, the difficulty there is conceived at least as
great as in ours. So many of our temporal peers live in England, that the
bishops are generally pretty near a par of the House, and we reckon
they will be all to a man against repealing the Test; and yet their
lordships are generally thought as good Whigs upon our principles as
any in the kingdom. There are indeed a few lay lords who appear to
have no great devotion for Episcopacy; and perhaps one or two more
with whom certain powerful motives might be used for removing any
difficulty whatsoever; but these are in no sort of a number to carry any
point against the conjunction of the rest and the whole bench of
bishops.
Besides, the whole body of our clergy is utterly against repealing the
Test, though they are entirely devoted to her Majesty, and hardly one in
a hundred who are not very good Whigs in our acceptation of the word.
And I must let you know, that we of Ireland are not yet come up to
other folk's refinements; for we generally love and esteem our clergy,
and think they deserve it; nay, we are apt to lay some weight upon their
opinion, and would not willingly disoblige them, at least unless it were
upon some greater point of interest than this. And their judgment in the
present affair is the more to be regarded, because they are the last
persons who will be affected by it: This makes us think them impartial,
and that their concern is only for religion and the interest of the
kingdom. Because the act which repeals the Test, will only qualify a
layman for an employment, but not a Presbyterian or Anabaptist
preacher for a church-living. Now I must take leave to inform you, that
several members of our House, and myself among the rest, knowing
some time ago what was upon the anvil, went to all the clergy we knew
of any distinction, and desired their judgment of the matter, wherein we
found a most wonderful agreement; there being but one divine that we
could hear of in the whole kingdom, who appeared of a contrary
sentiment, wherein he afterwards stood alone in the convocation, very
little to his credit, though, as he hoped, very much to his interest.

I will now consider a little the arguments offered to shew the
advantages, or rather the necessity, of repealing the Test in Ireland. We
are told, the Popish interest is here so formidable, that all hands should
be joined to keep it under; that the only names of distinction among us
ought to be those of Protestant and Papist, and that this expedient is the
only means to unite all Protestants upon one common bottom. All
which is nothing but misrepresentation and mistake.
If we were under any real fear of the Papists in this kingdom, it would
be hard to think us so stupid, not to be equally apprehensive with others,
since we are likely to be the greatest, and more immediate sufferers; but
on the contrary, we look upon them to be altogether as inconsiderable
as the women and children. Their lands are almost entirely taken from
them, and they are rendered incapable of purchasing any more; and for
the little that remains, provision is made by the late act against Popery,
that it will daily crumble away: To prevent which, some of the most
considerable among them are already turned Protestants, and so in all
probability will many more. Then, the Popish priests are all registered,
and without permission (which I hope will not be granted) they can