Had the landlords of Ireland paid attention
to these and other matters that directly involve their own welfare and
independence, as well as those of their neglected tenantry, they would
not be, as they now are, a class of men, some absolutely bankrupt, and
more on the very eve of it; and all this, to use a commercial phrase
painfully appropriate,--because they neglect their business.
Who, until lately, ever heard of an Irish landlord having made the
subject of property, or the principles upon which it ought to be
administered, his study? By this we do not mean to say that they did not
occasionally bestow a thought upon their own interests; but, in doing
so, they were guided by erroneous principles that led them to place
these interests in antagonism with those of the people. They forgot
that poverty is the most fertile source of population, and that in every
neglected and ill-regulated state of society, they invariably reproduce
each other; but the landlords kept the people poor, and now they
are surprised, forsooth, at their poverty and the existence of a
superabundant population.
"We know," said they, "that the people are poor; but we know also that,
by subsisting merely upon the potato, and excluding better food and a
higher state of comfort, of course the more is left for the landlord."
This in general was their principle--and its consequences are now upon
themselves.
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