Pigs' Meat: Lessons for the Swinish Multitude

This is the second edition of Pigs' Meat; or Lessons for the Swinish Multitude, a political compilation published by T. Spence in London. The volume collects political and moral essays assembled over five years to promote awareness among the laboring classes of their importance and to demonstrate that their cause has been advocated throughout history. Featured selections include "The Bee and the Spider" from Dodsley's Fables, an allegorical debate on artistic merit and utility; an essay "On Freedom of Speech" from Cato's Letters, arguing that free speech is essential to liberty and that oppression, not the people's nature, causes unrest; and excerpts from Swift's "Sermon on False Witness," which enumerates six categories of false witnessing, from mingling falsehood with truth to professional informers who entrap citizens for reward. The compilation employs classical and religious authority to defend popular liberty against governmental tyranny.