instance as an example:--"One of those Englishmen who got an appointment
in Ireland landed in Dublin on a Saturday evening, went next day to a
parish church, received the Sacrament there, went to the Courts on
Monday, took the necessary oaths, and sailed for England that very
evening! This was certainly expedition, but still coming over at all was
troublesome: so those who had obtained appointments in Ireland got an
Act quietly passed in the English Parliament dispensing them from
visiting Ireland at all, even to take possession of those offices to
which they were promoted."[44]

That a large proportion of the owners of the soil of a country should
reside out of it, has been always regarded as a great evil, as well as a
real loss to that country. Mr. M'Cullagh's elaborate attempt to prove
there is no real pecuniary loss inflicted by mere absenteeism convinces
no impartial man, least of all does it convince those who experience,
daily in their own persons, the evils which inevitably result from
absenteeism. It is fallacious with regard to any country, but especially
so as regards Ireland, which, in his argument, he assumes to have her
proportion of the profit from the manufactured exports of the United
Kingdom, whereas she is not a manufacturing country at all, having as
exports, only some linen and the food that should be kept at home to be
consumed by her people. When taxes are to be levied and battles to be
fought, we are always an integral part of the United Kingdom; but when
there is a question of encouraging or extending manufactures, we are
treated as the rival and the enemy of England.[45]

The avarice and tyranny of landlords, is usually set down as a principal
cause of the great poverty and misery of the Irish people, during a long
period. If we examine the rents paid one hundred and fifty, or even one
hundred years ago, they will appear trifling when compared with the