THE TABLET

A IVeekly Newspaper and Review.

D um v o b i s g r a t u l a m u r , a n im o s e t ia m a d d im u s u t in in c c e p t is v e s t r i s c o n s t a n t e r m a n e a t i s .

From the Brief of H is Holiness to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, 1870

Vol. 44. No. 1805. London, November 14, 1874.

p««54 b„postj^

[ R e g is t e r ed a t th e G e n e r a l P o s t O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper

C h r o n ic l e o f t h e W e e k : —

Page

Mr. Gladstone on the Civil A llegiance of Catholics.— The Glad■ stone-Acton Conspiracy. — A French Opinion on Mr. Gladstone. — Banquet at the Mansion House. — The Corps Diplomatique at the Vatican.— The Italian Elections.— "‘The Late Spanish Note.— French Reply to the Spanish Note.— The Siege of Irun.—Carlist Victory.—• T h e French Assembly.— The “ Daily N ew s” and the Legiti.mists.— Three Canards.— Another •Contradiction.— Decease of the Archbishop of Tours.— ‘ ‘ Supernatural Religion.’’-Church Music. — A Teaching Laity.. .. .. 609

L e a d e r s :

C 0 N T

Page

Mr. Gladstone’s Philippic.. . . 6x3 What Mr. Gladstone Implies .. 613 The Catholic’s Civil Allegiance .. 614 Signor Visconti-Venosta on the

Policy of I t a l y ......................... 616 O ur P r o t e s t a n t C on tem po r a r ie s :

Christianity and Anglican Newspapers

. . 617

R e v ie w s :

The “ Quarterly Review ” . . 618 The Dublin Review . . 619 The Month .. C o rrespondence :

Ecclesiastical Music

. . 622

Lord Acton’s Statements .. . . 623

E N T S .

The Life of Mary Cherubina

Page

Clare . . . . .. .. 623 A Correction .. . . . . .. 623 R ome :— Letter from our own Cor­

respondent . . .. .. 625 R ecord of G erman P ersecution :

A ll Saints’ Day at Treves .. .. 627 Another Dangerous Priest.. . . 627 A N ew Means of Persecution .. 627 M r . G lad stone’s P am ph le t :

Letter of the Archbishop of West­

minster .. .. . . .. 627 A Remarkable Testimony to the

Loyalty of Catholics .. . . 628 Sir George Bowyer on the

Pamphlet .. . . . . . . 628

Page

Opinions of the Protestant Press.. 628 The Irish Press .. . . . . 630 D io c e s a n N ews :—

Westminster.— Presentation of Ad­

dress and Testimonial to the Bishop of Nottingham . . .. 631 St. Charles’s College, Bayswater.. 63r Southwark .. .. . . . . 632 Newport and Menevia . . . . 632 Nottingham .. .. . . . . 632 Salford . . .. .. 632 I r e l a n d :

Letter from our Dublin Corre­

spondent .................................... 633 F oreign N ews :

The Civil War in Spain . . . . 634. G en er a l N ews . . . . .. 634

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

CATHOLICS. T

>IR. GLADSTONE ON THE CIVIL ALLEGIANCE OF

HAT Mr. Gladstone should have cast a firebrand into the country on Saturday (he is fond of securing a forty-eight hours’ start of his opponents), and that its lurid flame should have been ex­

tinguished on Monday morning by the independent action o f the English press, is certainly a remarkable sign of the times. The fact must be as bitter and disappointing to Mr. Gladstone as it is creditable to the common sense of English journalists of all parties. The example will serve another purpose. It will act as a caution to Mr. Disraeli, who took advantage of his opportunity at the Mansion House to say, with a grim significance, that he, at all events, ** would not enter into a controversy.” The pamphlet will do the Catholic cause far more service than injury. True grit has no fear of passing again and again between the upper and nether mill-stones. To give a complete answer to all of Mr. Gladstone’s charges will require a little more time than a single week. But vve can assure the country that it shall receive a complete reply; we ask only for an impartial hearing. Our observations this week shall be chiefly of an introductory and incidental kind. Mr. Gladstone divides his pamphlet into four propositions, and asks whether these propositions are true, whether they are material, or whether they are proper to be set forth by himself. He next proceeds to discuss the “ homepolicy of the future,” that is, whether his conclusions are to be allowed to have any effect in altering the attitude of the State towards Catholics. We comment at greater length elsewhere on the ex-Prime Minister’s “ expostulation;” here we will say a few words on the pith and marrow of the pamphlet, namely, the proposition “ that Rome requires a “ convert who now joins her to forfeit his moral and mental “ freedom, and to place his loyalty and civil duty at the mercy of another.” Firstly, Mr. Gladstone proves too much. I f this forfeiture is involved in the acceptance of the Infallibility of the Pope, it is also clearly involved in the acceptance of the Infallibility of the Church generally. Secondly, there are a number of subjects which he specifies as likely to raise a conflict between Church and State, and on these, he says, the Holy See demands the obedience of Catholics,

l o this argument we will reply by one or two questions. Does Mr. Gladstone mean that on these heads obedience is always due to the State ? Unless he does, his whole position breaks dawn. Does he mean that if the State claims to train the clergy with a view to destroying “ definiteness ” of dogma such obedience is due ? Or if the State should prohibit the administration of the Sacraments by any one who has not broken with the Holy See ? It is needless to urge that this

New Series. V ol. X II. No. 374.

case is beside the question, as belonging to the purely spiritual sphere, for it is easy to do it indirectly, by exacting oaths, &c., and this is precisely what Germany is doing. Or to take the question of education— to put a perhaps less probable case— suppose the State were to command the teaching of “ Material Atheism ” would obedience then also be due? If the answer to these questions be in the negative, it follows that there are several cases in which the State may conceivably call for an obedience which conscience commands us to refuse ; and to say that the State is to determine in what cases it may demand obedience is equivalent to saying that it may demand it whenever it likes ; and if there are cases in which the laws of God enjoins the refusal of obedience to the State— that the Church (the exponent of that law) should direct our attention to this fact is no new thing. It is quite futile to say that it is not the utterance of the Church, but that of the Holy See, which is objected to, for the objections touching the State and the external sphere are applicable to one as well as the other. The real objection is to any liv ing authority which can decide in cases as they arise. Dead authorities may be explained away, and are not feared. It is really the presence of the Holy Spirit, now and in the future, in the Church— a teaching, warning, and defining presence— which moves Mr. Gladstone’s alarm. We know where he contracted this alarm, and that the same heresiarch who prompted Prince Hohenlohe, Count Arnim, and indirectly Prince Bismarck, has been doing his best to prompt the leader of the Liberal party in England. We may add that, with reference to the deposing power, Mr. Gladstone cites some words of the Pope’s (from Lord R. Montagu’s book) in order to prove exactly the opposite of what the Pope meant. The exercise of the power in question depended on the existence of a Christendom which no longer exists. And what shall we say of the rhetoric about the restoration of the Temporal Power on the “ ashes” of the city, and the “ whitening bones ” of the Romans. It is not thus that the Temporal Power can or will be restored ; but we heard nothing from Mr. Gladstone about “ ashes ” or p<whitening bones ” when Victor Emmanuel was bombarding Rome in order to add it to his dominions.

The letter in which Lord Acton so promptly g ia d sto n e

UP Mr. Gladstone’s headlong attack acton con- 0n the Catholic Church contains many heavy s p ir a c y . charges against her Saints, chief Pontiffs,

Doctors, and Councils, stated with all the power which was to be expected from his acknowledged ability and learning, and with all the desire to injure her, which is so characteristic of the school to which he belongs. It is easy to make formidable charges against the holiest men by separating sentences from their context, or actions from their occasions, and by always putting the worst possi-