THE TABLET
A Weekly Newspaper and Review D um VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCOEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.
From the Brief of H is Holiness to T he T a b l e t , June 4, 1870.'
Voi. 50. No. 1946. London, J u l y 28, 1877.
P rick 3d. B y P o s t s % e.
TReg i st e r e d a t t h 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
The Business of the House.— The Irish University Bill.— The Appointment to the Stationery ■ Office.— Lord Hartington and Mr. Gladstone. — The South Africa Bill.— The Dispatch of Troops to Malta.— The Russian Advance on Roumelia. — The Situation in Bulgaria.— Russian Atrocities.— The'.English Military ’Commissioners.— French Parties and the Holy See.—The National Education Union.— Admiral de Horsey and the Huascar.—The American Railway Strikes.— The late Canon Todd...
CONTENTS.
Page
L e a d e r s :
The South Africa Bill . . . . 101 Godless Education in Italy . . 101 The United States and Mexico.. 102 The Caxton Celebration . . . . 103 R e v iew s :
The Fall o f Rora and other
Poems . . . . . . . •• 104 Revue des Questions Scienti
fiques . . . . •• *. 10S Last Essays on Cnurch and
Religion . . . . . . •• 106 The Nineteenth Century.. . . 106 S hort N otices :
How to Teach Arithmetic . . 107 Through Brittany . . . . . . 107 The Wines of the Bible . . . . 108
C orrespondence :
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Catholic Elementary Schools . . 108 How Lord Bacon Purged Philo
sophy of Logic . . . . . . 108 “ Distress ” of Catholic Children 109 The Council o f Trent and Angli
can Orders .. . . . . 109 Corpus Christi Church, Maidenlane, Strand, W .C ..................... 109 Suum Cuique . . . . . . 109 Prayers for the Unity of
Christendom . . . . . . 109 P a r l ia m en t a r y S ummary . . 109 R ome :— Letter from our own Cor
respondent ......................... 113 D io c e sa n N ews Westminster..
D io cesan (continued) ;
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Clifton . . . . . . . . 115 Newport and Menevia . . . . 115 Nottingham....................................... 115 I r e lan d
Letter from our Dublin Corre
spondent . . _. . * 1 1 5 F oreign N ews
Germany . . . . . . , , 11S America ....................................... 117 M em oranda :—
Educational......................... . . 118 Literary ....................................... 119 G en e r a l N ews ............................... 120
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
THE .BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE. T
H AT the dead-lock to which the business of the House of Commons has been brought calls for some effectual remedy is a proposition which no one will be concerned to dispute. Even the handful of members by whom this state of things has been brought about would admit that some change is necessary, though the expedient which they would probably recommend— the transfer of Irish business to a separate assembly— is not one which Parliament is as yet prepared to adopt. But in the mean time something must be done. When the Irish Judicature Bill came on in Committee at a late hour on Friday week, the consideration of the schedules, which might have been disposed of in a few minutes, was obstructed by motions for reporting progress and that the Chairman should leave the chair, so that at 12 minutes past two the Chancellor of the Exchequer gave way, consenting that the Bill should be resumed at a morning sitting on Saturday. The only matter for discussion consisted of four amendments of Mr. Biggar’s, but nearly the whole morning was taken up with an acrimonious preliminary discussion, Mr. Butt remonstrating “ with feelings of humiliation ” against this “ miserable squander of the public time,” and Mr. Meldon, Mr. Downing, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Callan, and Mr. O ’Shaughnessy deprecating further opposition to the Bill. At last Mr. Biggar’s amendments came to a division and were negatived. The subject came up again on Monday, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved that Government business should have precedence on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and was opposed as regards Wednesdays by Mr. Monk and Sir J. Lubbock, Mr. Whalley also attacking ihe Government for its attempts to stifle free discussion by “ counts out,” and declaring, amidst vehement cheering, that if he was stopped again he should resign his seat or “ hold it in abeyance." Then there was a long attack on Government measures from Mr. O’Donnell, and a sharp duel between him and Mr. Chaplin, which degenerated into a row strangely inconsistent with the dignity of the House. On Tuesday there was the South Africa Bill, and on the motion to go into Committee Mr. Parnell spoke for three quarters of an hour, and Mr. O’Donnell for -an hour and fifty minutes, while Major O’Gorman made repeated attempts to count out the House. Then came the Irish County Courts Bill, which Mr. rarnell had formerly contended was of the utmost importance, complaining that the Judicature Bill had been taken before it; but when Major O ’Gorman obstructed it for some reason which nobody could understand, and Mr. Biggar joined him as teller “ because he did not like to “ de“ sert a friend,” Mr. Parnell himself constituted the minority
N ew Series, V ol. X V I I I . No. 455.
of one, because “ he thought he shoulddoright if heprevented “ their having nobody to tell.” But matters reached their crisis on Wednesday morning. Even the conciliatory Sir Stafford Northcote was moved to wrath, and when Mr. Parnell declared his “ satisfaction in thwarting the inten“ tions of Government,’’ moved that the words be taken down and reported to the Speaker, and subsequently that Mr. Parnell should be suspended from speaking till Friday. It was soon perceived, however, that the particular words taken down would not justify such action, as Mr. Parnell had spoken of thwarting, not the business of the House, but the intentions of Government, and the debate was adjourned till Friday, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer was to move Resolutions respecting the conduct of business. What means he will recommend for checking the obstructive action of small minorities it is at the moment of writing these lines impossible to foretell. But as Mr. Cowen sensibly observed on Monday, the rules which suited the House when it was the first debating society in the world, and about ninety members took part in its discussions, are scarcely suited to it now that it has become a monster vestry, and 300 or 400 gentlemen insist on being heard. The evil has been long felt, but the persistent obstruction which has been offered to the most heterogeneous measures has brought the question to a head. So far as it more immediately concerns the Home Rule party the matter was, we believe, to be considered in a meeting which Mr. Butt summoned for Friday.
THE IRISH UNIVERSITY
BILL.
In the interval during which the House is meditating on the best defence against unreasonable obstruction, a measure of most absorbing interest to Ireland— Mr. Butt’s University Bill — will have come on for debate. This is a Bill in support of which at least two-thirds of the representatives of Ireland, of all parties, are agreed. How many English and Scotch members will have voted for it ? And do they ever reflect that if Irish members obstruct English business British members may sometimes be obstructing important legislation for Ireland ?
THE APPOINTMENT
TO THE STATIONERY
OFFICE.
If Lord Beaconsfield had remained in the House of Commons, the vote of censure on the appointment of Mr. Pigott to the Controllership of the Stationery Office would certainly have never been passed. For nothing could be more complete than the Prime Minister’s defence in the House of Lords on Thursday week. He had come to the conclusion that the recommendation of the Select Committee was inexécutable ; if he had appointed a commercial stationer, it must have been one “ who had “ retired from business, or one from whom business had “ retired,” and what was really wanted was not a man of