Marx-Engels Correspondence 1882
Source: Marx & Engels on the Irish Question, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1971, pp. 331-332;
Transcribed: by Einde O’Callaghan.
A different picture is presented by the 8,000 landlords meeting at Dublin, duce[A] Abercorn[331] whose only purpose is “to maintain ... contracts and the freedom between man and man in this realm.” Those fellows’ rage over the Assistant Commissioners is funny. By the way, they are quite justified in their polemics against Gladstone, but it is only the coercive measures of the latter and his 50,000 soldiers, apart from the police, that enable these gentlemen to oppose him in such a critical and threatening manner. The whole uproar naturally is meant only to prepare John Bull for the payment of “compensation costs.” Serves him right.
A.. Under the leadership of. — Ed.
331. The meeting of English landlords was held in Dublin on January 3, 1882, with the Duke of Abercorn in the chair. It was called to discuss the activities of the assistant commissioners, officials appointed to implement measures connected with the 1881 Land Act for Ireland (see Note 330). Referring to the lack of proper qualifications and the inexperience of these officials and also to the absence of Parliamentary decisions defining their competency, the landlords accused the assistant commissioners of adopting biassed decisions on lowering the rents collected by the landlords. In an attempt to sabotage the Land Act, the landlords demanded that the government consider their appeals without delay and pass a law on compensation for losses they might incur if the government sanctioned a reduction of rents.