of Irish labourers would be diminished, and that
appropriated to the use of English labourers increased."[321] Giving
credit for ordinary prudence to the persons employed by resident Irish
landlords, they would save a part of their earnings, and the part saved
would go to increase the capital of the country; but when the landlords
reside in England the moneys so paid away go into the pockets of English
servants and mechanics, and their savings are added to the sum of
English capital; for it is a fundamental principle of Political Economy
that capital and all additions to capital are the result of saving.
Writers on Ireland have been long proclaiming with all their might, that
the first and greatest want of that country is capital. Half a century
ago, when Mr. M'Culloch published his views of Irish Absenteeism, the
rents annually paid to our absentee landlords were set down at from
four to four and millions of pounds sterling. They have very much
increased since, but let us still accept four and a-half millions as the
amount. Were the absentee landlords resident, the whole of that rental
would not be spent at home, as some of it would go for foreign
commodities, such as tea, sugar, wine; but the greater part of it would
be spent at home. Now, although the savings of the employees of Irish
landlords could not, perhaps, be called large in any one year, yet had
those savings gone on from Mr. Prior's time--1729--taking into account
the increase of capital by the use of capital,--who can calculate the
additions that would have been made to Irish capital, by this means,
during so long a period? And as Mr. Mill's first fundamental proposition
respecting capital is, that "Industry is limited by capital," who can
measure the consequences to Irish industry of the capital lost to it by
Absenteeism?

But the soundness of the principle laid down by Mr. M'Culloch as
universally received, and which Mr. Senior accepts (with the
qualification affecting raw produce) has not passed unchallenged. For
greater clearness I shall repeat that principle here. "The gentlemen,"
says Mr. M'Culloch, "who consume nothing in their families but what is
brought from abroad are quite as good, as useful, and as meritorious
subjects as they could be if they consume nothing but what is produced
at home." And the reason for this is to be found in his Principles of
Political Economy where he says that, Foreign commodities are always
paid for by British commod