THE TABLET WITH SUPPLEMENT’.

A IVeekly Newspaper and Review

D um VOBIS GRATUXAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCQEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.

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

Voi. 50. No. 1944. London, J u l y 14, 1877.

P r ice ¿d. B y P ost

[R eg i st e r e d a t t h e G en e r a l P o s t O f f i c e a s a N ew spaper

Page

C h ro n ic le o f t h e W e e k :—

Evacuation o f Montenegro by .the Turks.—The Taking of Tirmova.—The Turkish Atrocities at Sistova.— Recoil of the Russians in Asia.— Russia and Servia— the Turkish Defence.— Besika Bay. — Complaints of “ Atrocities."— The “ Bulgarian Committee’s ” ¿Manifesto.—Disunion among the French Conservatives. — Immediate Consequences of a Radical Victory.— Attitude of the Bonapartists.— The South Africa Bill. — The Inflexible.— Colonel Mans.field and the Persecution of the Uniats.— Bishop Wordsworth and the Burials Question.— The Apostolic Delegate in Canada. &c. . .

CONTENTS.

Page

L e a d e r s :

The Estimates for Elementary

Education.. The Prorogation o f the Ottoman

Parliament Income o f Teachers of Irish

National Schools^ “ Irish Church Missions." The Russian _ Persecution of

Polish Catholics......................... A r t :

Round the Galleries R e v i e w s :

The “ Apology" of a Convert .. Some Difficulties of Belief Annals o f Winchcombe and

Sudeley .. Three Centuries of English

Poetry...........................................

R e v ie w s (continued) :

Sttmma Summæ . . . . .*44 S hort N o t ic e s :

Page

The Life of Pope Pius IX . . . 45 Analysis o f Austin’s Lectures on

Jurisprudence . . . . ..45 C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :

Faith o f our Fathers— X . . A German Opinion upon the His­

45

torical Character, o f Numa Pompilius.. “ Honour Certificates ” . . .. The Sisters of Charity, West­

minster Sale for Distressed Gentlewomen A Day in the Country for 500

46 47 47 47

Children .. .. . . . . 47 R ome :— Letter from our own Cor­

respondent . . . . •• 49

D io cesan N ews

Page

Westminster......................... ..50 Beverley . . . . . . ..51 Newport and Menevia .. . . 51 Nottingham.. . . . . ..51 I r elan d

Letter from our Dublin Corre­

spondent ..................................... 5r F oreign N ews ;—

Germany . . . . , , Canada ......................... M em oranda :—

Religious Educational .. P a r l ia m e n t a r y Summary

G en e r a l N ews

54 5+ 55 56

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

EVACUATION

OF MONTENEGRO BY THE TURKS.

ALL sorts of reasons have been suggested for the abandonment of the campaign in Montenegro by the Turks at the moment when Prince Nikita’s power of resistance seemed to be crushed, and his capital was at the mercy o f Sulieman Pasha’s army, reinforced by the column which had entered the principality on the other side. The most ■ favoured theory is that this step was taken at the persuasion of Austria, when it was discovered at Vienna that Italy had resolved, if the war in Montenegro went on, to help the Montenegrins by a naval demonstration along the Albanian •coast. No doubt the Austrians would excessively dislike any interference— especially on the part of Italy— which would force them to depart from their present attitude of passive vigilance, and to make a demonstration themselves in Bosnia or Herzegovina. But we are rather sceptical about the intentions which are thus ascribed to Italy, and the withdrawal of the Turkish force towards the Danube is very naturally accounted for by the necessity of concentration to meet the Russian advance. A telegram from Con•stantinople mentions a report that Sulieman Pasha had actually taken possession of Cetinje, and would govern the country until, by the mediation of Austria, peace was concluded, but one of the same date from Ragusa confirms the departure of the Turkish commander in the direction of the Danube.

T H E TAKING O F T IRNOVA.

The Russians had not taken Tirnova when they were said to have taken it, but last Saturday they did take it, after an engagement in which they were successful and took a considerable number of prisoners. The Russian force, according to a Bucharest telegram— premature in its announcement of the capture of Tirnova— was composed of two cavalry and two infantry divisions and a brigade of chasseurs, and the Turkish garrison, which consisted of 3,000 Redifs, after some resistance evacuated the place, pursued by the Russian cavalry. Prince Tcherkaski was immediately sent post haste to Tirnova to establish there his central administration of the province. It is reported that the Russian Army is to operate in three divisions, the Grand Duke Nicholas, with the 8th and 9th Corps, advancing from Tirnova on the Balkans, the n th and 12th Corps, under the command of the Cesarewitch, crossing the Jantra and laying siege to Rustchuk, and the 4th and 14th Corps, under General Zimmermann, descending through the Dobrudja. The main resistance to the invasion will be offered, it is thought, at or near the Balkans, when and how soon must depend upon the degree of rapidity with which Raouf Pasha, the new commander, is able to concentrate a

New[,“Series, VoL.ijXVIII. No. 453.

sufficient force on the line of the Russian advance. Redif Pasha, the War Minister, is at the camp at Shumla, and the Sultan, it is reported, will, with his brother and heir, shortly go to Adrianople.

At Sistova there have been unquestionable a t r o c i t ie s “ atrociti?s>” 1)ut this time i1 was not the Bashia t s i s t o v a . Bazouks 'but the Bulgarians that committed them. The second in command to the Caimakam was murdered, and many other Moslems, including women and children, are said to have met with the same fate, while their dwellings were completely sacked and pillaged. The Bulgarian inhabitants seem to have been a good deal ashamed of these proceedings, which they lay to the account of the Wallachs and gipsies who inhabit the lowest quarter of the town, and they have been trying to coax tne Musulmán fugitives to return, though, as the dwellings of the latter are utterly wrecked and their property destroyed, without any great prospect of success.

With regard to the campaign in Armenia,

J S ? “ " there is not much to add. The Russians have in a s í a . fallen back from Kara Kilissa, where they were badly beaten last week, and seem to acknowledge that their plan of operations has proved a failure, their forces having been far too much scattered in consequence of their having underrated the powers of their enemy. They are accordingly about to concentrate their efforts on Kars, abandoning the neighbourhood of Batoum on their extreme right, and drawing in their left wing. From before Kars itself their army has fallen back to return in greater strength, and it has given up its positions at Utch-Kilissa, about eight miles south of Kars, from which place, by the bye, the Armenian Bishop, who insisted on praying for the Sultan instead of the Tsar, has been carried off by the Cossacks, after being garrotted and subjected to various indignities. According to a telegram from the “ Prussian Correspondent ” of the lim e s at Berlin, the Russians still hold a position before Kars, but as they are obliged to confine their operations to the Arab and’Karadagh forts on the east of the town, the van of Ahmed Mukhtar Pasha’s army, advancing from the west, has found no difficulty in entering the citadel. If, therefore, the siege of Kars has not been actually raised, the place has been relieved. But the Correspondent of the Morning Post at St. Petersburg sends the important statement that the Emperor has ordered the Russian army to retire from Turkish Armenia altogether, that the Grand Duke Michael, who commands in chief at Tiflis, has declined all responsibility for General Loris Melikoff’s strategy, and that that officer has, in consequence of the defeats which he has experienced, tendered his resignation, and demanded a court martial for his justification as regards the conduct of the campaign.