bringing non-resident proprietors under contribution, it gives them powerful motives either to reside on their estates or to take care that they are managed, in their absence, with a proper regard to the welfare of the poor[59]. Lastly, the performance of duty supposes the enjoyment of equivalent rights. When rich and poor are at one again, the repudiating farmer will find the position of his landlord too strong to allow of his taking his present license, and it will then be fearlessly asserted that the converse of Mr. Drummond’s maxim is also true, and that “Property has its rights as well as its duties.” For the first time in the history of Ireland, the poor man has become sensibly alive to the idea that the law is his friend, and the exhortation of the parish priest of Dingle to his flock in September 1847, indicates an epoch in the progress of society in Ireland:--“Heretofore landlords have had agents who collected their rents, and they supported them. The grand jury had agents to collect the county-cess, and they supported them. Now, for the first time, the poor man has an agent to collect _his_ rent. That agent is the poor-rate collector, and he should be supported by the poor.” Time must, however, be allowed for the gradual working of this feeling, before its full effects can be seen. Those who object to the existing Poor Law are bound to point out a more certain and less objectionable mode of relieving the destitute and securing the regular employment of the poor. The principle of the Poor Law is, that rate after rate should be levied _for the preservation of life_, until the landowners and farmers either enable the people to support themselves by honest industry, or dispose of their property to those who can and will perform this indispensable duty.