THE TABLET

A Weekly Newspaper and Review.

D uM VOBIS GRA.TULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.

F r om th e B r ie J o j H is H olin ess to The Tablet, J u n e 4, 1870.

V o l . 3 7 . N o . 1 6 0 9 . L o n d o n , F e b r u a r y i i , 1 8 7 1 .

PE,CEsd- byposTSk.

[Registered at the General P ost Office as a Newspaper.

C hronicle of the Week : The

Queen’s Speech.— Fall of Gambetta.— French Elections.—Gambetta Rule at Lyons.—The Reds. —The Prisoners in the War.— •General de Charette. — Mde. Dudcvant on the War.—Cardinal Antonelli on the Prince and Princess.—The Distress in Paris. —Another Subalpine Wrong.— ' The Powers and the Pope.—Italy .and Tunis.—Belgian Parliament and Italy.—The Cardinal’s Just -Complaint.—Government and Irish Education. — Officialism at Gibraltar ..............................................157 UljKaders :

The Papal Guarantees . . . 16 1 An Italian Diplomatist in London on the Roman Question . . 162

C O N T

L eaders (continued) :

Higher Education in Ireland.—VI.

Schools of the Irish Society of the New Plantation . . .162 Our French Relief Fund . . 165 Peter’s Pence. . . . . 165 E nglish Administrations and

Catholic Interests.— XXIV. Bishop Milner’s Appeal to the Holy S e e ..................................... 165 R eviews :

The Recovery of Jerusalem . . 166 The Dublin Review . . . 167 Catholic Doctrine as Defined by the Council of Trent . . . 169 Mary Stuart and the Casket

Letters . . . . .169 Short Notices : Blackwood’s

Edinburgh Magazine. — Macmil

E N T S .

Ian’s Magazine. — Tales of the Childhood and Youth of Celebrated Men—Historical Tales of Remarkable Men . . . .170 Correspondence :

Offering from the Youth of Great

Britain to the Holy Father . 170 The “ Impiegati ” .... 170 Colonial Intolerance . . . 170 The Mission of Stourbridge . .170 Stamford Poor Schools : A Word of Explanation . . . .170 Parliamentary Summary . . 17 1 R ome : Letter from our Roman

Correspondent . . . .173 Letter from our Italian Corre­

spondent .....................................17 The Papal Guarantees . . .176

R ecord of the Council : Mr. Maskell again . . . .176 Diocesan News : Westminster . . . . 177

Southwark ;

Education in the Diocese of Southwark—Important Meeting 177 Birmingham . . . . .178 I reland:

Letter from our Dublin Corre s p o n d e n t ....................................... 179 The Wa r .......................................... 179 Memoranda ;

R e l i g i o u s ........................................180 E ducation a l ........................................180 Literary . . . . . . i8r Fine Arts and Music . . . i8r General News .... 181

CHRONICLE OF THE W E E K .

LONDON has at length been gratified by her Majesty the Queen being enabled to open Parliament in person. Last year it was promised that she would do so, but a sudden indisposition prevented; and the same thing had happened the year previous. On Thursday last her Majesty did come to Westminster, surrounded by all her family who are in England, with the exception of Prince Arthur.; and weather was sunshiny, as of old. The Speech from the Throne, which was read by the Lord Chancellor, and will be found in another column, is remarkable for its prolixity and for the smoothness (so at least some of the critics find) of its diction. The tone is even more dry and guarded than is usual in Royal speeches, and the most salient features are the omissions, of which there are one or two notable ones. The chief of these is the urgent subject of Irish education. We have assigned the real reason in another paragraph. Here we may say that we do not suppose with our Tory contemporary, the Globe, “ that the Prime Minister’s famous undertaking to throw the •“ Power of England as an aegis, should it be necessary, r o u n d “ [does the G lobe suppose the cegis to be some sort of “ wrapper?] the Church’ofRome in the person of the Pope, •“ was intended as a sop to his Roman Catholic supporters “ in Ireland.” If the G lobe is right, Mr. Gladstone has purchased in a cheap market; for our contemporary adds, what is true, that the assurance about the Pope “ certainly is some“ thing of a shadow,” and but a slender equivalent for the substantial measures of education that have been denied. The speech compliments the French on the courage they have displayed in the vrar, but adds, that England has found it impossible to accredit an Ambassador to the Government of Defence. The most surprising omission in the speech is, perhaps, the absence of any allusion to the dethronement of her Majesty’s faithful ally, the Emperor of the French. The faintest possible hint •of distrust of the Revolution is expressed in the absence of any official recognition of the Provisional Government, and the Conservative principle of our foreign policy is farther shown in the scant warmth of congratulation offered to Germany on its acquisition of a new Emperor. It is not surprising that no notice is taken of the fall of the Temporal Power, as the very existence of the Holy See has not for centuries been officially recognized by England. We may perhaps be thankful that Italy is not congratulated on the success of her lawless aggressions. It will be news to those ■ chiefly interested, that “ the anxiety which the massacre at “ Tien-tsin called forth has happily been dispelled ; and the

■“ special grounds on which, not only the existence of

New Series. Vol. V. No. 118.

“ a Government in China, but of one entitled to be “ dealt with in a conciliatory and forbearing spirit,” will be awaited with curiosity and interest from the statements hereafter to be made on the subject by her Majesty’s Ministers. The necessity of measures for the improvement of the army and the national defences will not take people by surprise. It is, as her Majesty tells the Commons, one of “ the lessons of military experience afforded by the present “ war.” We can only hope that the hope held out will be realized, that these warlike questions will not greatly abate the energy with which our legislators are to apply themselves this Session to the work of general improvement in our domestic legislation. Several of these proposed improvements are specified, and amongst them are a renewed attempt to repeal the Ecclesiastical Titles Act and the Religious Tests in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This last piece of legislation is said to be urged forward by the fact that the student at Cambridge who has just obtained the high honour of Senior Wrangler again happens to be one of those who are debarred by their creed from participating in the prizes which the old Universities have to offer.

War and defiance were the demonstrations

GAMBEira. with which the news of the Armistice and the demonstrations for peace were received at Bordeaux. The sentiment was re-echoed in even louder tones from Toulouse, Lyons, Marseilles, and other towns. In fact, the bearing of the Revolutionary party seems to have been more confident, and their language more bellicose in exact proportion to their distance from the enemy, and to their inexperience of the actual presence of Prussian invasion. On Thursday week and on Sunday, at Bordeaux, great demonstrations were made, and 28 of the best known Republicans were appointed to form a committee of public safety. Amongst them we see such names as Louis Blanc, Victor Hugo, Gambetta, Rochefort, Esquiros, &c. For three or four days the sham of opposition to the Paris Provisional Government was kept up ; counter-proclamations on either side were issued, and it began to be even feared that the Armistice might produce war in a new shape, civil war— not between Monarchists and Imperialists, but between the different sections of Republicans. The Paris authorities sent their decree by the hands of a deputation to Bordeaux, and the end has been that Gambetta has resigned. So ends the duplicate and separated Government which commenced in a balloon. Gambetta had lost his head in the terrible position in which he had placed himself and the country. For a time he had ivielded almost unlimited power; he had made and unmade generals ; if he did not command armies he created them. He disobeyed his superiors at Paris, and as soon as the project for convening the Assembly was issued he instantly sent forth his ukase through-