Lilliputian council

The Lilliputian council, the empire's supreme deliberative body, is the institution through which the political life of Lilliput is conducted and through which Jonathan Swift delivers his most pointed satire of European governance. It is a body that debates matters of state with great formality, yet its proceedings are driven by personal malice, factional interest, and a profound lack of genuine wisdom. The council's treatment of Lemuel Gulliver, the Man-Mountain, forms the central plot of the Lilliputian voyage and exposes the corruption at the heart of the empire.

Composition and Character

The council is composed of the emperor's chief ministers and nobles, a group whose internal dynamics are shaped by the fierce factionalism of the realm. The two great parties, the Tramecksan (high heels) and the Slamecksan (low heels), are in constant struggle, and the emperor himself favors the low heels, wearing heels lower by a drurr (about the fourteenth part of an inch) than any of his court. The heir to the crown, however, shows a tendency toward the high heels, with one heel higher than the other, giving him a hobble in his gait. This physical detail mirrors the political instability of the kingdom. The council is not a body of disinterested statesmen but a collection of rivals, including the admiral Skyrris Bolgolam, the treasurer Flimnap, the general Limtoc, the chamberlain Lalcon, and the grand justiciary Balmuff, each with their own agendas and enmities.

Deliberations on Gulliver's Fate

The council's most significant actions concern Gulliver. Upon his arrival, the emperor held frequent councils to debate what course should be taken with him. The court was under many difficulties, apprehending his breaking loose and fearing that his diet would be very expensive and might cause a famine. Some determined to starve him or shoot him in the face and hands with poisoned arrows, but others considered that the stench of so large a carcass might produce a plague in the metropolis. The council's decision to bind, transport, and eventually employ Gulliver was a pragmatic one, driven by a mixture of fear and a desire to use his immense strength for their own ends. Later, after Gulliver's great service in capturing the Blefuscu fleet, the council debated his fate once more. The emperor, whose ambition was immeasurable, desired to reduce the whole empire of Blefuscu into a province, but Gulliver's refusal to be an instrument of enslaving a free and brave people turned the council against him. This open, bold declaration was so opposite to the emperor's schemes that he could never forgive him, and from this time began an intrigue between his majesty and a junto of ministers maliciously bent against Gulliver.

The Conspiracy and Articles of Impeachment

The council's most treacherous act was the secret conspiracy against Gulliver, which was forming for two months before his escape. A committee of council was called in the most private manner, and the emperor came to a full resolution. Skyrris Bolgolam, the high-admiral, whose hatred was increased since Gulliver's success against Blefuscu obscured his own glory, joined with Flimnap, Limtoc, Lalcon, and Balmuff to prepare articles of impeachment for treason and other capital crimes. The articles accused Gulliver of traitorously pulling the empress by the arms to extinguish the fire in her apartment, of refusing to seize all the ships of Blefuscu and reduce that empire to a province, of aiding and comforting the Blefuscu ambassadors, and of preparing to make a voyage to the court of Blefuscu under color of a verbal license. In the debates upon this impeachment, the emperor showed some lenity, often urging the services Gulliver had done him. The treasurer and admiral insisted on a most painful and ignominious death, by setting fire to his house at night and having the general attend with twenty thousand men armed with poisoned arrows. Some of his servants were to have private orders to strew a poisonous juice on his shirts and sheets. The secretary Reldresal, Gulliver's true friend, proposed the more merciful punishment of putting out both his eyes, a proposal received with the utmost disapprobation by the whole board. The council's final compromise was to condemn Gulliver to the loss of his eyes, a sentence that was entered on the books, with the project of starving him by degrees kept a secret.

Significance and Satirical Function

The Lilliputian council functions as a microcosm of the corrupt and self-interested politics Swift saw in the England of his time. The council's debates are not about justice or the common good but about personal vendettas, financial concerns, and the whims of a capricious monarch. The elaborate formality of their proceedings—the articles of impeachment, the speeches, the votes—masks a brutal and arbitrary exercise of power. The council's decision to condemn Gulliver for his greatest services (capturing the fleet, saving the palace) is a devastating satire of ingratitude and the fickleness of political favor. The council's final act, sending an envoy to the Emperor of Blefuscu to demand Gulliver's return in chains, only to be politely refused, underscores the impotence and absurdity of their schemes. The Lilliputian council, for all its pomp and authority, is ultimately a body of petty, vindictive, and shortsighted individuals, whose machinations are easily outmaneuvered by a single, honest man.