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

From the B r ie f o f His Holiness Pius IX . to The Tablet, June 4, 1870.

V ol. 80. No. 2744. L ondon, December io , 1892.

P rice sd., by P ost 5% d.

[Registered a t th e General P ost O ffice as a N ewspaper.

C hronicle of th e Week :

Page

The New French Cabinet—The Chamber and Panama —_The Price of Wheat and the Price of Bread—The Army Manoeuvres— The Monetary Conference — President Harrison’s Message—The L.C.C. and the Trades Unions— The Severe Weather—Comets of the Day—Sir Charles Russell on Workmen’s Trains — Conversion of Moscow Jews—Tribal Feuds in Morocco—A Steering Balloon— The Situation in Uganda—British and American Navies—The Argentine Budget .. .. .. .. 921 L e a d e r s :

The Agricultural Conference .. 925 The New Italian Parliament .. 926 The Uganda Problem .. . . 927 Happiness in Hell .. .. .. 928

C O N T

L eaders (continued) : _

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The Congress of Seville .. .. 929 The Abbé Garnier and the Social

Question .. .. .. .. 929 The Mediaeval Prayer Book .. 931 N o t e s ..................................................... 932 R eviews :

Voyage of the “ Nyanza ” .. 933 Documental Archaeology .. 935 C orrespondence :

Rome :—(From Our Own Corre­

spondent) .. .. .. .. 937 Dublin :—(From Our Own Corre­

spondent) .................................... 939 L etters to ti-ie E d itor :

Blessing of the_ Colours of the

18th (Royal Irish) Regiment .. 940

ENTS.

Page

L etters to the E ditor (Con­

tinued) : Happiness in Hell .. .. .. 940 Catholics in the Army .. . . 941 Convent Schools .. .. .. 941 St. George’s Day . .. . 941 Convent Education.. .. .. 942 Christmas Appeal, 1892 .. .. 942

Presentation to Mr. Edmund de

Trafford .. .. .. .. 942 The East India Company and the

Catholic Church .. .. .. 943 Centenary of the Consecration of

St. Peter’s, Winchester .. .. 943 Mgr. Tylee in India .. .. 944 Social and P olitical . . .. 947

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SUPPLEMENT. D ecisions of R oman Congrega

TI0NS..................................................... 953 N ews from th e S chools :

Catholic Commercial Education.. 953 Teachers’ Superannuation .. 954 Pupil Teachers and their Queen’s

Scholarship Examination .. 955 The Evening Schools Code .. 955 St. Mary’s School, Greenock .. 956

N ews from th e D ioceses :

Westminster .. . . . . 956 Birmingham...................................945 L i v e r p o o l ......................... . . 545 Newport and Menevia .. .. 946 P l ym o u th .................................... 946 St. Andrews and Edinburgh . . 946

% * Rejected M S . cannot be returned unless accompanied w ith address and postage.

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

AFTER much running about on the part of many would-be Premiers, a Cabinet has been formed under the Presidency of M. Ribot. The new

Government differs very little from the old, except that the former Premier, M. Loubet, now becomes the Minister of the Interior, thus consenting to act as lieutenant to M. Ribot, who also takes the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The following is the complete list: M. Ribot M. Loubet M. Bourgeois ... M. Rouvier ... M. de Freycinet M. Burdeau ... M. Dupuy M. Develle M. Siegfried ... M. Viette

Premier and Minister for Foreign

Affairs. Interior and Public Worship. Justice. Finance. War. Marine and Colonies. Public Instruction. Agriculture. Commerce. Public Works.

The new Cabinet is so like the old that no change of policy with regard to Protection, need be anticipated. M. Siegfried, Deputy for Havre, and the New Minister for Commerce, like the other Deputies from that part of France, represents the interests of the cotton-spinners, who are strongly opposed to Free Trade. It is conjectured, moreover, that the exclusion of M. Jules Roche is due to the fact that he was favourable to the Franco-Swiss Commercial Treaty. In short the change is one of men, and not of policy, and its distinguishing feature is the sacrifice of M. Ricard as the Jonah of the Ministerial ship.

Meanwhile the absence of a Government THE by no means impeded the activities of the CHpANAMAAND Chamber. M. Pourquery de Boisserin revived the proposal which his colleagues a few days before had refused to listen to, for converting the Panama Committee into a sort of tribunal of public safety with revolutionary powers. He claimed urgency for a Bill empowering the Committee to call any witnesses and

New Series, Vox.. XLV1II., No. 2,053.

administer oaths to them and to attach to itself a special juge d instruction who at its request should make all seizures and domiciliary visits in accordance with the Criminal Code. The third clause in this remarkable Bill gives the Committee the right to require the production before it of all criminal proceedings whatever. After a very brief discussion the Chamber voted urgency by 333 votes to 182. If this Bill be passed its effect will be to convert the Parliamentary Committee into a sort of High Court of Appeal superseding the regular tribunals. This amounts clearly to the usurpation by Parliament of the prerogatives of the judicature, and the attitude of the new Cabinet towards it will be eagerly awaited. While on the one hand M. Ribot may well hesitate to sanction a measure which begotten in panic is certain to develop into illegality, on the other hand if he oppose a Bill for which urgency has just been voted by so large a majority, he risks a fall which would echo through France. If the Bill pass, M. Brisson at once becomes chairman of a Committee of Public Safety with uncontrolled powers, and all things considered it is very difficult to see how in the present temper of the country this consummation is to be avoided, except by a dissolution. Unfortunately dissolution under the present circumstances is almost a constitutional impossibility, because neither the Budget nor a vote on account has been passed, and without the latter the taxes cannot be legally collected after the New Year. It is not too much to say that the crisis is a crisis for the Republic.

The recent statement of Mr. Sutton in wheatT nd ? he the c<?lumn®of The J«*« that 40 yearS price of bread. when wheat was 60 shillings a quarter,

bread was the same price as at present when wheat is 27 shillings the quarter, has gone uncontradicted. Of course our readers will not share the fallacy of those who jumped at the conclusion that because wheat is 50 per cent cheaper than it was 40 years ago, therefore the price of bread ought to be half of what it was then. Such a conclusion starts with the false premiss that wheat is the sole factor in the price of bread, and leaves out of the reckoning such items as rent, interest on capital, and wages — two of which have risen in the interval. Still, while making all proper allowance, we are forced to conclude that the profits of the middleman must have been unduly high, and it is in the direction and reduction of these that the agriculturists should look in the present crisis. A correspondent of The Times^omts out,asa curious anomaly, that there is a variation of more than 25 per cent, upon such a staple article of the widest consumption as bread, in different parts of England.