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Formerly, this ancient enemy of Ireland, or, to speak more literally, "the cut-purse of the empire," concealed its footsteps as much as possible, and when observed, disguised itself under a number of specious pretences and apologies. Health; safety; education; and a variety of other reasons were always forthcoming, amounting, on the whole, to a kind of necessity; and necessity, as is well known, can have no law, whether of duty or gratitude. Now, however, fully absolved by political economy, and even invested with peculiar honours, it no longer seeks concealment, but boldly avows itself; affects the language and assumes the pretensions of genuine patriotism, and perpetually stuns you with declamations concerning a country which it personally deserts, and is constantly pillaging and oppressing by proxy.

(2.) To estimate the mass of misery which this evil has occasioned, we must attend to its origin, and long continuance, as well as to its present extent. Ireland only shared the fate of England in having been a conquered country, but it has been more unfortunate than the latter in having been frequently subdued; a variety of causes, amongst which the very evil we are considering may be regarded as one of the most powerful, though perhaps the least obvious, having occasioned those frequent insubordinations and rebellions which so disfigure its history. These have always been quelled and punished; hence few generations have elapsed, especially in former times, without witnessing the confiscations of large portions of the property of the island. To go no farther back than Queen Elizabeth's time: three re

bellions during that period were the cause of placing a great part of the lands of Ireland at the disposal of the crown. Leland says, more than one half of Ulster became vested in the queen, "to be disposed of as most expedient for the interests and security of her government'." A greater authority, and one connected with the transactions he records, Edmund Spenser, gives a vastly higher proportion. Of the 9000 ploughlands which Ulster contained, all but 400 or 500 he represents as having escheated to her. In Connaught, I understand him to calculate, that at least five-sixths of the whole were in the same predicament3: and even in Leinster, exceedingly large tracts, consisting of entire counties, were similarly circumstanced1. As to Munster, at the period he wrote, it appears very much of it was already in the hands of her "undertakers." Indeed, by the single attainder and death of the Earl of Desmond, "enormous domains," as large as "the possessions of independent princes," fell to her disposal, besides sundry other minor forfeitures. In the reign of her successor, James I., the greatest and most valuable part of Ulster again reverted to the crown, in consequence of the treasonable practices of Tyrone, Tyrconnel, and others, their adherents'. During the interregnum, confiscations to a far greater extent occurred. The fluctuation and uncertainty in the landed property throughout the island, at the period of the restoration, may be seen by opening two or three

'Leland, Hist. of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 247, 4to.
Spencer, State of Ireland, Works, vol. vi.
3 Ibid. pp. 179, 180. Ibid. pp. 183, 184.
* Leland, Hist. of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 288..

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p. 176, 12mo.

Ibid. pp. 185, 186. 7 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 424.

of the first pages in Sir William Petty's "Anatomy of Ireland." At the revolution, another seizure of very considerable extent, and it is to be hoped the last, took place, when upwards of a million acres of land were forfeited at once more than half of these, however, were afterwards restored, as well as, probably, much of the preceding ones': much, however, was permanently withheld from the former possessors, and bestowed, of course, in many instances, on the retainers of the court for the time being; almost always, however, on condition of residence, which many nevertheless contrived to evade, letting their acquisitions under various tenures to resident cultivators.

The extent of these forfeitures is far from being exaggerated. Lord Clare says that, of the twelve millions of acres which the island contains, eleven and a half underwent confiscation, during the one century last referred to.

I most distinctly disclaim alluding to these irritating topics with any other view than that which renders an appeal to them necessary to prove and illustrate the important point which I am now about to enforce. I will even acknowledge that, perhaps, these fluctuations in the landed property of Ireland, consequent upon her connexion with this country, were not so frequent and universal as those which were perpetually taking place under the antient Irish custom of tanistry, as it was called, by which the whole landed property of the country was constantly changing hands. Even after this custom was abolished, these

'Sir William Petty, Polit. Anat. of Ireland, pp. 1-4.

'See Spenser's Account of Ireland, Works, vol. vi.

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extensive forfeitures fell principally upon ancient English proprietors, who were successively dispossessed several times over; which fully accounts for the otherwise extraordinary fact, that there are fictitious claims to property in Ireland to a far greater extent than the entire area of the country. But, whatever truth there may be in these remarks, it is wide of my present purpose to dwell upon them: it only concerns the argument to state that, had the property in Ireland, forfeited from time to time, been conferred upon those who were residents in the country, or likely to remain so, such spoliations, though inflicting great individual suffering, would not perhaps have materially impoverished it; but, when they were bestowed upon those who did not reside in it, upon a mere unregarded engagement that they would do so; or who, residing there, were, in consequence of these accessions of fortune, too often tempted to leave it for an establishment nearer the focus of the empire, or still more culpable, who were thus enabled to spend their acquired wealth beyond the boundaries of the British dominions, then and thus was it that the evils of absenteeism commenced, and, by the sure and constant operation of this adequate cause, the impoverishment of Ireland has been begun and continued, and will never end till, by some means or other, this crying injury shall be abated.

(3.) The fatal consequences of absenteeship have long been forcibly pourtrayed, by a great body of writers, familiar with the situation and sufferings of Ireland, a few only of whom will be quoted.

Sir William Petty says, that "a great part of the

estates, both real and personal, in Ireland, are owned by absentees, and such as draw over the profits raised out of Ireland, refunding nothing: so as Ireland, exporting more than it imports, doth yet grow poorer to a paradox'." In the same page, he attributes the lamentable want of employment and the idleness of Ireland to the same fatal cause, absenteeism.

In about half a century afterwards, we find this evil had not abated. Dobbs, as it is believed, published, under the assumed name of Prior, in 1729, a list of the absentees, as far as he could collect them, estimating the annual subtraction of wealth, from this cause, at £627,799 a prodigious sum at that time, and for such a country; the rental of which, it is supposed, did not then exceed two millions. This estimate is fully confirmed by a very judicious English writer, of that period. Gee, in his work on the Trade and Navigation of Great Britain, says, " it is thought "it near one third part of the rents of the whole (of Ireland) belong to English noblemen and gentlemen that dwell here"." I shall give a few extracts from the former writer, and hope that the first will be particularly noticed:-" By means of our nobles and gentry deserting their own country, and spending all abroad, our people are left without employment, and are forced to shift to other countries, even to America, to get a livelihood 4." ""Tis not to be wondered at that we should grow poorer every day, under such an unprofitable issue of money, which all the labour of

'Sir William Petty, Political Anatomy of Ireland, p. 33.

2

Prior, List of Absentees of Ireland, p. 13.

3

Gee, Trade and Navy of Great Britain, p. 19.

List of Absentees, p 23.

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