Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/79

Rh, there is one important misconception against which I wish to guard myself. In conducting this inquiry; I have no intention of discussing whether the landlords of Ireland, as a class, are good men or bad men, kind or cruel. In all probability they are as selfish, as interested, and as unscrupulous as any other collection of human beings possessing the same amount of education and intelligence. But the supposed moral attributes of a particular class, or trade, or profession cannot come within the cognizance of the politician. His only safe rule will be to take it for granted that every class, and every individual in every class, will pursue his own advantage with unflinching pertinacity; and, having meted out as justly as the clumsiness of human legislation may admit, the boundaries which are to circumscribe the respective rights of each, he must be content to accept as economically legitimate whatever does not overpass them. In all ages there have been unrelenting creditors who have insisted on their pound of flesh, but would it not be unreasonable on that account to stigmatize the recovery of debt as injustice? Unhappily, legal obligations can seldom be rendered co-extensive with moral responsibilities, and an attempt to correct an exceptional hardship in one direction, too frequently leads to the infliction of greater injuries in another.

Still less do I propose to notice any particular accusations of cruelty or injustice which may