THE TABLET j i . W eek ly N e w s p a p e r a n d R e v i e w DUM VOBIS GRATULAMUR ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS
From the Brief of His Holiness Pius IX to The Tablet, June 4,1870.
V o l . 159. No. 4,793.
L o n d o n , M a r c h 19, 1932.
S i x p e n c e .
K b g i s t i e i d a t tu b G i n i r a l P obt Ot t i c i a i a N i w s p a t m
Page
News and No t e s ...................357 The Wearin’ o’ the Palm 361 Catholic Figures in English
Fiction— I. 362 Catholic M.P.s at Dinner 363 Reviews :
Sir Walter Scott .................363 More of Father Grou ... 364 Big Business ................. 364 The Daglish Diary . . . 365 “ Simple Guides” . . . 365 Meng K’o 366 “ Doth Beauty Beautous
Seem? ” . . . 366 “ Brutal Frankness” ... 368
CONTENTS
Reviews (Oontd.) : De Grandmaison’s Mag
num Opus ................. 368 Outstanding Novels— LI ... 370
Romano - British Christ
Page ianity ............................ 370 Penance or Repentance? 370 Loquacious Laura ... 372 New Books and Music ... 372 Books Received ... ... 374 The Catholic Police Guild
Annual Dinner ................. 375 Correspondence :
Rome (Our Own Corre
spondent’s Weekly Letter from) ............................377
Sir Thomas More: Wit,
Orator, Hero .............. 378 From The Tablet of Ninety
Page
Years A g o .................... 379 Et Ce t e r a ...................... 380 Notes for Musicians ... 381 St. J 0 s e p h’ s School,
Barnsley ............................ 381 Lenten Pastorals : Middlesbrough .............. 382 Obituary .............................. 385 Preachers in the Park ... 385 Catholic Education Notes ... 386 Ordinations ............................ 387 St. Andrew’s Hospital,
Dollis Hill ........... 387
Page
Letters to the Editor: Miraculous Hosts ... 387
Catholic Restaurants . . . 387 W ills ............................ 387 Orb is Terr arum:
England, Scotland and Wales 388 Ireland 388 China ... 389 France ... .. 389 Italy 390 Poland 390 Spain ... .. 390 U.S.A. 392 Social and Personal .. 392 Chess . . . 392
NOTANDA To-m orrow ’s Feast. A renewed appeal for “ The Wearin’ o ’ the Palm ” (p. 361).
The Holy Sacrifice. A Lenten Pastoral by the Bishop o f Middlesbrough (p. 382).
Last Sunday in Germany (p. 358), and in the Irish Free State (p. 360).
The Holy See and the project o f a Fixed Easter. Is there a strong demand fo r change outside English-speaking lands? (p. 357).
Two millionaires end their lives by shooting. The urgent need for Christian teaching on suicide (p. 359).
Softwoods from Russia. A temporary triumph fo r the profiteers. Commander Locker-Lampson’s Bill (p. 358).
First o f all, Daniel Defoe. Beginning a series o f sketches o f Catholic figures as portrayed by the English novelists, Mr. Edward Hutton introduces the priest who edified Robinson Crusoe (p. 362).
Catholic school progress at Leyland (p. 380), and at Barnsley (p. 381).
An enlarged number o f The Tablet makes room fo r reviews o f many new books (pp. 363-374).
NEWS AND NOTES H OLY Week is here. Thousands who read these lines will have to spend many more of the Week’s hours in secular surroundings than in church ; but, at any moment and in any place, the devout Catholic can build for himself an oratory “ not made with hands,” and not visible to eyes, merely by fixing his gaze upon a Crucifix magno animi affectu et dolore.
When Lord Desborough, last Tuesday, rose up in the House of Lords to lament the delay in applying the Fixed Easter Act (1928), the Archbishop of
N ew S eries. Voi. CXXVII. No. 4,192,
Canterbury said that the matter rests mainly in the hands o f the Holy See. This is true. We think, however, that His Grace was wrong in speaking of " general agreement ” and “ almost complete unanimity ” in favour of a fixed Easter. While the intervention o f the League o f Nations appears to give the proposal large and varied credentials, our careful enquiries have failed to elicit evidence of any keen desire for a change, except in the British Empire. When the case of the Fixed Easter’s advocates is examined, it boils down to little more than arguments based on school holidays and on more convenient accountancy in commercial and financial houses. And when we recall how very much the date of Easter has meant to the Church in the past, surely we ought not to be surprised to hear that the Holy See regards the question as one for a General Council at which the Bishops could voice any widespread demand which may exist in the various regions of Christendom.
On Aristide Briand’s coffin ’there lay a cross ; and liturgical prayers for his soul’s repose were recited by the Cardinal Archbishop o f Paris. Therefore, as the Catholic Church is always found wrong by her enemies, an outcry has been raised in the very quarters where it is customary to accuse Catholics of bigoted exclusiveness. It is argued that Briand had much to do with the spoliation of the Church in the Combist days, thus incurring excommunication. But Cardinal Verdier has applied a rule by which every one of us is tested. He has taken the Briand of 1932, not the Briand of 1906. It is positively known that the great statesman who has just passed away so suddenly had told more than one of his friends that he wanted a Catholic funeral when the time came. As far back as 1920, he explained why he stood outside that atheistic Freemasonry which has long been a blight on France ; and the eleven years which followed his explanation were years in which he proved again and again his growing respect for the Church. If it be urged that he never made a formal recantation of his Combist
