THE TABLET
A Weekly Newspaper and Review:
DUM VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.
From the Brief oj His Holiness to The Tablet, June 4, 1870.
Voi. 41. No. 1726. London, May 10, 1873.
P-r ice sd. B y P ost 5%d.
[R egistered a t the General P ost O ffice as a N ew spaper.
Page
^Chronicle of th e W e e k : Local
Taxation.—The Supreme Court of Judicature Bill.— Mr. Fawcett’s Bill.— Judgment in the O’Keeffe ‘Case.— Ritualism.—Tactics of the .French Republicans. — Panic in Paris, and its Causes.— The Révolution in Spain.—The Government and the Carlists.— The United •States and the Spanish Antilles.— The Ministerial Crisis in Italy.— P. Hyacinthe on Confession.—The Lucerne Government and the Bishop of Bâle.—The Programme o f the Swiss Persecution.— “ Kindred” Orders . . . . 585
L eaders :
CONTENTS
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Correspondence (continued) :
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Literary and Political Bismarckism 589 University Reform . . . 589 The Callan Schools and the Press . 590 Italian Finance .... 591 R eview s :
The Question of Anglican Ordina
tions Discussed .... 592 Kenelm Chillingly .... 593 S hort N otices : Lives of the
Saints.— The Gallery of Pigeons, and other Poems.— The Magazines for May . • • • 595 Correspondence :
Protestant Orders. — Lord Coke and Dr. Hook .... 595
Catholic Popular Literature . . 597 Protestantism in Prussia _ . . 597 Honour to Whom Honour is Due. 597 Andrews v. Salt ....597 P arliam entary S ummary . 598 R ome :
Letter from our own Correspondent 601 Outrage at Subiaco . . . 602 D io cesan N ews :
Intended Measures with regard to
Religious Instruction and Uniformity of Standards of Religious Instruction in Primary S c h o o l s .......................................603 Westminster...................................... 603
D iocesan N ews (continued):
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Birmingham...................................... 623 Newport and Menevia . . . 604 I reland :
Letter from our Dublin Corre
spondent ...................................... 6q4 The Callan Case in the Queen’s
B e n c h ...................................... 604 M emoranda :
Religious : Funeral Service for the late J. F. Maguire, M.P. . . 605 Legal :—
Andrews v. Salt . . . 606 The Trial of Castro, otherwise called Orton, otherwise Sir R. Tichborne, Bart. . . . 606 Athletic Sports . . . . 606 Fine Arts . . . . . $07 General N ews . . . . ¿07
CH R O N IC L E O F TH E W E E K .
LOGAL TAXATION. nient were B EFORE the defeat of Mr. Smith’s motion last week Mr. Gladstone laid down the limits within which Governprepared to deal with local taxation. It must be treated in connection with the whole subject of local government, and so treated that the guarantees ■ against extravagance supplied by the local assessment o f local burdens shall not be done away with, nor the possessors of property relieved from the charges under which they have inherited or acquired it. Consequently, when ■ Mr. Stansfeld introduced the Ministerial scheme on Moncjay he explained that the desired reform must be tentative and •gradual. He would move on Thursday for a Select Committee to report on the best mode of remodelling the local self-government of the country, and the manner and proportion in which Imperial revenues can be made to contribute to the relief of local burdens. In the meanwhile he Isid on the table three Bills of a more modest character: iOne for the abolition of all exemptions to rating— except in ithe case of churches and chapels, and certain special statutory exemptions, such as probably the Foundling Hospital, -which it would not be desirable to touch— a second for procuring uniformity of assessment by means of surveyors of taxes, with an appeal to petty sessions, quarter sessions, or a special committee; and a third for consolidating all the 'distinct rates into one. With regard to the abolition of exemptions, instead of proceeding on the principle of Mr, •Goschen’s Bill, and “ making all hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, liable to rates, and assigning the house-tax in relief of local burdens,” Mr. Stansfeld -proposes to specify the exemptions which he abolishes, leaving the rest as they are. Mines, for instance, other than coal mines, which are already rateable under the Act of Elizabeth ; woods and plantations other than saleable underwood, Sunday and ragged schools, and scientific and literary institutions, are to he mac(e liable to rates ; as is also Government property, but not the London parks, which •are comparatively unproductive and kept up for the benefit •of the tax-payer, or fortifications, which are entirely unproductive, or dockyards and arsenals which are not remunerative, but are maintained with a view to the contingency •of war._ The method of valuation is to be left for subsequent regulation, and Mr. Stansfeld, who has been studying the subject for the last year, is evidently more than ever conscious of the difficulties which surround it, professing his inability to deal with it in a more comprehensive manner until the Select Committee shall have prepared the way. Sir Massey Lopes, although he approved of the proposed consolidation and uniform valuation of rates, made the objection which might have been expected from him, that owners of
New Series. Völ, IX. No. 2 35>
real property were in no degree relieved by. the Government proposals, which on the contra,ïy ckew'ihio the net of the rates those kinds of realty whioh fvere hitherto exempt, leaving owners of personal property untouched. It seems sometimes to be forgotten that' rates paid by occupiers may to a great extent be taken t,orepresent personal property, and we confess that in towns 'if is the occupiers, not the owners, who appear to us to have the most claim to relief, But Sir Massey Lopes made a reasonable request when he demanded that there should be a classification, as well as a consolidation, of rates, so that rates applicable to national purposes, and, therefore, fit objects for subvention from the Imperial exchequer, should be clearly distinguished from those intended for local objects and administered by local authorities.
THE SUPREME COURT OP JUDICATURE
BILL,
The objections urged by the Equity Bar were to a certain extent put into practical form by Lord Cairns, who carried on Thursday week an amendment, providing that the Lord Chancellor shall remain a member of the Second (the Chancery) Division of the Court. If he did not, as the Master of the Rolls also is to be madg a member of the Court of Appeal, Lord GiWns pontended that the Chancery Court of First instance would only possess three judges. Thp Lord, Chancellor, however, argued that the Master qf thp Rolls would not always be thus withdrawn, and maintained that the Equity Jurisdiction would not be in so deplorable a condition as had been imagined?1 as Equity barristers would always be called into all thé Courts in Equity cases, and Equity principles had been already successfully applied in the Court of Exchequer by Judges who had never sat in a Court of Equity." Lord Cairns, however, carried his amendment by 67 votes to 49. But before stating its exact effect, we must revert to the alterations— comparatively slight as they are— which have been made in the Bill by the Select Committee. There were according to Lord Selborne’s Bill four Divisions of the High Court of First Instance, three corresponding to the three existing Courts of Common Law, and one— the second — consisting of the Chancery Judges and the Judges of the Courts of Admiralty and Probate and Divorce. The Select Committee has made five, by putting the Admiralty and Probate and Divorce Judges into a Division by themselves — a decided improvement ; and another new clause enables the Qugen in Council, subject to subsequent review in either House of Parliament, to make such changes in the pivisions and such increase in the number of Judges as may from time to time be found necessary. The Appellate Judges are to have ¿£6,000 instead of ^5,000 a year, also a step in the right direction, indicating a departure from the false economy which characterized the arrangements for the Judicial Committee, and securing the services
