--- Title: Notes for an Undelivered Speech on Ireland (1867) Description: Marx’s notes for a speech in the General Council of the International after the execution of the Manchester Fenians: Fenianism, the land question, the clearing of Ireland by cattle and sheep, the English people and the remedy. Author: Karl Marx Date: 1867-11-26 URL: https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/originales/1867%20Notes%20for%20an%20Undelivered%20Speech%20on%20Ireland --- *Written by Karl Marx not later than November 26, 1867, for the meeting of the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association of that day; the speech was not delivered. Attributed to Karl Marx by MEGA² (I/21). Text from* The General Council of the First International. Minutes*, vol. II (1866-1868), Moscow, Progress Publishers, n.d. [1963-68], pp. 253-258, which prints the manuscript; words in square brackets are supplied by that edition, and the italics are those of that edition. [Traducción al español](https://marxismo.school/archivo/marx-engels/1867%20Esbozo%20de%20un%20discurso%20no%20pronunciado%20sobre%20la%20cuesti%C3%B3n%20irlandesa)* ## I. Exordium. The Execution Since our last meeting the object of our discussion, Fenianism, has entered a new phase. It has been baptised in blood by the English Government. The Political Executions at Manchester remind us of the fate of John Brown at Harpers Ferry. They open a new period in the struggle between Ireland and England. The whole Parliament and liberal press responsible. Gladstone. Reason: to keep up the hypocrisy that this was no political, but a common criminal affair. The effect produced upon Europe quite the contrary. They seem anxious to keep up the Act of the Long Parliament. English [have] a divine right to fight the Irish on their native soil, but every Irish fighting against the British Government in England to be treated as an outlaw. Suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. State of siege. Facts from the *Chronicle*. Governmental organisation of “Assassination and Violence”. Case of Bonaparte. ## II. The Question What is Fenianism? ## III. The Land Question ### Decrease of Population | | | | | |:--|--:|:--|:--| | *1846* | | | | | *1841:* | 8,222,664 | in 25 Jahren | *1801:* 5,319,867 | | *1866:* | 5,571,971 | 2,650,693 | | | | 2,650,693 | | | | | | | |:--|--:|:--| | *1855:* | 6,604,665 | in 11 years | | *1866:* | 5,571,971 | 1,032,694 | | | 1,032,694 | | Population not only decreased, but the number of the deaf-mutes, the blind, the decrepit, the lunatic, and idiotic increased relatively to the numbers of the population. ### Increase of Live-Stock from 1855 to 1866 In the same period from 1855 to 1866 [the] number of the live-stock increased as follows: cattle by 178,532, sheep by 667,675, pigs by 315,918. If we take into account the simultaneous decrease of horses by 20,656, and equalise 8 sheep to 1 horse *total increase of live-stock*: 996,877, about one million. Thus 1,032,694 Irishmen have been displaced by about one million cattle, pigs, and sheep. What has become of them? The *emigration list* answers. ### Emigration *From 1st May 1851 to 31 December 1866:* 1,730,189. Character of that emigration. The process has been brought about and is still functioning upon an always enlarging scale by the *throwing together* or *consolidation of farms* (eviction) and by the simultaneous conversion of tillage into pasture. *From 1851-1861 [the] total number of farms* decreased by 120,000, while simultaneously the number of farms of 15-30 acres increased by 61,000, that of 30 acres by 109,000 (together 170,000). The decrease was almost exclusively owed to the extinction of farms from less than one to less than 15 acres. Lord Dufferin. The increase means only that amongst the decreased number of farms there is a larger portion of farms of large dimension. ### How the Process Works a) *The People.* The situation of the *mass of the people* has deteriorated, and their state is verging to a crisis similar to that of 1846. The relative surplus population now as great as before the famine. *Wages* have not risen more than 20%, since the potato famine. The price of potatoes has risen nearly 200%; the necessary means of life on an average by 100%. *Professor Cliffe Leslie,* in the London *Economist* dated February 9, 1867 says: > “After a loss of 2/5 of the population in 21 years, throughout most of the island, the rate of wages is now only 1s. a day; a shilling does not go further than 6d. did 21 years ago. Owing to this rise in his ordinary food the labourer is worse off than he was 10 years ago.” b) *The Land.* 1) *Decrease of land under crops.* | *Decrease in cereal crops:* | *Decrease in green crops:* | |:--|:--| | *1861-66:* 470,917 acres | *1861-66:* 128,061 acres | 2) *Decrease per Statute Acre of every crop.* There has been decrease *of yield in* wheat, but greater *1847 to 1865* per cent; the exact decrease: oats 16.3, flax 47.9, turnips 36.1, potatoes 50%. Some years would show a greater decrease, but on the whole it has been *gradual* since 1847. Since the exodus, the land has been underfed and overworked, partly from the injudicious consolidation of farms, and, partly, because, under the corn acre system, the farmer in a great measure trusted to his labourers to manure the land for him. Rents and profits may increase, although the profit of the soil decreases. The total produce may diminish, but that part of it, which is converted into surplus produce, falling to landlord and greater farmers, instead of to the labourer. And the price of the surplus produce has risen. So result: gradual expulsion of the natives, gradual deterioration and exhaustion of the source of national life, the soil. ### Process of Consolidation This process has only begun; it is going on in rapid strides. The consolidation has first attacked the farms of under one to under 15 acres. It will be far from having reached the English point of consolidation, if all farms under 100 acres have disappeared. Now the state was this in 1864: The *total area of Ireland*, including *bogs and waste land*: 20,319,924 acres. *Of those 3/5,=12,092,117 acres,* form still farms from *under 1 to under 100 acres*, and are in the hands *of 569,844 farmers;* 2/5,=8,227,807, form farms *from 100 till over 500 acres*, and are in the hands of 31,927 persons. Thus to be cleared off 2,847,220, if we number only the farmers and their families. This system [is a] natural offspring of the famine of 1846, accelerated by the abolition of corn-laws, and the rise in the price of meat and wool, now systematic. *Clearing of the estate of Ireland*, transforming it in an English agricultural district, minus its resident lords and their retainers, separated from England by a broad water ditch. ### Change of Character of the English Rule in Ireland State only tool of the landlords. *Eviction*, also employed as means of political punishment. (*Lord Abercorn*. England. *Gaels: in the Highlands of Scotland*.) Former English policy: displacing the Irish by English (Elizabeth), roundheads (Cromwell). Since Anne, 18th-century politico-economical character only again in the protectionist measures of England against her own Irish colony; within that colony making *religion* a proprietary title. After the *Union* [the] system of rack-renting and middlemen, but left the Irish, however ground to the dust, holder of their native soil. Present system, quiet business-like extinction, and government only instrument of landlords (and usurers). From this altered state: 1) *Distinguishing character of Fenianism: Socialist, lower class movement.* 2) *Not Catholic movement.* Priests leaders as long as Catholic Emancipation and their leader, Daniel O’Connell, remained leader of the Irish movement. Ridiculous Popishism of the English. High Catholic priests against Fenianism. 3) *No representative leader in the British Parliament.* Character of O’Connell’s physical force movement. Extinction of Irish party in Parliament. 4) *Nationality*. Influence of European movement, and English phraseology. 5) *America, Ireland, England*—three fields of action, leadership of America. 6) *Republican*, because America republic. I have now given the characteristics of Fenianism. ## IV. The English People A cause of humanity and right, but above all a specific English question. a) *Aristocracy and Church and Army*. (*France*, Algiers.) b) *Irish in England*. Influence on wages, etc. Lowering the character of the English and Irish. *The Irish Character*. Chastity of Irishmen. Attempts at education in Ireland. Diminution of crimes. ### Convicted in Ireland | | *Committed for trial:* | *Convicted:* | |:--|--:|--:| | *1852* | 17,678 | 10,454 | | *1866* | 4,326 | 2,418 | The decrease in the numbers of persons committed for trial in England and Wales, since 1855, is partly due to the *Criminal Justice Act of 1855*, authorising Justices to pass sentences for short periods with the consent of the prisoners, instead of committing for trial to the sessions. Birmingham. Progress of the English people. Infamy of the English press. c) *The Foreign Policy*. Poland, etc. Castlereagh. Palmerston. ## V. The Remedy Foolishness of the minor Parliamentary propositions. Error of the Reform League. *Repeal* as one of the articles of the English Democratic Party.