To use the words of Mr. Senior, “If an Irish landlord reside on his estate he requires the services of certain persons, who must be also resident there to minister to his daily wants.  He must have servants, gardeners, and, perhaps, gamekeepers.  If he build a house, he must employ resident masons and carpenters; part of his furniture he may import, but the greater part of it must be made in his neighbourhood; a portion of his land, or, what comes to the same thing, a portion of his rent, must be employed in producing food, clothing, and shelter for all these persons, and for those who produce that food, clothing, and shelter.  If he were to remove to England all these wants would be supplied by Englishmen.  The land and capital which was formerly employed in providing the maintenance of Irish labourers, would be employed in producing corn and cattle to be exported to England, to provide the sustenance of English labourers.  The whole quantity of commodities appropriated to the use 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?