A W eekly Newspaper and Review .

DUM VOBIS G R A TU LAM U R , AN IM O S E T IA M A DD IM U S U T IN INCCEPTIS V E S TR IS CON STAN TER MANEATIS

Fro-n the Brief of His Holiness Pius IX , to T h e T a b l e t fune 4, i S'j o .

V o l . 75. No, 2604, L ondon, A pr il 5, 1890.

P r ice sd ., by P o s t ,

[R e g is t e r ed a t t h e G e n e r a l P ost O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper.

C hronicle of t h e W e e k :

Page r

Imperial Parliament: The Tithes Bill— Continuation of the Debate j — Monday’s Debate — Adjournment for Easter— A Surplus of Three Millions — Close of the Labour Conference— What it all Amounts to—Strikes in Austria— The Strike in the English Boot Trade — Tornado in the Ohio Valley— Prince Bismarck’s Farewell — Prince Bismarck’s Birthday — The Disabling of the

‘ ‘ City of Paris” — The French Passion Play—The Warsaw B -by Farmer—Sudden Illness of the Tsar : Alleged New Plot—The Bayreuth Festival . . .. . . 517

L eaders :

Ireland and Mr. Balfour . . . . 521 Transatlantic Tornadoes . . . . 522

C O N T

L eaders (continued):

Page

Intention in Art . . . . . . 523 The Pilgrimage to the Holy

Places . . . . .. .. 523 Holy Week in the Land of Hofer 524

N o t e s ................................................... 525

R e v iew s :

Lux Mundi . . . . . . . . 527 Notes on Sport and Ornithology 528 The Magazines . . . . . . 529 From Printing Office to the Court o f St. James . . .. . . 531

A Chapter of French Statistics 531

C orrespondence :

Rome :— (From Our Own Corre­

spondent) .....................................533

ENTS.

C orrespondence (continued) :

Paris:—(From Our Own Corre­

Page spondent) . . . . . . . . 534 Dublin:— (From Our Own Corre­

spondent) . . . . . . 535

L e t t e r s to t h e E d itor :

Intention in Art _ . . . . . . 537 “ Priests in Politics ” . . . 537 Cardinal Newman and Dr.

D o llin ger.. . . . . .. 538 Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and

Biblical Museum . . . . 538 “ The Light of Reason’’ . . .. 539

The Pilgrimage to the Holy Places 539 The Irish Temperance Movement 54t The Progress of Washington Uni­

versity . . . . . . . . 542

Page

Social a n d P o l it i c a l . . . . 542 F rom E v er yw h er e ........................... 542 P o stscr ip t . . „ . . 542

SU PPLEM ENT. D ecision s of R oman Congrega

TIONS . . .. . . . . 549 N ews from th e S chools :

The New Education Code . . 549 About E d u c a t io n ......................... 551

N ew s from t h e D io ceses :

Westminster . . . . . 552 Southwark . . . . . . . . 553 Portsmouth . . . . . . .. 553 St. Andrews and Edinburgh . . 553 The Funeral and the Fee . . .. 553

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

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

read a second time A'

— THE TITHES BILL.

T the close of last week in the House of Commons Mr. Smith announced thit, assuming the Tithes Bill would be at once and that on Monday some necessary progress would be made in the Committee of Supply, he would move the adjournment of the House after a morning sitting on Tuesday till Monday, April 14. If necessary Supply were not taken on Monday, it would have to be dealt with on Tuesday. He showed some disposition to postpone the Budget till Thursday, the 17th, instead of taking it on the day the sittings are resumed, but final settlement of this point was for the moment left over. The first order of the day was the Lunacy Laws Consolidation Bill, whose 342 clauses were passed through Committee in the space of a few minutes. The Solicitor-General asked leave to read the Bill a third time, and Mr. John Morley, whilst offering no objection, expressed the pleading hope | that when Mr. Smith next touched on the subject in the hearing of his friends, he would bear testimony to the assistance the Opposition gave the Government in getting through the business. “ I will,” said Mr. Smith, “ certainly j take an opportuuity of informing all my friends that the j Opposition have given every facility for passing— the Lunacy I B ill; ” a little jest that had a great success. Then Sir Michael Hicks-Beach moved the second reading of the Tithes Bill, which, he explained, referred to the tithe itself, the Government having no intention to make any proposal in regard to the appropriation of the tithes. Their opinion is that the appropriation should continue as at present. In the case of lay tithe its position rested on as good a basis as any other kind of property, and it could no more be applied to public purposes without ownership compensation than, say, j the watch of any member of the House. Moreover, the Government held that ecclesiastical tithe was not national property but the property of the Church and the ministers of the Church, held by these in return for certain religious services performed “ for the benefit of the nation;” and Parliament had no right to devote it to any other purpose. None would deny, he said, that tithe was a debt legally due j from the tithe payer to the tithe owner, and he “ failed to !

understand ” the argument that a legal debt might lawfully be withheld because a debtor did not approve the purposes to which his creditor would apply the money which might be paid. Mr. Picton, whom Sir M. Hicks-Beach had compared with Henry VIII., “ his great predecessor in spoliation ’’— but of whom and in favour of whom ?— moved the rejection of the Bill, basing his opposition chiefly on this— that nothing was done for the relief of agriculture by it and for the farmers working the land. Mr. Picton’s view was that the real grievance of the tithe system consisted in its drawing a very large sum of money from the land which ought to go towards lightening the burdens of the people, instead of handing it to what it were vain to call any longer a National Church. Mr. Evans seconded the rejection of the Bill; many speeches were made and the debate was adjourned.

Before the debate was resumed on the

— continuation following night, after some questioning the debate. answered by Sir J. Fergusson, Mr. Sexton asked Sir VV. Marriott whether a report appearing in the Times of a speech delivered by him at the “ United Club ” was substantially correct. Sir W. Marriott said that it was, and Mr Sexton accordingly proceeded to call attention to it as a matter of privilege. By the direction of the Speaker the incriminating passage was read by the Clerk at the Table, and Mr. Sexton denounced it as untrue, and therefore, having reference to members of the House, a breach of privilege. After Mr. Sexton had proceeded at some length the Speaker interposed, and ruled that the matter was not one of privilege, but of argument as to the conclusions drawn from the decision of a court of law ; whether these conclusions were just or not was a matter of opinion— but this was not a matter of privilege. Sir William Marriott offered an explanation, in which he declared that by unintentional omissions, that seemed to read very seriously which was in part only banter. Mr. Sexton accordingly explained that he would leave Sir W. Marriott to the “ contempt of the House and the country.” Then the Debate on the Tithes Bill was resumed by Mr. Graj', who considered the Bill an improvement on last year’s measure but still open to criticism on many grounds. The debate was continued in an extremely thin House by Sir Hussey Vivian, but things appeared more animated about 11 p.m., when Sir William Harcourt plunged into the discussion. He said that he would gladly have supported a Bill which would put the debt of tithe on the landlord and not on the tenant— a change which, he declared, would bring about the abolition of much distress, and would even reduce

N ew S e r i e s , V o i . X L 1II., N'C. 1,113