THE TABLET.
A W eek ly N ew sp ap er a n d R ev iew .
DOM VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.
From the Brief oj His Holiness Pius IX . to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, 1870.
V o l . 91. i'Jo. 3011* L ondon, J a n u a r y 2 2 , i 8q8.
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[Registered at the General Post Office as a Newspaper.
Chronicle of the Week ! Page
The Price o f Wheat, Oats, and Barley for the Year— The Effect on Tithe Rent Charge — The Proposed University for London — The Death of Mr. Villiers, M .P . — An Open Door for Trade— Even a t the Cost o f War—The Dreyfus Case : Prosecution of M. Zola— The Rush to Klondyke — The Engineering D ispu te : End in Sight — The Policy of Great Britain— Help for the West Indies — Mr. Labouchere and the Chartered Company — Chinese Loan Negotiations— Prussia and the P o l e s ..................................... 113 Leaders:
The Jubilee o f the Italian Revo
lution .................................... 117
CONTENTS.
Leaders Continued) :
Page
The One Free F la g o f the World 118 The Total Solar Eclipse . . . . 118 The^ Progress o f the Uganda
M i s s i o n ....................... . . 119 Notes . . . . . . . . 12a Reviews :
A General and Critical Introduc
tion to the Study o f Holy Scripture^ . . . . . . . . 124 The Lives o f the Saints . . . . 126 Deborah o f Tod’s ..................... 126 This Little W o r ld ...................... 127 The Knight’s T a le . . . . 127 Correspondence :
Rome :— (From Our Own Corre
spondent) . . ». « — 129 News from Ireland _ — 132 News from F ra n c e ..................... 132
Letters to the E ditor :
Page ,
The Case of Sister Monica _.. 133 The Execution of the Gregorian
Chant . . . . I . . 133 What is Truth ? ............................ 134 “ The Church T im es" and the
Vindication of the Bull “ Apostolic® Cur® ” ............................ 134 The Church House Performance 134 The Anglican Attitude . . . . 134 “ The Month” and Father Taun
ton .._ ......................... > . . 134 The Manitoba School Question.. 135 The Pope and Anglican’ Orders . . 136 The Vindication of the Bull “ Apos
tolic® Cur® ” : Opinions o f the P r e s s .................................... . . 138 Ma r r i a g e ................................ 139 Social and Political . . .. 139 Books of the Week . . . . . . 140
SU P P L EM E N T . Page NfCttS FROM THE SCHOOLSJ
The Irish Catholic University
Q u e s t io n ......................... . . 145 “ The Spectator” and the Catholic
University . . . . . . 145 A Question of Holidays at Cardiff 146 Bravery of a Greenwich Hospital
School Boy . . . . . . 147 N ews from the D ioceses : Westminster 147
S o u th w a r k ....................... . . . 147 Northampton ............................ 147 Portsmouth . . . . ► . . . 148 A Catholic University for Ireland :
Speech by the Bishop of Limerick 148 St. Ethelburga’s, Bishopsgate-street 149 Work Among the Lepers of Columbia 150 Visitation Convent, Harrow-on-the-
H i l l ...................................................i5 r
Rejected M S . cannot be returned unless accompanied with address and postage.
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
THE PRICE OF
WHEAT, OATS, AND BARLEY FOR THE
y e a r .
"
T---MTending January 15 was 35s. a quarter — or eightpence higher 'H E price of wheat for the week
-
i —
than the highest weekly average in 1897. The average price for the whole
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of 1897 was 30s. 2d., or 4s. higher than in 1890. The highest weekly average was 34s. 4d. on December 25 last, and the lowest 26s. 6d. on April 24 last, being a fluctuation of 7s. rod. a quarter, whereas in 1896 the fluctuation was a n s . a quarter. The average price o f barley in the past year was 23s. 6d. a quarter, in 1896 it was 22s. n d . , being a rise of only 7d. a quarter; the highest price was 29s. rod. on October 2 last, and the lowest 17s. 4d. on July 10, a fluctuation o f 12s. 6d. a quarter— in 1896 the fluctuation was 13s. 5d. The average price of oats in the past year was 16s. n d . a quarter, which is 2s. 2d. a quarter higher than in 1896, the average in that year being 14s. 9d. The highest price was 19s. a quarter on July 31, and the lowest 16s. on October 9 and 30, being a fluctuation of 3s. a quarter; in 1896 it was 4s. 6d. The imperial average price of corn in the past year was : Wheat, 30s. 2d.; barley, 23s. 6d .; and oats, 1 6s. n d . a quarter. The average price of wheat in 1857 was 56s. 4 d . ; in 1867, 64s. 5d. ; in 1877, 56s. 9 d . ; in 1887, 32s. 6d.; and 1897, 30s. 2d.
The Guardian assures us that some of
— t h e e f f e c t j t s correspondents have expressed a natural r e n t c h a r g e , disappointment at finding that though the price of wheat in 1897 was higher than it has been for years, the septennial tithe rent charge for 1898 touches the lowest point to which it has yet fallen. A s a matter o f fact, for the purposes o f the septennial tithe rent charge, the price of wheat is of less importance than that of oats or even barley. A correspondent puts the case clearly : “ The Tithe Commutation Act, instead of adopting the simple method of charging on the estate, devised a somewhat complicated procedure in order to ensure that the annual payment to the titheowner should keep abreast year by year with the changes produced by
New Series V o l . LTX., No. 2,320.
fluctuations in the purchasing power of money. It was enacted that the ;£ io o should be divided mentally into three equal sums, and each of these sums expended in buying measured quantities of wheat, barley, and oats, at the prices obtained by taking the average market value of these three grains for the seven years ending Christmas, 1835. Suppose, for example, that one-third of jQtoo, or ^ 3 3 6s. 8d., would have bought twelve quarters of wheat, or twentyone quarters of barley, or thirty quarters of oats, at the prices so obtained. Then, according to the directions of the Act, the estate we have been considering would be subject in any subsequent year to the payment of a sum of money equal in value to twelve quarters of wheat, added to twenty-one quarters of barley, added to thirty quarters of oats, at the prices o f these grains established for that year by the septennial corn averages. Thus it can be readily seen that a rise in the price of oats of 2s. a quarter has the effect of raising the value of the rent-charge by whereas it would take an increase of 5s. a quarter in wheat to bring about the same result. I f barley and oats were to rise respectively to 40s. and 28s. a quarter, prices which they have reached on several occasions in the annual averages, then, although wheat were to remain at the low price of the last seven years, the rent-charge would rise to £ 100 . On the other hand, if wheat were to advance to 50s. a quarter, and barley and oats were to average, as they have done in one or two instances, 24s. and 16s. a quarter, the rent-charge would not touch ¿ 8 0 . To take an extreme and final illustration, with barley and oats at 30s. and 25s. respectively, even if wheat were valueless and quoted at zero, the tithe rent-charge commuted at ¿£roo would be worth at least £ 6 9 , or 5s. more than it is worth to-day.” These facts are as interesting to those who have to pay the rent-charge as to those who receive it.
The question of a teaching University for
TuNivER^nYD London, declared Dr. Benson at a meeting f o r L o n d o n . the Convocation of the University of
London on Monday, had now passed out o f the hands of academicians into the hands of politicians. He, therefore, moved that the scheme embodied in the London University Bill of last year should be accepted by the Convocation so that it might be reintroduced by the Government with some hope of an easy passage through Parliament. The question had now been in agitation for twelve years, and the compromise proposed was a solution that most nearly approached a satisfactory settlement. Once conceded that University teaching in London was to
