rose thus. Archbishop Boulter had, for a long time, been much
concerned about the want of small silver in Ireland. The subject
seemed to weigh on him greatly, since he refers to it again and
again in his correspondence with Carteret, Newcastle, Dorset, and
Walpole. On May 25th, 1736, he wrote to Walpole to inform him that
the Lord Lieutenant had taken with him to England "an application
from the government for lowering the gold made current here, by
proclamation, and raising the foreign silver." Silver, being
scarce, bankers and tradesmen were accustomed to charge a premium
for the changing of gold, as much as sixpence and sevenpence in the
pound sterling being obtained. (See Boulter's "Letters," vol. ii.,
p. 122. Dublin, 1770.)

There was no question about the benefit of Boulter's scheme in the
minds of the two Houses of Commons and Lords: Swift, however,
opposed it vehemently, because he thought the advantage to be
obtained by this lowering of the gold would accrue to the
absentees. In 1687 James had issued a proclamation by which an
English shilling was made the equivalent of thirteen pence in
Ireland, and an English guinea to twenty-four shillings. Primate
Boulter's object (gained by the proclamation of the order on
September 29th, 1737) was to reduce the value of the guinea from
twenty-three shillings (at which it then stood) to _L1 2s. 9d._
Swift, thinks Monck Mason, considered the absentees would benefit
by this "from the circumstances of the reserved rents, being
expressed in the imaginary coin, called a pound, but actually paid
in guineas, when the value of guineas was lowered, it required a
proportionately greater number to make up a specific sum" ("History
of St. Patrick's," p. 401, note c.)

Swift, as he wrote to Sheridan, "battled in vain with the duke and
his clan." He thought it "just a kind of settlement upon England of
L25,000 a year for ever; yet some of my friends," he goes on to
say, "differ from me, though all agree that the absentees will be
just so much gainers." (Letter of date May 22nd, 1737.)

In a note to Boulter's letter to the Duke of Newcastle (September
29th, 1737) the editor of those letters (Ambrose Phillips) remarks:
"Such a spirit of opposition had been raised on this occasion by
Dean Swift and the bankers,