suaded, notwithstanding the outcry against him, is the greatest sufferer. Nothing, it appears to me, could be easier than a measure which would have the effect of ultimately exonerating all the land in the empire of tithes, and converting them into glebe, without any compulsory clauses whatsoever; though I see not why such might not be resorted to, in order to carry into effect a regulation founded on impartial justice and reciprocal advantage. The ancient and beneficial feelings of reverence and affection between the pastor and his people would then be naturally renewed. On the present system, however, it is almost impossible that the former should escape censure, whatever be his conduct. If he accept less than his right, which he does in most instances, still he does not escape, in many cases, the odium of being an exactor and oppressor, in that he takes anything. Instead of the respect and veneration with which a kind and benevolent landlord is ever regarded, and which he would then be enabled to become, he is now looked upon, at best, but as a sort of ecclesiastical tax-gatherer: nay, I see in the statistical account of Rathvilly, tithe is classed under the head of "local taxation," instead of under the column, of rent; a distinction apparently not without a difference, and possibly one of the utmost practical importance. If he do not take his tithes in kind, in the fear that he may and the knowledge that he can, he becomes a standing object of dread and distrust. If he do, he is hated and defied. His ministerial functions are, in the mean time, disliked and deserted, and his office, as well as his person, held.

2

in abhorrence; and from this state of things, many are constantly alienated from the establishment by the very means which, under a better system, would unite them to it, and promote its interest and utility. No temporary commutations, as at present, can fully obviate these evils, much less secure the advantages proposed. That a general bill should not have passed centuries ago, to facilitate the permanent commutation of tithes, is one of those many instances that might be adduced which would almost tempt one to believe that the management of the affairs of the church had been committed into the hands of its enemies. I can hardly see who could have been its opposers, or what were the difficulties, beyond such as always attend the adjustment of separate interests of considerable magnitude. Some such bill might and ought still to be framed; for it cannot be disguised that, owing to the system of management of estates in Ireland, especially as so much is under the "care" of middlemen, the present mode of collecting tithes falls as a very great grievance on the little Irish cultivator; and violent heats, much bloodshed, and great distress, are constantly occasioned by it. Meantime, as an accelerator of such an adjustment, the landlord SHOULD IN ALL CASES

PAY THE VALUE OF THE TITHES TO THE INCUMBENT;

which tithes might be annually fixed at a reasonable rate, calculated upon existing prices, but without reference to the variation in the produce of the actual crop; and means might easily be adopted to secure both parties from any material imposition.

(7.) Having ventured to touch upon the ecclesi

astical property of Ireland, I will just add, that a very beneficial arrangement, of a nature purely prospective, and consequently not interfering with existing rights, might be made so as most essentially to serve the interests of the establishment and its members. If the leasehold system, now absorbing so much of its income, were gradually got rid of, reserving at least what would be as ample a revenue for the purposes to which the whole is appropriated, as now enjoyed; and the surplus thus created were devoted to increasing the number of cures throughout the country, now so lamentably few, the advantages would be great. Who could be the objectors to such a proposition, it is difficult to imagine; certainly not the friends of the establishment. But I am wandering from the matters to which, in the outset, I purposed to confine myself, and to which I shall now return.

§ XI. (1.) The preceding observations, whether in relation to the wrongs of Ireland, or, as I believe them to be, the fatal errors in the propositions of those who, there can be no doubt, are anxious to remedy them, might have been greatly multiplied; they have, however, been already extended to a far greater length than originally intended; as it was less my object to write a treatise on the state and condition of Ireland, than to point out those circumstances which have caused it to become an apparent contradiction to the principle of population, as already propounded. Having, however, insisted upon what I conceive to be the real source of the evils of that country, and exposed, as well as I have been able, the inefficacy, and

indeed the perniciousness, of those remedies which are now so urgently proposed for their removal or relief,—it perhaps may be expected that I should give my ideas as to the methods proper to be adopted, in relation to that country; exposing, in turn, my views on this important matter to that examination to which I have so freely subjected those of others.

It is an ancient, and, hitherto, not an exploded adage, that the knowledge of the disease is, in many cases, half the cure; and if the view which I, or rather others infinitely better qualified to determine, have taken of the prime injury which Ireland sustains, be correct, then the remedy is at once suggested. If Ireland is impoverished, degraded, and distressed, by absenteeism, the cure for these sufferings is doubtless the removal of their cause, or, if that cannot be entirely accomplished, by counteracting its effects as much as possible.

(2.) There are some, however, so extremely tender upon this point, that they would consign a whole country to perpetual suffering, rather than take any measure whatsoever that should have the appearance of touching, ever so slightly, what they denominate the rights of private property. I shall not pause to argue with such; their principles are utterly inconsistent with the paramount rights and even duties of the legislature, and with the ultimate preservation of that property itself, about which they profess to be so anxious. This is a very common idea with those who, nevertheless, are not very adverse to sweeping away the rights of one or two entire classes of society at once, that is, if they think it to be for their interest. Such

I can assure that I feel as averse as any one ought to do, from any measures which the most rigid principles of justice would discountenance, and I would propose nothing that should be reasonably objected to, even by the parties themselves interested. At all events, the propositions I am about to submit are of a far less onerous nature than many laws which have, from time to time, been passed on this subject, and greatly short of what government has, and at no very distant period, proposed, or that which the parties themselves ought voluntarily to adopt.

"plu

(3.) As to interfering at all, it has been already hinted, that the property possessed by these absentees, if duly traced, will be found to have been conferred on the condition of personal residence, or what is equivalent to it. The more this matter is examined, the clearer will it appear. This was doubtless the view taken of it by sundry monarchs, and by many parliaments. As early as the reign of Edward III., in 1368, we find him stating, in an ordinance regarding Ireland, that " seures seigneuries et terres illoeques par noz ditz progeintours feurent donez & grantez a divers seigneurs et auters persones noz-foialt d'engleterre, qi tieur guerdons avoient par leur continuel demoeure sur leur ditz seigneuries purreit sauvement estre defenduz a touz jours et coment de long temps ont pris les issues et profitz sans defens ou garde covenable y mettre, si qi par leur defauts et non chaler sont les ditz mals avenuz en perdition de la dite terre," &c. In the reign of Richard II. a law was passed, fining absentees two

'Anthologia Hibernica; quoted by Croker, pp. 267, 268, note.