The Problem of Ireland
William Petty (1623-1687), From Political Arithmetic (1691)
How to enable the people of England and Ireland to spend 5 millions worth of commodities more than now; and how to raise the present value of the lands and goods of Ireland from 2 to 3.
This is to be done: 1. By bringing one million of the present 1,300 thousand of the people out of Ireland into England, though at the expense of a million of money. 2. That the remaining three hundred thousand left behind be all herdsmen and dairy women, servants to the owners of the lands and stock transplanted into England, all aged between 16 and 60 years, and to quit all other trades, but that of cattle, and to import nothing but salt and tobacco. Neglecting all housing, but what is fittest for these 300 thousand people, and this trade, though to the loss of 2 millions-worth of houses. Now if a million of people be worth 70 pounds per head one with another, the whole are worth 70 millions; then the said people, reckoned as money at 5 per-cent interest, will yield 3 millions and a half per annum. 3. And if Ireland send into England 1 million and a half worth of effects (receiving nothing back), then England will be enriched from Ireland, and otherwise, 5 millions per annum more than now, which, at 20 year's purchase, is worth one hundred millions of pounds sterling, as was propounded.
Proposals for an English Academy
Purpose of the Académie Française, according to the royal charter of 1635
To labour with all possible care and diligence to give definite rules to [the] language, and to render it pure,
eloquent, and capable of treating the arts and sciences.
John Dryden, Dedication to Troilus and Cressida (1679)
I am desirous, if it were possible, that we might all write with the same certainty of words, and purity of
phrase, to which the Italians first arrived, and after them the French; at least that we might advance as far as
our tongue is capable of such a standard.
Daniel Defoe, ‘Of Academies’, from An essay upon Projects (1697)
The Work of this Society shou’d be to encourage Polite Learning, to polish and refine the English Tongue,
and advance the so much neglected Faculty of Correct Language, to establish Purity and Propriety of Stile, and to
purge it from all the Irregular Additions that Ignorance and Affectation have introduc’d; and all those Innovations
in Speech, if I may call them such, which some Dogmatic Writers have the Confidence to foster upon their Native
Language, as if their Authority were sufficient to make their own Fancy legitimate.By such a Society I dare say the true Glory of our English Stile wou’d appear; and among all the Learned Part
of the World, be esteem’d, as it really is, the Noblest and most Comprehensive of all the Vulgar Languages in the
World.
Joseph Addison, Spectator 135 (Saturday, 4 August 1711)
There is another Particular in our Language which is a great Instance of our Frugality of Words, and that is the
suppressing of several Particles, which must be produced in other Tongues to make a Sentence intelligible: This
often perplexes the best Writers, when they find the Relatives, Who, which or that, at their Mercy whether it may
have Admission or not, and will never be decided till we have something like an Academy, that by the best
Authorities and Rules drawn from Analogy of Languages shall settle all Controversies between Grammar and
Idiom.
Jonathan Swift, A Proposal for Correcting, Improving and Ascertaining the English Tongue (1712)
The persons who are to undertake this work, will have the example of the French before them, to
imitate where these have proceeded right, and to avoid their mistakes. Beside the grammar-part, wherein we
are allowed to be very defective, they will observe many gross improprieties, which however authorised by
practice, and grown familiar, ought to be discarded. They will find many words that deserve to be utterly
thrown out of our language, many more to be corrected; and perhaps not a few, long since antiquated, which
ought to be restored, on account of their energy and sound....But what I have most at heart is, that some method should be thought on for ascertaining and fixing our
language for ever, after such alterations are made in it as shall be thought requisite. For I am of opinion, that
it is better a language should not be wholly perfect, than that it should be perpetually changing; and we must
give over at one time, or at length infallibly change for the worse.But where I say, that I would have our language, after it is dully correct, always to last; I do not mean
that it should never be enlarged: provided that no word which a society shall give a sanction to, be afterwards
antiquated and exploded, they may have liberty to receive whatever new ones they shall find occasion for.
Philip Dormer Stanhope, Lord Chesterfield, Letter to The World (28 November 1754)
I had long lamented that we had no lawful standard of our language set up, for those to repair to, who might
chuse to speak and write it grammatically and correctly: and I have as long wished that either some one person of
distinguished abilities would undertake the work singly, or that a certain number of gentlemen would form
themselves, or be formed by the government, into a society for that purpose. The late ingenious doctor Swift
proposed a plan of this nature to his friend (as he thought him) the lord treasurer of Oxford, but without success;
precision and perspicuity not being in general the favourite objects of ministers, and perhaps still less so that of a
minister than of any other.Many people have imagined that so extensive a work would have been best performed by a number of persons,
who should have taken their several departments, of examining, sifting, winnowing (I borrow this image from the
Italian crusca) purifying, and finally fixing our language, by incorporating their respective funds into one joint
stock. But whether this opinion be true or false, I think the public in general, and the republic of letters in
particular, greatly obliged to Mr Johnson, for having undertaken and executed so great and desireable a work.