considerable progress, and I imagine its independence would more likely secure its dependence on England.[1] The circumstance of so many absentees residing in England is become a general complaint in Ireland, and it certainly is a grievance, but not for the reason which is generally given, that it draws so much money out of the country; for this is certainly more than balanced by the great saving in the expenses of Government, by the nature of its connection with Great Britain, the loan of capital, and many other advantages. But the real evil is, that the absence of the rich proprietors retards civilisation, the progress of manners, and many liberal improvements; for though the rich may in some respects set a bad example, yet upon the whole they soften and liberalise, excite industry, and make society by bringing men together, who polish themselves, enforce a due administration of justice, and keep down the professions, whose employment is to rob every country, and if left to themselves, naturally produce upstart manners and a total want of principle. But in fact, nothing as yet has taken its value in Ireland; agriculture itself is a century behindhand. The circumstance of middlemen, that is a landlord under a landlord, so much complained of and so justly and universally condemned, has been one stage in the progress of agriculture in all countries (as may be seen in several acts of parliament, which passed in England in Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth's reigns),[2] and is the natural consequence of want of capital; but when land takes its value, and when sufficient capital is either introduced or created to answer all the purposes of circulation, and estates become a marketable commodity, property must in its nature follow residence, and this evil must cease.
"It hurts me to do more than allude very generally
- ↑ See a letter from Lord Shelburne in the Life of Grattan, by his son, ii. 292, for his views on the above subject.
- ↑ The conversion of tillage into pasturage, caused by the increased demand for wool and the high rate of wages which followed the Black Death, is one of the leading features of the history of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in England. The graziers were often absentees, and either granted long leases to their tenants, or, as stated above, farmed out their estates to middlemen. A long series of statutes from the 4th Henry VII. c. 19, to the 39th Elizabeth, ch. i., attempted to check the change which was passing over the agriculture of the country and the results springing from it.
