THE TABLET

A Weekly Newspaper and Review.

D u m VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.

From the B r i e f o f I B s Holiness to T h e T a b l e t , June 4 , 1870.

Vol. 36. No. 1595. L ondon, N ovember 5, 1870.

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[Registered a t the General Post Office as a N ewspaper.

C hronicle of the Week : Solu­

tion of the Roman Question.— The Pope’s Freedom : The Bull.— The Pope’s Freedom : Education.— The Pope’s Freedom : Towards the •Sick.— The Elections at Rome.— Signs in the Heavens.—The Mortara Case Revived.— Italy between Prussia and France.— County Wexford and the Pope.— Limerick. — Lord Acton and the Holy See.— Meeting in behalf o f the Pope.— Within Paris— &c., &c. . . 573 L eaders :

Visconti-Venosta’s Circular . . 577 Germany and the Sovereignty of the P o p e ....................................577 France ...... 578 The Catholic Truth Society . . 579 China ...... 580

CONTENTS.

Peter’s P e n c e ....................................580 E nglish Administrations and

Catholic Interests :— XII. “ The Constitution o f '82 ” . . 581 T he A nglican Movement :

Unionist Replies to Dr. Tait’s

Declaration on Prayer for the D e p a r t e d ....................................582 Reviews :

The Story of Wandering Willie . 583 A Manual of Ethics . . . 584 Short N otices : Macmillan’s

Magazine.— Martyrs omitted by Foxe.— The Secret of Mary, unveiled to a Devout Soul.— The Good Sister Elizabeth.— The Life o f Madame Guyon.— Excellence of the Angelic Salutation.— Maria Monk.— Legends of Our Lady and the Saints.— Avice Arden . . 584

Correspondence :

Foreign Missionary Refugees . 585 Action for the Pope . . 586 A Knowing Correspondent . . 586 France and her Traitors . . 586 The Past of Prussia . . . 586 A Great Social Problem . . 587 Helpers of the Holy Souls . . 587 English Refugees from Paris . 587 The Rev. Ken elm Vaughan’s

L e t t e r s ............................... 587 Rome : Letter from our Roman

Correspondent .... 589 Letter from our Italian Corre­

spondent ......................................590 Cardinal de Bonnechose on the

Occupation o f Rome . . . 591 The Cowardly Outrage on Nuns in

R om e ........................................592

Record of the Council : Bull of His Holiness Pius IX Suspending the Vatican Council.— The Bishop of Birmingham’s Pastoral. 592 D iocesan N ews : Westminster . • 594 Beverley . 294

Liverpool

• 594

Menevia and Newport . • • 595 Shrewsbury . • 595 Ireland . • 595 Foreign N ew s: Geneva. • 595 T he War • 59<> Memoranda :

Religious

Educational .

Literary

Weather and Health

General N ews

• 597

• 597

• 597

• 598

• 598

CHRONICLE OF THE W EEK.

QUESTION. W

SOLUTION OF THE ROMAN

H EN M. Thiers was at Florence the other day, he was asked by ViscontiVenosta how he would propose to settle the Roman question. He replied by opening a volume o f his H isto ry o f tht Consulate and th e Empire, in which he quotes the words o f Na­ poleon I, so often referred to, and always worthy of attention“ The Pope is far from Paris, and that is w e l l ; he is not at Madrid, not at Vienna, and there­ fore we support his Spiritual authority. A t Vienna and at Madrid they have reason to say the same. Does anyone suppose that, i f the Pope were at Paris, the Viennese and the Spaniards would consent to receive his decisions ? It is therefore very fortunate that he stays in old Rome, holding the balance between the Catholic Sovereigns, inclining always a little towards the strongest, but rising up if the strongest should become an oppressor. The ages have done this, and they have done well. For the government of souls, i t is the best and most beneficent arrangement; and I do not speak as a bigot, but as a reasonable man.”

.THE POPE’S FREEDOM : THE BULL.

The Official Gazette of Florence has the mot d 'ord re to prove the liberty of the Pope from the fact that the Bull suspending the Council has been posted outside three of the Roman churches. Upon this we observe: F irst, that the Italian Government in reality desires nothing more than the suspension of the Council. It has already, by an official circular, signed by the Minister Raeli, proclaimed fine and imprisonment for any Priest or Bishop who should publish its Constitutions. It has given evidence that the Acts of the Council are not free in Italy, and of course it cannot desire to add to those Acts. But, secondly, were the Council to meet and pass, let us say, decrees con­ demnatory o f V ictor Emmanuel and his policy, would these decrees be permitted freely to circulate ? And, thirdly, had the Pope, instead of issuing a Bull suspending the Council, issued a Bull excommunicating the K ing and his abettors, is it certain that this would have been tolerated by the Italian Government ? To boast that the Pope is free be­ cause he has performed an act which is in many respects satisfactory to the Government, is a singular proof of the amount of freedom he enjoys. It may be remembered that, while the emissaries of the First Napoleon held possession o f Rome and o f the Pope, in 1809, a Bull o f excommunication was fixed upon the Basilica in Rome, and even upon the doors o f Notre Dame in Paris. Yet this fact was not held at the time to be a proof of the personal freedom of the the Pope. Still less is the publication o f a Bull new, suspending the Council, a proof o f the Pope’s personal liberty in our day. Yet the Italians say that it is. But their aim is deception.

N e w S e r i e s . V o l . IV. No. 104.

A private correspondent in high position in f r e e d o m * R ° me>and with good opportunities o f judging, e d u c a t io n ", writes us word that “ the Revolution is gaining in strength every day. Crowds were screaming through the streets last week, Via i Gesuiti, Via i l Papa ” and now the Jesuits have received orders from “ the moderate ” (!) party in authority to give up the Roman College to the municipality, so .that municipal schools may be carried on in it after the new fashion of the modern Italian ideas. So the liberty o f the Pope in Rome comes to this also, that the education, not only of the Roman youth, but o f the Ecclesiastical youths from some 12 different countries, is forcibly withdrawn from his control. The Roman University has also been taken possession of by the invaders, on the plea o f its being in the hands of the Priests. And yet what is the fact ? O f 60 Professors belonging to this illustrious University, 14 only were Priests: even the Chair o f Canon Law was held by a layman.

t h e p o p e ’s *■ Another proof o f the liberty o f the Pope, f r e e d o m : even in that famous territory o f the Leonine t o w a r d s City, may be seen in the fact that the great t h e s i c k . Hospital of Santo Spirito, within the precincts o f that city, has been invaded by the Italian Revolutionist, Dr. Pantaleone, who has driven out the 50 Fratelli Concettini who served it, and usurped its management. So the Pope is no more free within the Leonine City than without i t ; and no freer in respect to the care o f the sick and dying than in the matter o f education.

An Italian letter dated Oct. 29th, has just thet come to hand : it says : the attendance o f r o m e . Roman citizens at the different places where names are inscribed on the electoral lists, is so very poor that the President o f the Municipal Giunta has thought fit to prolong the term. The Romano ascribes this abstention chiefly to fear. “ Many,” it says, “ seeing the little eagerness manifested by the Government for the transfer o f the Capital, have not sufficiently disposed their minds for the new times, and from day to day apprehend a Pontifical restoration.” The real fact is that the principle o f ne eletti ne elettori, long practised very generally by Catholics throughout Italy, is felt by them to apply with tenfold force to this Roman election— the Sparlamento, as one o f their own members called it. You will see that Parliament will be presented with fourteen more “ babies and madmen ; ” we do those Onorevoli no wrong in describing them in the very terms in which they have described themselves.

Our advices from Florence agree with what is s ig n s in t h e stated in our Roman letter to-day about the

A ' b‘ effect produced by the Aurora Borealis in Italy, where this phenomenon is very rare. On the 24th (says a correspondent) its flaming blood-like hue drew from the