ABSTRACT
The Letter to the Whole People frightened the leaders of Swift’s side, for obvious reasons. The doctrines M.B. taught, if truly applied, would have undone the property settlement of Ireland. Even their expression would anger the British government to the point of unpredictable retaliation. The Drapier’s scorching ridicule of English office-holders in Ireland might please the Domviles, Percivals, and Boltons who, like Swift’s relations, could conveniently disregard the recent origin of their own power. But families that had suppressed the civil provisions of the Treaty of Limerick had no wish to wrestle with the rights of man, or to shake a stability only twenty years old. 1
