THE TABLET
A W eekly Newspaper and Review
D u m VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEA'ilS.
From the B r ie f o f His Holiness Pius I X . to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, 1870.
Voi. 54. No. 2055. London, A u g u s t 30, 187g.
P r ick sd. B y P o st 5
(R eg is tered a t th e G en e r a l P o s t O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper.
C hronicle of t h e W eek
Page
M. Waddington on the Policy of his Cabinet.— The Councils-Genej a l on the Ferrjr Bills.— The Catholic Universities and the Proposed Laws.—The Pilgrimage to Lourdes.— The Latest News from South Africa. — The Case of Captain Carey. — The British Association.— Death of Sir Rowland Hill.— The Post-office.— Mr. Goschen on the State of Parties. — The Anglican Ceremonial Difficulties.— The Successor of Count Andrassy — Signor Cairoli and Prince Bismarck.— The Prussian Department of Public Worship.—• Egyptian Affairs.— The Russian •Expedition in Central Asia, & c ... 257
CONTENTS.
Page ......................... 261 Short N otices (Continued) : Page
P e t e r ’s P en c e . . L e a d e r s :
The Encyclical on Philosophical
The Penitent Instructed . . . . 269 A Novena in Honour o f the
T e a ch in g .......................................261 Prince N a p o l e o n ............................202 Progress ......................... •• 263 Prisor Work and Free Labour . . 264 The Postmaster G eneral’s Report 265 Bathybius and the British Asso
Blessed Virgin Mary . . . . 269 Burnham Beeches . . . . . . 270 Silly Peter .*. . . . . . . 270 C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :
ciation . .
266
Catholic Schools and School
R e v iew s :
Attic Nights . . . . Pietas Mariana Britannica Hans Holbein . . . . The Contemporary Review S hort N o t ic e s ;
A Gentle Remonstrance . .
. . 267 . . 268 . . 268 . . 269 . . 269
Boards . . . . . . . . 210 St. Winefride’s Well . . .. 271 Pilgrimage to St. Winefride’s Well 271 Perversions of History . . .. 271 “ The British Church" . . . . 271 R ome : — Letter from our own
Correspondent . . . . . . 273
D io cesan N ews Westminster
Hexham and Newcastle Leeds.. Nottingham.. St. Charles’s Catholic Club Thomas Aquinas The Franciscans in Albania The Nuns of St. Clare at Assisi I r elan d F oreign N ews
Germany Austria France ......................... M em oranda :
Page
• 275 • 275 • 275 • 275 . 276 . 276 . 276 . 276 . 276 . 277 . 278 • 279
R e l i g i o u s ......................... Educational The Addresses to Cardinal Newman 280 G en er a l N e w s : . . . . •• 281
279 279
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
M. WADDINGTON ON THE POLICY
OF HIS CABINET.
TH E Chief o f the French Minis
try has delivered at a public dinner an elaborate speech in defence and explanation o f the policy of his Government since their accés
sion to office.
i t is an appeal to the judgment o f his countrymen, like those so often made by our own Ministers and public men during the Parliamentary recess, and passes in review the principal questions which have been settled or debated during the late session o f the Chambers. M. Waddington is not without the art which magnifies the value of an achievement by dwelling upon the difficulties in spite o f which it is accomplished, and he takes care in the commencement o f his speech to point out the troubles which the Cabinet was called upon to meet when he, unwillingly as he avers, accepted office. “ We had,” he said, “ the arrears of several years to liquidate, and were obliged to accept a legacy of the past.” The first question to be dealt with was a delicate and painful one, that of amnesty. M. Waddington claims that this has been settled finally, and adds that the Government will energetically combat any attempt to reopen it. With regard to the proposed impeachment o f the Ministry o f the 16th o f May, the Ministry came to the conclusion that to adopt such a measure would be in the nature o f a reprisal, “ and the Republican majority did not hesitate to follow the Government in the position it had taken up, and show its self-denial and political sense by sparing the country fresh agitation.” The Cabinet supported the return of the Chambers to Paris, because they considered that the Chambers could not continue to sit at Versailles for ever without interfering with the despatch o f business and damaging the reputation of the Republican Government, and because they were confident that thenceforth political struggles would be settled, not by riots, but by the voting paper. Every one will hope that this anticipation may be justified by the event. So far M. Waddington accounted for the action o f his Government in a'manner intelligible to all, and probably satisfactory to a large proportion of his countrymen. But when he speaks o f the Jules Ferry Bill he is less successful, and altogether fails in justifying, or even rationally accounting for, this attack on religious liberty. H e is obliged to have recourse to the old pretence which has done service in defence of every persecution of modern times. The Bill has, he says, “ no character of religious persecution, it is a political measure.” The fallacy is too transparent to deceive any one ; and M. Waddington must be perfectly well aware that a very large proportion of the French nation will regard the
N ew S e r i f s , V o l . XXII. Nc. 564.
proposed law, should it unfortunately be enacted, in the light o f a galling and intolerable persecution.
The appeal of the Government to the t h e c o u n c i l s verdiCt of the Councils General has, down to a n d th eTf e r r y the Present l *me> produced the following b i l l s .
results. Forty-five Councils General have passed Resolutions concerning the Ferry
Bills. O f these twenty-eight are adverse to the Bills, and only seventeen in favour o f them, one being equally divided in opinion. Six Councils General have closed their sessions without expressing any judgment on the matter, but one at least of these, we think, the Council General o f the Pas de Calais, had already in a previous session expressed itself decidedly hostile to the proposed measure. t h e c a t h o l i c The R ector the Catholic University of u n i v e r s i t i e s Lille has published an important letter in a n d t h e which he points out that even if the Ferry
PROPOSED
LAWS.
Bill should be passed by the Senate, notwithstanding its rejection by the Senatorial
Committee, the academic year would have commenced, and it is not to be supposed that the law would have a retrospective operation so as to deprive the Universities during the year 1879 80 of the rights granted by the law o f 1875. But even if such an act of injustice were perpetrated he announces his determination to carry on the work which has been so well commenced, trusting to the generosity and zeal of Catholic citizens to sustain him, even if the students are forced to pay to the State the cost of the education which they receive from the Catholic University.
THE PILGRIMAGE
TO LOURDES.
Accounts from Lourdes tell of the arrival of the pilgrims from all parts of France, and of the extraordinary fervour displayed by the multitudes of sick and suffering persons attracted to the Grotto by sincere devotion and undoubting faith. A writer in the Monde traces the progress o f the six hundred sick who left Paris to make the pilgrimage, and records that a person who had been blind for several years was suddenly cured on the way while the rosary was being recited for the sick. The trains which conveyed the pilgrims arrived at Lourdes without accident, and all went immediately to the Grotto, where the miraculous cures at once began. The cripples, restored to activity, left their crutches at the Grotto. The Vicomte de Chaulnes, writing to the Univers, describes the scene. “ The arrival at the Holy Grotto was, what it ought to be, universal prayer with alternate singing of hymns and inexpressible entrain. It was an admirable sight to look upon the Grotto, surrounded by the sick alternately lying down or seated, or supporting themselves on their friends, surrounded by robust pilgrims alternately singing hymns and reciting the rosary.—
