In short these halfpence are like "the accursed thing, which," as the Scripture tells us, "the children of Israel were forbidden to touch": they will run about like the plague and destroy every one who lays his hands upon them. I have heard scholars talk of a man who told a king that he invented a way to torment people by putting them into a bull of brass with fire under it, but the prince put the projector first into his own brazen bull to make the experiment;[6] this very much resembles the project of Mr. Wood, and the like of this may possibly be Mr. Wood's fate, that the brass he contrived to torment this kingdom with, may prove his own torment, and his destruction at last.
N.B. The author of this paper is informed by persons who have made it their business to be exact in their observations on the true value of these halfpence, that any person may expect to get a quart of twopenny ale for thirty-six of them.
I desire all persons may keep this paper carefully by them to refresh their memories when ever they shall have farther notice of Mr. Wood's halfpence, or any other the like imposture.
[3] Swift's own _Proposal for the Universal Use of Irish Manufactures_.
[4] The famous "gun-money," coined to meet the exigencies of the Stuart army in Ireland, a crown piece of which was by a proclamation of William III. of July 10, 1690, to pass current as a penny.
[5] The words of the patent are "to pass and to be received as current money, by such as shall or will, voluntarily and wittingly, and not otherwise, receive the same" (the halfpence and farthings). [T. S.]
[6] Phalaris, the genuineness of whose _Letters_ had occasioned the famous controversy which brought about Swift's first venture into literature with the _Battle of the Books_.
+Source.+--_Memoirs._ Vol. i., pp. 145, 146.
His faults were more the blemishes of a private man than of a King. The affection and tenderness he invariably showed to a people over whom he had unbounded rule [in Hanover] forbid our wondering that he used circumscribed power with moderation [in England]. Often situated in humiliating circumstances, his resentments seldom operated when the power of revenge returned. He bore the ascendant of his Ministers, who seldom were his favourites, with more patience than he suffered any encroachment on his will from his mistresses. Content to bargain for the gratification of his two predominant passions, Hanover and money, he was almost indifferent to the rest of his royal authority, provided exterior observance was not wanting; for he comforted himself if he did not perceive the diminution of Majesty, though it was notorious to all the rest of the world. Yet he was not so totally careless of the affection and interests of his country as his father had been. George the First possessed a sounder understanding and a better temper: yet George the Second gained more by being compared with his eldest son, than he lost if paralleled with his father.