om of
lords and gentlemen living in their ancient seats among their tenants,
is almost lost in England; is laughed out of doors; insomuch that, in
the middle of summer, a legal House of Lords and Commons might be
brought in a few hours to London, from their country villas within
twelve miles round.

The case in Ireland is yet somewhat worse: For the absentees of great
estates, who, if they lived at home, would have many rich retainers in
their neighbourhoods, have learned to rack their lands, and shorten
their leases, as much as any residing squire; and the few remaining of
these latter, having some vain hope of employments for themselves, or
their children, and discouraged by the beggarliness and thievery of
their own miserable farmers and cottagers, or seduced by the vanity of
their wives, on pretence of their children's education (whereof the
fruits are so apparent,) together with that most wonderful, and yet more
unaccountable zeal, for a seat in their assembly, though at some years'
purchase of their whole estates: these, and some other motives better
let pass, have drawn such a concourse to this beggarly city, that the
dealers of the several branches of building have found out all the
commodious and inviting places for erecting new houses; while fifteen
hundred of the old ones, which is a seventh part of the whole city, are
said to be left uninhabited, and falling to ruin. Their method is the
same with that which was first introduced by Dr. Barebone at London, who
died a bankrupt.[42] The mason, the bricklayer, the carpenter, the
slater, and the glazier, take a lot of ground, club to build one or more
houses, unite their credit, their stock, and their money; and when their
work is finished, sell it to the best advantage they can. But, as it
often happens, and more every day, that their fund will not answer half
their design, they are forced to undersell it at the first story, and
are all reduced to beggary. Insomuch, that I know a certain fanatic
brewer, who is reported to have some hundreds of houses in this town, is
said to have purchased the greater part of them at half value from
ruined undertakers; hath intelligence of all new houses where the
finishing is at a stand, takes advantage of the builder's distress, and,
by the advantage of ready money, gets fifty _per cent._ at least for his
bargain.

It is another undisputed maxim in government, "That people are the
riches of a nation;" which is so universally