THE TABLET.

A Weekly Newspaper and Review. . . ' ’ ' ... I______^ _____ _____ : : _____■ ■ ■ * ‘. i .

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DUM VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.

From the Brief of His Holiness Pius IX. to T h e T a b le t , fune 4, 1870.

Vol. 76. No. 2637. London, November 22, 1890. P r ic e sd ., b y P ost s%A.

[R eg is tered 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 o f t h e W e e k : Page

Mr. Balfour in Liverpool •— At Southport — , General Booth’s Scheme— A Second Meeting—The O ’Shea Divorce Case— The Charges against Mr. Jameson— Stanley’s Rear Columir--The Rebellion in Honduras—Assassination o f a Russian General— Messrs. Baring Brothers— The Wreck o f the Serpent—Dr. Koch’s Discovery— The London County Council — The New Judge— Conference o f GladS tO l j l t e s , % . ; , . . , 8 o i

L e a d e r s :

The Lost Leader . . . . . . 805 How Majorities are Manufactured 806 Final Words on Irish Education.. 806 “ Sunt Lacrymae Rerum, et Men-

tem-—” . . .. •. •• 807 Christian Art in London .. . . 809 Biblical Studies in Jerusalem . . 809

C O N T E N T S .

N o t e s . .

Page . . 810

R e v iew s :

A History of Ireland . . ■ « 812 Occasional Papers.........................813 Collections for a History o f the

Family o f Malthus .. . . 814 1791: A Tale of San Domingo.. 814 Aspects of Anglicanism 814 C orrespondence :

Rome .'— (From Our Own Corre­

spondent)....................................... 817 Dublin :—(From Our Own Corre­

spondent) . . . . . . . . 818 L e t t e r s t o t h e E d itor :

Process of the Beatification o f the

Venerable Curé d’Ars . . . . 820 Monumental Inscriptions.. . . 820 Queen v. Barnardo...........................820 ‘ ‘ Darkest England and the Way

O ù t ” .......................................821

L e t t e r s to t h e E d itor (Con­

Page tinued) : A Transferred Kindness . . . . 821 An I n q u i r y .................................... 821 Father O’Leary’s Grave ^ . . 821 Another Generous Offer for Silver-

town . . . . . . . . 821 The Archbishop o f Cashel’s Return 821 Sir L. Simmons’s Maltese Mission.. 822 Salford Protection and Rescue

Society ........................ . . 824 An Anglican Clergyman on Father

Traies....................... . . . . 825 The Censure on Dean Pyke and his

Reply.................................... . . 826 A Toast o f Cardinal Lavigerie . . 827 F rom E v e r yw h e r e . . . . 827 So c ia l a n d P o l it i c a l . . • . . 827

SUPPLEMENT. Page

D ecision s o f R oman Congrega­

t io n s . . . . ...... 833

N ew s from t h e S chools :

Industrial School at Walthamstow 833 St. Edmund’s at Old Hall . . 833 About E d u c a t io n ........................... 833 N ew s from t h e D ioceses :

Southwark................................... 834 Birmingham.. , , . . 834 Hexham and Newcastle . . . . 835 Leeds 835 Middlesbrough ' . . . "/..*' ^ Protests Against the Padroado . . 835 The Needs o f Sevenoaks . . . . 837 O b it u a r y . . . . •.* . . 837

Rejected M S . cannot be returned unless accompanied with address

\ *

and postage.

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

MR. BALFOUR

ML , ,rs LIVERPOOL. A1 T the annual meeting of that dreadfully named body “ The National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations,” which was this year held in Liverpool, Mr. Balfour met with a more than usually enthusiastic welconffe, and repaid the greeting with an admirable address. It was an address also which, apart from the fun at the expense o f Mr. Swift McNeill, might have been listened to with pleasure and acquiescence by men of almost any political opinions. Mr. Balfour began by dividing the condition of the Ireland question into four parts. These divisions, he said, were quite separate, and each might carry opinions involving no opinion on the other three. There was the great question of the constitutional relations which ought to obtain between Ireland and Great Britain; then there was the question which he had to deal with daily and almost hourly, the question of the relations w'hich the Government of this country ought to maintain with regard to those “ who pursue what they are pleased to describe as political ends by criminal means.” There was a third question which was of far older standing, the question of the land of Ireland; and, finally, separate from all these, was the difficulty of the congested districts. The policy of the Government towards the demand for a separate Parliament, towards Boycotting and intimidation and the Plan of Campaign was known to all men. Their settled policy for the land difficulty was to promote the creation of peasant proprietors. It remained to consider that evening their policy for the limited area in the West of Ireland known as the congested districts. In the first place, he would recall how the Gpvernment had made this question their constant care; they had not waited till the cry of famine went abroad, but long ago had anticipated the danger by the most liberal measure of railway construction ever suggested or carried out by an English Government, and also by the special provisions inserted in their Land Bill. There could be no greater mistake than to suppose that*^n ,tW area of! d^cóngested district» thé difficulty was a rent difficulty— it would exist if all rent were to cease to-morrow. Contrast the condition of the poor of Liverpool with that of the people of the congested districts in Ireland. A single room in the poorest part of Liverpool costs about is. 6d. a week. The Irish tenant in the West of Ireland pays less than that— pays less than a shilling a week. The average rent is about a year, and while the Liverpool labourer for nearly twice the sum gets only one room, the Irish tenant, not merely lodgings, a house, however humble, but he gets his fuel, he gets his holding, he gets his potatoes, he gets such oats as he rears, he gets the produce of such stock as he rears, the produce of the sale of his pig, and usually, though not always, a certain share in rough mountain grazing. Mr. Balfour then paused to make it quite clear that he was not making this comparison by way of showing that the people of the congested districts did not deserve relief, but simply to show that the problem was not simply a rent problem. He then described the general conditions of the districts to be dealt with, and reminded his hearers that the population was not congested in the sense of being crowded, but congested by not being able to draw from their holdings a safe and sufficient livelihood for themselves and their children, and that their condition constantly trembles upon the verge of want, and when the potato crop fails goes over that margin and becomes one of extreme and even dangerous destitution. There was a vital distinction also to be drawn between the kind of poverty these people suffer from and the poverty which so often makes the heart ache in towns like Liverpool and London. It is not the constant worrying, unceasing toil for a wretched pittance, to keep the roof over their heads and bread in their children’s mouths, which is the lot of some of the very poor in the great English towns. It is a life of poverty, sometimes of extreme poverty, but it is not a life of extreme and wearing toil. What they suffer from is not what the victims of the sweating system suffer from. It is not the grinding and heart-rending toil which eats the manhood out of a man and the womanhood out of a woman before either he or she can earn a living for those dearest to them. The peasant in the congested districts in Ireland is at once a farmer, a labourer, and a fisherman, and the problem is to make him a better farmer, or a better fisherman, or a better labourer. I f squandering public money could remedy the evil nothing would be simpler or sooner done. Public, money is essential and will be given, but what is also necessary is to change the habits of a population. That he believed could be done by kindly means, it could not be done by rapid means. However, for his part he was resolved to do all that a man and a statesman could do to bring permanent relief into those unhappy districts. Mr. Balfour several times spoke of the kind and openhearted way in which he had been received by the priests

N e w S e r i e s , V o l . XLIV., No, 1,14*.