THE OLD SQUIRES AND ABSENTEEISM.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."]
Si,—No one can deny the fact that so much of Ireland's troubles and difficulties is, and always has been, connected with landlord absenteeism. Alas! that is an evil already existing, and spreading widely both in England and Scot- land, and is tending to sever the classes from the masses in fellow-sympathy and mutual goodwill and respect, one for the other. As Sir William Harcourt will have to rack his brains where to get an increase to his Revenue, why should he not impose a landlord-absenteeism tax? This is surely a more sane idea than most of the so-called Radical proposals. The Government should have power to double or treble all Crown taxes on all proprietors of lands absent from their properties (except those on foreign service) for more than six months in the year, the County Council likewise to double all local taxation on absentee owners of land.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Leslie, N.B. GEORGE WALDEGRA.VE LESLIE.
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