x absentees from these provinces, which are
impoverished by the European residence of the possessors of their lands.
How is he to escape this _ricochet_ cross-firing of so many opposite
batteries of police and regulation? If he attempts to comply, he is
likely to be more a citizen of the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea than
of any of these countries. The matter is absurd and ridiculous, and,
while ever the idea of mutual marriages, inheritances, purchases, and
privileges subsist, can never be carried into execution with common
sense or common justice.

I do not know how gentlemen of Ireland reconcile such an idea to their
own liberties, or to the natural use and enjoyment of their estates. If
any of their children should be left in a minority, and a guardian
should think, as many do, (it matters not whether properly or no,) that
his ward had better he educated in a school or university here than in
Ireland, is he sure that he can justify the bringing a tax of ten per
cent, perhaps twenty, on his pupil's estate, by giving what in his
opinion is the best education in general, or the best for that pupil's
particular character and circumstances? Can he justify his sending him
to travel, a necessary part of the higher style of education, and,
notwithstanding what some narrow writers have said, of great benefit to
all countries, but very particularly so to Ireland? Suppose a guardian,
under the authority or pretence of such a tax of police, had prevented
our dear friend, Lord Charlemont, from going abroad, would he have lost
no satisfaction? would his friends have lost nothing in the companion?
would his country have lost nothing in the cultivated taste with which
he has adorned it in so many ways? His natural elegance of mind would
undoubtedly do a great deal; but I will venture to assert, without the
danger of being contradicted, that he adorns his present residence in
Ireland much the more for having resided a long time out of it. Will Mr.
Flood himself think he ought to have been driven by taxes into Ireland,
whilst he prepared himself by an English education to understand and to
defend the rights of the subject in Ireland, or to support the dignity
of government there, according as his opinions, or the situation of
things, may lead him to take either part, upon respectable principles? I
hope it is not forgot that an Irish act of Parliament sends its youth to
England for the study of the law, and compels a residence in th