Artist's impression of Utopia |
It is a melancholy object to those, who walk through this great
town, or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the
roads and cabbin-doors crowded with beggars of the female sex,
followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags, and
importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of
being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to
employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who, as they grow up, either turn thieves for
want of work, or leave their dear native country, to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number
of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of
their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present
deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional
grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap and
easy method of making these children sound and useful members of
the common-wealth, would deserve so well of the publick, as to
have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.
But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only
for the children of professed beggars: it is of a much greater
extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a
certain age, who are born of parents in effect as little able to
support them, as those who demand our charity in the streets.
I too sympathize with the devastating circumstances of the Irish and baulk at their squalid living conditions. The children are the ones that suffer the most. However, I do hope that Swift’s proposal for improving their circumstances will address the submissive nature of the natives for they are, in part, to blame for their state of poverty. The blame cannot solely be placed upon the English landowners. Many of the Irish squander their earnings away upon gambling and booze. The most viable solution to this predicament is education. By pulling them out of the depths of ignorance, they may be given the power to think independently and plan for a better future and better Ireland.
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