There are also numerous small sources of profit arising from the supply of the ordinary wants of a man and his family, which accrue to the people of the place In which a man fixes his residence: these are the ordinary retail profits of trade. This is obvious in the case of a number of families quitting a provincial town to reside in London : the provincial town decays, and that source of profit which is derived from supplying the wants of the families is transferred to the tradesmen of their new place of residence. This, which is true as to one place in England compared with another, is equally true as to England compared with Belgium or France. If we take into account merely the amount of wages which a large body of absentees must pay to their domestic servants, this will form a very consider able sum. The savings of domestic ser vants in England from their wages are invested in various ways ; and such savings are no small part of the whole amount of the deposits in Savings' Banks. It will hardly be maintained that all those who would be employed as domestic servants in London, if the absentees in France were to come to live in London, are employed with equal profit to them selves while the absentees are abroad. London is supplied with domestic ser vants from the country, many of whom would be living at home and doing no thing, if there were no demand for their services in London ; and everything that diminishes such demand, diminishes the savings of a class whose accumulated earnings form a part of the productive capital of Great Britain.
Those, then, who maintain that ab senteeism has no effect on the wealth of the country from which the absentee de rives his income, maintain a proposition which is untrue. Those who maintain that the amount which a man spends in a foreign country is so much clear loss to the country of the absentee, are also mis taken. There are many ways in which. the loss is indirectly mane up ; but what ever may be its amount, it would be unwise to check absenteeism by any direct means, and it is not easy to see how it can be checked indirectly in any way that will produce good.
Since writing this we have seen ' Five Lectures on Political Economy,' delivered before the University of Dublin, in Mi chaelmas Term, 1843, by J. A. Lawson, LL.B., in which the subject of absen teeism is discussed, though from a some what different point of view. Mr. Lawson does not agree with those economists who think that a country can sustain no injury from the residence abroad of landlords and other proprietors of revenue. He is of opinion that, so far at least as Ireland is concerned, absenteeism is an economical evil. His views on the effects of absen teeism are contained in Lecture V., pp.