THE TABLET

4 I V e e k l y N e z v s p a p e r a n d R e v i e w .

DOM VCMJ GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEAT.S.

From the Brie; o; B i s Holiness P ius IX. to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, ii;o.

V o l . 94. No. 3110. L o n d o n , D e c e m b e r 1 6 , 1 8 9 9 .

P8o Sd . „ v P o „ SK ,

[R eg is tered a t t h e G e n e r a l Post O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper.

C hronicle of t h e W e e k : Page Mafekin^ Still Holds Out—Vigo­

rous Sorties from Ladysmith—The Second Sortie — Lord Methuen Defeated — General Gateacre'.s Disaster-W hy Send the Wounded Home? — European Navies : France—The Kaiser’s Demands— Are the Kaiser’s Speeches Subjects of Criticism ?—The Dublin Corporation and the War in South Africa— The Custody of Local Records — Lord Russell of K illowen on the Venezuela Arbitration—The House of Commons : An Outsider’s View—The British South Africa Company— The End o f the Khalifa—The Population of France . . . . . . . Leaders

L jth e Shadow o f Battle . . . Ahe Opening of the Soudan . Ahe High Priesthood of Christ . T k o ^ d Office of St. Edmund . . 964 1 be Situation in France . . . . 965

957 961 962 963

C O N T E N T S

N otes

Page ... 966

R ev iew s :

The Letters of Robert Louis

Stevenson . . . . . . . . 967 Scripture Handbooksand Manuals 968 In King’s Houses . . .. 9*9 The Realms of Gold .. . . 970 A Brief Survey of British History 970 Christmas Books . . . . .. 970 Catholir Missions in Seremban . . 970 Through Abyssinia to the Nile . . 971 Catholic Prisoners’ Aid Society . . 971 For the Orphan ......................... 971 C orrespondence :

Rome :—(From Our Own Corre­

spondent) ... . . » 973 News from Ireland _ „ 974 News from France.. . . . . 975 L e t t e r s to t h e E d it o r :

A Professor of Prague and the

Jews _ . . .........................976 M. Urbain^Gohier’s Latest Book 976 Catholic Literature for Ships . . 97

L e t t e r s to t h e E d itor (Con- ' a^e tinued) : The Westminster Poor and Soup

K i t c h e n .................................... 97g “ Blessed Thomas More” . . c76 Dinners for the Poor .. . * 976 Protestant Soloists in Catholic

Choirs .. Aid for Soldiers and 'Sailors' ” 5

Fam ilies .. . . .. . . 977 Catholic Literature for the Catho’ic

Troops in South Africa .. ..977 E t Camera . . . . . . . . 977 The Growth of Islam in Russia and '

the Transvaal . .. .. 978 Statistical Aspect of Wealth and Welfare .......................................979 The Solemn Homage to Our Lord

Jesus Christ

The Ritual Controversy . . . . 98i The “ Osservatore Romano" and the Jews ....................................... 9s , Society of St. Vincent de Paul . . 982 Local Records . . . . . . 9g2 For Soldiers\and Sailors' Families 983

98x

A Silesian Mission . . . . O b it u a r y . . . . ’ * So c ia l a n d P o l it ic a l . .

oL> P P l c -iviE N ' j . N ews from t h e S c h o o l s :

Who are the True Eenomina-

tionahs's? ..

Page • 983 . 984 - 985

< g

Higher Grade School Question at 9 9

C a r l i s l e ........................ _ _g The London School Board and

Underfed Children . . . . Q80 1 he Lord Chief Justice on Tech­

nical and Secondary Education goo f WirtAfrLI^’c- — I T St. Winefride’s School, Lee N ews from th e D ioceses : Westminster

Southwark Liverpool Nottingham Portsmouth , Salford , Shrewsbury Newport . . .. .. St. Andrews and Edinburgh

, 991 - 991 . . 992

993 - 993 •• 993 - 993

•• 983 . . 984 . . 984

Rejected MS. cannot be returned unless accompanied with addres and postage.

C H R O N I C L E O F T H E W E E K

M O T A N B A .

We give a verbatim report o f a lecture delivered by Mr C. S. Devas before the Manchester Statistical Society on ” The Statistical Aspect of Wealth and Wtlfare.” Mr. Devas insists upon the need for what he cal's “ a higher kind of statistics,” and illustrates his meaning. He incidentally points out what misleading conclusions might be drawn •torn the closely allied birth statistics of France and Ireland W- 979)

Islam appears to be carrying on an effective propaganda, not only in French West Africa but in European Russia, Central Asia, and even in the Transvaal. That this activity bears a political significance seems clear from the fact that the Mohammedan colony in the Transvaal has asked for instructions as to the line of conduct to be followed during the war (p. 978).

HOLDS OUT. A

MAFEKING STILL

L L is still well in Mafeking, but

Colonel Baden Powell and his men are beginning to feel the stress of the long siege. The enemy is steadily pushing his trenches nearer, and the fire of his guns is beginmog to tell upon the town. Moreover the hopelessness of expecting any help from the south has caused doubts as to whether the food supply will last. At the end of November some anxiety seems to have been felt on this point, and we learn that rations had been reduced — meat by half a pound, and bread by a quarter. There is just a possibility that relief may come from the north. A force from Bulawayo has been working its way south along the railway line and has arrived at Gaberones Fort, 92 miles from Mafeking. The Rhodesian force cannot be a large one, and as they are carefully repairing the railway as 1hey go along, it must be some time before they can do anything to relieve the pressure upon Mafeking.

We publish a letter from an anti-Semite Professor in Prague. He assures us that Christians of Jewish descent are a peril to the Church owing to their “ hereditary dispositions ” (p. 976).

Father Louis Froger, of St. Edmund’s House, Cambridge, has discovered in the library of Caius College, Cambridge, an old French MS. containing a proper office of St, Edmund. This is described and the text of three unpublished hyniDS printed (p. 964).

The account of the display at the Tower Hill Catholic Social Union Club is a splendid testimony to the practical aud efficacious character of the principles on which the work is based, and of the entire devotion with which those principles are being carried out by the Dowager Duchess of Newcastle and her colleagues (p. 991).

The Rev. T . J. Hunt, who in The Guardian of July 5 accused Catholic missionaries in Seremban of cooking their returns of conversions, has received an effective reply from Phre A. Catesson, a missionary in Serembao, to whom Mr. Hunt’s article was referred (p. 970).

n Details are given of the subscription to the fund for “ The Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Families Association,” raised in the diocese o f Westminster (p. 983).

N ew .Se r ie s . V o i . T .X IL , No. 2.419.

- vigorous

? (e,0rg? White has sA uck tw° ^ a v y sorties FROM b,ows at h;s besiegers which have done much ladysmith. t° Put new heart into the garrison. On the

T . , „ mSht ° f December 7, General Hunter with 100 Eight Horse and 500 volunteers stole out into the darkness to attack Gun Hill, some four miles to the south-east. The rest is best told in the words o f the correspondent of The Daily M a i l: The men steadily mounted in silence Suddenly they heard the Dutch challenge from behind’ “ Who comes th e re ? ” No answer; the challenge was repeated, and the Dutch cried out several times, “ William ' Redcoats— shoot!” The officer of the Light Horse cried out in Dutch, “ William ! Redcoats with bayonets— run 1 ” Our men cheered and charged with a will. The enemy’s fire broke out in front and rear o f the assailants, who had passed the sleeping Boer piquet. The Boers the next minute bolted. Some thirty were surprised asleep. The Light Florse now came cheering straight to the gur enormous-looking in the darkness, beyond which they extended and fired a few volleys. Meanwhile the breechblocks were unscrewed by the sappers, who inserted guccutton into the barrels of the 15-cenUmetre gun and the 12-centimetre howitzer. Both barrels were torn and quite wrecked. The force retired, capturing a Maxim. Our loss was only one killed and three wounded. They reached the