“A modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland, from being a burden on their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick.”
- By Dr. Jonathan Swift 1729
I should probably start by saying this is a purely satirical essay, something that I didn’t know before I read it, hence was horrified to read it thinking it was actual ideas of a human! However, now I know, and it was actually quite amusing to read back. It was published anonymously, and it suggests that the Irish living in poverty would ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food to the richer class. It is designed to shock and mock British officials, one way he does this is by describing in great detail the way in which the children are prepared to eat, “a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked or boiled;”
The “Advantages” of the proposal
1) It would greatly lessen the number of Catholics, or “Papists” as Swift refers to them, in the nation, seen as the “most dangerous enemies”
2) The poor tenants would be able to pay the landlords rent, because of their possession of something valuable – their children.
3) The money saved on the bringing up of children past two years of age can be put back into the economy, “And the money will circulate among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture”.
4) Along with money going into the economy, the parents will save an awful lot, and also earn money by selling the children.
5) Taverns, where the cooked children would more than likely be served, will receive good custom because of the well presented and prepared quality of the food, and they can charge as much as they want for it because of the quality.
6) Apparently it would be a positive thing for a marriage to have to sell a child. Mothers would show more care towards their babies because it would be a profit as opposed to an expense. It would generate “healthy” competition between wives as to who could produce the fattest child to the market, and would cause men to be more fond towards their women as opposed to beating or hitting them as they would before, obviously.
According to Swift’s satire, the flesh of a pig has nothing on “a well grown, fat yearly child”, roasted whole.
It’s safe to say I was extremely relieved to find this was a satirical essay, as the thought of eating anybody human, let alone a year old baby, makes me sick to my stomach. He uses sarcasm and wit to shock his audience, and make the reader side with the Irish and detest the speaker, in this case himself.
He describes “no one objection”, it is apparent that there are no flaws in his ingenius plan to eat babies, describing it as for the “publick good of my country”.
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