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The Country Gejitlcviaiis Magazine 



Ireland, but occasionally on the property/' 

 though we are not surprised to find that 

 while these i8o constitute less than one- 

 hundredth part of the Irish proprietary, they 

 own between them nearly one-fifteenth part 

 of the whole acreage. Those " rarely or 

 never resident in Ireland" are stated at 

 1443 — that \%, between one-thirteenth and 

 one-fourteenth of the whole number — but 

 own together between one-sixth and one- 

 seventh of the whole acreage. More than 

 500,000 acres belonging to 161 "public or 

 charitable institutions or public companies," 

 a somewhat larger amount to owners "not 

 ascertained," and nearly 500,000 to " pro- 

 ])rietors of properties under 100 acres, un- 

 classed." These small "unclassed" pro- 

 perties are nearly 6000 in num.ber, but as 

 very {(t\N of them, we may be sure, reside out 

 of Ireland, the proportion of bona fide 

 absentees to bona fide resident owners would 

 be scarcely .affected if they were included in 

 the calculation. Comparing these two classes 

 with each other, we are gratified to find that 

 constant residents are nearly four times as 

 numerous as constant absentees, while they 

 own very nearly thrice as much property in 

 area and above thrice as much in value. 

 But this fact by no means represents 

 the real preponderance of proprietors 

 resident in Ireland over absentees pro- 

 perly so called. There remains to be added, 

 for this purpose, the large class of Irish pro- 

 prietors who do not live, indeed, on their 

 properties, but in Dublin or elsewhere in 

 Ireland, falling short of the /w/^T^i'/^ residents 

 by one-fifth only in number, and owning 

 nearly half as much land in area and value. 

 If these be taken into the account, and if 

 Swift's computation be accepted as fairly 

 accurate for his own time, we must needs in- 

 fer that a vast abatement has taken place in 

 the evil of Irish absenteeism. Instead of 

 one-third of the Irish rental going directly 

 into the pockets of " perpetual absentees," 

 never to come back in any shape, it is here 

 clearly shewn that little more than one seventh 

 is thus absorbed, of which it is certain that 

 a very large part is sent back to Ireland to 

 be spent in improvements and otherwise for 



the benefit of the country. Even if absentees 

 who occasionally reside and public corpora- 

 tions be thrown into the same category, ab- 

 sentees cannot be made accountable for so 

 much as a-quarter of the Irish rental, and no 

 one who knows Ireland will deny that among 

 the former, at all events, are some of her 

 best landlords and greatest benefactors. 



"We may, then, conclude with some confid- 

 ence that Irish absenteeism has not increased, 

 but, on the contrary, has rather diminished, 

 since the Union. There is reason to believe 

 that, on the whole, the Encumbered and 

 Landed Estates Courts have promoted the 

 substitution of resident for non-resident pro- 

 prietors. AMiether the Land Act will have the 

 same tendency, by encouraging tenant-farmers 

 to bid for estates on sale, or will have the 

 opposite tendency, by weakening a landlord's 

 motives for residing on his property, it is as 

 yet impossible to foresee. However this may 

 be, what cannot be denied, and ought not to 

 be forgotten, is that absenteeism, if it is not 

 so enormous and crying an evil as in the last 

 century, is still, as it has ever been, one of 

 the main obstacles to the prosperity of Ire- 

 land. In Great Britain, and especially in 

 Scotland, where it has become much too 

 common, its evil effects are mitigated by the 

 independent spirit of the people. In Ireland 

 there is nothing to supply the place of a 

 resident landlord's example and influence, yet, 

 by a strange fatality, the very circumstances 

 which make this so necessary to the island 

 are the immediate cause of absenteeism. 

 Berkeley asks, in his pregnant style, " whether 

 a gentleman who hath seen a little of the 

 world and observed how men live elsewhere 

 can contentedly sit down in a cold, damp, 

 sordid habitation in the midst of a bleak 

 country inhabited by thieves and beggars." 

 After making due allowance for a marked 

 advance in Irish civilization since Berkeley's 

 age, which, however, is partly compensated 

 by a corresponding advmce in the Irish 

 squire's notions of comfort, this question of 

 Berkeley's might be put with equal propriety 

 at the present da}-. The simple reason why 

 so many Irish proprietors reside in Eng- 

 land or on the Continent is that life is there 



