terests,
and to Things of the highest Importance; they are furious for Trifles,
and every Imagination, every Guess, every nothing will set their
Passions in a Flame.

SWIFT. I have often lamented that Circumstance, as to this poor Island.
In truth, _Tom_, our Divisions and Factions here, are frequently as
silly as those of two Gamesters, who tho' they play for nothing, will
Quarrel dreadfully about cutting and dealing the Cards, and winning the
Game. I am asham'd to say it, but the Contests and brawling of Children
at their Push-pin, are sometimes substantial Things, to the Jangles and
Feuds, I have known our Parties on some Occasions contend about, and
alas! all we get by it, is to give our Enemies Pleasure, and our
Friends Despair, while they see our wretched Country, quite forgot in
the Squabble, and nothing but Power and Places, private Gain and sordid
Interests attended to. But I will dwell no longer on this melancholy
Subject, which looks so ill for this poor Kingdom, and I will now go to
another Topick, in which the Conduct of our Countrymen is altogether as
blameable, and is as fatal a Proof of their Coldness to the publick
Interests; and that is their strange Neglect in finishing our Northren
Canal, and completing our Collieries in _Tyrone_.

PRIOR. I can never think of the scandalous Mismanagements in both those
Affairs, without Shame and Concern. They are a Disgrace to our Country,
either as to the Honesty or the Skillfulness of the Undertakers, as to
different Parts of the Works relating to the Canal, and also as to the
conducting the Design, and disbursing the Money employed on the
Collieries.

SWIFT. We are not only the slowest Thinkers of what will do us Good,
but we are the most slothful also, in bringing such Thoughts into
Execution. The _Newry_ Canal has been carried on, under the Sanction of
an Act of Parliament, and the Superintendance of the Navigation-board
above twenty Years: And tho' in _Holland_, such a Work wou'd have been
finish'd in half the Time, and by superior Skill, Oeconomy, and
Honesty, at half the Expence; yet, after laying out immense Sums, there
are still many Thousands wanting to make it a truly finish'd Affair. As
with much ado we found out, that our own Hills abounded with the
noblest Coal in the World, and that our Poverty forced us to consider,
that we paid on an Average about 60000 _l._ a Year for _Whitehaven_
Coal, the Nation at last undertook making the Canal from _Lough N