THE TABLET
A W eekly Newspaper and Review.
D um VOBIS G R A T U L AM U R , AN IM O S ET IAM ADDIM U S U T IN IN CCEPTIS V E S TR IS CON STAN TER M AN E A T IS .
From the Brief of H is Holiness to T h e T a b l e t , "June 4 , 1870.
Vol. 47. No. 1885. L o n d o n , M a y 27, 1876.
price Sd.BvPosT5^d.
[R eg is t er ed a t th e G e n e ra l P o st O f f ic e a s a N ewspaper
•Ch r on ic le o f t h e W e e k :—
Page
The New Elementary Education B i l l .— Agricultural Children.— Memorandum of the Berlin Conference.—-The Reply of England. — Latest Aspect o f the Situation. — Count Andrasy’s Condemnation o f Military Intervention.— The Revolution in Constantinople.— The Amnesty Debates at Versailles.— The Fenian Prisoners.— "Sunday Closing in Ireland.— The Commissioners for Egypt and Mr. R. Wilson.— The Zanzibar Slave Trade.—The Income-tax Debate.—The Vivisection Bill.— The Merchant Shipping Bill.— The French Revision Clause.— Cardinal Ledochowski, &c. . . 673
CONTENTS
L e a d e r s :
Lord Sandon’s Bill ..
Irish Poor Law Bill
Italian Ministers under Police
Surveillance
Page
C orrespondence :
<377 The Declaration of Paris.. .. 634
677 Mgr. Fessier and the Syllabus .. 68s
Cardinal Wiseman and the
678 Translation of the * Ave
Page
Sketches of the Reformation—
X IV ................................................ 679 “ Our Lord ”
P ictures :
Royal Academy ......................... 681 Barnet..
Maria”
“ Our Lord ” or “ The Lord ” . . 686
. . 685
The late Rev. C. B. Garside . . 686
R eview s :
Linked Lives
Daniel Deronda
Contemporary Review
Cannock
682 P arliam en t a r y Summary
68-, R ome :— Letter from our own Cor
6S3 respondent
. . 686
. . 689
Short N otices :
The Life o f St. Alphonsus
Liguori
Two Wedding Rings
D io cesan N ews :—
Westminster ..
684 Southwark
684 Beverley
.. 690
Page
Clifton .................................... 691. Hexham and Newcastle . . .. 691 Plymouth . . . . . . . . 691 Shrewsbury .. .. . . . . 691I r e land :
Letter from our Dublin Corre
spondent .. .. . . . . 69r From an Occasional Cor
respondent..
. . 692
F oreign N ews :—
Germany ......................... . . 693 Austria . . .. . . . . 693 Salonica .. . . . . . . 693 United States . . . . . . 694 M emoranda :—
Religious . . . . . . . . 694 Cricket . . . . . . . . 695: G eneral N ews . . . . . . 695
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
IT is scarcely possible as yet to pass a definite judgment on the details of Lord Sanaon’s new Education B i l l ; the second reading is fixed for the 12th o f June, and between now and then we shall be furnished, it is to be hoped, with more complete information as regards the manner in which the Vice-President of the Council proposes to attain his object. The Bill is, in its intention, certainly good, and the House received it with that amount of approval which is implied in the recognition of this fact, but the question is whether the machinery is well calculated to give effect to the intention. The latter is, we have said, good, and it is good in two ways, first, because the compulsion which Lord Sandon contemplates is very moderate and guarded in its application, and secondly, because the measure is avowedly meant as a barrier against the forcible secularisation of popular education. No one surely, said Lord Sandon, would think of establishing the costly machinery of Schoolboards with triennial elections all over the country, but there was another argument against such a step. “ They had been told “ that it would not be unreasonable to ask that a Board “ school should be within the reach of every parent in the “ land ; that it would not be unreasonable to ask that no “ Government grants should be made to any schools except “ those which were under the management of the rate-payers, “ and also that it might be profitable to the cause of religion, “ and would not be unreasonable, to insist on all School “ Board schools being secularised. So that if the Govern“ ment were to propose a universal system of School Boards, “ trying in a feeble manner— -because the restrictions would “ be swept away— to confine them only to the duty of “ securing the attendance o f the children at the schools, he “ believed they would be sounding the knell of every volun“ tary school in the country, and the proposal would pro“ bably lead in the long run to the one thing which he be“ lieved the country would detect and abhor— namely, one “ general system o f secular instruction.’' So far we thoroughly agree with Lord Sandon; and now for the plan which he proposes to adopt. He would leave the law with respect to School Boards exactly as it is ; power being left to any district to apply for a School Board, and to the Education Department to force a School Board upon it if it does not provide sufficient means of education. But he proposes to give to Town Councils and Boards of Guardians the powers o f a School Board to pass compulsory bye laws, but not the power of erecting or maintaining schools. The ratepayers who have now the power of introducing compulsion indirectly by asking for a School Board will thus be enabled to introduce it without the burden o f a School Board or new
New Series, Vol. XV. No. 394.
schools by asking the Board o f Guardian to pass the bye laws they want. How this plan is likely to act in country parishes is a question which asks for a good deal of consideration.
AGRICULTURAL
CHILDREN.
Next, the way o f dealing with agricultural children is somewhat simplified. The A c t at present in force is to be repealed, and when the new A c t has come into full operation— which, if the Bill passes, will be in 1881— no one will be able to employ a child under ten, nor under fourteen without a “ labour pass," which will certify one o f two things— either that the child is up to the mark in reading, writing, and arithmetic, or that it has attended a public elementary school 250 times in each of the five previous years. Allowance is thus made for dunces incapable o f satisfying the standard, and parents who want their children to work for them at ten years old will find it their interest to send their children regularly to school, lest they should fail in passing, and to keep them up to their work, lest illness or other causes should cut short the number of their school attendances.
THE MEMORANDUM OF THE BERLIN CONFERENCE.
Each day as it arrives seems to bring with it a new phase of the Eastern question. A t the end of last week the news was extremely serious. First there was the announcement that England had refused to join in the diplomatic action on which Russia, Austria, and Germany had agreed, and to which France and Italy had given in their adhesion. Next it was stated on the authority of the Daily Telegraph's correspondent at Constantinople that the Porte itself would reject the proposals o f the Berlin Conference. “ In the “ opinion of the most trustworthy authorities here they are “ considered to be unreasonable in their scope ; it is thought “ that they impose on the Porte conditions which it will be “ impossible for it to comply with.” . And the refusal o f the English Government was believed to be based on a conviction that these proposals were neither reasonable nor likely to be effectual. The Northern Powers themselves were evidently not very sanguine about the success of the present scheme, which is supposed to consist o f a prolonged armistice and the government of the revolted provinces by a mixed Commission, for they have resolved upon a course o f action to be adopted in the event o f its failure. It does not follow that this alternative should be military intervention— Count Andrassy, as we shall see presently, has positively denied that— and it is more than probable that the agreement is merely intended to prevent anyone of the three Powers— Russia, for instance-— from interfering separately. On Monday Lord Derby in the Lords and Mr. Disraeli in the Commons, when questioned upon the subject, gave as the motive for the refusal to join the other Powers the simple reason that Government does not believe the plan would