THE TABLET

A W eekly Newspaper and Review

Dum VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEAY1S.

From the B r ie f o f His Holiness Pius IX . to The Tablet, June 4, 1870.'

Vol. 52. No. 2002. L o n d o n , A u g u s t 24, 1878.

P r ice 5d. B y P ost s% d

[R eg iste r ed a t th e Gen e r a l P ost O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper.

' C h ronicle o f t h e Week

Page

Leo X I I I . and the Romans of theTrastevere.— The British Association— Sir J. Lubbock on Ants. — Prehistoric Man.— Protection . against Lightning. — Race and Nationality. — Legislation for England and Ireland.— Cabinet Ministers at Liverpool. — The Belgian Catholics and the Elec­

toral Law. — The Austrians in Bosnia.— The new Liberal Regime in Belgium.—The Catholic ••University of Lille.— A Modern False Prophet — Murder of Gener a l Mezentzoff. — The Vatican ;and Downing-street.— Episcopal ¿Hospitality......................... . . 225

C O N T

L e a d e r s :

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The Session of 1878 .. . . 229 Lessons of the German Elections 230 The British Association in Dublin 230 On Certain Inconsistencies of

Ritualists.— I I I ...........................231 R ev iew s :

The Life of Margaret Mostyn . . 232 The Treatise of St. Catharine of

Genoa on Purgatory . . . . 233 The Dublin Review . . .. 233 Short N otices ;

Revue Catholique . . . . . . . 234 Revue Générale .. . . . . 234 The Life of the Most Rev. Joseph

Dixon, D .D . . . . . . . 234 Roydenhurst .........................235

E N T S .

S hort N otices (Continued):

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Lucullus, or Palatable Essays . . 235 The Catholic Choralist . . . . 235 C o r r e s pond e n c e :

Faith of our Fathers.— XX. . . 235 Ecclesiastical Art Exhibition,

Sheffield . . .........................236 A Case o f Distress.. . . .. 236 The Life of St. Patrick .. . . 237 “ How Long will you Halt be­

tween Two Opinions ? ”— Is the History of Ancient Rome a Godless or not a Godless History? 237 Catholic College Discipline . . 238 Archdeacon Denison’s Autobio­

graphy . ................................. 238 St. Sampson’s, Guernsey . . . . 238 A Visit to Paris .. .. . . 238

P a r l ia m en t a r y S ummary . . 239 R ome : — Letter from our own

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Correspondent........................... 24t D io cesan N ews

Westminster.. . .

242;

Beverley . . . . . . . . 242 Liverpool . . .._ . . . . 242 Newport and Menevia . . . . 243 Northampton ........................243 I r eland

Letter from our own Corre­

spondent ......................... . . 243 F oreign N ews ;—

G e r m a n y .......................................244 United States . . . . . . 244 M em oranda :—

R e l i g i o u s .......................................245 Educational...................................... 246 G en er a l N ews . . . . 246

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

OF THE TRASTEVERE. T

LEO Xin. AND THE ROMANS

'H E Festivals of the Assumption and of St. Joachim were celebrated in Rome with extraordinary manifestations of piety and devotion to the Holy See. On the eve of the latter festival

— the Pope’s name-day— numerous deputations solicited an audience of the Holy Father, and congratulatory telegrams were received from all quarters, including the Emperor of Austria and Prince Bismarck. In reply to an address read by the President of the Catholic Association of the Rione Borgo his Holiness delivered a discourse, in which he expressed the most lively satisfaction and profound emotion with which he found himself surrounded by so many Romans who pressed forward to pay their homage to his person, and to assure him of their devotion, obedience, and submission to the supreme authority with which he is invested. He assured them that, although he was prevented by the circumstances of the times from being often in the midst of the Roman people, yet his heart was always with them, and that he was incessantly occupied in the thought of promoting their welfare. “ As for you, my dear children,” continued his Holiness, “ you can give no greater proof of your devotion and affection than by always remaining faithful to the teachings of the Catholic faith, and continuing to follow the example of piety bequeathed to you by your fathers, guarding it in the bosom of your families as the most precious inheritance which can be transmitted to your children. It is, therefore, with the greatest satisfaction that We have heard the determination which you have just expressed, to leave nothing undone to secure true religious instruction for your children, and that you regard with horror those impious schools in which their faith and morals would be exposed to certain danger.” His Holiness then referred to the heretical churches which have been erected, and the immoral literature which has been circulated among the people, and exhorted his hearers to frustrate the efforts of their enemies by an inviolable resolution to keep themselves and their children far removed from the contagion of heresy. Alluding to the advantage taken, by the enemies of the faith, of the prevailing distress, in order to tempt people by money to enter their schools and churches, his Holiness said he could not for a moment think them capable of such shameless cowardice as to sacrifice the eternal salvation of themselves and their children for the consideration of material interests. “ Bread purchased at such a price as this,” said his Holiness, “ is poison which destroys the soul, and calls down the malediction of heaven upon families. Recall with holy pride the deeds of

New Series. V ol. XX. jNo. 511.

your fathers ; when they were summoned to betray their faith they preferred to renounce not only their earthly possessions, but even life itself. Obey the same inspirations and follow their noble example.”

Politics being dead and buried for the prebritish sent’ we cannot d° better than turn our attenassociation hon to the latest utterances of science. The —sir j. British Association is holding its annual meet-.

l u b b o c k ing at Dublin, and the largest share of public on ants, interest has, as usual, been attracted to the doings of the Biological Section. Sir John Lubbock, discoursing about ants, with whom he has such an intimate acquaintance, and Professor Huxley treating of anthropology were sure to have a crowded audience, and the room allotted to the section was found quite insufficient for the purpose. Sir John Lubbock has not a very high opinion of the intelligence of his insect friends. He has kept about 30 species of ants under close observation for several years, and he has come to the conclusion that they have just sense enough to bring their friends to a store of food and even to carry them over a difficult place, but they are not able to describe the locality and send them to it. Sir John Lubbock found that, when he had displaced a heap of earth up which they had swarmed to reach some honey, they did not think of replacing the earth, as they might easily have done, but went round by a paper bridge, 10ft. long, which he had constructed, and that it did not occur to them to put back in position a straw which they had been in the habit of using to cross a chasm. They instantly distinguish inhabitants of their own nest from strangers, whom they treat as enemies, seizing their friends by the mandible and throwing them over their shoulders when they have to carry them, and their enemies by the leg or antenna;. Sir John Lubbock also confirms all that has been said of their wonderful architectural talents, and of their remarkable organisation, their attention to their young, their possession of domestic animals— the milch aphides— and even the institution of slavery. Their communities even show curious analogies to the earlier stages o f human progress. “ There were the hunting, the pastoral, and the agricultural ants.” O f the last named class there are none in this country, but Sir John Lubbock has closely observed the others, and he tells us that the first live chiefly by the chase, and hunt alone. Their battles are single combats, like those described by the ancient poets. The second, he says, are a higher type of social life. They domesticate certain species of aphides which they keep in flocks and herds. They are immensely numerous and act in concert, and Sir John Lubbock thinks that they will eventually exterminate the other type, just as the white man exterminates the savage. How ants communicate with each