6

WHATEVER were the demerits of the Union, it produced, at least, one important benefit to Ireland-it completely abolished the evil of absenteeism, by leading to the consolidation of the revenues of these kingdoms. Previously to that event, the Irish aristocracy ' derived,' says Adam Smith, a great revenue, from the protection of a government, to the support of which they did not contribute one shilling.' But since Ireland is no longer obliged to sup port her own establishments, and since she has an unobstructed access to the English market, her hereditary aristocracy may reside as long as they like in London, without detriment to the interests of their country, however injurious it may prove to their own.

We have been explicit in the avowal of this opinion, and regret that it was not sooner made; for the mistake into which the Irish people have fallen, in attributing 30 large a portion of their grievances to absenteeism, has done more mischief to their cause than would have been effected by the desertion of every landlord in the kingdom. This subject is thus treated by Sir Charles Morgan, in a profound and elegantly written preface to the volume before

us:

• So natural is it for men to complain of the evil which strikes the most powerfully on the senses,-so convenient is it for those, who are determined in the denial of justice, to make absenteeism the causa causans of calamities which they want the humanity to relieve, that all classes of persons, the Protestant and the Catholic, the mere Irish and the lord of the pale, the oppressor and the oppressed, the Irish corporator and the English minister, have joined in a common cry against absentees. It is not therefore very surprising that the mere John Bull, wrapped in his own affairs, and buried in his counting-house, should believe what every one repeats, and should shut his eyes against the real causes of that turbulence and that discontent which,

though they have given him so much trouble and uneasiness, are yet too far removed from his gaze to allow of the formation of an independent judgment. It is not very wonderful that he should credit

the assertion so hardily made, that Catholic Emancipation is not the one thing needful to Ireland, the essential preliminary, without which no practical relief can be afforded to the economical distresses of the country.'

And in another place he says, with equal elegance and truth,

Notwithstanding the intense interest which is felt throughout all England concerning Ireland and Irish affairs, notwithstanding the frequent debates in parliament, and more frequent pamphlets and volumes published on points of Irish poli tics and economy, the prevailing ignorance on these subjects still operates powerfully in maintaining prejudices the most unfounded and the most fatal, and in retarding those measures of wisdom and of justice without which Ireland can never be happy, or the British Empire

secure.

which enables the party opposed to the It is this ignorance more especially settlement of Ireland to occupy public attention with minor grievances, behind which the danger and malice of their system are concealed from a nation too generous to tolerate open and avowed oppression. No sooner is the question of Catholic Emancipation proposed in the senate, with some chance of obtaining a favourable con

sideration, than one or other of these convenient abuses is thrust forward to distract attention and to puzzle the will. The absentees, the deficiency of employment, the potatoe diet, the want of poor

laws, or the want of education, are, from time to time, put forth as the paramount evil, the gushing fountain of every misfortune of Ireland; while the main subject of complaint, the Catholic disability, is studiously represented as affecting only a few briefless barristers, or ambitious landlords. The advantage which is thus obtained in preoccupying the public mind, and in affording additional ground for a superstructure of sophisms, is immense.'

To these sentiments we have given utterance in the first number of this work, and rejoice to meet with even one economist of acknowledged information whose opinions coincide with our own.

The prevailing errors respecting the cause of Irish grievances and discontent, arise from neglecting to apply the fundamental rules of immutable truth as a test to individual opinions, and rejecting them if they

Colburn, London, 1825.

militate against principles universally correct. Had this been done, the late parliamentary committees on the state of Ireland would not have been condemned to listen, day after day, to the conflicting evidence of each successive witness, nearly all of whom were evidently biassed by party or prejudice, and ignorant, in most instances, of the first principles of legislative justice and political economy. With the exception of Dr. Doyle and a few others, the greater number of those who appeared before the committee might have delegated the duty of giving evidence to a deputy, who, on being informed of their religion and party, could not fail to have supplied their places.

The arguments which show how immaterial it is in what part of the empire manufactures are established equally apply to absenteeism. When an Irish proprietor spends his income, it is of little consequence where, provided it be in his majesty's dominions. The facility of modern intercourse between towns the most remote brings home a market to every man's door, and makes it a thing of no importance to a Munster farmer whether the consumer of his butter reside on Stephen's Green or in St. James's Square. He pays his engagements with the produce of his land; and the price he obtains for this regulates the amount of his rent, which always depends upon the probable state of the

markets.

farmer, the farmer gives it to his absentee landlord, and he again pays it to the manufacturer. These are the hands into which it ultimately comes, no matter how many intervening traders it may circulate through.

An opinion pretty generally prevails among the people of Ireland, that they would be much more prosperous if the amount of their exports were spent at home instead of in a foreign country. But in the first place it must be observed, that England cannot, properly speaking, be considered a foreign country; and, in the next place, that the absentees' incomes, now spent in England, would find their way there, were even the two hundred and seven lords, dukes, and earls, which compose the catalogue of Ireland's nobility, residing within view of the equestrian statue in Stephen's Green. By much the larger portion of their fortunes is usually spent in articles of luxury and dress; and, as Ireland produces few or no fabrics of a superior description, they would of course be imported from England. The money would thus be sent out of the kingdom, though in a more indirect way; and by consulting the Custom-house returns, previous and subsequent to the Union, we find that, though the imports have increased in amount, the articles of wine and foreign spirits have considerably decreased ;* a proof that only at the tables of the nobility were consumed those foreign and expensive commodities, which contribute nothing to the wealth of the nation, or to the benefit of the people. A resident nobility, however, would serve to increase, if not to enrich, Dublin. A greater demand would undoubtedly exist for milliners, and fabricators of ices; but the benefit conferred on the nation at large would be highly problematical. We do not say that they would produce mischief, but they would do little good. Shopkeepers would in

follows:

crease, but the profits of business would not be augmented; for it should never be forgotten that the demand never fails to produce the supply. Where one haberdasher lives in a street now, three would live then, and thus make it equally difficult for the inhabitants to support themselves under either circumstance. In a literary point of view it deserves no consideration; for the Irish author has now the whole of the British people for his patrons-and it must be acknowledged that they are much more generous ones than all the nobility of Europe united.

But, say the Irish economists'Those who reside in one country, and draw their revenues from an other, can only do so advantageously, all other things considered equal, when their expenditure is less in the country of their adoption than it would be in the country of their birth. The reverse of this is well known to be the case with our absentees. They live where their nominal rank brings them into contact with the English nobility, whose secure and princely revenues enable them to lead a fashionable life, without incurring censure for their extravagancies. The Irish absentees, with their modicum of ill-paid annuity, in attempting competition, soon involve themselves in ruin, or silently skulk into some insignificant station, forgotten or despised. To renovate their broken fortunes, they grasp at any expedient; and, in the hope of providing for their present necessities, are regardless of all suggestions respecting the future. Their Irish tenantry may be refractory, or in a state of open rebellion: but they care not; they live securely in London; and, if any desperate adventurer is mad enough to promise a high rent, or, what is more desirable, will pay a large fine, the infuriated peasantry may burn or butcher him: still they care not; for their exhausted finances have been replenished, and they are enabled to continue on their career in that great resort of fashion and dissipation. Absentees are necessarily inconsiderate and thoughtless; they are generally in want of money, and endeavour to supply the defect in their finances by letting their lands

to the highest bidder, or to whoever can pay the largest fine. Such conduct cannot fail to excite discontent, and contribute to our local grievances.'

Now the evil complained of here is oue that works its own cure; and the more violent it is, the sooner it is remedied. But it is not true that discontent is the consequen:e of abseenteeism; it is solely attributable to the anomalous situation of the country, in consequence of the disabilities the people labour under, and the grievances growing immediately out of these disabilities.-The majority of the aristocracy of all countries are dissipated; and probably such of the Irish absentees as are extravagant abroad would not be economical at home. Many of their estates were mortgaged while they remained in Ireland; and the same is now the case with several of the resident gentry of England, whose wants are not less pressing than those of the sister island. Nothing is more common than to hear of the superior humanity of English landlords, and. nothing more false. Such of them as are Irish proprietors (and their numbers are by no means small) do not differ from other men. Some of them are humane, and others are unfeeling; while they all get the highest possible rent from their tenantry. English landlords, like other proprietors, study their own interest, and know too well the value of money not to make the most of their property This is natural; and the testimony of human nature is to be preferred to a host of witnesses. England, too, has her middlemen, as every nation whose government is not despotic must; and, perhaps, after all, there would be no great harm if every acre of land in both kingdoms paid a rack-rent to these kind of upper tenants, because that circumstance could not increase the price of land, or at least could not diminish the profits of the operating farmer, who generally pays the highest value for the ground he tills. Land, like other commodities, is a saleable article; and, in an open market, will have buyers and sellers, whose opposite interests are sure to decide on a bargain mutually advantageous.

Where farms are to be had in abundance, who but an ideot would give more to a middleman than to a nobleman's steward?* The fact is, middlemen have done much good to Ireland, by counteracting an erroneous and prevalent opinion respecting the letting of small farms. They have occasioned the subdivisions of those lands, which fifty years ago remained literally waste, in the possession of a brutal, ignorant, and unfeel ing aristocracy,† who, wanting taste to require refined luxuries, spent their time in the grossness of such sensual enjoyments as an imperfect cultivation of their ill-gotten domains supplied. Whole districts were consigned to deer and weeds; while the unfortunate peasants, like those of England at the present day, starved for want of food, though the face of the country looked lovely; for, to a poetic eye, nothing appears so unseemly as ploughed fields and thatched cabins. Fortunately the apathy of this worthless race was, at length, awakened, in consequence of the temptations held out by the middleman, and agricul

Like every

ture raised its head. other pursuit, it required nothing but freedom from absurd restrictions and foolish interference to become the business of the nation.§

It is really ridiculous to hear the encomiums which are passed by way of reproach on the absentees. They are told, in and out of parliament, that discontent in Ireland necessarily proceeds from their absence, and that their presence there would banish misery, promote industry, and improve the morals of the people. Unfortunately the bulk of mankind are too ready to pin their faith to the sleeve of those placed above them, and thus we find these erroneous opinions received as irrefragable axioms by the public.

Respecting the morality likely to be inculcated by an hereditary nobility we have no very high opinion; and, as we happen to know something of the fruits it produces, we think the people of Ireland will find it their interest to absent themselves as long as possible from such schooling. It is time the parasitical praises