ABERGAVENNY ABSORPTION. 



195 



ABERGAVENNY; a town in Monmouthshire, 

 Wales, seated on the confluence of the rivers Usk 

 and Gavenny, 142 miles west from London, and 14 

 south-west from Monmouth. The Derry, one of 

 the hills which sustain the pyramidal hill called the 

 Sugar Loaf, rises above the town, which is built in 

 an irregular manner, but is pleasantly interspersed 

 with trees. On an eminence near the south end 

 are the ruins of the castle, which was founded soon 

 after the Conquest, by Hameline de Balun, or Bala- 

 don, one of whose descendants founded here a priory 

 for Benedictine monks, of which some vestiges also 

 exist. The church, dedicated to St Mary, recently 

 rebuilt, is a spacious structure in the Norman style 

 of architecture, and contains several very ancient 

 monuments. Its choir remains in its original state, 

 with rudely carved oaken stalls. The Baptists, 

 Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, and Roman 

 Catholics, have each chapels here. 



The princioal trade of this place is in wool. In 

 the vicinity are numerous iron works. Aberga- 

 venny is the thoroughfare from the west of Wales 

 to Bath, Bristol, and Gloucestershire; and. the 

 Monmouthshire and Brecon canal, which passes 

 within a mile of the town, adds greatly to its faci- 

 lities for trade. Abergavenny castle confers the 

 title of earl on the family of Neville. Within half 

 a mile of the town are the remains of a Roman 

 camp ; and at Lloyndhu is a mineral spring, said to 

 be of service in scorbutic complaints. Population 

 of the town in 1831, 4230; in 1841, 4953. 



ABINGDON; a market-town in Berkshire, 

 England, situated at the influx of the Ock into the 

 Thames, 55 miles W. N. W. from London. It 

 consists of several well-built streets, which termi- 

 nate in a spacious area, in which the market is held ; 

 and in the centre of this area is the market-house, 

 a handsome structure of curious workmanship, with 

 a large hall above, in which the summer assizes are 

 held, and other public business done. The most 

 considerable manufactures of the town are canvass, 

 sacking, and sail-cloth. The principal trade is that of 

 malting. Market-days, Monday for corn, and Friday 

 for articles of general consumption. There are two 

 parish churches, and several chapels for dissenters ; 

 also several hospitals and alms-houses, and a free 

 grammar-school, founded in 1563, by John Royse, 

 for the education of 63 boys. Before the reform- 

 bill Abingdon returned one member to parliament, 

 and it still retains that privilege. Population in 

 1801, 4356; in 1831, 5259; in 1841, 5585. 



ABSENTEEISM. The effect of the non-re- 

 sidence of landholders upon their estates, or, as 

 it is comprehensively styled in one word, absentee- 

 ism, is a question upon which there has been some 

 difference of opinion among economists. Mr 

 M'Culloch, on his examination before a committee 

 of the House of Commons, declared that it is of no 

 consequence to the inhabitants of a particular coun- 

 try, as, for instance, Ireland, whether the land- 

 holders spend their incomes at home or abroad. 

 When asked whether " the population of a country 

 would not be benefited by the expenditure at home 

 of a certain portion of the rent, which if the land- 

 holder were an absentee, would be expended 

 Abroad," he replied ; " No, I do not see how it 

 would be benefited in the least. If you have a 

 certain value laid out against Irish commodities 

 in the one case, you will have a certain value laid 

 out against them in the other. The cattle raised 

 by the landholder are either exported to England 

 or they stay at home. If they are exported, the 



landlord will obtain an equivalent for them in 

 English commodities ; if they are not, he will ob- 

 tain an equivalent for them in Irish commodities; 

 so that in both cases the landlord lives on the cat- 

 tle, or on the value of the cattle, and whether he 

 lives in Ireland or in England, there is obviously 

 just the very same amount of commodities for the 

 people of Ireland to subsist upon." 



Ihe fallacy of this argument is so apparent, that 

 it has been almost universally rejected in England. 

 It is, indeed, too plain to admit of question, that, if 

 the products imported from Ireland in payment of the 

 rent of absentee landholders reward the labour of a 

 hundred thousand English workmen, they would, 

 had they been consumed at home, have afforded em- 

 ployment to a hundred thousand Irishmen, who could 

 not otherwise have obtained it, and have conferred 

 an economical benefit equal to the profits of their 

 labour, upon Ireland. The non-residence of the 

 Irish proprietors compels the Irish labourers to 

 emigrate in swarms to England, to find the employ- 

 ment which they cannot obtain at home. 



Mr Senior rejects the doctrine of M'Culloch, as 

 stated by himself, but admits it with a qualification. 

 When the non-resident proprietor receives his in- 

 come in agricultural produce, his absence is a dis- 

 advantage, but when he receives it in manufactures 

 the case is otherwise. If an English landholder 

 resides in France, and his rents are remitted to him 

 in British manufactures, his income, says Mr Senior, 

 though finally spent abroad, is nevertheless first 

 spent at home, and the only effect of his non-resid- 

 ence is that he gives employment to one description 

 of workmen instead of another. It is obvious, 

 however, that this distinction is wholly futile, and 

 that it makes no difference whatever to the com- 

 munity, in what form the income of an absent pro- 

 prietor is remitted to him. If it be more advan- 

 tageous to him to receive it in manufactured articles 

 than in agricultural produce or specie, it must be 

 because there is a profitable trade carried on in such 

 articles between the country where he resides and 

 that in which his estates are situated. This trade 

 employs of course a certain amount of capital, and 

 the investment in it of an additional amount for the 

 purpose of making remittances, would only displace 

 an equal amount that had been invested before. 

 The effect would be, not as Mr Senior supposes, to 

 employ one set of workmen instead of another, but 

 to throw out of employment one set of workmen 

 instead of another ; and the general result, as far 

 as the community is affected, would be in both 

 cases precisely the same. 



ABSORPTION. All bodies, fluid and solid, 

 possess the property of absorbing gases and vapours 

 into their pores, without changing their state of 

 aggregation, and without forming with them true 

 chemical compounds. In the case of solids, the ex- 

 tent of the absorption and the rapidity with which 

 it takes place, are modified by the dryness and 

 porosity of the substance, by the atmospheric pres- 

 sure and temperature, as well as by the nature ot 

 the gas or vapour. The more dense a piece of 

 charcoal is, or the smaller its pores, the greater are 

 its absorbent powers ; this is true at least to a cer 

 tain extent. A piece of box-wood charcoal has been 

 found, by experiment, to absorb within its pores, 



Ammoniaral gas 

 Muriatic acid gas . 

 Sulphurous acid gas 

 Carbonic acid gas . 

 Oxygen gas 

 Nitrogen gas 

 Hydrogen gas . 



90 times its volume. 



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