A HUMBLE PROPOSAL
FOR REMOVING JONATHAN SWIFT’S BUST
FROM THE LIBRARY OF TRINITY COLLEGE
A proposed Letter to the Editor, Irish Times
Sir ,
In March 2023 the name of the philosopher George Berkeley (1685-1753) was removed from his association to the New Library of Trinity College Dublin in the light of his slave owning activities and of his defence of slavery[1]. This decision is to be enthusiastically applauded. That Berkeley’s deserves fame for his doctrine that matter does not exist is no excuse for the low moral standing of his American enterprises, which contrast with our most virtuous decisions to remove the statues of colonialists. However the parallel case of Jonathan Swift’s association with slavery seems to have gone unnoticed.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) is also a famous name associated with Trinity College. Born in Ireland, he studied at Trinity from 1681 to 1688, although he received his degree only “by grace”. He achieved universal fame through his novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726). Swift was also a polemist reputed for his patriotic defence of the Irish people against the English colonial rule in his Drapier Letters. Indeed is a national hero.
His reputation as a Hibernian patriot, however, is tarnished by the fact that as an Anglican priest he had no sympathy for “Irish Papists”, and always felt to be an Englishman, tied to Ireland only “by accident”. His attitude towards his Irish compatriots was ambiguous: on the one hand his epitaph in the Cathedral St Patrick says that he is a champion of liberty, feeling “savage indignation” against injustice, on the other hand he portrayed the Irish as "lazy," "ignorant," and "slavish”. The irony of his famous satirical text A Modest Proposal, which is often quoted as a proof of his deep sympathy for the miseries of the Irish people, is counterbalanced by the fact that many readers of Gulliver have recognised these very people in the wild Yahoos designed to be slaves of the rational Houyhnhnms. Just as Berkeley intended to convert to Christianism the slaves of his Rhode Island estate, Swift suggested that the Irish catholics should be “civilised” in English schools. It is also clear from his Directions to Servants that the latter are meant also to be the Irish, servants of their colonial English masters. Moreover Swift was Berkeley’s friend, and helped him in his career.
Swift manifested his commitment to English colonialism not only in print, but in his actions. As Dean of St Patrick he received land rents from his tenants like any other colonial and owed his deanery to services given to the English crown. These services included his participation in the Tory government of Robert Harley in the years 1710-1714, when as a polemicist he defended the peace treaty between England and France, which allowed the English to exploit the Asiento , namely the commerce of slaves in the South seas, which everyone at the time knew as a trade from Africa to the West Indies. He did not himself, unlike Berkeley, own slaves, but he benefited from their trade. Not only Swift publicly promoted this treaty, knew well what the Asiento was, he also invested in it. In Roddy Doyle’s novel The commitments (1987) the Irish are jokingly referred to as “the niggers of Europe”. But for many of Swift’s Anglo-Irish contemporaries, this was no joke, but common parlance. One might argue that Swift was a satirist, and that satire involves joke. But this is no excuse to the Dean’s immoral behaviour.
Last but not least, Swift is well known for his misogyny. His poems and his satires are full of manifestations of contempt for women, and of scorn towards the ladies who ventured to love him, Hesther Johnson (Stella) and Esther Vanhomrigh (Vanessa). Ironically the latter, devastated by Swift’s behaviour, died and in her will made George Berkeley the legatee of her fortune, a money which the latter used for his travel in America and his slave owning activities. So indirectly although unwittingly Swift is partly responsible for Berkeley ‘s colonial enterprises. I also presume that the Trinity students and governing bodies who have so wisely refused to include a bust of Simone de Beauvoir in the admirable Old Library of Trinity College because of accusations against her of “grooming” of sex partners [2] would not be happy to keep Swift’s bust in that Library, if only because of his attitude towards Stella and Vanessa.
I therefore propose, modestly, that Trinity College remove the statue of Jonathan Swift from its gallery of honorable celebrities. The Dean has no place there besides Lady Lovelace or Mary Wollstonecraft. If, as the philosopher Berkeley says, esse est percipi, neither Swift nor himself deserve to be perceived in this place. I suggest also that Swift’s portrait should be removed from Marsh Library near St Patrick, and that a veil of ignorance be put on his epitaph. In further steps to reinstate a true sense of morality in this Republic, I also propose that all the theme parks bearing the name of Gulliver be de-named, that all advertising flagging Swift’s patriotism within Dublin be erased and that his image be replaced by that of a pop start with the same name, well known, unlike her namesake, for her ethical decency.
[1] See a set of articles overs 2023 in Irish Times https://www.irishtimes.com/tags/george-berkeley/
https://www.tiliafilosofie.nl/podcast/episode/7c88029c/catherine-robb-is-taylor-swift-a-philosopher
"Just as Berkeley intended to convert to Christianism the slaves of his Rhode Island estate, Swift suggested that the Irish catholics should be “civilised” in English schools."
RépondreSupprimerIt seems to me that this saves Swift!
Bertrand Russell