thirty years' experience, I have found three rules proper to be observed. 1st. To be continually on your guard against the encroachment of agents. There is no gentleman in Ireland, let his fortune be what it will, who is above accepting and even soliciting the care of an absentee's affairs, except it be perhaps persons of the very first rank, and that only lately; which sufficiently explains the advantage which has been taken. There is no one whom you can employ, let his origin be ever so secure, except it be a man in trade, who will not sooner or later take upon himself the pretensions of a gentleman; and as to sending over some one from England, Sir Robert Wilmot used to say, that no one went to Ireland who did not lose his understanding in six months. After trying many experiments, I have found that the best and indeed only method of avoiding imposition is to employ two agents, one resident upon each estate, and the other to go over from six months to six months; which you may always have at two guineas a day, and will be found productive of various advantages to the tenants, as well as the landlord, and to the estate itself. But above all, care must be taken never to let any estate, without the opinion of at least two persons, and one a stranger unconnected with the country; and not to admit for a moment in any conversation or letter, the common jargon about confidence, in opposition to this system. An honest man never desires it.
"2ndly. To be always on your guard against law, as the spirit of litigiousness is not to be described. (See the case of Smith in Limerick, Colclough in Drinna, and Rice in the Queen's county; in no one of which the tenants had the smallest chance of success; nor could any of them afford the expense; notwithstanding which they incurred it in opposition to every remonstrance and every reasonable offer which could be devised.) In all poor countries, the people are litigious; but in Ireland the several laws of settlement and the Popery laws have left the country scarcely a habit of anything else; and law is in all respects more expensive, more confused, and more prolific in Ireland than in England. For these reasons never take a
