WCP2655

Letter (WCP2655.2545)

[1]1

Guernsey2

18th March 1884

My dear Dr Wallace3

I had pleasure in receiving the Christ[ian] Soc[ialist]4. as a reminder of you. I had already read your letter in it as I take both it & Today — though agreeing with very little in either.

I think you are clearly right in your doctrine about interest5 — but there is no possibility of arguing on the subject with those who as Socialists deny the [2] right to hold property at all. But I am afraid I must continue to diverge from you in your after argument, for I am as far as ever from seeing that there would be a public benefit in making the existing tenants of land, no matter how extensive[?], into owners.6 My aim as you know is rather to have no extensive properties but to have land subdivided till it is tilled by its owners and not by hired labourers7. However tis needless to fight our old battles again!

I send you however a [3]8 a little all-round Radicalism in some of which I hope you will agree. I should like to get the people to consider seriously its power — & its duties — & if it should on such consideration decide against any of my doctrines I will very cheerfully bow to the decision.

We are just preparing to leave this land of small properties for good & all, & to take up our abode in Fife for probably the remainder[?] of our lives9. I have been obliged by the exigency of my own circumstances [4] to become "occupying owner" of two farms there — but as it has involved the eviction of two tenants I am not quite sure whether the end would according to your principles justify the means. However I know you will give me credit for acting justly according to my own lights. At present encumbered land owners are in great straits, for land will not sell & tenants will not bind themselves to any but very low rents — We must therefore try to help ourselves as best we can.

I hope we may sometime meet after being settled in the United Kingdom[?][.] My wife10 joins me in kindest remembrances to Mrs Wallace11[.]

Y[ou]rs sincerely J Boyd Kinnear [signature]

1
Text in another hand in the top right corner reads "80".
2
In 1870, Kinnear had moved to Guernsey on medical advice for his health.
3
Wallace had received a doctorate, LL.D. (Doctor of Laws) from Trinity College, University of Dublin, on 29 June 1882. The Alfred Russel Wallace Website, Wallace's Honours.
4
The London Magazine The Christian Socialist. S370:1884, The Alfred Russel Wallace Page.
5
The word "interest' is underlined in pencil.
6
The word "owners" is underlined in pencil and followed by an exclamation mark, also in pencil.
7
The phrase "till it is tilled by its owners and not by hired labourers" is underlined in pencil.
8
Text in the top right corner in another hand reads "81".
9
Kinnear returned to the Kinloch estate in Scotland later in 1884 and was elected to Parliament in 1885 as a Liberal for the new East Fife constituency.
10
In 1868, Kinnear had married Theresa Bassano (1828-1929), the fourth daughter of Clemente Bassano, a Venetian lawyer, active also in London.
11
Wallace had married Annie Mitten, daughter of botanist friend William Mitten, in 1866.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2655.2545)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Ghosh, Susan [2015-05-21] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-05-21] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10]

Please cite as “WCP2655,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2655