80 



ABSENTEEISM AND MIDDLEMEN*. 



provements and furniture, and surrendering them to weeds 

 and under-brush.. This disposition has been made, as I 

 have before stated, of some 400,000 acres. 



But the proportion of absentees has been made up since 7 

 by the purchase of depreciated estates upon the foreclosure 

 of mortgages given to secure absent money-lenders, of 

 whose operations I shall speak presently. There are, there- 

 fore, very few extensive proprietors of land among the resi- 

 dent population of the island. 



The blighting influence of absenteeism, and its tendency 

 to drive from a country its wealth, its intelligence, its in- 

 genuity, and its patriotism, have been made familiar to the 

 world by the unhappy experience of Ireland. I need not 

 speak of them therefore in detail. There are some features 

 of the system in its operation here ? which are not quite so 

 obvious. Most of the land is held by English proprietors^ 

 whose residence has usually been distant from it, at least 

 one month's sail. This involves the necessity of employing 

 a resident attorney, to take a proprietary supervision of the 

 estate, whose duty it is to employ an overseer to conduct 

 its tillage, and who is expected to advise the proprietor of 

 everything connected with its management, and to trans- 

 mit the proceeds of the crops whenever there are any to 

 transmit. 



The overseer occupies the mansion, usually a handsome 

 house, where he is personally attended by from three to 



