In 1792, a man named Jonathan Swift wrote a pamphlet that suggested eating babies. This pamphlet circulated through Ireland and was called "A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being Aburden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to The Public”. The title sounds as if it would be on how to put them to work or something of that nature, not on how and why Ireland should start eating and selling babies. He suggests that the act of eating and selling children would solve their current economic crisis. Even though he wrote this as if he meant it and in a serious tone, to the majority of the readers, it was obvious that it was satirical. During this time period, the British had a hold on Ireland’s government and were not letting go. The article by Sean Moore and the book by Charles Ivan McGrath help explain the stages that led to the composition of this pamphlet; the loan, the debt, Whigs taking over the government, and the the publication of the article “A Modest Defense of Publick Stews”. 

In Jonathan Swifts “Modest Proposal”, he suggested some absolutely insane ways to cut down on the spending of the people in Ireland. His central idea was to incorporate the consumption and selling of babies into the economy. If they were not for eating, they could be used to make “admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen” (Swift, 516). His other proposal was to sell the older children, who could then be hunted for sport. Swift did this for the shock effect. He also did this because the Irish people were being very heavily taxed by the British, who were also running their parliament. In Sean Moore’s “Devouring Posterity: "A Modest Proposal", Empire, and Ireland's "Debt of the Nation"”, he explains why Swift wrote his proposal and the division between the two parties, Whigs and Tories. Charles Ivar McGrath explains how the British were financially able to take over Ireland in his book, “Ireland and Empire, 1692 – 1770”. 

The British were in control of the Irish government because Ireland took out a private loan from the British, into the Irish Treasury in 1716.  According to McGrath, they were already in debt because of “an integral part of the evolving constitutional framework”, which means that their constitution was not set up to make sure they were financially stable (McGrath, 182). The British were obsessed with their new military and caused themselves to go into debt. They spent so much money building it up and using it when it was not necessary. With their new military, the British were able to threaten the Irish and put their people, the Whigs, in power and rule Ireland. The Whigs in power were all corrupt, especially the prime minister of the time, and were even censoring the Tories which made it nearly impossible to spread their propaganda and news. They “disregard the prerogatives of the Irish legislature”, which really upset Swift who was a strong member of the Tory party and was known as a key propagandist (Moore, 684).  To try and fix their own debt and also repay the debt, the British put extreme taxes on the Irish who were already financially hurting country wide. All of their taxes were going straight to fixing the British’s debt instead of trying to fix Ireland’s own debt or their debt to Britain. With their owed tax money, and their grip on the Irish parliament, they forced them to “support “wars necessary to secure profits”, which the Irish were seeing none of (Moore, 680). If the absurd taxing was not bad enough, there was a suggestion made in another pamphlet called “A Modest Defense of Public Stews” by Bernard Mandeville, which involved exploiting women for sex to raise the money to pay the taxes, as if it were no big deal. Moore makes the connection that Swift most likely wrote his insane proposal about the consumption and material use of children, as if it were no big deal to point out how absurd that was and also how ridiculous Mandeville sounded in his proposal. He also did it to prove a point that they should not be throwing around the idea of using women. Women and children are supposed to be protected by the males, not handed over to be used for sex to try to be able to pay the taxes. The women who are poor and have so many young children they cannot work, probably do not want to be in that situation either, so Swift mentions this in his proposal, in his own way. He says what a blessing it would be to those mothers to not have all of those children anymore and how terrible their situation is. Especially in this time period, women did not have the same rights as men. Even though they were considered and treated like property, they were still recognized as prized and delicate. So, for Mandeville to suggest a brothel, really upset the conservative and ordained Jonathan Swift. 

Swift was tired of being censored and taxed by a country taking advantage of them. He could not get out any of his information or propaganda, so he finally just went to an extreme and wrote up this proposal. According to Moore, there were three different types of people it was intended for. The first being his fellow Tories who would get a laugh out of it, rally behind him in support, and help spread it all over. The second and third types of people were the British and Whigs. They would fall into one of two types of people. The first being they would recognize it was a satire and see how desperate and angry the Irish people were getting, to write and produce a pamphlet on the act of eating children. The second would be those who thought that Swift was being serious and they were so poor and distraught that people were really suggesting the awful ideas written in the pamphlet. I think that he mainly intended it for those who would believe he was being serious. 

England was very progressive at this time. They were conquering new places with their military and even supporting some exploration. Ireland was more conservative and trying to control and maintain their debt and parliament. It makes sense that the Irish born Swift, who was a Tory, was against the more liberal Whigs. At the time Whigs were the majority in England and the Tories were the majority in Ireland. When the Whigs came into power, they mistreated the Tories and made them become outraged. They censored them and gave them no power to have a say about how the government was being run. 

These articles by Moore and McGrath helped me understand the time period and meaning behind this pamphlet. Without prior knowledge, this proposal would sound crazy and maybe not even satirical. I now understand that there was extreme social and political unrest during this time period in Ireland. There was abuse of power from the English and the Irish government, which was run by the English. I also understand that even though Swift wrote this essay satirically and to possibly convince people they were that desperate, there were other people suggesting also crazy things to imply that if change did not happen, it could become a reality, in an extreme situation. Through these articles I know how exactly the British gained so much power over Ireland and weaseled their way into their government and all of the things that provoked Swift enough to write this extreme pamphlet and believe it was necessary to get the attention they needed. 
