the late Earl Derby or Lord Palmerston, who had higher duties to perform than those of resident landlords.

"We may still," says the Times, commenting on this statistical return, "conclude with some confidence that Irish absenteeism has not increased, but, on the contrary, has rather diminished, since the Union. There is reason to believe that, on the whole, the Encumbered and Landed Estates Courts have promoted the substitution of resident for non-resident proprietors. Whether the Land Act will have the same tendency, by encouraging tenant farmers to bid. for estates on sale, or will have the opposite tendency, by weakening a landlord's motives for residing on his property, it is as yet impossible to foresee. However this may be, what cannot be denied, and ought not to be forgotten, is that absenteeism, if it is not so enormous and crying an evil as in the last century, is still, as it has ever been, one of the main obstacles to the prosperity of Ireland. In Great Britain, and especially in Scotland, where it has become much too common, its evil effects are mitigated by the independent spirit of the people. In Ireland there is nothing to supply the place of a resident landlord's example and influence, yet, by a strange fatality, the very circumstances which make this so necessary to the island are the immediate cause of absenteeism. Berkeley asks, in his pregnant style, 'whether a gen

tleman who hath seen a little of the world, and observed how men live elsewhere, can contentedly sit down in a cold, damp, sordid habitation, in the midst of a bleak country inhabited by thieves and beggars.' After making due allowance for a marked advance in Irish civilization since Berkeley's age, which, however, is partly compensated by a corresponding advance in the Irish squire's notions of comfort, this question of Berkeley's might be put with equal propriety at the present day. The simple reason why so many Irish proprietors reside in England or on the Continent is that life is there more agreeable, more stirring, and, we must add, more secure. In the early part of George III.'s reign it was actually proposed by the Government to counteract the force of this gravitation eastward, by levying a tax of two shillings in the pound on the net income of all Irish landlords who should not reside at least half the year in the island. No one would now venture to revive such a proposal, and it is more than doubtful whether the tenant farmers, on a property like that of Lord Fitzwilliam or Lord Devon, would gain by the forced sale of it to a Dublin landjobber, equally non-resident, but far less generous and indulgent.

"There is, in fact, no heroic or summary remedy for absenteeism, and though home rule might induce some English noblemen to sell their Irish estates, it

could not compel the new purchasers to reside upon them, or to abstain from putting them, after the manner of old Irish families, into the hands of middlemen. The agrarian outrages which have so long disgraced Westmeath, and the political terrorism recently exercised by priest-led mobs in Galway, exemplify the causes which swell the number of proprietors 'rarely or never resident in Ireland.' After the Galway election a Roman Catholic gentleman of ancient Irish lineage, whose life had been threatened, signified his intention of leaving the country, and who can blame him if he carries out his resolve? Yet his departure will close one hospitable mansion, and thereby render the neighbourhood less attractive to others, besides involving a direct loss of employment and custom. Those who aspire to guide popular opinion in Ireland will do well to reflect on such considerations as these. Of course it is possible that Ireland is destined to become a community of small proprietors, with no landed aristocracy and few capitalist manufacturers. In that case it will probably exhibit the nearest approach yet realized to what economists call 'the stationary state.' In any other case a resident gentry may be of the utmost service in the social regeneration of Ireland, and no Irishman deserves well of his country who seeks to make the position of a resident gentry less enviable."

CHAPTER VI.

VISIT TO MR. BIANCONI.

Mr. Bianconi's History-Seventy Years' Recollections-Bianconi's Cars-Irish Travelling.

NE of the most satisfactory pages in my Irish notebook is that which records a visit paid to Mr. Charles Bianconi, at Longfield in Tipperary. His name is familiar in connection with the public car service which he organized and long conducted, but it may not be known to many English readers that he is proprietor of a fine estate, one of the best of landlords, a capital farmer, and a much-respected magistrate. I had on several occasions corresponded with him, and was glad of the opportunity of seeing him in his own home and amongst his prosperous tenantry. He is now in his 87th year. He was born at Tregolo in northern Italy, Sept. 20, 1786, and came to Ireland in 1802. From an accident a few years ago he is lame, but otherwise in excellent health, with memory clear and intellect vigorous. In all that concerns the welfare of his adopted country

he takes the most lively interest. It was truly a treat to converse with a man who has such large knowledge and experience, and who has witnessed the progress of Ireland during the last seventy years of its eventful annals.

A brief narrative of the career and public life of Mr. Bianconi will be accepted not only as an interesting piece of biography, but as throwing light on the history and the condition of Ireland. He allowed me to read a manuscript memoir of the early incidents of his life, which he had drawn up at the request of Mr. Drummond, whose intimate friendship he enjoyed. Mr. Drummond was one of the best of Irish secretaries, an enlightened statesman, and a warm friend to Ireland. He knew how to appreciate a man like Mr. Bianconi, and often took advantage of the information and advice which he was able to give. I urged Mr. Bianconi to publish this autobiography, but he declines on the ground that it touches on too many personal matters, and refers to persons whose descendants or relations might take offence, and because

we are yet too little removed from the dark penal times." I must therefore confine my narrative to matters which are of public notoriety, and of which Mr. Bianconi has himself given account. In 1843 he read a short paper at the Cork meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He read