Note 59 — PREFACE.

The refinement not to say dissipation, of this period was perhaps precocious and disproportionate to the riches of the country; but this circumstance, always perhaps inherent in a particular stage of civilization, was in Ireland increased by peculiarities in the distribution of national wealth, another fatal consequence of the frequent forfeitures. Time, however, would have cured this evil, if the tide of absenteeship had not again set in, and swept away all improvement and prosperity from the land.