ABSCONSA, a dark lantern used by the monks at the ceremony of burying their dead.
ABSENTEE is a term applicable to those landlords who reside in another country than that from which they draw their rents. The discussions which have taken place on this subject have generally had a reference to Ireland.
Mr McCulloch maintains that, in so far as the question of expenditure is concerned, absenteeism is not injurious to a country. On the contrary, that it is in the majority of cases advantageous, as its tendency is to turn industry into those channels into which it is most for the public advantage that it should be turned, and eventually to increase the national capital. He allows that a resident landed proprietor has the means of doing a vast deal of good, by setting an example of good order, virtue, and piety, and protecting his tenants and dependents. But, in the case of Ireland, the superiority of resident over absentee landlords must be tried, not by what they ought to have been, but by their actual conduct. And he maintains that nine-tenths of the proprietors of Ireland being the lineal descendants of those who purchased or received grants of the property confiscated during the 17th century, and being almost all Englishmen and Protestants,—intruders on their soil, and enemies of their religion,—the
residence of such landlords was more likely to produce discord than good-will. And by a comparison of the actual condition of the baronies where absenteeism prevailed, he has brought forward evidence to show that the estates are better managed, and the inhabitants have been more contented and tranquil in these, than in the districts most thickly occupied by resident landlords.
The opposite side of this question has been ably argued by writers in the Quarterly Review. McCulloch's Treatises and Essays on Economical Policy; Quarterly Review, vol. xxxiii, p. 455.