T H E

A Weekly Newspaper and Review

D um vobis gratulamur, animos etiam ADDIMUS U T IN INCCEPTIS V E S TR IS CON STAN TER M ANEATIS.

From the Brief 0/ His Holiness to T he T ablet, June 4, 1870.

Voi. 42. No. 1755. L ondon, November 29, 1873.

PR iC E 5d . B y P o s t 5% d .

[ R e g i s t e r e d a t t h e G e n e r a l P o s t O f f i c e a s a N e w s p a p e r .

C h r o n i c l e o f t h e W e e k : Mr.

Page

Disraeli’s Indictment against Government— His View of the Immc diate Political Future. — Mr .Disraeli on the Religious “ Strug gle.”— Mr. Forster on Secularism M. Say’s Interpellation.— Absten .tions in the Extreme Right.— The Attitude of the other Monarchists. — The Comte de Chambord.—The Note in the “ Union.”— The New ■ French Ministry.— The Committee on the Organic Laws.— Marshal Bazaine’s Trial.— The Virginius Affair. —The Ashantee Despatches. — The Prussian Persecution.— The 'Persecution in Jura.— The Persecution at Geneva.— Conspiracy in Cartagena, &c., &c. . . . 673

CONTENTS

L e a d e r s :

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Catholic Higher Studies _ . . 677 Another Letter from Dr. Nicholson 677 The Home Rule Conference.— Its

Character and its Results . . 678 Sir Augustus Paget at Turin . 679 Irish Prosperity.— Fisheries.— X I. 680

S h o r t N o t i c e s :

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Devotions of Dame Gertrude More 685 The Irish Ecclesiastical Record . 686 The Catholic Calendar . . . 686

C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :

O ur P r o t e s t a n t C o n t e m p o r a r i e s :

Dr. Nicholson .... 686 The Sheffield Catholic Association

Anglican Views of the Christian

Church ..... 681

and the Catholics of Germany . 686 Home Rule at English Elections . 686 Mr. Disraeli and the Spirit of the

R e v i e w s :

Directorium Chori. .

. 68I2

The “ Contemporary Review ” . 683 Herbert Freeth’s Prosperity . . 684 Theologia Seminariorum . . C85

A g e ................................... ........ 686 “ Les Missions Catholiques ” . 687 “ The Religious in Rome ” , . 687 The Beautiful Altar of the Holy

C h i ld ............................................ 687 Catholic Repositories . . . 687

I

R o m e :

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Letter from our own Correspondent 689 Peter’s Pence .... 690 I D io c e s a n N e w s :

Westm inster..................................690 S h r ew s b u r y ................................. 691

I r e l a n d :

Letter from our Dublin Corre­

spondent ..... 69r F o r e ig n N ew s :

France

691

United States .... 692 M e m o r a n d a :

R e l i g i o u s ..................................693 E d u c a t io n a l .................................. 693 Fine A r t s ..................................694 G e n e r a l N ew s . . . . 694

CHRONICLE OF THE W EEK.

MR . D I S R A E L I , after telling the

G lasgow students how they could best get on in life, has government, been addressing the Conservative workmen,

and his second speech is in a political point o f view much the more important o f the two. T h e first part o f it was an elaborate vindication o f his Bath letter, and, as might have been expected, he made out a much better case fo r the charge o f “ blundering” than for that o f “ plundering.” In support o f his assertion that for five years every trade has been “ harassed” and every profession “ worried,” he ¡refers to the lawyers and the lucifer matchmakers “ who •“ went down on their knees in Palace-yard,” to the proposition to tax farmers’ carts and horses, and to the general discontent with Schedule D. T h e grievances o f the officers o f the army, the unsuccessful changes at the Admiralty which had to be cancelled, and the undoubted hardships to which the C iv i l Service is subjected, were all enum erated; as well as Mr. L ow e ’s B ill on the Succession Duties “ that would have ■“ attacked the poor inheritance o f the widow and the orphan.” T h e Collier and Ewelme appointments were quoted as instances o f the jobs which “ outraged public opinion,” and the Ashantee War— the causes o f which are scarcely yet cleared up— and, above all, the A labam a difficulty, created by the ex post facto recognition o f the three Rules, as justification for the statement that “ Government had stumbled into “ errors that were always discreditable and sometimes 41 ruinous.” In support o f the charge of “ plundering ” he o f course alluded to the Irish Church and Land Bills, but the term is strangely inapplicable to the first-named measure, which paid everybody more than an equivalent for what it took away, and not much less so to the second, which provided legal redress for any real hardship which m ight fall upon the landlord. I f Mr. Disraeli would like to see what real “ p lundering” is, he should look to Italy, the action o f whose Government and legislation in the violation o f vested interests will be found contrasted w ith the treatment o f the Irish Protestant Church in another part o f our columns.

— HIS VIEW •OF THE IMMEDIATE POLITICAL

FUTURE.

H avin g thus pleaded in favour o f the accuracy o f a letter which had better not have been written, Mr. D israeli proceeded to sketch out the main features o f the future political struggle. T h e first subject on which he touched was that o f further Parliamentary reform,

which, he inferred from Mr. G ladstone’s recent letter, might now very probably be under the consideration o f Government. W e fully agree with him in his remark that “ there “ is no more dangerous and feebler characteristic o f a State 41 than perpetually to be dwelling on what is called organic

N ew S e r i e s Y ol, X . No. 264.

“ change.” T h e country which is always feeling its own pulse and prescribing for itself becom es— ju st as an individual does— a valetudinarian, and Mr. Disraeli also pointed out the obvious fact that a campaign o f Parliamentary reform puts an end to all other public business. But he went further, and declared his conviction that the settlem ent o f 1867-68 cannot be touched without breaking up th e borough representation; that, under a new distribution o f the electoral franchise no borough with less than 40,000 inhabitants could hope to have a representative; and that it was precisely in the small boroughs that the backbone o f the Liberal party was to be found. H e might have said also, that the extension o f the household franchise to the counties is sure to be accompanied by a system o f electoral districts which will bid fair, sooner or later, to swallow up the boroughs altogether. A nd while he would give his “ respectful and candid consideration” to any measure proposed by Government, he denounced the in troduction o f a bill by irresponsible private members, who might wish, “ on the eve o f a general election, to get up a clap“ trap career.” T h e next topic was the dispute between labour and capital, and to this Mr. D israeli contributes the reflection that the large and continuous increase in the supply o f precious metals during the l i s t twenty years has greatly affected prices ; and he thinks that i f you could get it generally recognized that a cause over which nobody has any control is at work to reduce wages and to confuse the employer’s calculation o f profits, you would have done a great deal towards establishing an understanding between employers and employed.

But there was one subject on which, while ad-

“ « r dressing a Scotch audience, Mr. Disraeli was religious sure t0 touch, and this was the “ great ” re■ ‘ struggle,” ligious “ question that is now rising in Europe.”

From this, he said, “ it would not easily be in

“ the power o f England entirely to withhold itself.” H e contemplates struggles— “ perhaps war and anarchy, ultim ately ’ — and believes that “ our connection with Ireland will then “ be brought painfully to our consciousness.” And what is the remedy which under these circumstances Mr. Disraeli is prepared to suggest ? I t is that England should “ again take : ‘ a stand upon the Reformation,” and “ guard civilization “ alike from the withering blast of atheism and from the “ simoom o f sacerdotal usurpation.” Sacerdotalism is, o f course, a “ s im oom ” because it begins with S, but we confess ourselves utterly unable to see any signs o f such “ usurpa“ tion ” in the struggle on the Continent to which Mr. D israeli refers. On the contrary, the battle which the Catholics are fighting in Germany and in Switzerland has for its avowed and sole object the maintenance o f the status quo ante, and i f Mr. Disraeli were to take any such part in the struggle as his “ stand on the Reformation ” would seem to