THE TABLET

A Weekly Newspaper and Review

WITH SUPPLEMENT.

Dum v o b i s gratulamur, animos etiam addimus ut in incceptis vestris constanter maneatis.

From the Brie-/ of H is Holiness to T he T ablet, June 4, 1870.

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Vol. 49. No. 19iy. L o n d o n , J a n u a r y 6, 1877.

P rice sd. By P o st 5%d.

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

C h ro n ic le o f t h e W e e k :—

Page

Success or Failure?—The Cotr •ference— First Answer of Turkey. — Supposed Intentions o f the Porte.— An Escort not an Occupation.— The Counter Proposals. — Deliberations of the Plenipotentiaries.— A Critical Moment.— Christian Governors — Greece— Crete.— Lord Salisbury and the Grand Vizier.— The Turkish Elections.— Turkish Finance.— Episcopal Jubilee of the Pope.— Italian Centenaries. —The French Senate and Chamber of Deputies. — The Imperial Assemblage at Delhi.— The Emperor William and his army.—The Contest for the Presidency, &c., &c. .. 1

CONTENTS.

L e a d e r s :

Page

The Crisis at Constantinople .. 5 The Proclamation at Delhi .. 5 Mr. Michell Henry on Legisla­

tion for Ireland .. . . . . 6 The French Radicals and the

Clergy .................................... 7 Ireland, 1876-77 .. . . •• § The Protestant Tradition.— V.. .. 8 Irish Pauperism .. •• 10 Christian Art in the East .. . . 10 The Netherlands Parliament and the Catholics . . .. . . 11 R e v iew s :

Sister Natalie Narischkin . . i t A Glossary of Liturgical and Ec­

clesiastical Terms .. .. 12

R eview s (continued) ;

Page

Popular History of the Catholic

Church in the United States.. 13 The “ Month ” for January . . 13 S h ort N otices :

Monthly Bulletin of the Third

Order of St. Francis . . . . 14 Hidden Springs, or Perils of the

Ftiture, and How to ‘ Meet Them 14 Literary, Artistic, & Scientific Gossip 14 C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :

A Picture Children’s Fees in Catholic

Schools The Walsall School Board Proselytism ..

T5 *5 15 15

R ome :— Letter from our own Cor­

respondent

Page

D io ce san N ews

Westminster . . . . . . . . 18 S o u th w a r k .................................... 18 Beverley .. . . . . ..19 Hexham and Newcastle .. Salford I r eland F oreign N ews :—

Germany . . . . , . . . 20 Poland . . . . .. 20 The Proclamation at Delhi . . 21 M em oranda :—

R e l i g i o u s .................................... 2r Gen e r a l N ews ............................22

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE ? T

HE fate of the negotiations at Constanti­

nople will probably have been decided on Thursday, and our readers, when these lines reach them, will know more than anybody can tell them at present. The most hopeful feature of a rather gloomy situation is that the Plenipotentiaries are said to have stated at once the maximum of the concessions to which they will go, in order, if possible, to prevent the Turks from giving a decided refusal on these points. If the correspondent of the D a ily Telegraph is to be believed, Lord Salisbury informed the highest Turkish authorities on Wednesday that he was authorized to present and urgently recommend the following proposals : “ x. Extension of territory to Servia “ and Montenegro. 2. An International Commission, sup41 ported by an international gendarmerie, to watch over “ the civil administration of Bulgaria. 3. The appointment “ of a Christian Governor of Bulgaria, to be selected by the “ representatives of the guaranteeing Powers.” I f these proposals were refused, the Powers would simultaneously withdraw their permanent as well as special Ambassadors, leaving only Chargés d’Affaires. This communication will have been made more formally at the meeting of the Conference on Thursday, and it is apprehended that the reply will be that the Sultan is now a Constitutional Sovereign and must consult the representatives of the nation. It is evident that both Sultan and Ministers are seriously afraid of the consequences to themselves of making any concession which would injure the prestige of the Ottoman power.

THE CONFERENCE— ■ FIRST ANSWER OF TURKEY.

At the close of last week the prospects of the Conference seemed excellent. Great anxiety had been felt about the meeting to be held on Thursday in consequence of the unaccountable interruption in the telegraphic news. The meeting, the second of the Plenary Conference, had been delayed till after the Courban Bairam, or annual Feast of the Sacrifice, instituted in commemoration of the supposed deliverance of Ishmael— for the Musulmans believe that it was Ishmael, not Isaac, who was the intended victim of the sacrifice. The festival being celebrated on Wednesday, when the Sultan paid a visit in State to the Ahmedeyeh Mosque at Stamboul, the Conference met on Thursday, and the first answer of the Porte to the proposals of the Plenipotentiaries was given. This was as favourable to a pacific solution as it could have been reasonably expected to be. The Turkish Government declared its readiness to enter on a discussion of the points in detail, reserving to itself the right, where it thought the proposals inadmissible, of bringing forward counter-proposals, whereby the objects aimed at might be effected with less detriment to its own in

N ew S e r i e s , V ol. X V I I . No. 426.

dependence and safety. This seemed fair enough, and the condition was received bythe Plenipotentiaries ad referendum, so that nothing was absolutely settled about the reforms or guarantees. One stroke of business was however accomplished. The armistice was prolonged until the 1st of March — old style, according to one account, which would bring it down to the 13th of March, a period ot ten weeks. Russia had originally demanded that it should be prolonged only for a fortnight at a time, but had yielded the point, and the Ottoman Plenipotentiaries seemed to have offered no opposition whatever to the prolongation, though if war there is to be, the delay would favour Russia much more than it would Turkey. So matters remained for a few days. On Saturday there was a short formal meeting of the Conference, and the Plenipotentiaries of the Powers were all agreed that Turkey ought at once to formulate any counter-proposals she might wish to make. The Turkish Plenipotentiaries asked for time, as their counter-proposals were not quite ready, and this was agreed to.

In the meantime it had been reported at in t e n t io n s P a r i s 0 n what was suPP03e(i t0 be excellent au-

1 o f t h e thority, that the representatives of Turkey at p o r t e . the Conference had been instructed to agree to everything but what might be considered derogatory to the Sultan’s independence, and of these excepted points the principal one was believed to be anything in the shape of foreign occupation. But it was stated at the same time that Midhat Pasha was not absolutely averse to the idea of a force of Turkish soldiers commanded by European officers taken ad hoc into the service of the Sultan. This, it will be recollected, was very nearly the plan which we long ago advocated as the best guarantee for the inauguration of a reformed system of government, and it is precisely the one which the P a l l M a ll Gazette recently proposed as the compromise offering the greatest chances of success.

At the meeting of the Conference on Friday a n e s c o r t ^ e Comte de Chaudordy took the opportunity o c c u p a t io n . reading a statement intended to show that the Porte had formed an incorrect idea of the proposal concerning the guarantees. The idea of an occupation, he said, had been completely abandoned, the proposal to form an “ escort,” which would consist of 2,000 men, supplied by a neutral Power, could not possibly be called “ occupation ; ” nor had the Powers suggested anything which could derogate from the independence or honour of the Ottoman Empire. General Ignatieff next spoke, and urged the Turkish Government to accept the proposals as they stood, adding that his instructions from home justified him in saying that Russia had absolutely reached the limit of her concessions. Lord Salisbury, according to the special correspondent of the Telegraph, who seems to be excep -