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 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 

 
 LETTER 
 
 ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 g>outf) of frelano; 
 
 ON THE MEANS OF 
 
 TRANQUILLIZING THEIR TENANTRY, 
 
 IMPROVING THEIR ESTATES. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD AND SON, 
 187, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1822
 
 & Gosneli, Printer, Littte Queen Street, Londi>
 
 LETTER, 
 
 I he disturbed state of the peasantry in the 
 south of Ireland, and their recent insurrec- 
 tionary conduct, have painfully interested 
 every friend to social order and to humanity ; 
 but must naturally be contemplated with an 
 intensity of interest by those who are con- 
 nected with that unhappy country, or may 
 expect to derive from it any portion of their 
 revenues, as proprietors of the soil. To such 
 the following observations are addressed with 
 a confidence founded on considerable expe- 
 rience, and study of the nature of that country, 
 the character of its inhabitants, and their 
 peculiar circumstances, as connected with 
 landed property. 
 
 It is no part of my design to attempt a 
 developement of all the causes and events 
 which have led to the present deplorable state 
 a2
 
 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 of society in the disturbed parts of Ireland. 
 I shall not prosecute the inquiry, whether that 
 country has for the last half century been 
 politically well or ill governed ; whether 
 fitting laws have been enacted for it ; or 
 whether defects have existed in the adminis- 
 tration of the laws, either by the executive 
 government or by the local magistracy; 
 whether the insurrections have been religious 
 or political ; or whether these evils arise from 
 the prevalence of Catholicism, from any pe- 
 culiar disposition to turbulence in the Irish 
 character, from the non-residence of land- 
 owners, from middle-men, from the sudden 
 change from war to peace prices of produce, 
 from defects in the management of landed 
 property, or from oppressions arising out of 
 tithes. 
 
 These causes have been each respectively 
 alleged, and on high authority, as sufficient 
 to account for the events that have happened ; 
 and there can be little reason to doubt that 
 several of them do, either individually or 
 collectively, contribute to the prevailing dis- 
 contents ; although others of these alleged 
 causes I believe to have little or no share in 
 the existing evils. 
 
 But whatever may be the real causes of
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 
 
 the melancholy state of society in the south 
 of Ireland, it seems agreed on all hands, that 
 it is very essentially in your power, as lords 
 of the soil, to apply powerful, if not effectual, 
 remedies, and to adopt such a course of con- 
 duct towards your tenantry as may, in great 
 measure, prevent the recurrence of similar 
 discontents, and their consequent atrocities. 
 My design therefore, in the following pages, 
 is to offer to your consideration some prac- 
 tical hints on the means of effecting these 
 very important objects, and of promoting the 
 restoration and preservation of peace and 
 order amongst your tenantry, and the esta- 
 blishment of security and prosperity to your 
 property. For, although the vigilance of 
 Government, and the strong arm of the law, 
 may, and doubtless will, punish the outrages, 
 and suppress the insurgent acts of the pea- 
 santry for a time, yet the same insurrection- 
 ary spirit will remain; and it mainly rests 
 with you, by a due exertion of your influence, 
 and the fulfilment of your duties as landlords, 
 to extinguish that spirit by removing its 
 cause. 
 
 The chief seat of the recent disturbances 
 mcludes nearly the whole province of Mun- 
 ster ; and in some one or more of the counties 
 a 3
 
 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 comprehending this province, discontents have 
 existed, and outrages have been often com- 
 mitted ; arms have been plundered, and 
 nightly meetings and drillings have taken 
 place, during these last fifteen years at least, 
 by parties bearing various local denomina- 
 tions at different periods, but lately the ge- 
 neral one of Whiteboys ; under which name 
 they some years ago became the object of 
 legislative attention, by an enactment called 
 the Whiteboy Act. But although somewhat 
 checked by the operations of this Act, by 
 special commissions holden under it, and by 
 the military force with which those legal 
 operations were supported, yet the malcon- 
 tent population have never ceased disturbing 
 the peace of the country in some part or 
 other, and their efforts seem to have been 
 principally directed to the following objects : 
 to procure arms and ammunition by every 
 means in their power, which they have after- 
 wards so carefully concealed from the local 
 authorities, as clearly to show preconcert 
 and co-operation in some specific object: 
 to oppose the payment of tithes by threats, 
 and even frequent murders of the tithe proc- 
 tors, or agents, employed in their valuation 
 and collection : to prevent any competition
 
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 
 
 for renting lands, by intimidating, and often 
 barbarously destroying, whole families of 
 strangers, who had ventured to settle on un- 
 tenanted farms : to throw every obstacle in 
 the way of the collection of rents : to favour 
 by every means of stratagem and conceal- 
 ment, the practice of illicit distillation. These 
 have been apparently the objects and aim of 
 the Whiteboys for many years, occasionally 
 varied by desperate and murderous quarrels 
 between particular clans ; till, emboldened 
 by a certain degree of success in the attain- 
 ment of these objects, goaded by the dis- 
 tresses of the times, these distresses aggra- 
 vated by the wet season of 1821, irritated also 
 by rents raised too high even for war prices, 
 by the fallen prices of produce without cor- 
 responding reduction of rents and tithes, and 
 by severities which have increased with the 
 difficulties of their collection— open insur- 
 rection has, under the influence of these and 
 probably of other less apparent causes, reared 
 its horrid head, particularly in the western 
 and mountainous parts of the counties of 
 Cork and Limerick, and the neighbouring 
 district of Kerry. 
 
 It requires but a slight acquaintance with 
 the nature of the country to be aware of the 
 a4
 
 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 difficulties of entirely suppressing these dis- 
 turbances, and of preventing similar convul- 
 sions in future, merely by the force of arms or 
 the operation of law. 
 
 The face of the country over the whole of 
 this province, comprehending the counties 
 Clare, Tipperary, Waterford, Limerick, Cork, 
 and Kerry, presents, on a general view, a vast 
 succession of high and heathy mountains, 
 between the extended bases of which several 
 noble rivers flow through rich and productive 
 vales ; and the country, in many parts, spreads 
 out into extensive and well-cultivated tracts 
 of extraordinary fertility and beauty, especi- 
 ally those wherein the great cities of Limerick 
 and Cork, and the towns of Clonmel, Cashel, 
 Donneraile, and Tralee, are situated. These 
 towns are seated on very extensive limestone 
 fields, the presence of which in Munster infi- 
 nitely increases the value of the soil and its 
 habitable comforts ; it occurs with sufficient 
 frequency to render lime the almost universal 
 manure, and at once supplies an excellent 
 building material and cement. The whole 
 district is admirably well watered, and al- 
 most every part of it abounds with turf-bog 
 for fuel, and some coal. About the centre 
 of the district the Galtee mountains rear their
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 9 
 
 lofty heads ; and towards the south-west the 
 face of the country exhibits a quicker suc- 
 cession of mountains, with narrower vales 
 and more rapid rivers between their bases, 
 and the more frequent occurrence of wide- 
 extended bogs and rocky elevations; till, 
 approaching the deeply indented shores of 
 Cork and Kerry, the country becomes still 
 more mountainous, with glens of stupendous 
 rugged rocks, deep impassable bogs, and nu- 
 merous lakes, interspersed, however, with 
 extensive tracts of coarse pasturage, and spots 
 of culturable ground which are capable of 
 being rendered highly productive by means 
 of lime, or of the shelly sea-sand and the sea- 
 weed with which the shores abound. 
 
 It is chiefly to the mountainous part of 
 this district that the following remarks are 
 intended to apply, as there are many favoured 
 portions of the country whose opulence, in- 
 dustry, and peace, render any new regula- 
 tions with respect to landed property the 
 less requisite, though not altogether inappli- 
 cable. 
 
 The dwellings of the people, or cottars, as Dwellings of 
 they are called, inhabiting the mountainous c peasan 
 regions above described, and forming the 
 immediate occupying tenantry of many im-
 
 10 
 
 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 mense estates, are well known to be wretched 
 in the extreme. These cabins are often built 
 in clusters, forming small villages, without the 
 slightest regard to regularity or convenience. 
 One must see these miserable huts, and wit- 
 ness their interior economy, and the daily 
 habits of their inmates, to form any adequate 
 idea of their deplorable condition. The most 
 florid and accurate description would but 
 leave a painful impression on the mind, with- 
 out placing the actual scene before you i suf- 
 fice it to say, that the parents, children, ser- 
 vants, lodgers, cattle, pigs, and poultry, have 
 but one and the same miserable room for shel- 
 ter and repose. Into this the light of hea- 
 ven only enters by the same apertures in the 
 broken roof which also admit the wet; and 
 the turf smoke is only suffered partially to 
 escape, because it contributes to the warmth 
 of the habitation. 
 
 It is true, that these huts are built with 
 little or no actual expenditure on the part of 
 the landlord, being only composed of those 
 materials which the immediate vicinity af- 
 fords, rudely put together by the cottar him- 
 self. But surely such a barbarous mode of 
 supplying one of the first necessities of life 
 must be detrimental to the interest of a land- 
 2
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. H 
 
 lord, because it is depressing to the character 
 of his tenant. Besides, these buildings add 
 little or nothing to the value of an estate, being 
 generally ill-adapted to the convenience of its 
 occupation, and often requiring a complete 
 renewal. It must therefore be matter of policy 
 as well as of humanity for landlords to pro- 
 vide habitations for their tenants, plain and 
 substantial indeed, and in some measure suit- 
 ed to their present habits, but calculated to 
 induce an improvement in those habits. For 
 this purpose an eligible site should be se- 
 lected on each farm, and a suite of buildings 
 proper for the occupation designed and mark- 
 ed out thereon by your agents. To the erec- 
 tion of these the tenant should contribute as 
 much of contrivance in its design, and of 
 labour in its execution, as circumstances 
 will allow, in order to interest him person- 
 ally in the work. The expense should be de- 
 frayed by instalments out of the rent accru- 
 ing during the first few years of the lease ; 
 and the tenant should be encouraged by cer- 
 tain allowances to support and improve the 
 erections during the remainder of the term. 
 
 Under such an arrangement it cannot be 
 doubted that even the poorest of the moun- 
 taineers might gradually be brought to teel
 
 12 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 a pride in their little holdings, which would 
 tend imperceptibly, but certainly, not only 
 to enhance the value of your property, but 
 also to the improvement of their own habits, 
 and make them more content and happy, 
 and therefore more peaceable. These effects 
 I have known produced to a considerable ex- 
 tent during- the short space of ten years, by 
 allowing half the value of any new buildings 
 erected by tenants according to approved 
 plans. The immediate effect was such an 
 improvement of their dwellings, that they 
 now form a perfect contrast to those of all 
 the neighbouring country. 
 
 Partnership i n these districts it is a common practice 
 
 tenantcy. 
 
 to join many cottar tenants in partnership in 
 
 one lease, sometimes to the number of ten 
 or even fifteen, who are jointly and severally 
 responsible for the rent. A thousand evils 
 belong to this system : it is hardly possible 
 to imaging the extent of mischief to which 
 it gives rise, and of the feuds and conten- 
 tions which this absurd mode of manage- 
 ment continually engenders. One sometimes 
 sees patches of meadow divided by stones 
 into as many shares as there are tenants on 
 the farm ; and the grass is perhaps trodden 
 down, or the season lost, before all the dis-
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 13 
 
 putes that arise upon this division can 
 be adjusted. This system is also a great 
 check to industry and improvement, and a 
 direct encouragement to idleness ; since the 
 lazy partner in many cases takes his share of 
 the industrious man's labour, or otherwise 
 altogether withholds his consent to improve- 
 ments. Another great mischief arising from 
 this system is, that the property of one part- 
 ner tenant is often seized for the rent of ano- 
 ther, even though the sufferer may have punc- 
 tually paid his share. This is a manifest in- 
 justice, but inseparable from the system; for, 
 the agent has no alternative between this act 
 of injustice towards the tenants, or another 
 towards his employer, by leaving the rent in 
 arrear. And an ejectment does not lie against 
 any one of the partners individually, but all 
 must be evicted, at a great expense, if re- 
 possession of the land, in consequence of 
 non-payment of rent, is sought. Besides, 
 it is hardly possible for an agent to follow 
 the minute subdivisions of rent amongst the 
 partners, for it is not uncommon for a part- 
 ner to hold such a proportion as three fourths 
 of one fifth of the whole rent. Another 
 share may probably be expressed amongst 
 themselves, by the compound fraction of one
 
 14 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 fourth of one seventh ; such proportions vary- 
 ing occasionally as the shares of individuals 
 become augmented or reduced. 
 
 No arguments can be requisite to impress 
 on your minds, as landlords, the incalcu- 
 lable mischiefs and inconveniences of this 
 system, and the necessity of its abolition on 
 your estates. Instead of it, the ground 
 should be carefully surveyed previous to every 
 new letting; and every family should be 
 settled on a farm of quantity and quality 
 suited to their means, to the probable exten- 
 sion of those means, and their peculiar line 
 of occupation, whether tillage, dairy, rear- 
 ing cattle, clothing, or a combination of all 
 or some of these in due proportions. If such 
 were the case, there can be no doubt in the 
 minds of those who are acquainted with the 
 country and people, that, under proper en- 
 couragement from the landlord, such farms 
 would become improved, and gradually in- 
 crease in value, because the tenants would 
 feel assured of enjoying the fruit of their 
 own industry, and it would therefore be their 
 interest to employ themselves in such im- 
 provements for the increase of their own im- 
 mediate comforts, rather than in their pre- 
 sent desperate pursuits: for the peasant is
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 15 
 
 strongly attached to his home and to his fa- 
 mily, and is by no means insensible to the en- 
 joyment of such comforts as could be pro- 
 cured by his own industry, upon which the 
 abolition of this remnant of barbarity would 
 at once remove a heavy clog. 
 
 The ease with which a family is provided Subdivision 
 with the miserable cabins before mentioned, 
 and the simplicity of their ordinary food, 
 which is well known to consist almost en- 
 tirely of potatoes, induce early marriages 
 amongst the poor; and these new families 
 are scantily provided for by a subdivision 
 of the lands. This subdivision is at present a 
 most serious evil, because it tends to the in- 
 crease and spread of the most abject poverty 
 and misery, and burdens estates with a nu- 
 merous and almost naked population, whose 
 utmost industry extends to the raising of suf- 
 ficient potatoes for their daily food, and sav- 
 ing the turf for their supply of fuel : these 
 accomplished, they have little farther motive 
 for exertion, since employment in the service 
 of others seldom presents itself; no wonder, 
 then, that such families exhibit so many proofs 
 of idleness being the mother of mischief. 
 
 The remedy I propose for this evil is, that 
 sufficient portions of the coarse land with
 
 16 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 which almost every large estate in Munster 
 abounds, should be kept under the immediate 
 control of the landlord ; so that, whenever new 
 settlements were required for the children of 
 tenants, instead of suffering them to shelter 
 themselves under the miserable hut before 
 mentioned, a little farm should be marked 
 out on such coarse land, suited to the means 
 and expectations of the new settlers, who 
 should be required to be in possession of a 
 certain sum before admitted to such settle- 
 ment. A proper fence should be run round 
 its outer boundary, and an eligible spot 
 chosen for the dwelling and buildings ; the 
 plan of those buildings laid down, the most 
 essential part of that plan immediately exe- 
 cuted at the landlord's expense, except as to 
 so much labour as the tenant could contri- 
 bute, and the rest of the design filled up and 
 completed as wanted or convenient. For this 
 the tenant could and would willingly pay a 
 rent at first equal to the interest of the money 
 expended by the landlord, but gradually in- 
 creasing with the increase of produce that 
 might be expected to arise from a reasonable 
 exertion of industry on his part, aided by ju- 
 dicious encouragements similar to those of 
 the established tenants (of which hereafter).
 
 OP THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 17 
 
 Is there, I would ask, any thing unreasonable 
 or improbable in expecting from such an ar- 
 rangement, that the rapid increase of popula- 
 tion should then become a blessing; that in- 
 dustrious cultivation would thus spread over 
 the habitable part of every mountain, and 
 gradually people the present wild wastes with 
 domestic, quiet, and happy peasantry, yield- 
 ing a grateful homage to their protecting 
 lord, and gradually improving their little 
 farms under the inspection and instruction 
 of his competent representative the agent? 
 
 The amount of rent exacted from the oc- Rents. 
 cupying tenantry, and also the modes of that *on«tion a . nd 
 exaction, are most fruitful sources of the dis- 
 contents that have led to, and still threaten, 
 such fearful consequences. Speaking gene- 
 rally, the rents assumed during the late war 
 were much too high even for the prices of 
 produce during that period. This arose 
 chiefly from the method of letting lands by 
 " cant" (a mode similar to that in England 
 called " tender ") to the highest bidder, with- 
 out the least regard to the existing tenants' 
 claim of preference: and as there then prevailed 
 great competition for land, possession seems 
 to have been the first object of bidders; and
 
 18 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 rents were agreed to, bearing no proportion to 
 the actual or probable produce of the soil ; 
 nay, often amounting to a greater sum than 
 the whole saleable produce of the farm. Hence 
 arose the continual struggle between the land- 
 lord, on one side, to obtain the terms of his 
 contract ; and the tenant, on the other, to evade 
 their fulfilment. This struggle has been go- 
 ing on for many years, and its effects (in com- 
 bination with others) have much contributed 
 to the disordered state of society in that un- 
 happy country. From the bold, violent, and 
 resisting, your agents could never get more 
 than a small proportion of their rent in the 
 best times ; the quiet and industrious tenant, 
 therefore, has been made to pay to the last 
 shilling of his means, unless, indeed, he is 
 persuaded, before the sale of his last cow, to 
 seek desperate shelter amongst his turbulent 
 neighbours, who often escape payment alto- 
 gether ; and, after all, the amount actually 
 collected by the present system, even with the 
 violent proceedings sometimes resorted to, 
 seldom averages even the fair value of the 
 land ; for the utmost struggles of an agent 
 cannot prevent too high rents from falling 
 into arrear, and almost all arrears are ulti- 
 mately lost. Let me then recommend, in-
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 
 
 stead of this destructive and unnatural war- 
 fare between landlord and tenant, that a sys- 
 tem of peace and amity be established be- 
 tween parties so important to each other, and 
 between whom the most friendly relations are 
 so necessary to be preserved : that the fair 
 marketable value of the tenant's saleable pro- 
 duce be ascertained by competent persons at 
 the time of letting, and on the probable 
 average of prices for future years : that a 
 just proportion of this value be charged as 
 rent, such proportion to be fixed according to 
 the existing and probable circumstances af- 
 fecting this question: that of this rent, a 
 certain portion, adapted to the circumstances 
 of the case, be stipulated to be employed in 
 forwarding improvements on the farm and 
 providing accommodations for the tenant: 
 that this rent be only exacted in full, when 
 the prices of produce are sufficiently high to 
 enable the tenant to pay in full ; that at 
 other times, allowances proportionate to any 
 great changes that may occur in the prices 
 of produce, be made to all tenants equally, 
 without regard to their individual pecuniary 
 circumstances: that notice, under the hand of 
 the proprietor or agent, be given of such al- 
 lowances to each tenant, for the purpose of 
 b2 
 
 19
 
 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 proving to them the consideration of their 
 superiors : that the punctual payment of 
 such rents so regulated, be insisted on, as far 
 as can be done without inhumanity: that 
 incorrigible defaulters be evicted from the 
 farms, and that on no account should such 
 eviction be delayed after rent being in 
 arrear beyond a period to be fixed after due 
 consideration. 
 
 This mode of proceeding would inevitably 
 increase the net amount of your receipts, and, 
 what is almost equally valuable, secure their 
 regularity ; whilst at the same time it must 
 tend to improve the condition of your te- 
 nantry and the value of your estates. Nor 
 need any fear be felt of rents under this mode 
 of adjustment falling short of the fair value 
 of your lands ; for the occupying tenant in 
 Minister would be content to pay a propor- 
 tion of the value of his produce, at least double 
 the proportion which an English farmer could 
 pay under similar circumstances ; and surely 
 this is sufficient to satisfy the most extrava- 
 gant cravings as to amount of rent. 
 
 The mode of collecting rents in Munster 
 is generally very objectionable, independent 
 of the violence with which it is at present 
 sometimes accompanied. It often happens
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 21 
 
 that the first intimation of demand for rent 
 which the tenant gets, is his perceiving his 
 stock to be in possession of the drivers, or 
 people employed by the agent. In some 
 places also, it is customary for the tenants to 
 take up money for payment of their rents 
 from the merchants who are buyers of their 
 produce, on the security of the tenant's note 
 of hand, which is to be put in force unless the 
 produce is taken and sold to such merchant, 
 when ready for market. It is evident that 
 the merchant must necessarily charge on such 
 advances, not only the legal interest, but 
 considerably more for hazard, expenses of 
 clerkship, of travelling, of stamps, and va- 
 rious other expenses, besides the usual profit 
 on such business. 
 
 Both these methods are highly injurious, 
 and ought to be superseded by the appoint- 
 ment of those periods of the year when the 
 tenants are known to realize the value of 
 their produce ; they should then be met by 
 the agent at some place convenient for both, 
 each tenant's balance adjusted and demanded, 
 and the defaulters publicly declared, and 
 then, if necessary, proceeded against before 
 arrears become large, and, what is worse, ha- 
 bitual. 
 
 b 3
 
 22 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 Mode of let- The mo de of letting lands prevalent in 
 this province has been already alluded to. 
 The mischiefs of this custom are great and 
 manifold ; some of them have already been 
 pointed out above ; but this mode of letting 
 also destroys that confidence which a tenant 
 ought always to feel in the protection, the 
 justice, and the humanity of his landlord ; 
 makes him careless of improvement, and to- 
 wards the end of the lease furnishes an in- 
 ducement to promote dilapidation, with the 
 view of lessening competition ; and, after all, 
 what is obtained by this eagerness for extra- 
 vagant rents? since he who assumes the high- 
 est rent, probably intends, and generally does 
 actually pay the least ; and although the rent- 
 roll may be augmented on paper, no actual 
 gain accrues from the infliction of all the 
 evils which this custom occasions. Instead 
 of this, let the lands out of lease be offered at 
 the fair value to the occupying tenant, if 
 eligible under the regulations before recom- 
 mended to your attention and practice ; and 
 be assured that any estate whereon the inva- 
 riable preference of an occupying tenant shall 
 be established as the custom and rule, will be 
 infinitely more valuable to its proprietors, 
 more rapidly improved, and the tenants more
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 23 
 
 prosperous in circumstances, and punctual in 
 payments, than others, whereon the grasping 
 system above described shall still prevail, if 
 indeed the change of times shall not have 
 already produced the good effect of its abo- 
 lition. 
 
 On many estates the lands are not pro- Appropria- 
 perly appropriated to the uses for which they tionof,ands - 
 are most fitting. Thus, in districts where 
 butter is the principal object, almost every 
 farm is stocked with cows, whether fit for 
 them or not ; and many mountain estates, 
 which have no meadow, are thus stocked, 
 which would pay double by rearing young 
 cattle. In tillage countries, where corn is 
 the prevailing pursuit, the finest pastures are 
 apt to be broken up, which are doubly va- 
 luable as dairy ground. Important changes 
 might be made in this respect on almost 
 every estate, to the great advantage of the 
 landlords and occupiers. 
 
 The term of leases usually granted to Term of 
 occupying tenants in Munster, is thirty-one eases * 
 years, and three lives concurrent. This is 
 called an encouraging lease. The length of 
 this period seems sufficient to secure the per- 
 formance of any improvements which de- 
 pended on the tenants having time to reap 
 b 4
 
 24 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 the benefit thereof. But in practice, these 
 leases are not often found to ensure to the 
 landlord the return of his estate at the end of 
 the term in a state of greater improvement 
 than might be reasonably attributed to other 
 causes than the length of term. And it is 
 believed, that, under the system of encourage- 
 ment to improvement, combined with in- 
 structions as to the proper modes of improv- 
 ing, twenty-one years leases (with a life con- 
 current, to create freeholds where that is an 
 object), or for the tenant's life, or even a 
 yearly tenure, would be still more acceptable 
 to the occupiers, and more advantageous to 
 landlords, than longer terms without such 
 encouragements and instructions; since, in 
 general, the actual farmers have neither the 
 capital nor the skill to improve judiciously 
 and permanently without the landlord's as- 
 sistance, which assistance I hope to show 
 that it is greatly his interest to afford. 
 Tithes. Tithes, in Ireland, are certainly a fruitful 
 
 source of the prevailing discontents and out- 
 rages ; and yet nothing can be more true 
 than that the clergy of that country are re- 
 markably moderate in the amount of tithes 
 taken by them from their Catholic pa- 
 rishioners.
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 25 
 
 The Irish clergy have indeed many for- 
 midable difficulties to encounter: they are 
 seldom able personally to transact the busi- 
 ness of tithes with their parishioners, at least 
 in those mountainous districts where tithes 
 have occasioned most mischief, and are there- 
 fore under the necessity of employing tithe- 
 proctors, or valuators, to ascertain yearly the 
 amount of tithes payable by each individual ; 
 and also agents called drivers (generally ap- 
 pointed from amongst the parishioners them- 
 selves), to procure payment. Now, the na- 
 tural backwardness of a Catholic population 
 to the payment of tithes, the habitual re- 
 luctance of the peasantry to any payments 
 which ingenuity can delay or avoid; the 
 scantiness of their means, exhausted as they 
 are to provide the rents ; the almost insupe- 
 rable difficulties which present themselves to 
 the tithes being rendered in kind ; and the 
 losses suffered by tithe-owners in consequence 
 of these circumstances, have occasioned many 
 legislative regulations, from time to time, 
 with the view of facilitating the collection of 
 small sums due for tithe, and protecting the 
 property of the church. And it often happens, 
 that in carrying these laws into effect by the 
 drivers, and other agents, for the recovery of
 
 26 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 sums due for tithes, much legal expense is 
 incurred, which is ultimately charged on the 
 parishioner ; and this often ends in sweeping 
 off from the unhappy peasant every article of 
 his property, although the original sum due 
 for tithe did not perhaps exceed a few shil- 
 lings. Hence the desperation of individuals 
 on the subject of tithes ; whilst all this oppres- 
 sion (the legality of which is not considered 
 as any alleviation by the poor cottar farmer) 
 is perhaps utterly unknown to the incumbent, 
 although carried on in his name, but takes 
 place at the instance, and often for the be- 
 nefit, of the driver or tithe-agent. 
 
 In other cases the clergyman, wearied 
 with the difficulties of obtaining any thing 
 approaching to his just dues, lets his tithes to 
 one or more individuals, whose interest it is, 
 of course, to enforce on the parishioners all 
 the enactments with which the laws have 
 armed them for recovery of their dues. Com- 
 paratively happy indeed is the parish where 
 persons of humanity and moderation thus 
 form the connecting link between the incum- 
 bent and the occupier ; for, in other cases, the 
 tithe-farmer finds it his interest to let the 
 occupiers fall into arrear ; he then rises in 
 his demands, till at length the poor peasant
 
 OF THK SOUTH OF IRELAND. 27 
 
 is charged exorbitantly for his tithes. To 
 this is added the cost of such securities as 
 he may be obliged to give with the view of 
 putting off the day of payment, and he is 
 ultimately sued for the whole, with accumu- 
 lated legal costs ; and finally deprived of his 
 little property, and driven to beggary and 
 desperation. Is it surprising that he then 
 becomes a Whiteboy, ard that tithes are 
 complained of as a grievance ? They are cer- 
 tainly a source of great misery to the poor 
 Irish occupier ; and this is aggravated by 
 the circumstance of his having the minis- 
 ter of his own church to maintain, besides 
 the legal dues of the Establishment. But no 
 part of this misery is, in my opinion, attri- 
 butable to the conduct of the Protestant 
 clergy, since I am confident that they would 
 generally be content with a moiety of the 
 value of their tenths, provided that moiety 
 were regularly paid. 
 
 The following remedy is suggested for the 
 mischiefs thus arising. That the landlord 
 should become lessee to the incumbent for 
 his tithes ; and then that he should let his 
 lands as tithe-free, being, of course, repaid 
 by a proportionate augmentation of the rent ;
 
 28 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 and thus, by incorporating the rent and tithe 
 together in one payment, the onerous name 
 and nature of tithe would be lost, and these 
 evils much abated, if not effectually cured. 
 Any legislative measure calculated to facili- 
 tate this arrangement would be a boon of 
 incalculable value to that unhappy country, 
 and would probably allay much of that pri- 
 mary discontent which generally commences 
 on this subject, and soon spreads its baneful 
 influence over every other. If the Legislature 
 could interfere so far as to render bargains of 
 this nature, made with present incumbents, 
 certain during a term of years, and binding 
 on their successors, with proper guards, of 
 course, for securing the interest of those 
 successors, it would, in my opinion, at once 
 afford land-owners an opportunity of calming 
 the minds of their tenants on this agitating 
 subject ; and the clergyman would thus be 
 assured of his income with a degree of secu- 
 rity and peace which would much enhance its 
 value to him; and his intercourse with his 
 parishioners would be attended with greater 
 chance of utility in the exercise of his sacred 
 calling. Doubtless many difficulties would 
 arise in providing for the details of every 
 possible case; still, however, such a measure
 
 OP THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 29 
 
 might unquestionably be rendered generally 
 practicable and effectual. The allotment of 
 lands, and other commutations of tithes, have 
 been mentioned ; but it cannot be expected 
 that the tithe-owners will be content with a 
 compensation for present value where there 
 is a- reasonable prospect of that value being 
 hereafter infinitely increased by those im- 
 provements on the face of the country which 
 increase of population must alone produce; 
 and to compensate them for this reversionary 
 interest, would too much increase the present 
 burden. 
 
 Another of the existing evils of this ill- Employment. 
 fated country is, the want of employment for 
 its numerous and athletic people. It has 
 been shown with how little bodily exertion 
 they can procure themselves and families the 
 scanty means upon which they at present 
 subsist, or rather exist. By useful employ- 
 ment alone can their active and ardent dis- 
 positions be prevented from becoming mis- 
 chievous ; and therefore it is not less the in- 
 terest than the duty of landlords to find them 
 employment ; nay, this is a duty which can 
 be no longer neglected with impunity; for the 
 mischievous idleness, the turbulence, and 
 outrage consequent on non-employment, will
 
 30 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 diminish your incomes in a much greater 
 ratio than the expense of employing your 
 peasantry, and will produce not only dimi- 
 nution of income, but devastation of your 
 property, instead of those improvements which 
 would take place by the employment of your 
 people. The fulfilment, therefore, of this duty 
 would ensure to you important benefits, and 
 its neglect will incur a penalty which can- 
 not be evaded. The performance of this duty 
 on your parts, may indeed be designated as 
 the specific remedy for the evils and miseries 
 which your country endures; for, if every 
 other ill were removed, and every other 
 grievance remedied, and this one remained, 
 the want of employment alone would soon 
 create other ills, and new grievances, which, 
 even if imaginary, would lead to mischief. 
 Therefore, by your duty to your country, to 
 your neighbour, and yourselves you are bound 
 to give employment to your peasantry. Nor 
 do I recommend an experiment doubtful in 
 its issue, or uncertain in its effects ; for I can 
 myself vouch by experience of the fact, that 
 the most savage district in Ireland may be 
 civilized to a surprising degree in the short 
 space of seven years, by a constant and me- 
 thodical employment of its people.
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 31 
 
 That you will experience difficulties in 
 regulating this employment to any good pur- 
 pose, must be expected ; but I know, that all 
 those difficulties may be easily surmounted by 
 firmness joined to kindness, by method and 
 by perseverance, but, above all, by a determi- 
 nation to surmount them. The difficulties 
 will, however, be found on trial, much less 
 formidable than they appear at first sight; 
 nor can I consent to reckon amongst them 
 the aversion from labour, which is generally 
 attributed to the Irish peasants ; for I have 
 found them, under good management, as 
 regular, as ardent, and as steadily industrious 
 as the English, and that in great numbers 
 together, and in works continued for a long 
 time. The principal requisites are such qua- 
 lities in the directors as will command the 
 confidence of the people, particularly skill 
 and diligence in their business, integrity in 
 their conduct, and method in their arrange- 
 ments and accounts. 
 
 It need scarcely be intimated, that the 
 most proper objects of industry to which 
 your views can be directed, are all such as 
 tend to the improvement of the soil ; because, 
 from that improvement will result mutual 
 benefits to your tenantry and to yourselves.
 
 32 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 But over all Ireland, and I think in Munster 
 particularly, many glaring errors are fre- 
 quently committed as to the objects of im- 
 provement, as well as in the means of accom- 
 plishing those objects ; and when absent land- 
 lords have consented to an expenditure being 
 made on their estates, with a view to im- 
 provements, or even when resident proprietors 
 have resolved to improve their properties, 
 under their own immediate inspection, one 
 is apt to see some grand scheme attempted 
 which generally proves abortive to all except 
 the persons immediately engaged in its execu- 
 tion, instead of that steady perseverance in 
 the gradual filling up and completing a pre- 
 concerted and well-digested plan, which alone 
 can be depended on to effect any great and 
 permanent benefits, either in the improve- 
 ment of landed property, or the characters 
 and habits of the people. Such a compre- 
 hensive view of the ultimate end and aim of 
 every proceeding, is requisite, upon the same 
 principle as a prudent man who intends to 
 build, carefully studies plans, elevations, esti- 
 mates, and specifications, before he digs his 
 foundation. 
 
 For these reasons, therefore, a landlord 
 who is determined to expend on his property
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 33 
 
 part of his revenues, should make the em- 
 ployment of the people his primary object; 
 and consequently, those projects of improve- 
 ment will be the best, which admit of the 
 labour of his peasantry in greatest numbers, 
 and with such implements, and such degree 
 of skill, as they possess or can be made to ac- 
 quire, aiming rather at gradual than sudden 
 improvements. 
 
 With these views, I would advise road- 
 making, draining, and planting, as the grand 
 and leading objects of employment for your 
 tenantry ; and the benefits of their labour in 
 these objects may be obtained without any 
 great actual advance of money on your part, 
 by employing the tenantry and their depend- 
 ents in working out rents, which I have 
 known done to a considerable extent, and 
 beyond any amount of rent that could rea- 
 sonably be expected in money payments ; 
 whilst, at the same time, the people have been 
 grateful for this mode of preventing their 
 falling into arrear, which the depression of 
 times would have rendered otherwise inevi- 
 table; and they have remained quiet and 
 peaceable, though situate in the midst of the 
 most disturbed districts, and, before this sys- 
 c
 
 34 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 tern of employment, notorious for their dis- 
 position to turbulence*. 
 
 * A benevolent clergyman thus writes to the author, 
 on the subject of employment, as the means of tranquil- 
 lizing his countrymen. 
 
 " Employment for the poor (he says) must be the 
 very foundation of the civilization of Ireland. Every 
 scheme which has not this for its basis is a castle in the 
 air, or a house on the sand. This is the order of God and 
 the law of nature, " Man shall eat bread by the sweat of 
 his brow ; " and what mercy is mingled with this universal 
 mandate ! Not only bread, but health, honesty, peace, 
 industry, loyalty, liberty, civilization, and moral order, 
 are all the natural and invariable results of the full em- 
 ployment of the poor. The heads of the rich and the 
 hands of the poor must be employed virtuously, or they 
 most assuredly will mischievously. This is the nature of 
 man, as it is the nature of birds to fly in the air, and of 
 fishes to swim in the sea. The Irish are called idle, lazy, 
 and rebellious ; but how can they be otherwise, when 
 there is nobody to employ them ? Try them before you 
 condemn them ; offer them labour and moderate wages, 
 and try whether they will not work. I will venture to 
 . assert, that if the absentee landlords went to the foot of 
 the County Kerry mountains, and issued a proclamation 
 addressed to the poor naked rebels on the top, offering a 
 spade for a musket, and plenty of labour and adequate 
 wages all the year round, Captain Rock would be heard 
 of no more. If there be not money enough in Ireland to 
 pay the labourers in specie, pay them in kind, pay them 
 with the produce of the soil, the fruits of their labour;
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 
 
 First, as to road-making. Whatever ob- Roads. 
 jections may lie against the mode of making 
 and repairing roads and bridges in Ireland, 
 by presentment (and those who know the 
 country must be well aware of the many 
 abuses to which that mode is liable), yet at 
 all events it produces the good effect of em- 
 ploying the peasantry so far as it extends. 
 But these grants ought to be confined entirely 
 to public ways; and the Grand Juries have, 
 in fact, of late shown an increased disposition 
 to confine to such the expenditure of the 
 public money. If they persevere in this laud- 
 able purpose, landlords not only should, but 
 will be under the necessity of making roads 
 and building bridges for the use of their 
 estates, at their own expense ; and in what 
 more essential and important improvement 
 can they employ their tenantry r For such 
 works, almost every estate in Ireland affords 
 
 give them plenty of potatoes and corn to fill their bel- 
 lies ; a glass of whiskey now and then to warm their 
 hearts; turf to warm their cabins, and a little money for 
 other requisites ; and above all, convince Paddy that 
 you love and care for him, and if he is not the most de- 
 voted, faithful, and attached creature on the face of the 
 earth, I will forfeit my life.'' 
 
 c 2 
 
 35
 
 36 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 ample and excellent materials, conveniently 
 situated and easily wrought by the people on 
 the spot ; and where roads are set out in the 
 proper lines, and the width, materials, and 
 other particulars settled, there would be little 
 difficulty in letting the works to some of the 
 best tenants, on condition of employing none 
 but the people of the estate ; or it would 
 perhaps be still better, but more troublesome 
 for the landlord, to employ such daily la- 
 bourers as the tenants may send to the work, 
 placing the amount earned to account of rent. 
 Both these methods I have known practised 
 with the utmost success, though, of course, 
 not without considerable exercise of method 
 and arrangement. 
 Drainage. Secondly. There is perhaps no country 
 
 in the world which so much requires the be- 
 nefits conferred by drainage as Ireland, by 
 reason of its humidity of climate, and its 
 vast bogs and morasses. But there is cer- 
 tainly none which has so little felt those be- 
 nefits ; for the art may be almost considered 
 unknown in that country, or at least unprac- 
 tised to any extent, in the least comparable 
 with the scientific drainages so common in 
 England. The tracts of land requiring 
 drainage in Ireland do not indeed stand in
 
 OP THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 37 
 
 need of any such vast employment of capi- 
 tal and machinery as occurs in England, 
 having almost all the means of natural drain- 
 age ; nor is it perhaps advisable, under the 
 present state of society, of capital, of enter- 
 prise, and of agriculture in that country, to 
 attempt carrying into farther effect the once 
 favourite project of drainage and cultivation, 
 by public or corporate funds, of its nume- 
 rous and immense bogs. The drainage and 
 cultivation best adapted to promote the pro- 
 sperity of that country, are those which are 
 within the reach of every land-owner to ac- 
 complish by employment of his peasantry. 
 The ignorance which at present prevails in 
 the practice of this art, and even the reluc- 
 tance which always attends the introduction 
 of any new practices, would soon vanish be- 
 fore the patronizing influence of the lord of 
 the soil. With such patronage, and a little 
 good instruction and example, the peasantry 
 would, by virtue of their natural intelligence, 
 soon become drainers to an extent adapted 
 to their wants. Nor is the attainment of 
 this knowledge a difficult task, or the prac- 
 tice of it a costly experiment ; for it requires 
 but a moderate degree of skill to point out 
 on every estate simple and primary lines of 
 c 3
 
 38 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 drainage, by which large tracts of land 
 might, at little expense, be relieved of the 
 redundant water, which in this humid cli- 
 mate is continually depriving it of every 
 fertilizing particle. Such lines, judiciously 
 run, would often render improvable large 
 tracts of land, and might be generally so 
 disposed as to serve for excellent fences ; and 
 often a road, a fence, and a drain may be 
 made at the same operation, and at little 
 more expense than if either one or the other 
 were made independently. Into these pri- 
 mary lines secondary drains might easily be 
 conducted, and the tenants would afterwards 
 supply the smaller ramifications. 
 Planting. Thirdly. Planting must be regarded as 
 
 an object of employment to your tenantry, 
 and of improvement to your estates, emi- 
 nently calculated to awaken all your ardour 
 in its adoption, and to exercise all your zeal 
 in its pursuit. It is an object worthy of a 
 noble mind, and of all improvements the 
 most certain of succeeding in the end, if 
 properly managed in the beginning. 
 
 The first observation of a traveller in 
 passing through Ireland, and particularly 
 Munster, is the deplorable want of wood- 
 land over its surface ; sylvan scenery being
 
 OF THK SOUTH OF IRELAND. 
 
 generally so scanty, that the eye rests with 
 pleasure and refreshment on any spot covered 
 and adorned with trees. Ireland would in- 
 deed be a peculiarly beautiful country, were it 
 properly furnished with this interesting fea- 
 ture. 
 
 But it is not only on the ground of pic- 
 turesque effect that I purpose to rest the 
 claims of this grand improvement on your 
 attention and practice, nor on the more pow- 
 erful motive of patriotic zeal for the enrich- 
 ment and adornment of your country. My 
 solicitude is to convince you that planting is 
 a pursuit as highly compatible with your own 
 immediate interests as it is conducive to the 
 improvement of your estates, and of the for- 
 tune of your families. Admitting that your 
 tenantry and peasantry must have employ- 
 ment, and that you are far from being losers 
 to the amount of what they are paid for their 
 labour, there is nothing that can employ a 
 portion of them more constantly and use- 
 fully than the business of a nursery and 
 planting. The most eligible sites for plant- 
 ing, and the best adapted soils, abound on 
 almost every estate, which planting would 
 vastly improve, by shelter as well as in ap- 
 pearance. Nor have you long to wait for the 
 c 4 
 
 39
 
 40 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 profits of planting; for, such is the natural 
 aptitude of the soil and climate of Munster 
 for this produce, that the trees, if judici- 
 ously managed, become fit for many useful 
 purposes in ten or fifteen years ; and where- 
 ever there is plenty of wood for ordinary 
 purposes, the country around is sure to be 
 better inhabited, and better cultivated, than 
 without this convenience. The common ob- 
 jections, that people will destroy plantations 
 with their cattle, when young, or steal the 
 trees, for domestic uses, when older, and 
 other allegations of the like nature, I know 
 to be groundless, under ordinary good ma- 
 nagement; for I have myself planted some 
 hundred acres in one of the remotest dis- 
 tricts of Munster, and, in spite of every pre- 
 diction against their success, and even after 
 being under the necessity of destroying the 
 goats from the spots intended for planting ; 
 yet not the slightest depredation has, I be- 
 lieve, been committed on them : they thrive 
 admirably, and the thinnings were, after 
 being planted only eight years, applied to 
 several useful purposes. This success has, of 
 course, been owing to well-planned and well- 
 executed arrangements ; but is equally attain- 
 able in any other instance. On another
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 41 
 
 estate, I have seen about five hundred acres 
 of plantation which was only begun forty 
 years ago, and although by no means at 
 first judiciously done, have lately yielded, 
 as I am credibly informed, an annual produce 
 of one thousand pounds, and upwards, al- 
 though occupying only rocky mountains, 
 which could not by any other means have 
 been made worth one shilling per acre. 
 
 I have hitherto spoken of the making General ob- 
 convenient roads, the construction of bridges, J( " Lts * 
 the excavation of proper main drains, the 
 establishment of ample nurseries, and the 
 rearing of extensive plantations on your 
 estates, as objects to which your attention 
 ought principally to be directed, as the means 
 of employing your peasantry, in preference to 
 aiming at more sudden and splendid effects, 
 by establishing manufactories, building of 
 mansions, towns, mills, quays, market-places, 
 and other public works, in situations not yet 
 adapted to such establishments, the expense 
 of which is often enormous ; and though a 
 forced support may be given to them for a 
 time, such injudicious schemes generally, in 
 a few years, fall into decay and ruin. These 
 and similar errors are not uncommon in the 
 first ebullitions of an ill-digested zeal for
 
 42 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 improvement. No wonder then, that however 
 ardent the first efforts, they so often termi- 
 nate in disappointment and disgust ; and 
 that landlords who have begun by doing too 
 much injudiciously, have soon ended in 
 doing nothing. Hence my anxiety to direct 
 your chief efforts towards the objects before 
 mentioned, and to impress on your minds 
 the necessity of steadily pursuing a precon- 
 certed and studied plan of operations, which 
 may have a tendency to produce gradually, 
 though certainly, the effects designed, viz. 
 the improvement of your estates by the labour 
 of the people. 
 Farm in hand. Besides the three grand objects before 
 mentioned, I would also suggest that of a 
 farm in hand on every large estate, not for 
 the trial of experiments and violent innova- 
 tions on established practices, but for such 
 easy approaches towards improved modes of 
 husbandry as may be sure of succeeding, 
 and, by success, acquire the good opinion 
 and imitation of the tenantry. The improve- 
 ment of the breeds of live stock would be an 
 important object of attention on such a farm. 
 Manufac- The promotion of any branch of manu- 
 
 tures facture to which your people are already dis- 
 
 posed should also form one head of your
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 43 
 
 plans for their improvement ; but in this, 
 great caution must be exercised, not to force, 
 but rather gently to lead, by proper encou- 
 ragements, such manufactures, and especially 
 to avoid expensive buildings, or factories, 
 unless the actual and natural state of the 
 manufactory requires such. 
 
 In maritime situations, fisheries also may Fisheries. 
 easily be encouraged, as objects of employ- 
 ment ; and landlords should hold shares in 
 the boats engaged therein, and superintend 
 such part of their concerns as may be diffi- 
 cult to the tenants ; such as assisting them 
 in adopting the best markets, in procuring 
 at the best hand the salt for curing, and the 
 materials for nets, as well as the best mode 
 of building their boats. 
 
 Supposing these and other works, which Method, 
 the peculiarities of each situation may point 
 out, to be designed and conducted according 
 to the well-digested plan, and under the 
 comprehensive view, of your interests so 
 repeatedly advised, still much method and 
 arrangement will be required, to prevent 
 confusion and all its attendant mischiefs 
 where a great many objects are proceeding 
 at the same time, and a great number of 
 men are employed together. This attention
 
 44 
 
 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 Improve- 
 ments by te- 
 nants. 
 
 Fences. 
 
 to method is much neglected in that part of 
 Ireland to which my observations have ex- 
 tended, and I have seen instances where, for 
 want of method, at least half the force em- 
 ployed was wasted, besides a vast increase of 
 expense. 
 
 But in the autumns of 1820 and 1821, I 
 witnessed an instance of methodical arrange- 
 ment, in the employment of several hundred 
 men, in Munster, working out rents, which 
 was -attended with complete success, and in 
 which so much order, regularity, and effect 
 were discernible, as clearly proved the im- 
 portance of method, and how much may be 
 effected by attention to it ; at the same time 
 affording a most perfect demonstration of 
 the tractable and even industrious disposition 
 of these poor people, and a complete refuta- 
 tion to those who allege the contrary. 
 
 I come now to speak of another means 
 of giving employment to your tenantry, and 
 their dependent labourers, which is eminent- 
 ly worthy of your encouragement ; I mean 
 by the general improvement of their respec- 
 tive farms, but particularly in the articles of 
 fencing and manuring. 
 
 It is impossible to travel through Ireland 
 without a feeling of surprise and regret at
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 45 
 
 the miserable-looking and broken mounds, 
 or " ditches," which disfigure the inhabited 
 (one can hardly say enclosed) part of the 
 country. These the tenants should be en- 
 couraged to repair — to level down such as 
 are irreparable, or improperly planned, and 
 to make new ones where requisite. Trees 
 should be given them to plant on these 
 ditches; allowances should be made towards 
 the labour of these improvements; and the 
 tenants should experience some mark of dis- 
 pleasure, or suffer some loss of favour and 
 advantage, if they neglected to avail them- 
 selves of these privileges. A long and steady 
 continuance in such a system could not fail 
 of producing a great improvement in this 
 very defective feature of Irish farming ; and 
 I have experienced the readiness with which 
 tenantry in that country will adopt a land- 
 lord's views in this instance under proper 
 management. 
 
 By manuring I mean the use of lime, Manuring, 
 limestone, gravel, sea-sand, sea-weed, or other 
 fertilizing substances within reach of the te- 
 nantry. These they should be encouraged to 
 use freely. I have known them entirely neg- 
 lected, though extremely convenient, till, by 
 attention and a moderate bounty, vast quan-
 
 46 
 
 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 By covenants 
 and allow- 
 
 Preservation 
 of improve- 
 ments. 
 
 tities have, in a short time, been brought 
 into action ; and the habit once established, 
 will, after a time, require no farther sti- 
 mulus. 
 
 The method I would advise for carrying 
 into effect these encouragements towards a 
 tenant's employing himself on his farm, in 
 its improvement, is by allowances to be made 
 out of his rent, and express covenants in his 
 lease, distinctly stating the quantity of each 
 sort of improvement both himself and the 
 landlord are to perform, and the specific 
 amount of allowance to be made him for the 
 same. Leases of this nature are perfectly 
 practicable, as I have known them adopted, 
 and carried into complete effect, with little 
 difficulty, and that in a part of the country, 
 and under circumstances, most inauspicious 
 to any deviation from established customs. 
 
 It is also a circumstance much to be re- 
 gretted, in the part of Ireland to which my 
 remarks are particularly intended to apply, 
 that little regard is had to the preservation 
 and maintenance of such improvements as 
 are once made. One sees, it is true, many 
 things done in so temporary and injudicious 
 a manner, that their rapid decay and ruin 
 excites no surprise ; but this does not sufii-
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 47 
 
 ciently account for the universal dilapida- 
 tion that in some places appears around. 
 Whatever other causes may exist for this la- 
 mentable waste, one of them must be the 
 inattention of the proprietor to the preser- 
 vation of his property. This can only be re- 
 medied by a contrary conduct on your part 
 through the instrumentality of your agents, 
 and by continual and vigilant attention as 
 well to the preservation of improvements as 
 to the making of them ; and with this view, 
 it is requisite for yourselves, or agents, to in- 
 spect the state of repair and condition of 
 the buildings, fences, drains, land, roads, 
 and other features of each farm periodically, 
 to remark thereon, and to exercise your in- 
 fluence to enforce attention thereto on the 
 part of the tenant. 
 
 There are also various measures within Melioration 
 your power towards meliorating the character 
 of your tenantry and people, and advancing 
 them in civilization, which ought by no 
 means to be neglected. Amongst these, the 
 establishment of schools on your estates is a By schools. 
 measure of the highest importance to the 
 rising generation. The first rudiments of 
 education may be given at a trifling expense ; 
 and the natural quickness of the Irish, and 
 
 2
 
 48 
 
 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 their aptitude to take instruction, and even 
 eagerness to learn, would always secure to this 
 measure that degree of success which is so 
 desirable and gratifying. Even this elemen- 
 tary education has a surprising effect in 
 softening the character and humanizing the 
 mind of the peasant, who but for this must 
 inevitably be somewhat of a savage, situated 
 as he is amongst wild mountains, living in 
 his miserable hut, surrounded by his naked 
 children and his cattle, and seeing nothing 
 of civilization beyond what the next village 
 affords, little indeed as that often is. Can it 
 then be matter of astonishment, that without 
 the melioration imparted by instruction, your 
 people should be guilty of conduct which 
 only belongs to the grossest ignorance and 
 barbarism r and, on the contrary, is it not 
 surprising that, under such total neglect, they 
 are no worse ? 
 By books. The distribution of books properly adapt- 
 
 ed to the circumstances of the peasantry, would 
 have excellent effects on their minds and 
 characters, especially as an auxiliary to the 
 establishment of schools, since the children 
 would be eagerly desirous of reading to their 
 unlettered parents, and to the assembled 
 family, and all would share in the instruc- 
 tion and amusement thus afforded, and a
 
 OP THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 49 
 
 train of thought and of habit would take 
 place congenial to propriety of conduct. 
 
 It would also be exceedingly desirable if B y change of 
 an improvement could be brought about in 
 the food of the peasantry ; for, whatever may 
 be the good qualities of potatoes, they are 
 certainly, as the only article of food, liable 
 to the objection of encouraging the wretched 
 mode of existence before described. If the 
 people in general felt bread and meat and 
 beer to be necessaries of life, as well as po- 
 tatoes, they would cultivate corn and rear 
 cattle for their own consumption, and for 
 the inhabitants of towns, instead of glutting 
 the English markets with their produce; and 
 more activity of mind and body would be 
 required and induced, the people would be 
 better employed, and the country better cul- 
 tivated. This desirable change is, however, 
 only one feature in that general but gradual 
 improvement in the mode of living which the 
 measures I have recommended would have 
 a natural and inevitable tendency, in due 
 time, to establish. 
 
 Another mode of meliorating the cha- By abst- 
 racter of the peasantry, would be to allay p^ 6 ° 
 the litigious spirit which prevails amongst 
 them, and which is fostered and encouraged
 
 50 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 by the cheapness with which those trifling 
 disputes that continually occur can be re- 
 ferred to a legal tribunal. It is not unusual 
 for many hundreds of these questions to come 
 before the assistant barrister at one quarter 
 session; and although strict justice is doubt- 
 less then administered, according to law, 
 and it might be difficult to devise a more 
 effectual and easy mode of dispensing justice 
 to a poor -population, yet it were much to be 
 wished that landed proprietors would so far 
 interfere in the petty squabbles of their te- 
 nantry as to prevent their appeal to law. 
 This might often be accomplished person- 
 ally, and would require no other qualifica- 
 tion to obtain the confidence of the contend- 
 ing parties, than a real desire to do justice 
 between them ; such a desire they would 
 soon recognise, and when once convinced of 
 its existence, the fiat of the landlord, or his 
 representative, would be as efficacious with 
 them as that of the first judge of the realm. 
 But many landlords are in possession of a le- 
 gal jurisdiction, which enables them to decide 
 matters of dispute to a certain extent: it is 
 much to be regretted that these have sunk 
 into disuse in cases where their functions 
 would be exercised with sound discretion,
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 
 
 51 
 
 although it must be admitted that the dan- 
 gers of the contrary much limit their eligi- 
 bility. 
 
 Presuming your tenantry to be chiefly Place of wor- 
 Catholic, as is generally the case in the south s ip * 
 of Ireland, it is from no indifference to Pro- 
 testantism that I also recommend to your 
 notice and patronage the establishment of a 
 decent and reputable place of Catholic wor- 
 ship, and, if necessary, the building of such 
 on your estates, at your own expense. The 
 propriety of due respect to a venerable church 
 and to its functionaries, need not be incul- 
 cated ; but it is of the utmost importance to 
 the success of your benevolent plans, to pro- 
 mote in your tenants a sense of religion, and 
 to subject their minds and conduct to its 
 influence ; and this can best be done without 
 impugning their mode of faith or form of 
 worship, matters too sacred and solemn to 
 be mixed with secular affairs. 
 
 But whilst your people are taught to fj encourag- 
 " fear God," let them be also instructed to 
 " honour the King." Loyalty towards the 
 monarch, will tend to make them the more 
 obedient to those laws and that government 
 of which they should regard him as the head 
 and fountain. These sentiments may be in- 
 d 2
 
 52 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 culcated amongst them in a thousand ways ; 
 but, in general, it is only requisite that they 
 should be able to observe in yourselves and 
 in your agents, a sincere desire to establish 
 such sentiments on rational, and not on party 
 motives ; and nothing can be more highly 
 and directly conducive to good order amongst 
 your people, and, consequently, to your own 
 most important interests, than the encourage- 
 ment of a loyal spirit, including, in its most 
 enlarged sense, a respect for the laws and 
 their administrators. 
 By fair deal- There is also another point of conduct 
 ing - towards your tenantry, which would have a 
 
 great and peculiar tendency towards the 
 melioration of their character and the cor- 
 rectness of their conduct : I mean the careful 
 observance of strict justice and fair dealing 
 in every transaction that takes place with 
 them, without regard to the forms or advan- 
 tages of legal rules. If the contrary practice 
 obtains, through the medium of your agents, 
 or in any manner under the sanction of your 
 name, or on your apparent behalf, however 
 unauthorized by, or unknown to yourselves ; 
 if the subtleties of law are substituted to that 
 broad line of right and wrong between man 
 and man, of which even the most ignorant
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 53 
 
 can judge, half the good effects of your bene- 
 volence is at once destroyed. The acute- 
 ness, artifice, and cunning, so prevalent 
 amongst the peasantry, are in a great degree 
 defensive, and are often laid aside as useless 
 weapons, when met by a plain and direct 
 deportment in those with whom they hold 
 intercourse. But the establishment of the 
 plans I have laid down, will divest the pea- 
 sant of the odious part of those qualities, 
 because it will render their exercise unneces- 
 sary, by substituting an encouraging and 
 cherishing conduct towards him for the pre- 
 sent system of harshness, approaching to 
 warfare. 
 
 Your periodical, or even occasional visits By personal 
 to your property in Ireland, would be another visits ' 
 mode of meliorating the condition and im- 
 proving the character of the peasantry and 
 tenantry, and a mode certain in its good 
 effects, and in a high degree beneficial in its 
 consequences. I mention visits only, be- 
 cause, notwithstanding the clamour against 
 absentees, your constant residence in a coun- Absentees. 
 tiy not yet capable of affording all those 
 luxuries and elegancies which fortune can 
 elsewhere command, cannot be expected, 
 even if other and perhaps paramount duties 
 d 3
 
 54 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 and claims on your time and attention, did 
 not prevent such residence. But in cases 
 where the greatness of rank, the importance 
 of station, or other circumstances, render even 
 such visits difficult" to be made by yourselves, 
 it would be highly important that they should 
 be made by a confidential friend, unbiassed 
 by local connexions, and known and acknow- 
 ledged to possess full powers and authority to 
 act on your behalf. The principal objects of 
 such visits should be, to examine into the 
 condition of the people ; to observe how far 
 the plans arranged for their benefit and ad- 
 vantage were effectual ; to change and im- 
 prove upon those plans where requisite ; to 
 observe how far they were well conducted; 
 and to remedy abuses, and see justice dis- 
 pensed to all. By the attainment of these 
 objects such visits could not fail to be highly 
 important and beneficial; and those objects 
 certainly might be attained by any one who 
 would enter heartily upon the task, although 
 possessing no other qualification than a sin- 
 cere desire to act justly, without distinction 
 of persons, and a firm determination to seek 
 truth through all the artifices which he must 
 expect will be employed for its concealment. 
 Such a visitor might be a dispenser of good 
 3
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 55 
 
 to the people of every class on an estate, 
 when once he was fortunate enough to obtain 
 their confidence and good opinion : the pea- 
 santry, in particular, would be much in- 
 fluenced by his marking with personal dis- 
 tinction and reward, such instances of good 
 conduct, as might be sufficiently conspicuous 
 to deserve individual notice ; and, on the 
 other hand, noticing with displeasure in- 
 stances of the contrary. 
 
 By means such as these, the character of 
 the Irish farmers and peasantry might be 
 improved and softened, and their civilization 
 rapidly advanced, instead of retrograding as 
 at present. How worthy, then, are such 
 means of your zealous adoption, since, by 
 steady attention to your people, you may 
 render them industrious, thriving, and happy, 
 and greatly increase the value of your pro- 
 perty ; whilst, at the same time, you dis- 
 charge the imperative duty which attaches 
 to the possession of property. But, by neg- 
 lecting that duty, and abandoning your 
 people, you subject yourselves to the mis- 
 chievous consequences of that anarchy which 
 inevitably ensues. Nor ought this personal 
 attention to the business of your estate, to 
 be regarded as a disagreeable and danger- 
 d4
 
 56 
 
 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 ous duty; it would become otherwise the 
 moment its first good effects were felt, and 
 the dispensing of justice and benevolence 
 amongst your people, would soon become a 
 source of enjoyment to yourselves. 
 
 Residence. But if your constant residence on your 
 
 estates in Ireland be practicable, this will, 
 more than any other circumstance, tend to 
 the melioration of your people, the improve- 
 ment of your property, and the conservation 
 of your interests ; otherwise, whatever ardour 
 you may feel for these objects, your own in- 
 dividual efforts will be wholly insufficient, 
 
 Agency. without a good and well-appointed agency, 
 on which must depend the accomplishment 
 of the most judicious plans. In general, an 
 agent is at present appointed with much more 
 regard to respectability of character, and of 
 station and connexions in the country, than to 
 habits of, or qualifications for, the drudgery 
 of business ; hence it very frequently happens, 
 that the active and important duties of agency 
 are necessarily delegated to inferior persons. 
 Nor can it be reasonably expected, that the 
 very respectable characters who often hold 
 the situation of agents to large estates, can 
 employ proper subordinate persons to give 
 the requisite personal attention out of their
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND. 57 
 
 usual agency fees. Those gentlemen should 
 certainly derive a handsome emolument be- 
 sides the local patronage of the estate, for 
 such influence as their residence and import- 
 ance in the country may enable them to 
 afford, for the vigilance and control they 
 may exercise over the lower departments of 
 agency, and the other very considerable 
 benefits which the landlord derives from their 
 appointment. But the actual and laborious 
 business of the agency must be executed by 
 other hands ; namely, an agent for collecting 
 rents, who should be personally acquainted 
 with every tenant's means and circumstances, 
 with a clerk under him to keep accounts ; 
 an agent for improvements, who should set 
 out and manage the building, planting, 
 draining, road-making, and other employ- 
 ments, and see to fulfilment of covenants, 
 and to the proper regulation of labour and 
 expenses of improvement; a law agent; and 
 an auditor to regulate the works to be under- 
 taken, the accounts, and general conduct of 
 the whole business, and report regularly to 
 the proprietor thereon. These officers should 
 have ample salaries or fees, but should not 
 be allowed to enjoy any other emoluments 
 whatever. Without such officers, the busi-
 
 58 A LKTTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 ness of a large estate can never proceed with 
 the requisite degree of regularity; and what 
 is saved by avoiding the expense of such a 
 division of duties, is much more than lost by 
 the confusion which inevitably follows. In 
 vain, therefore, will you seek to lessen the 
 expense of agency, by consolidating those 
 offices, or by too much enlarging their sphere 
 of action : like the law in mechanics, by 
 which what is gained in velocity is lost in 
 power ; so, what you save in expense, you 
 will lose, and doubly lose, in effectiveness. 
 Middle-men. The system of middle-men can only be 
 regarded as another species of agency ; and 
 notwithstanding the disapprobation which 
 that system has justly excited, there may yet 
 be cases in which it may be adopted, or con- 
 tinued judiciously, as the best means of form- 
 ing a connecting link between the proprietor 
 and occupier, especially in remote districts, 
 where nothing but the powerful motives of 
 interest could secure the benefits of a resident 
 or even attentive magistracy. But such are 
 extreme cases ; and it is one of the benefits of 
 the system I have recommended, to enable 
 you, in general, to abolish middle-men, and 
 to encourage the immediate occupying te- 
 nants. There are, however, middle-men whose
 
 OF THE SOUTH OF fKELAND. OH 
 
 interests are so great, and the terms of whose 
 tenures are so long, that they must be consi- 
 dered as bona fide landlords ; and to such 
 most of the plans recommended are equally 
 applicable as to the head landlord. 
 
 But it may be objected to these plans, Expense of 
 that the expense of carrying them into ef- 
 fect would be enormous ; and that this, to- 
 gether with the reduction of rents, will very 
 inconveniently diminish the income of Irish 
 estates. The plausibility of this objection 
 carries with it, at first sight, consider- 
 able weight ; but on examination it will 
 appear by far more conducive to your imme- 
 diate as well as remote interests, to adopt 
 those plans than to continue the present 
 system, because this system is, in fact, only 
 apparently, not really, less expensive than that 
 which I propose; for it is evident that a mo- 
 derate rent well paid, is far superior in all 
 respects, and especially in actual productive- 
 ness, to an extravagant rent with continual 
 arrears ; and it is one of the immediate and 
 most certain effects of the employments and 
 improvements I have recommended, to con- 
 stitute an absolute security for punctual pay- 
 ment of rents, by creating, on the part of the 
 tenants, such beneficial interests in their re-
 
 60 
 
 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 
 
 spective holdings, that their chief anxiety 
 would be to retain possession of them, and 
 to deserve and enjoy the advantages which 
 would attach to them under the arrange- 
 ments herein laid down. Besides, an estate 
 thus managed can be let for, and will fairly 
 yield much higher rents, than if no such en- 
 couragements are given to the tenants. So 
 that the question of expense resolves itself 
 into a comparison between the diminution of 
 income by arrears of rent, and other irre- 
 gular means, on the one hand, and a similar 
 diminution by regular methodical and judi- 
 cious expenditure on the other. In a word, 
 nothing but the late high war prices have 
 enabled many estates to produce any rents 
 under the present system, if that can be call- 
 ed a system whose chief feature is confusion ; 
 and nothing but an entire change of system 
 can prevent many estates from being abso- 
 lutely unproductive to their owners under the 
 present altered state of things. The change 
 of system I now recommend would therefore 
 be necessary, if it was not advantageous. 
 Time for Nor was there ever a period more favour- 
 
 able for the adoption of these plans than the 
 present, since many of those estates which 
 are under lease with unexpired terms, whether 
 
 these arrange 
 ments
 
 OF THK SOUTH OF IRELAND. 61 
 
 in the hands of middle-men or others, must 
 probably now be surrendered, or might by 
 a nominal sacrifice of perhaps irrecoverable 
 arrears of rent, or by other negotiable means 
 which the circumstances of each case would 
 point out, be brought back into the hands of 
 the immediate landlord, and placed under 
 the influence of these arrangements. 
 
 Neither was there ever a period when the 
 necessity of such arrangements was so great, 
 or the danger of neglecting them so imminent. 
 
 Obstacles arising out of that peculiar obstacles, 
 division of family, or other interests, to 
 which landed property is subject by settle- 
 ments, and other legal arrangements, might 
 be overruled by application to Parliament in 
 cases of magnitude, where any ne v and de- 
 terminate line of conduct could be laid down 
 by means of that comprehensive view of each 
 particular case already recommended to be 
 taken previous to any important changes 
 beiug attempted. 
 
 Thus, Gentlemen, have I presumed to Conclusion. 
 submit to you an outline of what I conceive 
 to be the chief causes and consequences of 
 that state of your country which you must 
 deplore, together with some of the principal 
 remedies. What I have advanced is the
 
 62 A LETTER TO ABSENTEE LANDLORDS. 
 
 result of diligent actual observation, of ex- 
 tensive and long experience. I have carefully 
 abstained from metaphorical language, florid 
 description, or appeal to the passions, be- 
 cause I wished to treat the subject rather as 
 matter of business than of feeling, however 
 it may seem adapted to the latter character. 
 I have also avoided detailing the minutiae of 
 practice, because that would have opened too 
 wide a field. The poet aptly says, 
 
 " Who builds a church to God and not to fame, 
 " Will never mark the marble with his name.'' 
 
 Upon this principle I address you anony- 
 mously, since the hope of being instrumental 
 in bettering, even in one single instance, the 
 condition of a people whom I love for their 
 warmth of heart, and admire for their energy 
 of character, is the chief object of 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 S. Goinell, Printer, Little Queen Stfeet, London.
 
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