•V
HE TABLET
A Weekly Newspaper and Review.
DOM VOBIS GRATULAMÜR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMOS O f IN INCŒPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEAT.S.
From the Brief of His Holiness Pius IX . to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, i6fo.
V o l . 94. N o . 3098. L ondon, S e p t em b e r 23, 1899.
P r ic e 5<I.^ b y P o st 5%d.
[R e g i s t e r e d a t t h e G e n e r a l P o st D f f ic e a s a N ew spaper.
_
C hronicle of th e W e e k :
Page
The Transvaal Crisis—The Next Step — A Protest Sent to the 'Wrong Address—M. Guerin’s Surrender — Some Incidents of the Siege— The British Association at Dover— The French Conspiracy Trial — The Murder of Colonel Klobb — Mr. Morley’s Protest Against War—British Warship at Odessa—At L a s t : Freedom— Dr. Koch and Italian Malaria — Sir William Harcourt and the Transvaal ........................ L eaders : ............... . ^The Verdict of France . . m. On the Brink .. OI
477 481
Shakespeare's Phitoiophy ot Life 482 An Experiment ........................ ^84
C O N 7 E N T S .
L eaders (Continued) :
An Anglican Minister on the
Page
Sacred Heart ........................... 485 Notes — _ — _ 486 Review s :
The Works of Lord Byron . . 488 Recent Archaeology and the Bible 489 The Green Window . . . . 490 The Patroness . . . . , . 490 Erin Quintiana . . . . . . 490 Sainte Basil . . . . . .4 9 1 Two Books for Religious.. . . 491 Pere Monnier’s Ward . . . . 491 The Land I Love Best . . . . 491 “ New Catholic Movement ” . . 491 Correspondence :
Rome :— (From Our Own Corre
spondent) . .
_ 493
News from Ireland „ — 494 News from France............................494
L e t t e r s to t h e E d itor :
“ Rennes— and After ” . . . . 4q>: The New Cathedral . . . . 496 The Genesis of Anglicanism . . 496 Anglican Adoration of the Eucha
rist ........................ . . . .4 9 6 The Late West Indian Hurricane 497 Our Colleges ......................... 497 The Pope and France . . . . 497 The Church and the Dreyfus Case 499 The Scottish Pilgrimage to Our
Lady of L o u r d e s .........................501 The Burning of the “ Clarence ” . . 502 The Catholic Summer School of
America .................................... 502 Catholic Evidence Lecture . . . . 503 An Orphanage in Flames . . . . 503 The Dreyfus C a s e ......................... 503
Books of the W e e k ............................ ¿ 4 O b it u a r y . . _ . . ^ M a r r i a g e s ............................ V. 506 So c ia l a n d P o l it i c a l ’ . . 1* 506
. SU PPLEM ENT. The Society o f Foreign Missions 509 N ew s from t h e Schools :
Commercial Education in Liverpool ^ . . . . . . . . 512 The Origin of University Local
Examinations . . . . . . 512 N ews from th e D io ceses : Westminster . . . . ... 512
Leeds.. ** . . . . . . 513 Shrewsbury.................................... 513 The Ritual Controversy . . . . 513 Work for Children in China .. 514 Franciscan Capuchins in England.. 515
Rejected MS. cannot be returned unless accompanied with address and postage.
CHRONICLE of the week.
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t h e
I H E British proposals for giving the transvaal I Uitlanders an effective minority repre
CRISIS' -D sentation have been declined by the n it ianj Boers. Mr. Chamberlain asked that the ^ave ers’ w^° are a majority of the people, should f , a representation in the Raad amounting to one. °u w^°^e) and that they should be allowed L US>e thei.r own language. H e also asked that five y a r .s residence in the country should entitle the , 1Ua°ders to the franchise, provided they were willing 0 take the oath of allegiance to the South African Republic. In reply, the Boer Government refuse the five years’ franchise, and add that they have no intention of ¡3 'erating the use of the English language in the Raad. 1 he Boer reply practically falls back upon the first proposal
. a seven years’ franchise, though the proposed commission of inquiry as to how this would work is now accepted, t he reply points out that the offer of a five years’ franchise made conditional upon the abandonment by Great Britain of all claim to the suzerainty. “ This Government cannot disguise from itself that in making the proposals contained in its note of August 19, it probably ran the danger not only of its being disclaimed by the South African Republic Volksraad and people, but also that its acceptance might affect the independence of the State by, as therein proposed, giving an immediate vote in the Legislature of the State to a large number of inpouring Uitlanders; but it set against that the continuous threatening and undoubted danger to its highly-prized independence, arising from claim of suzerainty made by her Majesty’s Government, from the interference of that Government in the 'nternal affairs o f this Republic, and from the want o f an automatically working manner o f regulating differences between her Majesty’s Government and this Government, and was in consequence prepared to recommend to South African Republic Volksraad and to people to run the danger attached to offer made, in order to avoid the certainty of the greater danger.” It is not easy to see how |he independence of the State could have been endangered by the offer of a five years’ franchise. Undoubtedly there ^ould have been a certain inpouring of Uitlanders, but as districts in which alone the Uitlanders reside would have
N ew S e r i e s . V ol. LX . . No. 2,407.
only one-fourth of the representation, the Boer minority of the people would still have possessed a three-quarters majority in the Raad.
This rejection of Mr. Chamberlain’s des-
— t h e n e x t patch would seem to throw the British Govern-
s t e p . ment back on its alternative line of action as already clearly intimated to the Boers. They were told that if they did not accept the proposal for a five years’ franchise and one fourth of the representation the British Government would then proceed to “ reconsider the situation de novo, and formulate their own proposals for a final settlement.” There is still, therefore, another step to be taken before there can be any such thing as a declaration of war. The policy of abandoning everything else in favour of the franchise must now give way to the alternative policy which will seek the direct relief o f the grievances o f the Uitlanders instead o f simply putting them in a position to work out their own salvation sooner or later. The chapter opened by the Bloemfontein Conference is now closed, and we must now formulate our own demands in our own way. That means the calling of a Cabinet Council and probably some little delay. We fear it may be taken for granted that the Transvaal, having refused the five years’ franchise, are not likely to concede the terms that will now be offered. It is impossible to forget what Lord Salisbury said last July. H e pointed out that the Conventions are not like the laws o f the Medes and Persians, which alter not, and said that if this country had to make exertions in order to secure elementary justice for her subjects the old state o f things which existed before those exertions were made could not be restored. Still more explicit was the warning of Mr. Chamberlain last month when he said : “ I f this delay is continued much longer we shall not hold ourselves limited by what we have already offered, but, having taken this matter in hand, we will not let it go until we have secured conditions which once for all shall establish which is the paramount Power in South Africa,” and shall secure, he added, “ equal rights and privileges for our fellow subjects in the Transvaal.” The one hope for peace seems to be that the Boers, realizing at the last moment that this country is seriously in earnest, may see their way to accept the very moderate proposals of reform which they now reject.
Mrs. Olive Schreiner is always good for
A PRtoEtheSENT “ an eloquent appeal,” and this time it wrong a d d r e s s . aPPears in the columns of The Manchester
' Guardian. She begins with the remark
