Editing Brobdingnag (section)

== History and government ==
Gulliver relates that, in the past, there were battles between the monarchy, nobility, and people resulting in a number of civil wars ending in a treaty. The monarchy is based on reason. City officials are elected by ballot. The King of Brobdingnag finds English institutions and behaviour wanting in comparison with ''his'' country's. Based on Gulliver's descriptions of their behaviour, the King describes the English as "the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth".<ref>''Gulliver's Travels'' Part 2</ref> Swift intended the moral relationship between the English and Brobdingnagians to be as disproportionate as the physical relationship. The King of Brobdingnag is considered to be based on Sir [[William Steele (Lord Chancellor of Ireland)|William Steele]], a statesman and writer, whom Swift worked for early in his career. Some critics believed it to be based on Sir William Temple.

The army of Brobdingnag is claimed to be large with 207,000 troops including 32,000 cavalry although the society has no known enemies. The local nobility commands the forces; [[firearm]]s and [[gunpowder]] are unknown to them. The King scolds Gulliver when he tries to interest the statesman in the use of gunpowder.

The laws of Brobdingnag are simple and easy to follow. There is little [[civil litigation]]. Murderers are beheaded.

In Gulliver's in-character preface to the story, headed ''A letter from Captain Gulliver to his cousin Sympson'', he specifies that the correct spelling is in fact "...&nbsp;''Brobding'''r'''ag'' (for so the word should have been spelt, and not erroneously ''Brobding'''n'''ag''), ... &#91;emphasis added&#93;". This correction by the fictional author is a device used to add an element of [[Verisimilitude (literature)|verisimilitude]] to the story.