THE TABLET
A W eekly Newspaper and Review
D u m VO B IS G R A T U L AM U R , A N IM O S E T IA M ADDIM U S U T IN INCCEPTTS V E S T R IS CON S TAN TER M A N E A T IS .
From the Brief of H is Holiness to T he T ablet, June 4, 1870.
Voi. 50. No. 1963. London, November 24, 1877.
P r ice 5c!. By P ost s%d
[R e g i s t e r e d a t th e G en e r a l P o st O f f ic e as a N ewspaper
Page
•Ch ro n ic le o f t h e W e e k :—
The Fall of Kars.— Details of the Assault.— Russian Council of War.— Speech of the Due de Broglie. — M. Gambetta’s A ttack.— Incidents of the Debate— T.he Vote.—The Change of Ministry. — The “ Vote o f Confidence” in the Senate. — The Answer o f the Chamber.— Russian and Turkish Loans.— Prince Bismarck and the War.— Designs o f Germany on Belgium.— Mr. Tooth’s Case. — Mr. Tooth’s own View and Intentions.— The Detection of the Detectives.— Prison Discipline at Hong Kong 641
CONTENTS.
L ea d e r s :
Page
The Marriage of the Duke of
Norfolk . . . . •• •• 645 The Marshal and the Revolution 645 The Roman Correspondent of the
“ Times.” .. . . •• •• 646 Prospects o f the Catholic Mino
rity in Bulgaria . . . . _•• 647 The Irish Sunday Closing
Question.................................... 648 R ev iew s :
The Roman Catacombs . . . . 649 Catholic Liberal Education . . 649 The Quarterley Review . . . . 650 The Dublin Review . . . . 651 Dr. Murray on Grace . . «. 652
Short N otices :
First Principles o f English
Page
History .. . . . . . . 653 The Christian Apologist . . . . 653 I C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :
Faith o f our Fathers.— X I I . . . 653 Distress in Monmouthshre . . 654 The Pro-Cathedral, Kensington 654 The Benedictine Medal . . . . 654 A Personal Explanation . . .. 654 Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem and St. Elizabeth of Hungary 655 The Gambian Mission . . . . 655 R ome :— Letter from our own Cor
respondent . . . . . . 657 D io c e s a n N ews Westminst e r .................................... 658
D io cesan N ews (continued). Page
Southwark . . . . . . . . 659 Beverley . . . . . . . . 659 Birmingham.................................... 659 Newport and Menevia . . . . 659 Scotland—Western District . . 659
F oreign N ews
Canada
65o
Marriage o f the Duke o f Norfolk and Lady Flora Hastings . . 660 G en er a l N ews . . 663
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
THE FALL OF
KAKS.
ARS has fallen. After a desperate
K
struggle, which began about eight o’clock on Saturday evening, and only terminated at eight on Sunday morning,
the Russians entered the place, obtaining possession both of fortress and town, with 10,000 Turkish prisoners and many flags. Peaceful citizens, women and children, are said to have been spared, but 5,000 Ottomans ■ were killed, while the Russians put their own loss at about .2,700. General Louis Melikoff directed the operations, but the Grand Duke Michael was present, and made his entry into the town at eleven on Sunday morning. This is the Russian account. We were not, we confess, prepared for there being as many as 15,000 Turkish soldiers in Kars, and one of the first impressions produced is one of wonder that the loss of the Turks, who fought behind works, should be nearly double that of the Russians. I f the figures be correct, the only explanation which suggests itself is, that there must have been a great fight and slaughter within the town after the Russians had got in. The importance of this event cannot be concealed, as the Russians will now be able to concentrate all their efforts upon Batoum and Erzeroum; and as the Russians have now at length succeeded in taking the Azizie barracks, the fall of the Armenian capital can scarcely be long delayed. On the other hand, the Russians seem to have met with a rather severe repulse from Shakir Pasha at the northern extremity of the defile of Orkhanie. Mehemet Ali entered Sofia on Sunday with part of his army, the rest having already passed the Balkans. He is reported to have sixty battalions and about 150 guns under his command.
The assault on Kars was conducted in this details vvise. According to the detailed statement assault. published by the lim es, “ Count Grabbe, with a regiment of the Moscow Grenadiers and a regiment of the 39th Division, assailed the towers between the Hafiz Pasha Tabia on the south-east and the Kanli Tabia on the south of the town, and stretched a hand towards a column under General Roop and General Komaroff, which attacked the Suwarri Tabia on the southwest, and the lines between it and the river, and was to push forward along the Erzeroum road against the citadel Itself.” The attack, as we have said, began at about eight in the evening. Count Grabbe himself was killed, but about eleven o’clock the Kanli and Suwarri forts were taken. Soon afterwards the citadel fell, and the town lay at the mercy of the besiegers’ fire, but some of the forts lying between the citadel and the outer line of defence held out till eight in the morning. The Ottoman soldiers who
New Se r i e s , V o l . XVIII. No. 472.
remained unwounded and had not been taken prisoners then attempted to break out and retire on Olti and Erzeroum, but the Russian cavalry, which had been drawn up to bar retreat in that direction, cut them off, and forced them to lay down their arms. The latest accounts give the number of Turkish prisoners as 7,000 instead of 10,000.
RUSStAN COUNCIL OF WAR.
It is reported that as soon as the Russians got into Kars they held a Council of War, at which General Philippoff seriously advised that Erzeroum should not be besieged, but masked, and that an advance should be made with a large army westwards through Asia Minor on Scutari and Constantinople.
SPEECH OP THE DUC DE
BROGLIE.
Taking up the history of the struggle in France at the point at which we left it last week we come to the Duc de Broglie’s speech, which opened the sitting of Thursday, the 15 th. After stating that the Ministers tendered their resignation, and that the Marshal had begged them to withdraw it in order to reply to the attacks which were made upon their conduct at the elections, the Duke declared that under these circumstances to remain was for them a matter of duty and honour. He then dealt with the proposal that the Marshal should take a Cabinet from the majority, to which he replied by pointing out that in naming the Committee of eighteen the majority had, in fact, just formed a Ministry, which was composed, according to the strictest Parliamentary rules, of men representing every shade of that majority. These might work together for this special purpose, but not as a Ministry. If, indeed, they were fully agreed— if M. Louis Blanc and M. Léon Renault could sit together in the same Cabinet, then the Parliamentary course would be clear, and the Marshal might be advised to take the course pressed upon him. But if they had no common view ; if they could not even agree whether the members of the Commune were to be kept out of the country or not ; if they had not been able to present themselves as candidates without disguising their programmes, then the President of the Republic might be excused for seeking Ministers elsewhere. That, however, was “ his business, not ours.” As to the inquiry, the Duke protested against its being conducted by so partial and hostile a tribunal as the Chamber of Deputies. The inquiry was a preface to impeachment ; why did they not leave the preface and proceed to the work itself? Probably because in that case a body whose sentiments they distrusted (the Senate) would have to decide. He protested against it also because nothing was so dangerous to public tranquillity as this kind of semi-judicial, semi-political expedition into the various localities. The contention ihat the Radicalism combated by the Ministry was an imaginary danger he met by quoting