THE TABLET

A IVeekly Newspaper and Review.

D um vobis gratulamur, animos etiam addimus u t in incceptis vestris constanter m aneatis.

From the Brief of H is Holiness to T he T ablet, June 4, 1870.

Vol. 45. No. 1822. L o n d o n , M a r c h 13, 18 7 5 .

Price 5«! By Post s%d.

[Registered at the General Post Office as a Newspaper.

C hronicle of the Week :—

Page

The French Ministerial Crisis.— The New Ministry.— The New Cardinals.— Withdrawal o f the Judicature Bill.— Sir W. Lawson ■ on Reduction o f the Army.—The Persecution in Canton Berne.— The Impending Confiscation in Prussia.— Germany, Italy, and the Pope.— Spoliation o f Church Property.— The Carlist War.— Prince Bismarck and the Golden Fleece. — The Force Bill and Civil Rights Bill in America.—The Transit of “Venus.— The Letter of the Anglican Bishops.— The Bishop of Durham.— Messrs. Moody and Sankey.— Sir James Hope Grant. — Sir Arthur Helps.. .. .. 321

CONTENTS.

Leaders :

Page

Mr. Gladstone’s “ Vaticanism ” .. 325 The Relations of France and

Germany .. . . . . .. 326 The Irish Education Debate . . 327 Our Protestant Contemporaries :

Persecution....................... . . . 328 Pictures :

The Old Masters at Burlington

House .. . . . . . . 329 Reviews :

Vaticanism : An Answer to Re­

plies and Reproofs . . . . 330 Social Pressure .. . . . . 331 The Month .. .. .. .. 332 Literary, Artistic, & Scientific Gossip 333 Correspondence:

The Ecstatica Louise Lateau .. 333

Proposed Testimonial to the

Page

Bishop of Birmingham on Occasion of his Half Jubilee .. 333 “ Our Present Colleges ”— An

Omission .. .. .. . . 333 Mr. Bright and Home Rule .. 333 “ Vox Clamantis in Deserto ! ” . . 334 Distress in Monmouthshire .. 334 Another Voice from Ebbw Vale,

Monmouthshire .. .. .. 334 The Lock-out in South Wales .. 334 The Starving Children .. .. 334 Parliamentary Summary .. 335 Rome :— Letter from our own Cor­

respondent . . . . .. 337 Diocesan News :— Westminster—

Exposition of the Blessed Sacra­

ment for the Forty Hours’ Prayer, during Lent, 1875 . . 338

Diocesan (continued) :

Page

Southwark .. . . . . . . 339Beverley ....................................339 Clifton .................................... 339 Hexham and Newcastle . . . . 339 Liverpool . . . . . . . . 339 Newport and Menevia . . . . 340 Nottingham . . . . . . .. 340 Scotland—Western District .. 340 Ireland :

Letter from our Dublin Corre­

spondent . .

340

Foreign News

Germany .. . . . . . . 341 Memoranda :—

Religious . . .

342

General News ...................... 342

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

THE Ministerial crisis in France has been dragging itself on for nearly a fortnight, and M. Buffet has twice or thrice thrown up in despair the task of forming a Cabinet. The ■ difficulties have been so numerous that it would be only ■ confusing to enumerate them, but at the bottom of them lay the one great cru x how to form a Ministry which shall be acceptable not only to the majority, but to the minority. To nothing else, it seems, would the President consent. After M. Buffet and M. Dufaure had had numerous interviews with each other and Marshal MacMahon, and after the former had failed once, and agreed to try again, there arose the great question about the Ministry of the Interior. Neither M. Buffet nor M. Dufaure would have it, and the President would not hear of its being given to one of the Left, so that it was agreed that one of the Right ■ Centre should be chosen for this post, M. Bocher, for instance, or the Duc d’Audiffret Pasquier. But M. Bocher refused point blank, and so did the Due Pasquier. Then M. Buffet resigned a second time. Next the Due Pasquier consented, and it was thought that the problem was solved. M. Buffet was to be Prime Minister without portfolio, the Due Pasquier Minister of the Interior ; the Due Decazes, Foreign Minister as before ; M. Dufaure, Minister of Justice ; M. Léon Say, Finance ; M. Wallon, Public Instruction ; and as the President insisted on having representatives of the Right, M. de Meaux, Agriculture ; and Admiral de Montaignac, Marine. Everybody, therefore, expected that on the next day (Tuesday) M. Buffet would be still absent from the Presidential chair of the Assembly, as he had given out that if he took possession of it it would be a sign that he had given up the task of forming a Ministry. There, however, he was, thanking the House for its sympathy with him in his domestic affliction and for his election, and saying nothing whatever about the •crisis. It then transpired that in the course of the morning he had told the Marshal that it would be impossible for him to preside without a portfolio over a Ministry which contained such important personages as M. Dufaure, the Due Decazes, and the Due Pasquier, and again sent in his resignation. But the Marshal declared that if M. Buffet persisted in resigning he would resign too, and so the Due Pasquier had to be got rid of, and it was arranged that M. Buffet should hold the Ministry of the Interior with the Premiership.

On Wednesday morning it was believed that the new this combination also had failed ; that a meet.M iNisTRY. ing of the Right had decided that they did not approve of a member of their party joining a Buffet and Dufaure Ministry, that M. de Meaux had therefore withdrawn his consent, and that M. Buffet had then finally

New Series. Vol, X I I I . No. 331.

decided that he would not be a Minister at all. Another version of the story was that the contemplated arrangements had been upset by a fresh refusal of M. Bocher to become Minister of the Interior. Anyhow the dead-lock seemed complete— all the more complete that on Tuesday Marshal MacMahon had tried to form a Ministry outside the Assembly. It is said that he actually sent for M. Andral, of the Council of State, and asked him to form a Cabinet of which General de Cissey and Admiral de Montaignac would have been the only members who were Deputies ; but M. Andral refused. On Wednesday night, however, the list already mentioned— which was first proposed by M. Bocher— was suddenly settled. M. Buffet is Premier and Minister of the Interior ; M. Dufaure, of Justice ; M. Ldon Say, of Finance ; M. Wallon, of Public Instruction ; M. de Meaux, of Agriculture and Commerce; and General de Cissey, the Due Decazes, Admiral de Montaignac, and M. Caillaux retain the posts which they previously held.

At the Consistory which is to be held on the new Monday next, the 15th, six new Cardinals will cardinals, be proclaimed: Mgr. Ledochowski, Arch­

bishop of Gnesen and Posen; the Archbishop of Westminster ; Mgr. Dechamps, Archbishop of Malines ; Dr. MacCloskey, Archbishop of New York ; Mgr. Giannelli, Secretary to the Sacred Congregation of the Council; and Mgr. Bartolini, Secretary to the Sacred Congregation of Rites. The creation of Mgr. Ledochowski, who is still in prison, reminds one naturally of the venerable Cardinal Fisher, who was created Cardinal when in the Tower, and to whom Henry VIII. is said to have sworn that he would not leave a head to wear the hat. Mgf. Ledochowski, even if he had not accepted the See of Gnesen-Posen, and thus become an illustrious confessor of the faith, would naturally have become a Cardinal in due course of time, as he was previously Nuncio at Brussels. The creation of Archbishop MacCloskey is also remarkable, as he will be the first Cardinal that ,the United States have ever possessed. There seems to be a very general and very natural feeling respecting the Church which is likely to be selected as the “ title ” of the Archbishop of Westminster. Fven the S tandard mentions it, and our own communications from Rome speak of the impression existing there that no title could be so appropriate as SS. Andrew and Gregory on the Ccelian, which fortunately happens to be vacant. This church was the private residence of St. Gregory the Great, and was converted by him into a monastery and dedicated so St. Andrew, and from its portals subsequently went forth St. Augustine and his companions to evangelize the English nation.

On Monday the Lord Chancellor confessed withdrawal ^ g p ressure ¡n favour of retaining the judicature Appellate Jurisdiction of the Lords was too bill. much for him, and he withdrew the Bill amending the Judicature Act of 1873, and