Page:On Irish absenteeism (Hancock).pdf/4

4 If we classify Irish absentees according to the causes of their absence, we shall find that they consist of three distinct classes:—

1st. Those who reside abroad on account of pecuniary difficulties, or on account of their real income falling so far short of their nominal income, that they cannot maintain their position at home.

2nd. Those who, possessed of great wealth, reside abroad for the pursuit of pleasure, vanity, or ostentation.

3rd. Those who spend a portion of every year in the metropolis, in consequence of the demands of political life.

In other words, Irish absentees may be divided into incumbered absentees, wealthy absentees, and political absentees. The first kind of absenteeism, that arising from incumbrances, will on investigation be found to be the largest; at least such is the conclusion to which we must be led, if we take the indications presented by the appointment of receivers in the courts of equity, and by the petitions filed under the Incumbered Estates Act. The returns show that in 1845, upwards of £600,000 of the rental of Ireland was received by receivers under the Courts of Equity, whilst the whole absentee rental is seldom estimated above £4,000,000; and we are to bear in mind that the appointment of a receiver only indicates the extreme cases of embarrassment, and many estates are in the hands of private trustees, or of proprietors who are in fact no more than trustees for their creditors. The result shown by the extent of property under receivers is verified by the quantity of property brought under the Incumbered Estates Commission, which now exceeds £1,000,000 rental; and both these results are corroborated by the general complaints of the embarrassed state of the proprietors.

Such an extensive system of incumbrances leads to an equally extensive amount of abseenteeism. For nothing can be more irksome than the effort to maintain the appearance of the position, which the nominal possession of property confers on a proprietor at home, where the means cannot be procured. Besides, the family mansion is adapted to the income of the property, if unincumbered; and it is difficult to live in a large house with small means, without the imputation of shabbiness.

To discover the causes of absenteeism springing from incumbrances, it is necessary to consider the causes of such a prevalence of incumbrances. These are, first, the facility which the law of judgments hitherto afforded, and still affords, to the creation of charges on land; and, secondly, the impediments which the law throws in the way of sales of land for the payment of incumbrances. The existence of these causes is proved, by the promptness with which incumbrancers have availed themselves of the provisions of the new act, and have proceeded to obtain sales of the estates for the payment of debts. The purchasers who buy land sold with a parliamentary title, will buy it for purposes of profit, and not for purposes of vanity or ostentation; and they will not be absentees. They will know that to carry on a profitable