ABSTRACT
Superficially, the Irish landlord resembled his English counterpart. Lifestyle, customs, language, religion, even ideology were in certain ways adapted from England’s aristocracy. Yet, while the praises of the British landed gentleman as an agent of economic progress and technical innovation have been sung by contemporaries and historians alike, the Irish landlords have come in for nothing but contempt and scorn. Beaumont wrote in 1839 that “all the evils of Ireland, and all its difficulties arise from the same principal and permanent cause—a bad aristocracy... whatever may be the fortunes of the Irish aristocracy, no tears will be shed over its fate... it is nothing better than a scourge and a riuisance which should be removed as soon as possible” (Beaumont, 1839, Vol. 2, pp. 193, 204). These are strong words indeed, and their spirit is echoed in the writings of other contemporaries. The dilemma with which nineteenth-century political economy was increasingly faced was that in Ireland the sanctity of property rights seemed to collide with the well-being of the nation. Landlords holding title to land were not making the best use of that land, or so it seemed. This dilemma is the focus of economic thought on what became known as the Irish Question in the postfamine years, but it clearly occupies an important place in discussions of the prefamine Irish economy as well.
