THE TABLET.

A Weekly Newspaper and Review.

DDM VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMOS ÜT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEAT.S.

From the Brief of His Holiness Pius IX . to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, lifO .

V o l . 94. No. 3091.

L o n d o n , A u g u s t 5, 1899. P r ic e 5c!., 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 .

Page

C h r o n ic l e o f t h e W e e k : * Imperial Parliament : Lord Salis­

bury and the Transvaal — Mr. Chamberlain’s Statement — C a tholic Processions — Lord Salisbury and the Royal N iger Company— Mr. Healy’s Victory over the Lords—The Board of Education Bill — The Colonial Loans B ill— Disturbance and Murder in San Domingo—The Making of Men — Leicester Anti - Vaccinationists— The Close of the Peace Conference—Ministerial Crisis in Belgium— M. D elcassi’s Visit to Russia ..................................... 197 L e a d e r s :

The Pope’s Moral Support to the

Peace Conference . . •• 201 Catholic Progress . . . . . . 202 Mr. Gladstone’s Disputed Legacy 204 The Symbolism o f the Gospels . . 204

CONTENTS

N o t e s . . . . “• — — Reviews : _

Fable and Song in Italy . . B y the Grey Sea . . . • Fra Girolamo Savonarola.. Sacred Songs of the World Cyril Westward . . . • Converts to Rome . . . .

Page . . 206

209 210 210 21T 211 211

C orrespon d e n c e :

Rome :— (From Our Own Corre­

spondent) . . ~ — — 213 News from Ireland — — 214 News from F rance.. . . •• 215 L e t t e r s t o t h e E d it or :

The Lifting of Our People : A

Suggestion . . •• •• 215 A D ay in the Country for School

Children . . . . •• •• 2*6 The Rivington Memorial Column 216 The Catholic Truth Society Con­

ference . . . . •• •• 216

Page

The Pope and the Peace Conference 216 Church and State in Italy . . . . 216 The Ritual Controversy . . . . 217 K ing Alfred . . . . # •• # 219 Murder o f a Missionary in China . . 220 A Jesuit Ostrich Farm . . . . 221 The Yarra-Yarra Unvisited . . 221 Travels and Researches in Rhodesia 222 A Borneo Mission — . . . . 222 St. Cuthbert’s Grave . . . • 223 Marriage of Mr. Henry Scrope and

Miss de Laski ............................223 Books of the Week . . . . . . 224 N ew s from t h e D io c e se s :

Westminster

Liverpool . .

224

224

Northampton ............................224 Shrewsbury . . . . . . . . 225 St. Andrews and Edinburgh . . 225 F rom E v e r yw h e r e . . . . 2 2 5 O b i t u a r y ........................................... 226 S o c ia l a n d P o l i t i c a l . . 226

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

Aid Grants to Associated Schools 229 Prize D a y s :

Ushaw College ........................... 230 Stonyhurst College.. . . . . 231 St. Wilfrid’s College, Oakamoor.. 231 St. Augustine’s, Ramsgate . . 232 Beaumont College .. . . . . 232 Wimbledon College . . . . 232 Blairs College . . . . . . 233 St. Catherine’s Convent, Edin­

burgh ...................................... 233 Seafield House Convent . . . . 233 Convent of the Cross, Boscombe 234 St. Francis Xavier’s College,

Bruges, Belgium . . . . . . 234 St. James’s School, Baylis House,

Slough .......................................234 Beaconfield College. Plymouth . . 234 The Barnet Schools . . ^ . 234 The Ursuline Convent, Wim­

bledon . . . . . . . . 234 The Reformatory Ship “ Clarence ’ 235 The League of the Cross . . . . 235

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

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK,

LORD SALISBURY AND THE TRANSVAAL. T

»IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

H E debate in both Houses of Parliament on the situation in the Transvaal must have been a matter of considerable satisfaction to the Government. In the House of Lords the subject was brought forward by the Earl of Camperdown, who laid stress on the conditions upon which independence had been restored to the Transvaal— the recognition of the suzerainty of this country as the Paramount State and the equality of all persons before the law. It was, therefore, the plain duty of the Government to urge the just and reasonable claims of the Uitlanders. The remarks •made by the Earl of Dunraven and Lord Windsor were in a similar tone, and Lord Selborne followed with a clear exposition of the position of the South African Republicasregulated by the Convention. There was still considerable room for anxiety, and the solution of present difficulties would be useless without secure provision against future misunderstandings. Sir Alfred’s minimum of reforms was still the •minimum of the claims put forward by the British Government. Lord Kimberley also acknowledged that the position of affairs with regard to the Uitlanders was to the last degree unsatisfactory and a standing danger to the whole of South Africa. He believed that Mr. Chamberlain and his colleagues were taking a true and sound view of the situation, and he was encouraged to hope by the recent concessions that a satisfactory settlement would be obtained. The Govern ment must be firm, and make it clear that they were in earnest These remarks made a suitable opening for the weighty words of Lord Salisbury who, after expressing his regret at the dangerous optimism of Mr. Gladstone s magnanimous agreement with the Transvaal, Pr0C,ee^ ^ " dS that President Kruger had immediately a^andoncd ihe spirit and letter of the Convention in one long e“ or. ° draw the British and Dutch nations in South Africa into two camps, giving the latter an unmerited sup J oosition, whilst he thrust down the latter into * e position subjugated race. No party in England would, however, have wished to do away with the Conventions so ong they were observed and given their due vitality. But tnese Conventions were mortal things which could be destioye by the act of the parties for whose benefit they were con-

Nrw Series. Vol. I.XII., No. 2,400. .

eluded, and they would certaiDly not in that case be replaced by Conventions in the same style. He was quite sure that, if this country had to make exertions in order to secure the most elementary justice to British subjects, it would not reinstate a state of things which would bring back the old difficulties in all their formidable character. Without intruding on his thoughts he did not think that President Kruger had sufficiently considered this. The crisis was still complicated and anxious, but a peaceful solution might be looked forward to. Besides the inhabitants of the Transvaal there were the British subjects at the Cape to be considered. That the Government was doing; Ministers had put their hands to the plough and they did not intend to look back.

In the House of Commons less

— mr. chamberlain’s unanimity was in evidence. Sir statement. Henry Campbell-Bannerman opened the debate with a carefully written speech. After fully acknowledging the danger of the situation in South Africa, he put in a word of apology for the Boer resentment against the Uitlander invasion. He then repeated his declaration against recourse to a policy of threats or an appeal to the sword. On this point he used the following explicit language amid the cheers of the Opposition : “ And as to war itself, or direct preparations for actual hostilities, I must only repeat here what I have said elsewhere, that from the beginning of this story to the end of it I can see nothing whatever which furnishes a case for armed interference, least of all during recent days or weeks, when we are evidently approaching, if only circumstances continue favourable, a solution of this question. . . . A war with one of the Independent States in South Africa would be one of the direst calamities that could occur. There is no case, I will not say for armed intervention, but even for a threat, or the very idea of a threat of war.” This seemed plain enough, and Mr. Chamberlain lost no time in taking it up as the matter at issue between the two sides of the House. Such language, he thought, could scarcely conduce to a friendly settlement, and would rather tend to embarrass the action of the Government. The danger lay in the general situation. For fifteen years the Boers had, in the teeth of the Convention, been endeavouring to place the Uitlanders in a position of distinct inferiority, apolicy which was not only irritating but dangerous beyond the limits of the Transvaal. There was a race antagonism the source of which poison was in the Transvaal. It was idle to d.scuss this matter as if it were merely one of two years difference in the qualification for the franchise , it was a question of