T HE TABLET. A. W eekly Newspaper a n d Review .
DDM VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS BTIAM ADDIMOS OT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEAT1S.
F ro m the B r i e f o f H is H o lin e s s P iu s I X . to T h e T a b l e t , J u n e 4, 18 / 0 .
V o l . 85. No. 2860.
L o n d o n , M a r c h 2, 1895.
P r ic e s d . by P o st 5^. d
[ R e g i s t e r e d a t t h e G e n e r a l P o st Of f i c e a s a N ew s p a p e r
C h ro n ic l e o f ' t h e W e e k :
Page
Imperial P a r l ia m e n t : Indian CottonDuties—The Welsh Church 'Em—Sir M. H. Beach—The Currency Question—Mr. Balfour and the London County Council — Another Rise in the Rates—AngloJFrench Relations—A Tribute to Sir Edward Blount — Another Postal Reform—The Birth-place of the Crusades—French Possessions in India— The Armenian Inquiry—France and Madagascar —Another Chinese Defeat . . 317 L e a d e r s : Welsh Disestablishment . . .. 321
A Forensic Orator on the Tem
poral Power . . . . . . 322 Anglican O r d e r s ........................ 323 Notes from Belgium . . . . 326 N o t e s . . — — . . . . 326
C o n T
R e v ie w s :
Page
The Foundations of Belief . . 327 Professor Skeat’s Chaucer .. 329 The Watches of the Sacred Passion 330 Foreign Catholic Periodicals . . 331 Books of the Week . . . . . . 331 C o r r e s po n d en c e :
Rome :—(From Our Own Corre
spondent) ................................... 333 News from Ireland............ — 334 L e t t e r s to t h e E d it o r :
“ Anglican Orders ” .. . . 335 Union of Catholic Guardians . . 336 An Appeal for Schools . . . . 336 Mediaeval Commentary^ . . . . 336 The Drakensberg Mission . . 336 Queen Elizabeth and Archbishop
Parker . . . . . . . . 336 “ Evadne ” . . . . . . . . 337 Lord Halifax and the Holy See . . 337
E N T S .
Page
1 The Patronage of the Saints . . 338 Consideration of Mr. Morley’s Letter by the Irish National Education Board . . . . . . . . 340 Funeral of Mgr. Gilbert . . . . 341 St. Joseph’s Club, Ely-place .. 342 ■ Stabat Mater . . . . . . . . 342
Lamaism in Thibet . . ., . . 344 London Matriculation . . . . 344 S o c ia l a n d P o l it ic a l . . ... 344
SUPPLEM ENT. N ew s from t h e S chools :
The Bishop of Northampton on
Voluntary Schools . . . . 349
Page
Liverpool Training College . . 350 Hammersmith Training College.. 350 Shrovetide at Beaumont .. . . 350 St. Anne’s New Infant School,
Ancoats . . . . . . . . 351 Catholic Working Boys’ Home,
Edinburgh . . . . . . 351 Convocation of York and Volun
tary Schools ........................ 351
N ew s from t h e D io c e s e s : Westminster . . . . — 351
Southwark . . . . . . ..352 Birmingham........................ . . 353 Clifton ................................... 353 Hexham and Newcastle . . . . 353 Leeds ................................... 354 Liverpool .. . . . . . . 354 Newport and Menevia.. . - . . 343 Northampton . . . . . 343 Nottingham.. . . . . . . 343 ^Plymouth . . . . . . . . 343 Shrewsbury . . . . . . . . 343
Rejected M S . cannot be returned unless accompanied with address and postage.
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
uutij£s
I N the Commons on Thursday week, the much-anticipated attack on the Government with respect to the Indian import duties was led by Sir
Henry Jam es, who moved the adjournment o f the House. Sir Henry suggested as an alternative to the duties the establishment in India of a graduated income tax and a graduated death duty. Mr. Fowler, in reply, repudiated with indignation the contradictory allegations that had come from different quarters that he had sacrificed India to Lancashire, and that he had sacrificed Lancashire to India. H e had endeavoured to steer an even keel, and to do justice to the interests of both. .T he import duties had been in existence when the Government o f India was handed over to the Crown, and the Resolution o f 18 79 did not abolish the duties, but only called for their abolition “ as soon as the financial condition o f India permitted.” That was the crux of the position. The duties were repealed in 1882, and only because the financial condition of India allowed of their repeal, along with all the other import duties. But, in 18 94 , the Government of India was again face to face with a serious deficit, and proposed the reimposition of an import duty on cotton goods o f five per cent. T o this he assented, on condition that a countervailing Excise duty was imposed on certain qualities produced by Indian looms, in order to remove the element of Protection that lurked in the import duty. The import duty hardly affected Lancashire at all. O f the whole spinning of the Indian mills, 79 per cent, were under twenties : 19 were between twenties and thirties ; in other words, 99 per cent, of the spinning of India was under thirties, and the Small quantity o f only a-half per cent, represented the spinning o f the higher counts ; and it was these higher counts solely about which there was any question o f competition, as the excise duty was paid only on counts over twenties. But the yarns imported into India were all of the higher class ; the percentage, as he had shown, was excessively small ; and these were imported from Manchester. If, however, his Lancashire friends could prove to him that the lim it o f twenties was too low or unjust to them, and that it ought to be twenty-fours, power was reserved to him by the Minute to raise it to that figure, and he was pledged to remedy it. H ad the’ Government taken the course recom
N ew S e r i e s , V o l . L I I I . , N o . 2 ,16 9 .
mended by Sir H . James, it would have led to great political difficulty. Every section o f society believed that the exemption o f cotton goods from the import duties was an act of injustice to India. H e had given a hint, and was not at liberty to say more, but they would have been face to face with a widespread feeling o f dissatisfaction and danger. A duty on the coarser counts would have fallen on the very poorest class o f the population. H e would not shrink from accepting the consequences of the censure of the House if it was inflicted, but if the Government was responsible to the House, the House was responsible to the people o f India. Later in the evening Mr. Goschen made an important speech in which he recognized the feeling o f India in the matter, and urged the House to look to the effect of its vote in India. Sir W. Harcourt acknowledged the gravity of this appeal, saying that no word from him should prevent the reconciliation o f the interests o f this country and of India. Lord George Hamilton, however, strongly declared for the motion. On a division the motion for adjournment was rejected by 304 votes to 109, a majority for the Government o f 19 5 .
On Monday Mr. Asquith moved for leave
—t h e to introduce a B ill for the Disestablishment w e l sh c h u r c h an(j Disendowment o f the Church in Wales and Monmouthshire. H e said it was pro
posed that the B ill should come into operation on January 1 , 1897, when the coercive jurisdiction o f the Ecclesiastical Court would cease. Provision wàs made for the formation of a representative Church body, and power was given to the Bishops and clergy and laity to hold synods and to frame constitutions, and generally to legislate on ecclesiastical matters for themselves. The endowments which had to be disposed o f amounted to the gross sum of ¿£279,000 a year, which the B ill divided into two distinct parts, first ¿£233,000 a year being a parochial revenue which was attached to, and enjoyed by, parochial benefices ; and, secondly, ¿£46,000 a year, which was a Central Fund, made up o f capitular and episcopal assets o f the revenue received by Wales from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. A ll private benefactions since 170 3 , the time o f the constitution o f Queen Anne’s Bounty, had been excluded from the B ill. In dealing with the Fund, the Government had acted on two principles— first, they had endeavoured to preserve the corpus o f the ecclesiastical property for parochial and national purposes, to prevent its alienation and to keep it as a valuable asset for the purposes to which they proposed it should be applied ; and, secondly, they had aimed throughout at providing that, so far as their property was
