THE TABLET.
A Weekly Newspaper and Review.
DOM VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMOS OX IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEAT.S.
From the B e ie j oh H is Holiness P iu s IX . to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, fiyo.
V ol. 9 4 . N o . 3 0 8 8 .
L ondon, J u l y 1 5 , l8QQ. P r ic e 5d., b y P o s t
[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 h r o n ic l e of t h e W e e k :
Page
Imperial Parliament : Lords^ and Commons and Women Councillors —The Defence of the Country— Militia and _Convocation— Seats for Shop Assistants— The Clerical Tithe Bill--The Transvaal C r i s i s Are the New Terms Acceptable? — Mr. Balfour and the Irish Channel Tunnel— A Royalist Plot in France— French Colonies and British H ostility— Death of the Tsarevitch— The Loss of the Liner “ Paris ”— Mr. Asquith on Lioeral Prospects— The East St. Pancras 'Election — Exploration in Abyss in ia -P u b lic Elementary Education . . . . ......................... Si L e a d e r s :
The Church of England’s New
Endowment . . •• •• 85 Imperial West Africa . • • • 86
CONTENTS.
L e a d e r s (Continued) :
A Glimpse into the Church of
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England during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries . . 87 N otes — — — _ ..89 R ev ie w s :
On the Trail of a Ghost . . . . 91 The Archpriest Controversy . . 92 The Ipané . . . . . . . . 93 Dr. Knopfler’s History of he
Church . . . . . . . . 94 First Steps in Internaticnal Law 94 Neil Macleod . . . . . 94 Lyrical Ballads, 1798 . . . . 94 Rudyard Kipling . . . . ..94 The Saturday Half-Holiday . . 95 English as She is Wrot . . . . 95 C o r r e s p o n d e n c e ;
Rome :— (From Our Own Corre
spondent) . . — _ — 97 News from Ireland _ — 99 News from France.........................100
L f.t t e r s t o t h e E d it o r :
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The Tithe Rating Bill . . . . 101 Joannisfeuer . . . . . . 101 Times of Church Services . . io t The Famine in East Africa and the Catholic Missions . . . . 101 Sale of Arab Horses at Crabbet Park 101 St. John the Baptist . . . . . . 102 Catholics and the New Age . . 104 The Capture of Mwanga and Kabar e g a ................................................ 106 International Catholic Association for Befriending Girls . . . . 106 The Ritual Controversy . . „ 107 A Sailors’ Club at Labuan . . . . 108 Books of the Week . . . . . . 108 F rom E v e r yw h e r e . . . . 109 O b i t u a r y . . ... . . . . 109 S o c ia l a n d P o l i t i c a l . . 109
SU P P L EM E N T . N ew s from t h e S chools : #
Higher Commercial Education in
Liverpool . . . . . . . 113 Religious Instruction in Board
Schools . . . . . . . . 113 Historical Lectures at Ushaw . . 114 Schoolboy G row th ........................... 114 Children’s L o g i c ............................115 Prize Days :
St. Joseph’s College, Dumfries 115 St. Edmund’s College, D ouai.. 115 Cricket 115 N ew s from t h e D io ceses :
Westminster . . . . ... 116 Southwark . . . . •• . . 116 Liverpool . . 116 Newport ....................................... 116 Hospice Sanctuaries in Piedmont 117 Opportunities for Young Catholics 118
Rejected MS. cannot'be returned unless accompanied with address and postage.
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT
AND WOMEN COUNCILLORS. T
LORDS AND COMMONS
H E Women’s Rights men in the House of Commons have been deprived o f the triumph they won by carrying a clause in the London Government
Bill providing that women might be eligible as councillors and aldermen in the new municipal bodies. That clause was afterwards thrown out by a large majority of the Upper House, and when the Bill, as amended by the Lords, was returned for the consideration of the Commons, Mr. Balfour formally moved that the amendment should stand. Mr. Courtney, however, was ready with an amendment proposing that they should agree with the decision of the Lords so far as related to the office of alderman, but should insist on women being allowed to be eligible as councillors. After combating the contention that the amendment rendering women eligible for both offices had been procured by a hasty and snatch vote, he launched forth into a second reading speech on the whole question o f the fitness of women for office. Into this Mr. Balfour refused to follow, contenting himself with throwing out the suggestion that it might be possible to devise, by a general Bill, some arrangement by which women might be enabled to serve on Committees dealing with social questions. H e then pointed out that it would not be in the interests o f the Bill which they were all anxious to pass to enter into a contest upon it with the Upper House whose opinion had been given with none of that doubtful expression which had characterized the verdicts given by the Commons. No majority of that House would be sufficient to induce the Lords to yield 0r even to adopt what Mr. Courtney had evidently put forward as a compromise. Mr. Dillon, emphasizing the same th Usec* as an argument to wean Mr. Courtney from thp n ^ a t the House of Lords was an essential part of of th e ? tution. Mr. Birrell declared chat he was ashamed Boards f Vai r^ men w^°> a^ter allowing women to sit on them a 1 Guardians and the old Vestries, refused to give Mr t on new Councils. In a humorous speech,
e bc°tk exPlained his cordial approval o f the stand made by the HousS of Lords' a place in the new
T o talk of giving women
N e w S e r i e s .
municipal bodies before giving them V o l . I.XII., No. 2,397.
votes was to put the cart before the horse. H e then drew a picture o f what might happen if women were given seats in the House of Commons. T h e attitude of the Lords was a most becoming one and just what he had always wanted them to take up. After some further discussion Mr. Courtney’s amendment was rejected and the Lords’ amendment approved by a majority of 69.
Lord Lansdowne secured a first reading
— iiiEDEfENCE in the House of Lords on Friday in last t h e c o u n t r y . week for a Bill providing a scheme for the amendment of the law relating to the Ballot for the Militia with a view to compulsory service should it ever be necessary to resort to compulsion. This B ill was introduced not with any idea of passing it into law immediately, but rather as a means of clearing up the situation and showing the country how it stood in regard to compulsory service. Our military system, so far as the home defence was concerned, contemplated compulsory service as a last resort. T h e country was given the opportunity of providing such a force by voluntary means, and if it was not provided, the law was there to compel the Government to do so. The fact that the operation of the law was suspended, and suspended for many years past, did not alter the case, the obligation was there, and they had only to omit a few words from the Expiring Laws Continuance A c t, or to pass an order in Council suspending the operation o f the Suspension A c t in order to arm the Government of the day with power to set the machinery o f the Ballot A c t in motion. The recruiting returns o f the past few months, at a time when the Government were hoping to add 25,000 men to the Army, were disappointing; only 12,000 men had been obtained. It would never do to double the Militia in the hope that the men it gave to the line would thus be doubled, and to resort to compulsion to supply the present deficit o f 20,000 or 30,000 men below its full strength was quite out of the question. When voluntary resources failed the Ballot would supply a valuable reserve of power for the working of which the B ill he was presenting gave directions. A s to the classes to which liability to submit to the ballot would attach, they had accepted the classification proposed in the B ill of 1871. It was as follows : 1. Unmarried men above 18, and not more than 25. 2. Married men above 18, and not more than 30, having a wife living, but no child. Unmarried men above 25, but not more than 30. 3, A l l men liable to be balloted, and not included in the foregoing classes. Thus the B ill would not make any fundamental alteration in the existing law, but it would bring the law more into accord with present conditions.
