Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/173

Rh have suppressed all cognizance of the instances of harshness and mismanagement laid to the charge of individual landlords by men of the highest honour, it is not because I do not acknowledge and deplore their existence, but because they are so manifestly exceptional as to have produced an inappreciable effect on the current of events we are considering. In dealing with the economic interests of a great country, it is on the essential forces which are producing specific results, rather than on the capricious accidents of the situation, that we must fix our attention.

If, on consideration, it should be found that the responsibilities of the landed proprietors for the ills of Ireland have been grossly exaggerated, I have sufficient faith in the generosity of their accusers to believe that they will rejoice rather than regret to discover that so numerous and important a section of their fellow-countrymen neither are nor have been unworthy of their esteem; and my conviction gathers strength from the fact that our conclusions on such a point cannot materially affect any pending controversy between the landlords and their tenantry. If an alteration is to be made in the tenure of land in Ireland, that alteration must be founded on abstract principles of justice, and the requirements of present policy. Many eminent statesmen view with regret the relative position of the Catholic and Protestant clergy of Ireland. But whenever the time arrives for effecting an improvement,