and not insult those who oppose our claims. We should peaceably, but firmly, record our declarations against oppression, and in favor of liberty. We should forward petitions, (containing facts that cannot be denied), from every province, county, town, parish and club, for Repeal. We should continue to send to parliament men who would speak our voice, assert our principles, and demand liberty for our country! If we act thus, we may be told that " our rights will be trampled on, and our complaints put down by force;" but the people of Ireland can answer? "Conscious of the justice of our cause, we are quiet, but we are in earnest. We are peaceable, but we shall persevere in our struggle, until tyranny and despotism fall, and peace and liberty be established upon their ruins!" Already the cause of the people is triumphant in Ireland. The question of repeal, the name of which, a few years since, was considered treason, is now in every man's mouth. Since the following sheets were penned, fifty members of parliament, pledged to repeal, have been returned from Ireland, and about twenty more, unpledged, have declared that when the time comes, they will stand for that great and mighty question! Nothing remains but to render the people moral, intelligent, and united; to reason with the well-meaning; to strengthen the timid; to refute the erroneous, to silence the obstinate, and to prove that it is the interest of all, that Repeal should triumph, and that good government should be restored to our beautiful, but misruled country. You, who have hitherto gloried in faction and party, may I beseech you, by the bleeding wounds of Ireland, to do your duty to your native land. Ascendancy, that foul dishonoring thing, has passed away. Tyranny and misrule no longer have their golden charms for you. Government is too poor to bribe you any longer. There is now but one com mon right, and that is the right of native legislationthere is now but one common benefit, and that is the benefit of Ireland! Why should religion, the sacred name of religion, be any longer a wall of separation to keep us asunder? Why should the pride of one class, or the insolence of another, disturb our repose? Ireland possessing eight millions ought to be a nation, and a nation she will be if her sons are united! To forward, as far as in him lies, these sacred views, and thus to secure the prosperity of his country, is the object of the present writer. His talents are humble; his information small; but to Ireland all are directed. His object is to write plain but solid truths, and he hopes, that the reasoning, the facts, and the evidence he has advanced, will contribute to prove, that Ireland has been misruled by foreign legislation, and that nothing can restore her to the rank of nations; but a reformed Parliament of her own. Shine, shine for ever, glorious flame From Greece thy earliest splendor came, Dublin, 6th January, 1833. 1 OUTLINE OF THIS WORK. THE subjects treated of in this Essay, are perhaps the most important to Ireland and her people, that can be discussed. But as Absenteeism and the Union are questions which so much involve the interests, and excite the feelings of Irishmen, that they may be canvassed in terms too warm for criticism, or too brief to ensure conviction, the Author shall endeavour to speak rather to the judgment than to the fancy, and more to reason than to imagination. To treat these subjects with as much perspicuity as possible, we shall divide this work into three parts: In the first part we shall ascertain what is Absenteeism? Is it an evil to a country? Has it been an evil to Ireland, in reference to her agriculture, manufacture, commerce and people? How many classes of Irish Absentees are there? Has Absenteeism increased since the Union? What is the amount remitted to Absentees? What is the remedy for Absenteeism? In the second part, we shall inquire: What was the original design of the Legislative Union of Great Britain and Ireland? Who suggested it? Under what circumstances was it proposed? On what conditions was it introduced? How was it carried? Was it the deliberate act of two contracting nations? Have the terms or pledges of the Union been kept? Has it secured to Ireland the proposed advantages? Has it advanced Literature, Liberty, Agriculture, Manufacture, or Commerce? Has it bettered the main body of the people? Has it benefitted England? Can it ever secure prosperity to Ireland? The third part, forming a Supplement, will contain the Act of Union; the most celebrated speeches delivered on the Union, by Grattan, Curran, Plunkett, Bushe, Foster, Saurin, Moore, Grey, O'Connell, &c. the Petitions and Addresses of the Corporations; a list of those who voted for and against the Union, with an Appeal to the People of England, on the necessity of their co-operating with the people of Ireland. ABSENTEEISM. THE UNION RECONSIDERED. PART 1. CHAPTER I. What is Absenteeism? ALL judicious writers admit, that to treat a subject correctly, and to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion, it is necessary to begin by explaining distinctly, the name or nature of the matter in debate. From the want of such perspicuity, it too often happens that disputes about words, more than about the things they represent, distract society. Thus, whilst Absenteeism, according to the received sense of mankind, is a great evil to a country; yet, according to the sophisticated meaning of some economists, it would appear to be rather a national blessing. Let us, then, first inquire, what is Absenteeism, or an Absentee? and next, is either an evil or a blessing to a country? The meaning that Johnson, our great lexicographer, gives us, is a little curious: "ABSENTEE,-He that is absent from his station or employment, or country. A word used commonly with regard to Irishmen living out of their country. Childs, in his "Discourse on Trade," says, in further illustration, that, "A great part of estates in Ireland are owned by Absentees, such as draw over the profits raised out of Ireland, refunding nothing." Another writer says, that " Absentee is a term, which appears to have been invented to designate a mass of Irish proprietors, who enjoy the ownership of the soil, without conferring J any benefit on the country."-Hints to Hardinge, page 88. Swift humorously says, that an "Absentee is one who lives well in England, on his Irish estates." But, as Adam Smith remarks, that "it is a little difficult to ascertain either what sort, or what degree of abɛence subjects a man to be considered an Absentee," all men being at times liable to be absent from their own country; it is right that we should divide them into their respective classes, and consider how far they deserve censure for in inflicting misery on, or praise for imparting happiness to their native land. Mr. Newenham divides the Absentees into the following four classes: The first consisting of those who have neither mansion nor residence in the country. The second consisting of those who have mansions in the country, but have never resided there. The third consisting of those who have no mansions in the country, but reside there occasionally. The fourth consisting of those who have mansions in the country, and have resided there.-See Inquiry on Population, page 173. Other writers divide them thus :-- 1st. Those owners of estates in the country who hold no office. 2nd. Those who hold office under government, and have estates in the country. 3d. Those who hold no post under government, have estates, or other property in the country, but little or none elsewhere. 4th.-Those placemen, pensioners, archbishops, or bishops, who live out of the country. In enumerating the classes of Absentees in Ireland, historically, and with a view to improvement, we think they might be thus divided: 1st. Those who, by dreadful persecution, or barbarous laws, were compelled to abandon the land of their nativity or adoption. 2nd. Those "native Irish," who, to gratify individual pride, or strengthen foreign domination, voluntarily abandon. their country entirely. 3d.-Those who, from any motive short of necessity, reside seldom in their country. |