William Neilson Hancock

“ In short, what the community is interested in, is not the aggregate amount of wages or of profits, but the rate of wages and the rate of profit. So that the expenditure of wealthy absentees in England is not injurious to Ireland.
But it is alleged that the wealthy absentees escape taxation. This, however, depends on whether they reside in England or on the continent. Those who reside in England pay more taxes than they would do if they lived at home. And as the majority of the wealthy Irish absentees reside in England, the great bulk of the absentee expenditure does not escape taxation. ”

“ The duration of political absenteeism will be diminished by every improvement in railroads, in electric telegraphs, and in newspapers, as the facilities of intercourse and of transmitting intelligence will enable parties to discharge their political duties in the metropolis with less waste of time. But the same causes will increase the taste for visiting the metropolis for political objects, and will increase the number of persons resorting there, as the cheapness of communication will enable a larger class to do so. ”

“ But in the place where he goes to reside his expenditure raises wages and profits slightly. But as soon as the labourers have migrated from one country to the other, wages are restored so their former level,; as soon as capital is exported, profits are restored to their level; and so the labourers and capitalists who remain earn as much as before. It may be said that if we have fewer labourers and fewer capitalists in Ireland, the country is injured. But there cannot be a greater error than that of viewing the nation as something distinct from the individuals that comprise it. ”

“ The remedy for absenteeism arising from primogeniture is, to move the encouragements to primogeniture held out by the laws for the succession to land. In short, to assiilate the succession of real to that of personal property, leaving the cases of hereditary titles to be provided for by special settlements.
Absentees of the third class are quite different from those of either of the preceding classes, in one important circumstance. The demands of political life do not require that the representatives from the provinces should reside in the metropolis for more than a portion of the year. ”

“ The absenteeism of wealthy proprietors is in some degree morally and politically injurious; but their expenditure in England does not lower wages and profits in Ireland, nor do they escape taxation to any extent worth noticing.
The temporary absenteeism from political causes is morally and politically beneficial; the expenditure of such absentees does not lower wages and profits in Ireland, and they never escape taxation. ”

“ We may therefore safely predict, that when land becomes a perfectly marketable commodity, and the mercantile spirit is substituted for the feudal spirit in its management, we shall hear no longer of proprietors neglecting their duties. The purchasers of land will be like the mill-owners, and instead of complaints of the land being unproductive, and the labourers unemployed, we shall have ten hours bills for agricultural labourers to protect them from being overworked by the capitalist land-owners. ”

“ As we have seen that the principal cause of the absenteeisms of our wealthiest proprietors is primogeniture, it follows that the moral and political evils of their absence are, from the very circumstance that produces it, their great wealth, much less than would be the effects if their properties were divided, and all the members of the family were non-resident. ”

“ Thus, some allege "that absenteeism is not prejudicial to the prosperity of a country; that Ireland, for instance, would suffer no detriment if all her proprietors should reside in foreign lands, and would derive no advantage from their return home to pass their lives, and spend their incomes in their own country." ”

“ Their personal expenditure is insignificant from the nature of the case. What they spend in law costs, for bonds, judgments, mortgages, receivers, equity suits, through the unwise and burdensome taxes on law proceedings, contributes in a greater degree than almost anye qual expenditure to the taxation of the country.
We may see also the folly of proposing a tax on absentees, as a remedy for absenteeism arising from incumbrances. The tax would only increase the burdens of the proprietors, and consequently only increase the cause of their being absentees. ”

“ Beyond the means I have suggested, political absenteeism does not admit of a remedy; for whether the proprietors resort to one centre of government or another, they are equally absent from their estates. ”

“ And this is especially the case in Ireland, because the law places the tenant so much in the power of the landlord, that the only way in which the relation of landlord and tenant can be advantageously maintained, under the present system, is where the proprietor looks to the permanent interest of his property, and not to the immediate sums that he can obtain by the extraordinary powers that the law places in his hands. ”

“ But if the wealthy absentees go to England, with which we have the most intimate commercial intercourse, to which our labourers migrate yearly to the extent of 50,000, and migrate permanently in such numbers that at the last census there were 400,000 native Irish in England and Scotland, and to which our capital is exported for investment in the public funds in such quantities, that the exports have exceeded the imports of such investment by upwards of a million in each year for the last six years. ”

“ Whilst their example would not be injurious on account of their wealth, they would, by being exempt from the engrossing cares of personal labour or personal superintendance of capital, have leisure to cultivate the higher qualities of the mind. It would be difficult to exaggerate the civilizing influence which the continued residence of a numerous body of active and prudent proprietors of moderate fortune would exercise on the community. ”

“ 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 trade in land, personal superintendence is as necessary as it is in any other trade. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Whilst, therefore, the residence of landed proprietors, who are prosperous and successful in the management of their properties, has a most valuable effect in promoting the stability of social order and general confidence in the laws, which are amongst the most important elements in facilitating the production of natural wealth, the non-residence of embarrassed proprietors cannot be considered injurious to the community. ”

“ Thus, the political absentees are only temporarily so, whilst the encumbered and the wealthy are generally permanent absentees. Absentees of the third class must always exist in any system of government, for the necessities of government require that it be carried on at some centre ”

“ No one of them would be too far removed from the condition of his neighbours, neither would they be so wealthy as to render the prudent and careful management of the property unnecessary. They would, on the contrary, seek to provide for their families by the improvement of the land. ”

“ Now a heavily encumbered proprietor cannot make any abatement of rents, or other equitable concession to the tenants, however necessary, and he is tempted to take any advantage of his tenant's improvements which he can do legally. ”

“ The remedy for this kind of absenteeism is quite different from the preceding. Laws respecting incumbrances have no effect on those who are not in debt. Facilities of sale are of no use to those who want to retain for enjoyment, and not to sell. ”