Earl of Erne 31,069 16,758 Earl of Granard 30,725 15,816 Lord Digby 30,627 13,409 Earl of Caledon 30,502 15,725 Earl of Arran 30,346 7,111 Lord Farnham 30,191 19,347 Earl of Enniskellen 30,146 13,883 The owners of other large tracts and the persons who own between 10,000 and 30,000 acres are also nearly all noblemen. It would seem that titles of nobility and large estates go together over here. That is the rule in other countries, and is perfectly natural, because a poor man has no use for a title of nobility and a rich man is usually anxious to get one. A peer has just as much right to own land as anybody, and the complaints heard in Ireland are not on account of the rank or the station of the landlords, but because of their neglect of their interests and their tenants, especially because most of them do not spend the incomes from their estates in making improvements or for the benefit of their own people; they do not spend it in Ireland, but reside in London most of the time and spend the money there, where the people who earn it receive no benefit from it directly or indirectly. It is unnecessary to discuss the evils of large estates. They are too numerous to mention, especially when they are owned by people who live outside of the country. That is the great obstacle to the development of Mexico, where millions of acres in large tracts, granted to Spanish grandees before independence, still remain in the ownership of their descendants, who live in Spain or Paris, and spend the revenues there. It is true, also, of Russia, Poland, Austria, and of many other countries, and to a certain extent of Cuba, where a number of the valuable and productive plantations belong to families who are living in Spain, Paris, or New York, and never even visit them. A few years ago, by order of Parliament, an investigation was made to ascertain the habits of the large Irish landowners in connection with their estates, and the following table shows the result: Acres Rents Landlords owned collected Resident on or near the property 5,589 8,880,549 £4,718,497 Residing elsewhere in Ireland, occasionally on property 377 852,818 371,123 Residing elsewhere in Ireland 4,465 4,362,446 2,128,220 Residing out of Ireland but occasionally on property 180 1,368,347 601,072 Never resident in Ireland 1,443 3,145,514 1,538,071 Owned by charitable institutions or corporations, 161 584,327 234,678 Not ascertained 1,350 615,308 331,633