THE TABLET.

A Weekly Newspaper a n d Review .

DUM VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMCS DT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEAT.S.

From the B r ie f oj His Holiness Pius IX . to T he Tablet, June 4, l i f o .

V ol. 92. No. 3044. L ondon, S eptember io , 1898.

PRiat5d „ t y p o s t 5.w .

[R e g i s t e r e d a t t h e G e n e r a l P o s t O f f i c e a s a N ew s p a p e r .

C hronicle of t h e W e e k - Page

The Crisis o f the Nile Campaign — The Khalifa’s Last Stand— A Maiden Charge— Khartoum ReEntered : Flight of the Khalifa— Lord Dufferin on England and America— Fresh ^Russian Aggression in Manchuria—The Dreyfus C a se—The Ex-Minister for War — Anglo-German Relations— The Reorganization of Scottish Education -O u t lo ok in Austria-Hungary — Adjournment _of the Quebec Conference— Accident^ to a M idland Express— Investiture of the Queen of Holland— Serious Outbreak in Crete—The Wheat Problem — Russian Suggestion for Alsace-Lorraine — The German Emperor on the Labour Question 397 L e a d e r s :

A Crowning Victory _ . . . . 401 The Anglican Crisis and the

“ Univers” . . . . . . 4° 2

CON 7

L e a d e r s (Continued) :

Page

Fra Girolamo Savonarola.. . . 403 Letters from Canada . . . . 406 N o t e s ~ ~ _ _ . . 407 R e v ie w s :

The Lausiac History of Palladius 4x0 The English Flower Garden . . 410 The Franciscans in England . . 411 Foreign Classics for E n g l i s h

Readers . . . . . . — 411 Spiritual Retreats . . . . . . 4 x 8 South American Sketches . . 418 In the Cage . . . . . . . . 418 Miss Erin . . . . . . . . 418 C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :

Rome :— (From Our Own Corre­

spondent) . . ... — _ 413 News from Ireland _ «. 414 News from France . . . . . . 415 News from America . . . . 415

ENTS.

L e t t e r s t o t h e E d it o r :

Page

The_Condition o f I ta ly . . . . 416 A rt in Small Churches . . . . 416 Hymns . . . . . . . . 417 The Unearned Increment . . 417 The New Schools at Kensal . . 417 Training for Catholic Seafaring

Boys _ . . . . . . . . 417 The Scripture Examinations at the Oxford and. Cambridge Local 4x7 A Catholic Chaplain’s Sunday Duty 417 The Ritual Controversy . . . . 419 Testimonies to Lourdes . . . . 421 The Indian Eucharistic Congress.. 423 The Return of the Pilgrimage from

Lourdes . . . . . . . . 424 The Boulogne Pilgrimages .. . . 424 Chinese Mobs and Christian Mis­

sionaries . . . . . . . . 424 The Late Mother Mary Russell . . 424 Books of the Week . . . . 424 O b i t u a r y ............................ ... 425 M a r r i a g e ........................................ 426 S o c ia l a n d P o l i t i c a l . . . . 426

S U P P L EM E N T . N ew s from t h e S chools :

Page

The Oxford Locals . . . . 429 Wesleyans and Denominational

Schools . .

Through Lack o f Geography _ . . 429 The Irish Intermediate Examina­

429

tions . . . . . . . . 429 N ew s from t h e D io c e se s :

Birmingham.......................................430 Clifton . . . . . . . . 430 Hexham and Newcastle . . . . 430 Liverpool . . . . . . ... 430 Portsmouth . . 431 Menevia . . . . . . . . 4 3 1 St. Andrews and Edinburgh . . 431 Popular Anglican Church History 43 2 The Ways of Mr. Kensit . . « .434 Rescued from the Mahdi’s Clutches 435

Rejected MS. cannot be returned unless acco?npanied with address and postage.

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

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^NILE UAXVUAAlGrX'i.

LONDON went through some hours of keen suspense on Saturday, when the rumour of the fall of Omdurman

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, - . .

began to circulate, coupled with reports or

. r heavy British loss. The silenceof the wires for some days previously had heightened the tension of expectation, and the first telegram from the Sirdar, when it came, broke off like a sensational story in numbers at the most critical moment. I t announced, indeed, a successful bombardment of the enemy’s river frontage by the five gunboats which steamed up stTeam towing a howitzer battery on barges, and landed it on the eastern bank. Firing Lyddite shells at 2,300 yards’ range into the walled enclosure containing the Madhi’s tomb, it partially destroyed the white dome which formed the conspicuous landmark of the Dervish capital from a distance. The gunboats, meanwhile, effectually silenced all the forts within range of their quick-firing 12-pounders, without suffering any damage in return. The land force had at the same time advanced to within six miles of Omdurman, while the cavalry reconnoitred as far as Khor Shamba, the creek which at high Nile forms an almost impassable moat of morass in front of the Mahdist position. When the Khalifa’s army, some 35,000 strong, moved out from its entrenchments on September 1, perhaps dislodged by the fire of the gunboats, it was plain that he had delivered himself into the hands of his enemies. When within nearly three miles of the latter he halted, and at five in the afternoon, the date of the Sirdar’s despatch, the two forces remained confronting each other, with a decisive battle imminent. The rumour that it had been successfully fought began^to circulate before any further official announcement, and the War Office was besieged until midnight with anxious inquirers to whom the clerks in charge could or would give no further information.

The Sirdar’s subsequent despatch, for-

— t h e warded from Cairo at 11.48 on September 3, KHAs t a n d LAST gave the welcome news of a decisive victory won on the preceding day, followed by the occupation of Omdurman, the flight of the Khalifa, and the release of 150 prisoners, including the German, Charles Neufelt.and an Austrian Sister, Teresa Grigolini. This success

N e w S e r i e s Y o l . L X . , No. 2,353.

was achieved with the comparatively trifling loss of 100 British troops, and about twice that number of Egyptians and Soudanese. The Mahdist attack took place early on the morning of September 2, when the cavalry, patrolling in front, were met by the advancing host of cavalry and infantry, surmounted by innumerable waving banners, and singing barbaric chants to the accompaniment of copper drums, as they rolled along towards the British camp with a front three or four miles long. The two English brigades held the left, resting on the river, with the Soudanese in the centre, and one Egyptian brigade on the right, while the second was held in reserve. The Dervishes swept down on the left, but were met by an annihilating fire of artillery and small arms, which turned their advance aside. The centre next bore the brunt of their assault, but with the same resu lt; the concentrated fire of the English and Soudanese brigades was too much even for their desperate valour, and they gave way before it, leaving the field strewn with their dead. Their standard-bearers came on to within a few hundred yards of the deadly rifles, and their Emirs led them with reckless and devoted gallantry. When they had drawn off, the Sirdar ordered a general advance, and the Anglo-Egyptian force, echeloned in battalions, marched from the camp towards Omdurman. But the most critical part of the action had yet to be fought, for the enemy re-forming behind a rocky eminence, bore down in a mass 15,000 strong on the two Egyptian brigades on the right. With the support of a battery of Maxims, they formed up with admirable steadiness to face the attack, but were not long left to repel it alone. For the Sirdar, swinging round his centre and left with a pivoting movement, brought a converging fire to bear on the dense masses of the Mahdists, who melted away before it, and finally broke and fled, leaving the plain whitened wirh their dead. The interrupted advance was then pressed forward, the Sirdar, conspicuous in a white uniform heading the line, with the black standard of the Khalifa borne in front. The town was entered about two o’clock, amid manifestations of joy from the inhabitants, and the troops finally encamped on the deseit to the west of its crowded and pestilential precincts.

The charge of the 21st Lancers, which

— a m a i d e n received its baptism o f fire in the present c h a r g e . campaign, having previously been the only regiment in the army which had never seen a gun fired in anger, was one of the most memorable episodes of the battle. In the execution of their orders to cut off the enemy’s retreat, they found themselves unexpectedly