THE TABLET.

A W e e k ly N ew sp a p e r a n d R e v ie w .

DOM VCBIS GRAT OLAM UR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEAT1S.

From the B r i e f o f H is Holiness P iu s IX . to T he T ablet, June 4, 1870.

V o l . 84. No. 2842. L ondon, O ctober 27, 1894. price 5d. bypost [ R egistered a t t h e G eneral P ost O ffice as a N ewspaper

C hronicle of t h e W eek :

Page

Mr. Asquith on the House of Lords — The Holy C ity o f the Manchus — Mr. Balfour on the Scotch Establishment— Important to Testators— A Socialistic Crux — Social Legislation in Austria— The French and German War Budgets — The Tarragona Congress— The Duke and Duchess of York at Norwich — The First Shots in the Matabele War—The Gibraltar Committee— The Roman and Eastern Churches— The Col­

liery Disaster in Hungary— Political Parties in C h i l i — Grave Condition of the Tsar— Red Mass a t Lincoln’s Inn Fields — The Maharajah of Mysore and Infant Marriage . . . . . . •• 637 X kaders :

Catholics and the Election . . 641 James Anthony Froude . . . . 642 The General Election in Belgian 643

CONTENTS

1

i L eaders (Continued)

Terrien de Lacouperie

Page

644 L e t t e r s to t h e E d it o r (Cotinued) :

Leaves from a Rambler’s Note Anglicans and Baptism

Book

645

“ The English Catholic Library,

1843” .................................... 658

The Massacre at Kroze . . 645

N otes . .

R eview s :

646 Cobbett’s “ Reformation” 658

The Theory of Inference .. 648 Disestablishment of the English Church 658 Pen and Pencil Sketches .. 649 St. Edward’s Shrine Mad SirUchtred of the Hills . . 650 Priests as Magistrates 659 A New Note 6so A Warning

The God in the Car

650

“ The Times ” on Anglican Orders 659

A Toy T r a g e d y ......................... 651 The Bishop o f Limerick on Cardinal Vaughan’s Circular......................... Books of the Week 651 65o C orrespondence : Catholic Evidence Lectures 600 • Rome :— (From Our Own CorreThe Catholic Social Union . . 661

spondent)..

Ö53 Guy Fawkes ..

News from I r e la n d ........................ 654 St. Catherine’s Home for Servants L e tter s to t h e E d ito r :

Necessary Existence and Infinite and Young Girls in Business, 276, K ing’s-road, Chelsea 662

Perfection..

The Belgian Elections

6SS Catholic Candidate for the Sheffield

656 School Board

“ Half Communion “ . . .. 657 Alderman Sir Stuart Knill .. 662 Daily Mass .. 658 Lewisham Catholic Mission.. 662

Page

658

659

661

662

Patre

The Sisters of Nazareth .. . . 662 Clients^ of St. Winefride . . . . 663 Catholic Education at Blyth . . 663 O b i t u a r y .............................................664 Social and Political . . . . 665

S U P P L EM E N T . N ews from t h e Schools :

The Buckfast School Contest . . 669 Report of the Religious Examina­

tions of the Glasgow Schools . . 670 London School Board Election . . 671 The Coming School Board Elec>tion . . . . . . . . 671 The Christian Brothers in Limerick 672 B u r s a r y C o m p e t i t io n o f St.

Joseph’s College, Dumfries . . 672 German Hospital, Dalston . . . . 672 N ews from t h e D ioceses :

Westminster . . . . ... 672 Southwark . . 663 Liverpool . . 673 S h r e w s b u r y . . . . . . . . 674 St. Andrews and Edinburgh . . 663 Glasgow ....................................... 664

Rejected M S . cannot be re tu rn ed unless accompanied w ith address and postage.

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

M R . ASQUITH ON

THE HOUSE OF LORDS. T 'H E Home Secretary, addressing his constituents at Leven, although Lord Rosebery is announced to expound the whole policy of the Government on the subject on Saturday, devoted himself mainly to the House of Lords. Whether this was from a desire to give Lord Rosebery a lead, or to stiffen his back is unimportant to consider ; but as Mr. Asquith must be well aware of what the Government policy is to be his words may be taken as foreshadowing thpse of the Prime Minister. We gather then that the policy of the Government is not to abolish the House of Lords but to take away its sting— to allow the veto but to make its action suspensory only. He began by .saying that we must look beneath the form to the substance of the thing, and not go away with the notion that a transformation in the outward form of the matter would satisfy the requirements of the situation, or is in any way necessitated by it. He then laid down the proposition that the -object of representative Government is to secure authentic interpretation and a prompt and effectual execution of the national will. The most moderate and modern view of the function of the House of Lords is that it exists partly to act as a revising authority over the details of legislation, and partly that where there is reasonable doubt whether upon any question the House of Commons is representing the electorate, the Upper House should be able to insist upon enough delay to allow that doubt to be authoritatively solved. This second function involved the right to compel a dissolution, and was equivalent to a clumsy form of the Referendum. For a dissolution does not obtain the definite judgment of the country upon a specific issue, but simply throws all the issues current at the time into a common melting-pot. But Mr. Asquith’s chief objection to the present powers of the House of Lords is that they are exercised unequally— held in abeyance when the Conservatives are in power, and in a state of constant activity when a Radical Government is in office. Mr. Asquith apparently considers that the brake ought to be in action when the political coach is merely jogging along at four miles an hour just as frequently as when it is being driven at break-neck speed along an unknown road. Taking this singular view of the way in which

New Series, Vol. LII., No_ 2,151.

the Constitution brake ought to be applied, Mr. Asquith had no difficulty in showing that the House of Lords acted with great partiality. It was constantly checking Liberal measures, and made no difficulty about assenting to those introduced by Conservative Governments. He further made it clear that the Cabinet is agreed if possible to make the next election turn not upon the great issue of whether there is to be a single Parliament for the United Kingdom, but upon this new question as to the position of the House of Lords. From that point of view the more Bills the Peers can be induced to reject the better.

So little that is authentic comes from the t h e h o l y c i t y s e a t 0f war t{,at a ietter from Mrs. Bishop, t h e m a n c h u s . wr>tten from Moukden and published in

The S i . Jam es’s Gazette, is of exceptional interest. The letter is dated September 1st, and relates how the writer arrived in Moukden, which she speaks o f as the second city in the Empire, and as a town of 400,000 inhabitants, in a junk from Jintze. Part o f the journey was made upon the waters of a great flood which had submerged a large part of the famous cornlands of Manchuria. O f course the whole aspect of the place is changed by the war. Chinese and Manchu troops had been passing through on their way to the front at the rate of a thousand daily for the previous three weeks. Mrs. Bishop’s account of the condition of these celestial warriors is encouraging for the Japanese. “ All tracks converging on Moukden are thronged with troops, not marching, but straggling along anyhow ; many carrying crimson banners, but few armed with modern weapons. I have seen regiments of quite passable physique, among which there was not a rifle ! Some were armed with gingalls; others with muzzle-loading muskets, very rusty and of a most antique pattern ; some with very long matchlocks, many with spears and long knives, some with bayonets attached to red poles ! Some of the picked men of the Moukden garrison who left under General Tso soon after war was declared were armed with modern rifles. I have been informed by three trustworthy persons that they have seen large numbers of men marching to Corea armed with bows and arrows only.” The poor fellow's seem to know how unequal the struggle must be against troops armed with modern weapons of precision. They march out of Moukden saying they are going to be shot; and if they chance to see a foreigner make such remarks as, “ This is one of the ‘ devils ’ for whom we are going to be sh o t ; ” and when a large party of them, in attempting to make a forcible entry into the Governor-General’s Palace