THE TABLET
A Weekly Newspaper and Review
D u m VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.
From the B r ie f o j H is Holiness to The Tablet, June 4, 1870.
Voi. 41. No. 1720. London, March 29, 1873.
P r ice sd. B y P ost $x/£
[R egistered a t the General P ost O ffice a s a N ew spaper.
Page
C hronicle of th e W e e k : Mr.
Disraeli’s Decision.— Parties and ■ Constituencies. — Debate on the Three Rules.— Mr. Fawcett’s Bill. — “ Ultramontanism ” and Liberalism.— Legislation of the Session. —The Payment to America.—The Navy Estimates.— The Burials Bill. —Unseaworthy Ships.— The Situation at Geneva.—The Clergy of the Jura.—The Courts and the Police in Posen.—The Police in Alsace.— Marshal Bazaine’s Trial. — The Constitutional Bills. — Electoral and Municipal Questions.— Affairs in Spain.............................................389
L e a d e r s :
CONTENTS.
Page
C orrespondence :
Page
More Intelligent Criticism . . 393 Queen’s College, Galway . . 393 Spoliation in Rome.— The Reli
Protestant Orders .... 401 The Labour Question . . . 401 Condition of our Agricultural La
gious Orders and Ecclesiastical Properties Bill . . . . 395 Our P rotestant Contemporaries:
Church and State .... 396 R eview s :
bourers ....................................401 The Catholic Vote at the Next
General Election . . . 402 Legitimacy in Spain . . . 402 The late Mr. Grant, M.R.C.S. . 403 Sunshine in South Wales . . 403 Brynmavvr. — A Concluding Ap
Literature and Dogma . . . 398 A Primary History of Britain . 400 S hort N o t ic e s : Biblical Psych-
ologj'-. — Etudes Religieuses. — A Devout Paraphrase on the Seven Penitential Psalms.—Dedication of Ireland ..... 400
p e a l ............................................ 403 P arliam entary S ummary . . 403 Encyclical Letter of His Holiness
Pope Pius IX. on the Affairs of the Armenian Church . . . 405 R ome :
Letter from our own Correspondent 409 New Bishops....................................410
R ome (continued) :
Page
Peter’s Pence...................................... 410 D io cesan N ews :
Westminster ..... 410 Great Catholic Temperance Meet
ing at Exeter Hall . . . 410 Liverpool— Pastoral Letter of the
Bishop ..... 411 The Archbishop of Westminster on the Irish University Bill and Catholic Politics .... 412 Salford ..... 414 I reland :
Letter from our Dublin Corre
spondent ...................................... 414 M emoranda :
Religious— Catholic Union—Edu
cational ...................................... 4x4 General N ews . . . . 415
CHRONICLE OF THE W EEK.
MR. DISRAELI’S DECISION. AT
a meeting which has ju s t been held with a v iew to running a C on servative candidate against Sir Charles D ilk e for the borough o f Chelsea,
S i r Eardley W ilm ot gave expression to those feelings o f discontent which Mr. D israeli, in his great speech on Thursday week, assumed to exist here and there in th e ranks o f his followers. T h e Opposition, thought S ir E. W ilm ot, ought at least to have made an attem pt to form a Governm ent. But these murmurings were prom ptly repressed by Mr. W ard Hunt, who was in the chair. Mr. D israeli’s decision against taking office was, he said, arrived a t with the full approval and concurrence o f his form er co lleagues and would, he was convinced, be ratified b y the party in general. W e have a lready said that in our opinion he had good reasons for this decision, but we do not mean to im p ly that all the reasons which he adduced were good. T h e main reason— that a Governm ent with a decided Parliam entary majority against it is in a false position— as regards both the House and its own supporters, is an excellent one and q u ite sufficient, but the theory o f the need o f precise official inform ation on subjects like the Central Asian question, the A la bam a payment, and the French Commercial T reaty, before go in g to the country, is one which would prevent any M in ister from ever dissolving on his first accession to office. I t is fair to suppose that these points were indicated rather as subjects for probable criticism than as serious reasons for dec lin in g the responsibilities o f power.
When Mr. G ladstone informed the H ouse
CONSTITU
ENCIES.
parties and tjlat jle COuld see no reason for dissolving,
either now or later, in the defeat which G o vernm ent had experienced— in which view , as an appeal to the country on the subject o f that vote is out o f the question, he was perfectly right— he still took care to m ake it perfectly c lear that one or more such defeats on other questions would render a dissolution inevitable. I t was probably with this declaration in his mind that Mr. H a rd y was careful to state that his motion respecting the T h re e Rules was not inspired by any party interest. Neither party is anxious to have a general e lection at present. T h e M in isters have not recovered from the damaging blow which th ey have received, and do not wish to go to the English and Scotch constituencies while the memory o f a B ill supposed to be too favourable to Catholics is fresh, or to the Irish constituencies with the reputation o f a recent denial o f ju s t ic e to Catholics. T h e Conservatives do not wish it, i f th e Globe is to be believed, because they are not ready, and because their e lectioneering preparations have been terribly m ism anaged. This, however, the S ta n d a rd has stoutly denied. A n d it is certainly somewhat difficult to under-
N ew Series. V o l , IX . No. 229.
stand how it can be that the T ories are not ready to go to the country, if, as the G lo be thinks, the Governm en t also “ dare not face the constituencies.” T h e constituencies must be in favour o f either one or the other.
DEBATE ON THE THREE
RULES.
In depriving, however, his motion o f all party character, Mr. H a rd y secured its substantial success. T h e H ouse was evidently with him, and Mr. Forster’s argument that the proposed address would be equivalent to a vote o f censure on the Arbitrators would scarcely have prevented its adoption if Governm ent had not undertaken that the dissent o f this country from the opinions expressed by those four gentlemen should be c learly stated whenever the Three Rules are officially communicated to foreign Powers. T h e theory that “ due d iligence ” is to be tested, not by the means o f precaution at the command o f the neutral, but by the im portance o f those precautions to this or that belligerent, the opinion that escaped ships a lready commissioned by a belligerent must be seized by the neutral when he has the opportunity, and that according to which the illegal evasion o f the law by individuals— a lthough the Governm ent has done all it could to prevent it, as in the case o f the nocturnal recruiting o f the Shenandoah in V ic to r ia— is made to render the neutral Power liable for all the damage which the ship may afterwards inflict, are, it is true, not even professedly “ interpretations” o f the Rules, but, i f notprotested against, would be in fa llib ly appealed to hereafter as authoritative dicta to which England ¡.had g iven at least a tacit assent. T h is much Governm ent is disposed to a dm i t ; thus throwing over Mr. Lowe, who said at G lasgow that the rules should be communicated “ without note or “ comment,” on the ground that there was no necessity for recording our dissent from an entirely unauthorized e x pression o f opinion. But the view which M in isters take as to the exact course to be follow ed is this— they are o f opinion that an isolated in terpretation o f the Rules on our part would be useless, and they th ink it inexpedient to ask the United States to jo in us in the in terpretation o f them until the whole o f the business under the T reaty is disposed of. I t is also apparently im agined that the Americans may not be very ready ju s t as yet to put their hands to a com mentary which would be a repudiation o f a good many of their own arguments, and it is thought that, as time goes on, and the memories o f their supposed wrongs as belligerents becom e less vivid, they may be more lik e ly to return to their traditional attitude as advocates o f neutral rights. F o r it is ju s t as much the interest o f the United States as it is o f England to guard against the position o f neutrals being made so in to lerable as to force them into espousing one side o f a quarrel. T h e matter then stands thus : the G o vernment is satisfied with the T h ree Rules as th ey are, in the sense which it considers to be the natural one, and