THE 



COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE 



AUGUST 1872 



IRISH ABSENTEEISM— PAST AND PRESENT. 



MUCH light has been thrown upon the 

 distribution of landed property in 

 Ireland, and the prevalence of absenteeism, 

 by a Return issued during the present ses- 

 sion on the motion of Mr Patrick Smyth. 

 This Return (says the Times) gives the landed 

 proprietors in each province and county of 

 Ireland, classified according to residence, 

 and the extent and value of the property 

 held by each class. It was prepared in 

 the year 1870, when the Irish Government 

 was collecting evidence on every branch of 

 the land question, and was based on the 

 valuation books of 1869. It cannot, there- 

 fore, be taken as more than approximately 

 correct for the present year, and it does not 

 purport to include owners of lands and 

 houses in towns, but only proprietors in the 

 country or rural districts. Within these 

 limits, however, the particulars of residence 

 may be regarded as highly trustworthy, having 

 been obtained by the Irish Poor Law Inspec- 

 tors, through personal inquiries from the 

 clerks of unions, poor-rate collectors, " and 

 other persons possessing local knowledge of 

 the facts." In this respect it is probably 

 superior in accuracy, as it is certainly supe- 

 rior in completeness, to any similar docu- 

 ment heretofore compiled. So far back as 

 1730, a list of Irish absentees was published, 

 giving the yearly value of their estates and 

 incomes spent abroad ; other lists of the 

 same kind appeared subsequently, and one 

 is furnished in the admirable treatise of 

 Arthur Young. Indeed, the evils of absen- 

 yoL. IX. 



teeism had engaged the attention of thought- 

 ful men in Ireland at a still earlier period, 

 having been extenuated rather sophistically 

 by Sir William Petty, and depicted in the 

 darkest colours by Dean Swift, who asserts 

 more than once that a full third of the rental 

 of Ireland was transmitted to landlords per- 

 manently resident in England, besides vast 

 sums carried out of the country by other 

 Irishmen of the upper classes. All these 

 estimates must be considered loose and un- 

 satisfactory as compared with such a Return 

 as that before us, inasmuch as they are, at 

 best, founded on private information, and not 

 on official authority. At the same time, they 

 coincide so nearly in their general results as 

 to be of considerable value in enabling us to 

 appreciate the present statistics of Irish pro- 

 prietorship and absenteeism. 



It appears that the soil of Ireland, exclu- 

 sive of town sites, is divided among 19,547 

 proprietors, holding in fee-simple, in "per- 

 petuity," or " on long leases at chief-rents." 

 Since it covers an area just exceeding 

 20,000,000 statute acres, we may say, 

 roughly, that Irish properties average 1000 

 acres in size. Of these 19,547 proprietors, 

 5 5 89, owning properties of 100 acres and up- 

 wards, are ascertained to be resident on or 

 near their estates. There are also 4465 

 proprietors of 100 acres and upwards who 

 reside constantly elsewhere in Ireland, be- 

 sides 377 who usually reside elsewhere in 

 Ireland, but occasionally on the estate. Only 

 180 are returned as " resident usually out of 



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