618 IRELAND AND HER COMMENTATORS. 



causans of calamities which they want the humanity to relieve, that 

 all classes of persons, the Catholic and the Protestant, the mere Irish 

 and the lord of the pale, the oppressor and the oppressed, the Irish 

 corporation and the English minister, have joined in a common cry 

 against absentees." 



Indeed so universal is the prejudice against non-resident landlords, 

 that those who have not given Irish affairs their attention, naturally 

 infer that a landowner who lives on his estate is quite a phenomenon. 

 But the author of " Commentaries on Ireland ' furnishes us with a 

 satisfactory refutation of such notions : 



" There are 204 Irish temporal peers and peeresses: of these 110 

 reside in Ireland. Of the 28 peers of Ireland who sit in parliament 

 as representatives, only three are absentees. The majority of baro- 

 nets reside in the country ; and of the proprietors who hold the rank 

 of commoners, almost all are resident. They are the magistrates and 

 grand-jurors whom the popular leaders continually denounce." 



So much for numerical errors. Now for the refutation of the doc- 

 trine of the utility of residence of proprietors. " The prevailing 

 errors," says a writer erudite on these matters in the Dublin and 

 London Magazine (now defunct) "respecting the causes of Irish 

 grievances and discontent arise from neglecting to apply the funda- 

 mental rules of immutable truth as a test to individual opinions, and 

 rejecting them if they militate against these principles universally 

 correct." Now the popular opinion on absenteeism militates against 

 these principles in toto. Ireland is decidedly an agricultural country ; 

 rents are paid from the produce, of the soil, and it is quite immaterial 

 to the farmer who buys that produce, so long as it is bought. If the 

 labour to grow the produce be scarce, the wages of the peasant will 

 be high if labour be superabundant, (as is the case) wages must be 

 low. What influence then can residence or non- residence of the 

 proprietor have on the farmer or the peasant in the growing or the 

 disposal of such produce ? It is the land that gives employment to 

 farmer and peasant, and not the rent : that is the result of employ- 

 ment, not the cause. Supposing that all the money spent in Eng- 

 land by Irish absentees were spent at home, the consumption of Irish 

 produce would not be increased. The articles consumed by ab- 

 sentees, which Ireland does not produce, comprise all things but the 

 absolute necessaries of existence. England under all circumstances, 

 could or can alone supply the luxuries, in the purchase of which 

 landlord's incomes are chiefly expended wines, silks, and the like. 

 At first sight it looks feasible to imagine that a great impetus would 

 be communicated to business of shop-keepers, and such tradesmen as 

 live by waiting on the rich, were Irish absentees to live at home. 

 But the benefit resulting to the nation at large, would be highly pro- 

 blematical. However business might increase, profits would not be 

 augmented, though competition as in the case of the peasantry would 

 in a five-fold degree so that the haberdashery and confectionary mar- 

 kets would be overrun precisely like the agricultural-labour market. 

 Moreover, where are the grounds to warrant the supposition, that 

 any class of persons would make so great a sacrifice as to prefer bad 

 articles at a high price, to good articles at a low one. It would be 



