And, when our little meal was done,
Talked until sleeping-time came on.

'One night they left me all alone;
They went but half a mile away,
To see a man they long had known,
That on his death-bed lay.
I knew that there they wouldn't wait,
To keep their mother sitting late;
Still, for the time, some care I had,
Though wondering what could make me sad.

'And how, indeed, could I be gay,
Upon that weary woeful night?
My boys were back upon their way,
The house was in their sight:

When on their rounds the night-guard came,
And asked their business and their name.
They stayed from home beyond the time,
And this was then a heavy crime.

For one long month they drooped in gaol:
At last the day of trial came;

And my poor boys stood sad and pale
Within the dock-the dock of shame.

I little, little dreamt that they

Should ever stand in such a way:

I thought I'd never rear a son

That should be placed a moment there; But Heaven's good will must still be done'Tis ours to suffer and to bear.

I searched the Court in doubt and fear,
I looked around with heavy heart,
To see if any friend was near

To take my children's part:
Oh no, each friend, it was decreed,
Should leave me in the day of need.
One that a character could give
Had lately gone to France to live;
Sick in his bed another lay-
The third to town was called away.
Our lawyer spoke with right intent,

He spoke as well as lawyer could;
But through the place a whisper went
That all he said had done no good.
I looked up to the judges then,

And cried; but no kind look was shown. Oh! sir, your high-born gentlemen,

In their strange pride and dignity,
Almost appear to think that we

Have not got hearts made like their own!
No hope remained, no chance I saw-
My boys were sentenced to my face;
I heard their doom, I cursed the law,
And faint and frantic left the place.
In three days more the worst was past-
I met them, and I looked my last;
'Took the last kiss I'll ever get,
For five long years are on them yet;
And low and bare these bones will lie
Before e'en half the time goes by:

Ay! long before they cross the sea,
The cold, cold worm will feed on me.
I strove for months to work my way,
I thought to hold the little spot;
But it was close to Lady-day,
And my small rent I couldn't pay,
For all I had the lawyers got.
The landlord came, he made no rout,
But said at once he'd cant me out :
I heard it, and I thought that he
Said this, just then, to frighten me.
But faith, dear sir, he sold me out-
He sold for all the rent I owed;
My little things were tossed about,
And I was turned upon the road.
I begged about my native place,
I asked for shelter far and near;
I saw dislike in every face—
I had no spot to hide my head

Till some good boys built up this shed;
And now at last I'm settled here.'

The creature wept, and wept again,
When her long tale of grief was done;
It moved me much, in age to see
So much of unearned misery :
It was to me a sight of pain,
Sad as I ever looked upon;

I gave the little I could spare,
And left the poor old mourner there.

MR. ENSOR V. ABSENTEEISM.

FROM the commencement of our publication we have laboured to explode the erroneous opinions respecting Ireland's discontent; and in the sixth number we have proved that her supposed misery cannot proceed from either the want of local manufactures or the absence of her proprietors. In broaching this doctrine we were of course prepared to expect that our arguments would be disputed. It was not likely that the hereditary opponents of emancipation would consent to have all the evils of Ireland attributed to the political degradation of the people; and, on the other hand, it was not probable that the Catholics themselves would willingly forego their

favourite topics-absenteeism and want of trade-to both of which they are in the erroneous habit of attributing nearly all their real and imaginary grievances. For this array of selfishness and prejudice we were prepared: but then we did not expect to encounter the disapprobation of one, distinguished alike for his love. of country and philosophic acquirements. We did think that Mr. Ensor had been too deeply read in political science to call in doubt the plainest axioms of economists. The truths we set forth are not the emanations of any wild theory-they are founded

on common sense.

Mr. Ensor, however, has, in no measured terms, condemned our doc.

* We subjoin Mr. Ensor's letter, omitting a short paragraph, which is irrelevant to the question. It was addressed to the Irishman,' a journal which, in point of talent and liberality, is inferior to no paper in the empire.

'SIR, I have just read a notice, for it does not profess to be a review, of Lady Morgan's "Absenteeism," in The Dublin and London Magazine of the present month. The purport of the article is to discredit the evils attributed to absenteeism. If absenteeism be not injurious to Ireland, cause and consequence have no kindred in their results. Absenteeism—that is, Irish property enjoyed by residents in England-began with

trine in toto. He had a right, when he thought that we were wrong, to differ from us, and we are glad that he has done so; for it affords us an opportunity of returning to the subject, and settling, we trust for ever, this

agitated question. We are not advocates for absenteeism-we only show its harmlessness as far as Ireland is concerned: and, lest any should suppose that we hold Macculloch's doctrine on the subject, we beg to dis

the conquest of Ireland; it increased by subsequent confiscations, and it multiplied excessively by the Union. Let us, however, take the ledger and rule, and consider absenteeism as profit and loss. "when

The writer in the Magazine states (and the Scotch economist says as much), an Irish proprietor spends his income, it is of little consequence, provided it be in his majesty's dominions."-Here is the royal touch in economics. Never was uttered a falser proposition. It is false in respect to the whole empire. So far from the disposal of the principal proprietors of countries being indifferent, that the distribution and accumulation of wealth, and all purposes of common utility, are mainly served by the proper disposition of the people, and any force or influence which obliges people to resort unnecessarily to any particular place is injurious. Such is the policy of the government of France, which requires most matters, essentially local, to be transacted in Paris. Such is the policy of England, in respect to Irish legislation-against which evil the Americans have guarded, for they perform all matters, not imperial, in the several States. Thus, no legislator is remote from his home, except for a short time, and then only when affairs of universal interest are to be resolved, while the most perfect knowledge is always present when local matters are considered in the several States. So essential to the right enjoyment of property is the residence of those who possess it, that the position of houses is important to the well-conducting of business on common farms.

'If the residence of proprietors be interesting to an empire, generally considered, with respect to the parts individually of that empire, that interest is multiplied infinitely; witness Warsaw, where the Diet of Poland formerly assembled; and Venice, the transactions of which town are now partly executed at Trieste. Dublin has suffered evils similar to both the capitals of Venice and Poland by the Union.

What is there in Dublin to excite one buoyant reflection? Even the loud voice of emancipation sinks into a treble about educating the people. The stranger prowls along its streets, and is told that, and that, and that large building, and a hundred more, were possessed and inhabited by this and that great proprietor. Then, thousands of houses are insolvent by the public returns; and the "suppression of mendicity" fills more columns of our journals than the speeches uttered by Flood, and Grattan, and Burgh, and Curran, in that place now abandoned to money changers. Nor are the mansions of the great in the country, and their towns and villages, much less suffering than the capital.

The writer in The Magazine, and he is not singular, says, "The absentee, by spending his money in London, Bath, or any other town in Great Britain, contributes to the resources of England, and thereby enables her artisans to consume more Irish flour, butter, beef, bacon." And what becomes of the Irish artisans in the overshot process? Now, would it not be far better for Ireland if those absentees in London and Bath were residents in Dublin and Cork, and that they did contribute to the resources of Ireland, by employing Irish artisans, which artisans should consume Irish butter, bacon, &c. and thus afford a double market to the Irish people? According to this doctrine the Irish artisans are wholly disregarded; they are nothing in the writer's account, and how are the agriculturists indemnified? Thus the Irish absentee proprietors, distributing the rents, issues, and profits, among the English artisans, increase their business, their numbers, and the general population of Britain, who employ a portion of the wages they receive from the Irish absentees to purchase Irish wheat, Irish butter, &c. This circuitous and imaginary process is the amount of the advocate's arguments for the indifference or the benefit of absenteeism in respect to the prosperity of Ireland, and it signifies, that by an involved gratuitous combination of circumstances, some portion of the rental of absentees finds its way back to Ireland, and is laid out in grain and meat raised by Irish graziers and farmers. And does this prove that it is immaterial to, perhaps, eight millions of people, whether the proprietors of their country are absentees or resident? Why, if every shilling paid to absentees was re-transferred to Ireland, a loss would be incurred to Ireland equal to the time and extent of the circumvolution of the transfer to England and the re-transfer to Ireland. This is a farce, mere hide and seek; all things being the same, the near market and the short return are the best, and the longest is the least preferable. But confessedly, by absentee

claim all participation in the broad principles promulgated by the Ricardo Lecturer. But while we regard the Scotch economists (or rather economist-for, after all, there appears to be but one) as the advocates of impious error-while we consider them as vain enough to suppose themselves, like SirGodfrey Kneller, as wiser than the Almighty-we are candid enough to admit that Mr. Macculloch, amidst a mass of nonsense, has told one important truth-namely, that human wisdom can do nothing for Ireland but restore the people to their rights. All else must be left to the progress of time, and the influence of education and habit.

teeism.' Had Mr. Ensor read these arguments we are persuaded he would not have disputed our positions; at all events he would not have said that Irish artisans went for nothing in our account. Such a conclusion he was not warranted in drawing; for we have proved that the residence of all the Irish absentees in Ireland could not create manufactures in that country. The reason is obvious. English manufacturers are now adequate to the supply, and are capable of fabricating much finer articles of dress and luxury than the Irish; consequently, if there were no absentees, the Manchester operatives would be employed in providing those articles for the Dublin market which are now sent to London; and the lord who now wears English cloth in St. James's Square, would, if residing in St. Stephen's Green, be clothed in English cloth too. This, in some measure, is the case at present, and was the case previous to the Union; though the payment of prohibitory duties on certain articles was then enforced. The Irish proprietor, by

ism, many branches of Irish industry are excluded from any benefit from the income of the proprietors of Ireland; and, in fact, the encouragement they give to farmers by grain, butter, bacon, &c. being sentto Britain, is fictitious.--As the Irish legislators are hostages to England's dominion, Irish absentees generally are factors of English industry. Our exports, to a considerable extent, are the lords' rent from the vassal territory; the Irish absentee proprietors act effectually towards England as the Decumani did in Sicily towards ancient Rome, but we call that trade which they called tribute.

As to what is fondly said of the two or three absentees, landlords, in respect to their attention to their Irish estates, and thence a conclusion being drawn that absentee landlords are as beneficial to their tenantry as resident landlords-what can be more illogical? It might be equally concluded that the lawn-sleeves are strenuous advocates for Catholic emancipation, because the Bishop of Norwich votes and speaks on the side of liberality. It is principled in human nature, that what is man's own is more interesting than what belongs to another, and the laws of property are founded on this consideration. Turn from reasoning to facts. The villages and estates of absentees are proclaimed by their appearance; they exhibit more distress and less subordination; peculiar circumstances, indeed, may occasionally neutralize the evil, but in general they present dereliction and misrule. It is absurd to say, that Irish produce transferred to Irish proprietors domiciliated in England, or absolutely expatriated, invigorates Irish industry; the greater portion of it might as well be burned on the fields that produced it in respect to Ireland; and considering the perpetual flow of this produce to absentees, and its amount-knowing also that capital is income reserved-it is obvious that Ireland holds her station by the recuperative energy of individuals, which often triumphs over the malice of the worst governments and the most disastrous events.

In concluding let me observe, that my remarks have no reference to Lady Morgan's work, which circumstances have prevented me from seeing; nor am I at all disposed to slight The Dublin and London Magazine, which I consider a spirited publication; but to say that absentees, and a transfer of three millions sterling from Ireland, to be spent in England, is not injurious to Ireland, must be placed with the dogmas of opulence accruing from the national debt, of the benefit of tithes to tillage, and of the muitiplied advantages of taxation o all the people.

Ardress, August 31st, 1825.'

GEORGE ENSOR.'