Swift Jonathan. A Modest Proposal

A modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in Ireland from being a burden to their parents or the country, and making them beneficial to the public. 1729Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT, SAT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, and AP English Test Preparation.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 cabbin-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. These mothers instead
of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their
time in stroling 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.I think it is agreed by all parties, that this prodigious number of children in
the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their
fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom, a very great additional
grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap and easy method of
making these children sound and useful members of the common-wealth, would