Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/216

Rh the fact that In the time of Elizabeth, Cromwell, and William, extensive confiscations of property took place in Ireland, and it has been more than hinted that such a circumstance might justify the repetition of an analogous process. But, however strongly this argument may appeal to the conscience of the small minority who are able to trace their present proprietorship to an historical source, it will hardly commend itself to those whose possessions represent the mercantile industry of some distant ancestor, improved by centuries of hereditary thrift, or the proceeds of their own exertions invested in land on the faith of a Parliamentary title. Whether vague suggestions, — which (as far as they mean anything) would imply the uprooting of the whole of the population of Ulster, and the transference of nearly all the landed property of Ireland, from those whose legal title to it is indisputable to a thousand competitors whose claims would rest on distinctions of race* and religion, — are calculated to attract capital to the country or promote a feeling of security, it is needless to inquire.


 * On a map of Ireland, executed in Queen Elizabeth's reign, which has been discovered by Mr. Froude, at Vienna, the possessions of the contemporary chieftains are delineated. Occupying a prominent place in the centre of the island, is a rich district described as the country of the O'Sheridans. As a native representative of what appears to have been, at all events at one time, an opulent house, I might be tempted to urge the expulsion of its present alien owners from the rich heritage of my ancestors.