IRISH ABSENTEEISM.
Ansarrraiussr has been magnified into a monstrous bugbear ; and Mr. O'Connell goes so far in his last letter, as to rest the de- mand for a "Domestic Legislature" on the plea of that "drain" to the country— "Still, for my part, I am most thoroughly convinced that it is utterly impossible for the British Parliament to govern Ireland properly. It requires a Domestic Legislature for that purpose. The drain of absenteeism, which, after all, is the Ntonster cause of all our misery andpoverty, can be prevented by an Irish Parlia- ment alone."
Absenteeism is an evil, but not the monster evil of Ireland, still less the cause. It is not a primary cause of poverty in a country, but an incident of it. Many Scotch districts, many English dis- tricts, never see their absentee landlords • yet we hear of no cry about " absenteeism." On the other and, rural districts that are peaceful and agreeable need no absentee-tax to compel resi- dence. Even in Ireland, it is not the estates of the greatest ab- sentee landlords on which there is the greatest poverty, with its attendant cries of "Absenteeism" and " Repeal," but the estates of small resident occupiers—your men who screw for want of means. Ireland boasts of being the most beautiful country in the world—just the place for a summer residence : what keeps landlords and their visiting friends away, is the assassin's gun- Ihe reminiscence of such a fate as Lord Norbury's. Supposing, however, that an absentee tax were a great remedial measure, is it certain that a " Domestic Legislature" of Irish landlords _would pass it? or is Mr. O'Connell to have a special Parliament, .elected by universal suffrage or " the Repeal ticket," on purpose to enact the tax? Supposing it passed—supposing the landlords hemmed in, like game in a preserve, to dwell on their estates, kill their own mutton, and be killed by their own tenantry—what direct element of wealth is there in that ? So much, it is said, will not " go out of the country " in the shape of rent : but if it be squandered in racing, gambling, and other aristocratic amuse- ments, in Dublin—as it was in the former days of " Domestic Legislature "—how will the rural districts profit ? what portion will flow back to irrigate the soil ? The only security for that end would be to follow up the absentee-tax by an agrarian law compelling a set portion of the income to be spent on the land for the benefit of the tenant : the next thing would be to confiscate the land altogether, if " fixity of tenure" had not already com- pleted the process. The English statesmen who will fairly grapple with the subject of Ireland's wants are not yet threatened with any Irish rival in that field of usefulness.
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