3 DECEMBER 1881, Page 1

The news of the week from Ireland is comparatively slight.

The Sub-Commissioners have now given 146 decrees, and the general average reduction of rent may be taken at one-fourth ; but no important appeals have yet been made to the Commisstou. We note complaints that the witnesses as to value are terrorised, but no evidence is given of this; and the most truthful com- plaint seems to be that the Sub-Commissioners, when per- sonally surveying farms, are over-rapid. That is unavoid- able; and indeed, unless landlords and tenants begin to agree, we hardly see how the work is ever to end. The payment and refusal of rent are as yet about equal, taking area for area. but the outrages do not diminish. They are neither so numerous nor so savage as in many other periods, but they are carefully reported, and raise all over England a feeling that no possible concession will content the worse classes in Ire- land. The Government continues to arrest the Land Leaguers, but as yet the authority of the law has certainly not been re- established in the bad districts. In the winter assizes for Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Wicklow, Louth, and Westmeath, which opened on Thursday, it was stated that every variety of agrarian crime, and especially intimidation and arson, had in all the counties greatly increased.