Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/123

Rh account of their own acts, but as representatives of those bygone generations to whose vicious mismanagement of their estates the present misfortunes of the country are to be attributed. That such is not the issue raised in the various manifestoes which I have undertaken to consider, will be at once apparent on referring to them; but, as it may be useful to ascertain what have been some of the historical sources of Ireland's economic difficulties, I will endeavour to discriminate between the share in them attributable to the former owners of the soil and that which is due to other causes.

The writer who thus proposes to antedate our responsibilities seems satisfied he has arrived at the fountain-head of Ireland's calamities when he points his finger at the Irish proprietory of former days; nor does he dream of inquiring whether the landlord of 70 or 80 years ago may not himself have been a creature of circumstance, involved in the complexities of a system of which he was as much the victim as his tenants. And here again I eliminate from the discussion all reference to the supposed personal characteristics of the class. The popular conception of the Irish country gentleman of former days is principally derived from works of fiction and caricature, and is probably as correct as is usual with information gathered from such