THE TABLET
A IVeekly Newspaper and Review.
D u m VOBIS G R A TU LAM U R , AN IM O S ET IA M ADDIMUS U T IN INCCEPTIS V E STR IS CON S TAN TER M AN EATIS.
From the B r ie / o j H is Holiness to T he T ablet, J u n e 4, 1870.
Voi. 41. No. 1732. L ondon, June 21, 1873.
P r ic e sd. B y P o st 5%d.
[R e g is tered a t t h e G e n e r a l P o st O f f ic e a s a N ew s pa p e r .
C h r o n ic l e o f t h e W e e k : The
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Education Act Amendment Bill.— Lord Salisbury on Religious Education.— The Court o f Judicature Bill.-EIection Expenses and Rates. The Visit of the Shah.— The Zanzibar Treaty.— The Action against Mr. Plimsoll.— The Ranc Prosecution.— The Report of the Committee.-The Pascal Circular.-MM. Courbet and Rochefort. — The French Council of Education. — The French Budget.— The Italian •Law on Religious Corporations.— Ratazzi and Cavour.—The German Press and the French Government. Switzerland, France, and the Persecution.—The Emperor of Germany.-The Situation in Spain, &c. 777
CONTENTS.
L e a d e r s :
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The Prosecution of M. Ranc . 781 The “ Saturday Review” on Eccle
siastical Affairs . . . .7 8 1 The Evidence before the Select the Fine Arts.— L ’Evaugile in Famille.— Memorial of First. Communion ............................................ 788 N ew M u s i c ....................................... 788 C o rrespondence :
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Committee on the Callan Schools 782 The Propaganda of Unbelief . 783 O ur P r o t e s t a n t C o n tem po r a r ie s :
A New Festival.— An Old One.— Consistent Legislation.— Historical Paradox ..... 784 R e v ie w s :
The Question of Anglican Ordina
Protestant Orders .... 788 The Amendment of the Education
A c t ............................................... 789 Ratazzi’s Funeral .... 789 Burial Clubs and the Poor . . 790 An A p p e a l ...................................... 790 P a r l ia m e n t a r y S ummary . .7 9 0 R ome :
tions Discussed .... 785 Vindiciae Alphonsianae . . . 787 What am I ? .... 787 S h ort N o t ic e s : Three Lectures on
Papal Infallibility.— A Theory of
Letter from our own Correspondent 793 ' The Reply of His Holiness to the
Generals of Religious Orders . 794 Address of the Holy Father to the
C a r d in a l s ........................................ 794I
I R ome (continued) : i Liturgical Music Books D io c e s a n N ew s :
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794
Westminster— Consecration o f the
Diocese to the Sacred Heart . 795 1 S o u t h w a r k ....................................796
B irm in gham .................................... 796 I r e l a n d :
Letter from our Dublin Corre
spondent F oreign N ews :
France Brazil
M em o r a n d a :
Legal :—
;
The Trial of Castro, otherwise called Orton, otherwise Sir R. Tichborne, Bart. . . . 79S General N ews . . . . 799
797 797 793
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
THE scheme of amendments to the Edu
cation Act which Mr. Forster introamendment duced as we were about to go to bill. press last week has by no means satisfied the adherents of the Birmingham League. He has gone, however, to the utmost limit which respect for individual liberty o f conscience would permit. He abolishes the 25th clause which enables School Boards to pay to such school as the parent may prefer the fees which that parent is too poor himself to pay. He leaves the School Boards in possession of the power of exercising compulsion, and is, therefore, obliged to provide some method by which the fees of schools other than State schools are to be paid. It would be monstrous, as everybody except Mr. Dixon and his friends appears ready to acknowledge, that a poor man should be subjected to fine or imprisonment because, though he is ready to send his children to school, he will not send them to a school to which he conscientiously objects. Mr. Forster has, we think, made every concession that anybody could reasonably expect to the Nonconformist agitation by proposing to enact that the guardians of the poor shall in the first place refuse out-door relief in cases when the children are not sent to school, and shall, when the parents are too poor to pay the fees, or all the fees, make them such allowance as will enable them to do so. The parents may then send the children to any public elementary school they may choose, provided always that it be an efficient one. It is not as yet clear what proof of efficiency is to be demanded, but this, as the Times justly observes, is one of those details which will have to be settled in committee. And in order to meet the possible objection that the payment made by the guardians covers more than secular instruction, it is provided that this allowance shall in no case amount to more than the ordinary fee payable at the school selected, or to more than one farthing for each attendance. The guardians in short are to refuse relief to a man unless he has his children educated, and if he shows that he cannot pay for their education, the guardians will then allow him just so much as will enable him to do so, leaving him the choice of the school. Mr. Dixon and Mr. Richard at once expressed their “ bitter “ disappointment,” and the London Nonconformist committee which met on Monday passed resolutions that the Government plan is “ conceived in the interests “ of denominationalism, is calculated to disappoint the just “ expectations of Nonconformists,’’ gives subsidies to sectarian schools out of the public rates, makes the objectionable payment, which was optional with School Boards, obligatory on Boards of Guardians ; and “ virtually involves “ the creation of a new Church Establishment,” because the few pence allowed by the guardians may find their way into a Catholic or an Anglican school. To be decently consistent, these fiery objectors should first move heaven and earth for the abolition of workhouse chaplaincies ; and the only possible explanation of their inconsistency is that they are really actuated, not so much by a sense that there is a principle at stake, as by the desire to achieve a particular result— namely, to wrest the education of the country, particularly of the rural districts, out of the hands of those who have now the management of it. They therefore, forsaking all their earlier traditions, avowedly insist on a scheme which would systematically violate the rights of conscience, and announce their uncompromising opposition to the present Bill “ at every stage,” and their intention of putting the screw on Members of Parliament through the constituencies. We hope sincerely that they may fail, and that the tyranny of State interference with consciences may be kept out of this country at all events for some time longer.
LORD SALISBURY ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION.
But that the tendency of the age is in this direction no one who watches the course of affairs upon the Continent of Europe can doubt, and we are glad to see that Lord Salisbury has just called attention to the fact in a speech which he made on Monday at Hitchin. The one object at which “ a powerful, numerous, and active party” is striving, is the overthrow of the Christian religion, and the one thing they are trying to accomplish first is the establishment of secular instead of religious education. Therefore, said Lord Salisbury, let no one “ listen to the delusive “ advice proffered by well-meaning, or at least well-spoken, “ counsellors, who try to represent to us that religious “ education in schools is so much trouble thrown away by “ taking out of the hands of the clergy a duty which they “ ought to perform.” The answer to this, he truly said, is to be found “ in the attitude of the two classes of minds through“ out the world.” “ Every effort of religious men is directed to “ the maintenance of religious teaching in schools, and those “ to whom religious teaching is detestable are trying to drive “ it out of them.” That there are those in this country who value it, but yet would exclude it from the schools, only proves their inability to appreciate or their disin-
clination to question, THE COURT OF JUDICATURE BILL.
take into account the wider bearings of the
The Lord Chancellor’s Supreme Court of Judicature Bill passed its second reading in the Commons at the end of last week amid a pretty general consensus of approval; Mr. Gregory withdrawing his motion for a Select Committee, and Dr. Ball, who keenly criticized the abolition of the Lords Appellate Jurisdiction, approving that part of the Bill which concerns the Courts of First Instance, and reserving his opposition to the rest until the clauses should
N ew Ser ie s . Y o l , IX. No. 241.
