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. 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 cabin 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. As his efforts to encourage changes to improve life in Ireland failed, Swift turned to his strength: satire. Swift was angry at the English for imposing so many restrictions on Ireland (England’s colony) that the country was collapsing under poverty and famine, and at the Irish for not fighting the English. JONATHAN SWIFT A Modest Proposal (1729) Jonathan Swift wrote his Modest Proposal after many of his earnest proposals were ignored by the Irish Parliament.
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