Washington Post
Washington D.C.
August 21, 1915
Marquis of Clanricarde Compromises.
After litigation extending over some four or five years the
legal proceedings in connection with the expropriation of the octogenarian
Marquis of Clanricarde through compulsory sale from his estates in County Galway
to his tenants, have been brought to a close by means of a compromise according
to the terms of which he is to receive $1,200,000 for the property. This is not
a large sum considering that the estates were formerly rated as yielding a
rental of near $100,000 per annum.
But of course the fact that Lord Clanricarde is 84 years of
age and has no direct heir will have been taken into consideration by him in
consenting to accept this sum.
He Lives Life of a Hermit.
Few people know Lord Clarnricarde personally. He lives the
life of a hermit in London in a dingy set of chambers in the Albany, off
Piccadilly, and never goes out into society. Yet there is no member of the House
of Lords whose name has been so frequently before the public. Half the agrarian
crimes in Ireland during the past four decades have been due to his merciless
and relentless cruelty toward the tenantry on his extensive estates on the
Emerald Isle. Hundreds of thousands of dollars-probably millions- have been
spent by the government in executing the decrees of eviction which he obtained
from the courts against his tenants for the nonpayment of rent. No one is more
deaf to appeals for mercy or to every sentiment of generosity and to pity for
suffering than this grandson of the great and illustrious English statesman,
George Canning.
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