Swift may have written the following mock petition by way of satire against the many absurd petitions which were presented at the time to the Irish House of Commons, and of which two examples were quoted in the note to a previous tract. If coal-porters and hackney-coachmen might address the Honourable House, why not footmen?
The present text is based on that found at the end of Swift's "Serious and Useful Scheme to make an Hospital for Incurables," issued by George Faulkner in 1733. Faulkner reprinted this volume in 1734.
TO THE HONOURABLE
HOUSE OF COMMONS, &c.
The Humble Petition of the Footmen in and about the City of Dublin.
Humbly Sheweth,
That your Petitioners are a great and numerous society, endowed with several privileges, time out of mind.