THE TABLET

A W eekly Newspaper and Review

D U M V O B IS G R A T U L A M U R , A N IM O S ET IA M ADDIM U S U T IN IN CCEPTIS V E S T R IS CO N S T AN T E R M AN E A Y IS .

From the B r ie f o f His Holiness Pius IX . to T h e T a b l e t , June 4 , 1 JO.

Voi. 54. No. 2063. L o n d o n , O c t o b e r 25, 1879.

Prick sd. By Post s xA&

[R eg iste r ed a t th e G en e r a l P o st O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper.

C hronicle of th e W eek :

Page

The Sentence on Cabul and the Amir’s Abdication.— Explosions in the Bala Hissar.— The Danger o f the Moment.— Reported Capture of Merv by the Russians.— Lord Salisbury at Manchester.— Demonstration at the Pomona Gardens.— Speeches of Liberal Members.— Mr. Gladstone Interviewed.—The Firth College at Sheffield.— Convocation and Par­

liament.— Sir Henry Layard in Syria.— Political Prosecutions in France.— The Italian Ambassador in Paris.— The Austro-German Alliance.— Turkish Finances.

S13

CONTENTS.

P e t er ’s P ence L ea d e r s :

Page .. 517

Mr. Gladstone and the Future of the Liberals . . . . .. 517 The Coming Schoolboard Elec­

tions .................................... 518 Parties in the Prussian Landtag 519 Irish Intermediate Education .. 520 The Dangers of the Non-Catholic

Press .. . . .. .. 521 The South American War . . 521 An Historical Blunder .. .. 522 R ev iew s :

Edmund Burke . .

S hort N otices :

. . 523

Dictionary of Christian Antiquities 524

S hort N otices (continued) :

Page

St. Michel, Archange . . .. 524 Les Petits . . . . . . . . 524 Adventures in Australia . . . . 524. Silver Linings ; or Light and Shade 524 The Twins of Table Mountain . . 524 The Berkshire Lady .. . . 524 C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :

The Very Rev. Dr. Neville v. the

Gallican Church .. .. .. 525 Victor Hugo . . .. .. 525 “ The Dayly Exercise." .. .. 526 Play and Pray . . .. . . 526 The So-called Missions to the

A f g h a n s .................................... 526 “ Catholics and School Boards.” 526 St. Michael’s Home, Treforest .. 527 New Irish Catholic Colony in the

Transvaal, South Africa . . 527

R o m e : — Letter from our own

CorresDondent . .

Letter of Our Most Holy Father,

Pag«

. . 529

Pope Leo X I I I .................................. 530 D io cesan N ews Westminster . . •• . . 531

S o u th w a rk .................................... 531 Leeds...................................................532 Liverpool .. . . •. «. 532 Nottingham . . . . . . .. 532 Shrewsbury.......................................533 I r e l a n d :— . . . . . . . . 533 F oreign N ews :

Poland .......................................534 M em oranda :

Religious . .

Literary .. . . . . . . 535 G en er a l N ews : ...............................536

535

C H R O N I C L E O F T H E W E E K .

THE SENTENCE •ON CABUL AND

THE AMIR’S ABDICATION.

his return to

TH E news of Yakoub Khan’s abdication can have surprised nobody. Already impotent to control his turbulent and ferocious subjects, he must have felt that by the capital in company with the con­

queror he had lost all chance of maintaining his authority over them otherwise than by the support of foreign arms. Accordingly he pleaded illness as an excuse for not appearing at the solemn ceremony by which Sir Frederick Roberts took possession of Cabul and announced its fate. But his son and his nephew, with numerous Sirdars and Badsha Khan, the great Ghilzai chief, swelled the train of the general as he rode slowly with his staff through the lines of his army,— • bands playing, trumpets sounding and the troops saluting— to the palace o f the Amir in the Bala Hissar. On its way the cavalcade passed the Residency, where traces of the late struggle were conspicuously visible, and when it reached the palace the general entered and appeared at a window which overlooked the garden where the Amir had ordered the Sirdars to assemble. Sir F. Roberts then made a speech, the pithy sentences of which were translated one by one, first into Pushtoo and then into Persian. According to the correspondent of the Standard— the only paper which professes to publish a textual report— this, with a few obvious corrections, is what he sa id : “ People of Cabul,— Early in October I issued a proclamation to you, telling you that the British army was advancing to occupy Cabul, and warning you that any one opposing the advance of the army would lie treated as a rebel against the authority of the Amir. In spite of this warning the progress of the army has been persistently opposed by the people of Afghanistan, especially o f Cabul. In return it would not be beyond the demands of justice that Cabul should be levelled to the ground. But the great Bridsh Government, tempering justice with mercy, decrees that Cabul shall be spared. It is necessary, however, that a severe punishment should be inflicted. It has been decided that all buildings of the Bala Hissar and of the city which interfere with the proper military occupation shall be destroyed. A heavy fine, the amount of which will be fixed later on, will be levied on the citizens. A military Governor will be appointed over the city and a radius of ten miles around it. This district will be placed under martial law, and all wirhin ir are required to give up their arms. Any one found br iting arms within this district after one week from the present time will be punished with death. A ll persons having in rheir possession property belonging to the late

N e w S e r i e s , V o i . XXII. No. 572.

Embassy are required to bring it in immediately, under the severest penalties. A reward of 5ors. will be paid for the denunciation and conviction of any one concerned in the late cowardly massacre, which has left a lasting blot upon the Afghan name. For a subaltern officer or captain 75rs. will be paid. For a field officer i25rs. will be paid. For each English rifle delivered up 3«. will be paid. The native troops will march through the city to morrow, and the Sirdars are ordered to attend.” Major-General Hills, Y .C ., C.B., a comrade and friend of General Roberts since they entered the army together, has been appointed Military Governor o f Cabul.

There was a terrible explosion o f a e x p l o s io n s magazine in the Upper Bala Hissar on BALA HISSAR. Thursday afternoon, from the effects of which the officers of the 5th Goorkbas and others in the messhouse escaped in a wonderful manner. Captain Shafto, however, of the Royal Artillery, the Goorkha guard at the gate, and a party of Goorkhas sitting near, were blown up; altogether about 20 lives were lost. The 67th Regiment and the 5th Goorkhas were immediately transferred to the camp on the Sia Sung hill, and it is fortunate that the evacuation was not longer delayed, for shortly afterwards there was another tremendous explosion, and General Roberts telegraphs that constant explosions had occurred since. He says that there is no reason to suppose that it was anything more than an accident, and adds that all the small arms, ammunition, and munitions of war collected by Shir A li mast have been destroyed. At the date o f this telegram (Friday, the 17th) nothing was left but the large powder magazine said to contain about 250,000 pounds, and efforts were being made to stop the fire so as to save this, as the blowing up of it would cause considerable damage to life and property in the city. We learn from a telegram of the following day that the fire has been extinguished. It is reported indeed that General Roberts intends to destroy the Bala Hissar utterly.

Whether the Amir’s young son be placed on t h e d a n g e r throne, or whether— as seems more prudent

— the Sirdars are called on to elect an Amir subject to British approval, the great danger of the moment is that Afghanistan shou'd split up of itself and become unmanageable, and particularly that some Prince or Pretender— perhaps Eyoub Khan— should establish himself, under the influence and covert protection of Russia, at Herat. Already the Russian press begins to talk of the extinct Afghan kingdom, and the necessity of considering outlying provinces such as Herat, Badakshan and Wakshan, as now virtually independent and taken out of the Afghanistan