T H E
T A
B
L E
A Weekly Newspaper and Review.
T
D u m VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.
From the B r ie f oj H is Holiness to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, 1870.
Vol. 39. No. 1670. London, A pril 13, 1872.
P rice s<L By P ost 5%cL
[R egistered^a t the General P ost Office as a N ewspaper.
C hronicle of th e W eek : Lord
Page.
Salisbury on Religious Education. —The Agricultural Movement.— The American Difficulty.— Public Health Bill.—The Ballot Bill.— -Settlement of Land.— Sunday ‘Trading Bill.— Improving Away. — “ Reg. v. Castro."— M. Thiers in Paris.— Passports.— The Assembly and the Catholic Petitions.— The Catholic Committees of France.—The French Oratory and the Abbé Gratry.—The “ Old -Catholics" in France.— M. Mottu. —The “ Referendum ” in Switzerland.—The Nationality Question in Alsace. — Excommunications and the Prussian Government.— Election Tactics in Bohemia.—&c. 445
CONTENTS
L e a d e r s :
Page.
M. Thiers and the Roman Question 449 The Spanish Elections . . . 449 The Irish University Question . 450 E nglish A dm in istrations and
Catholic I nterests :
LX II.— Grattan Suspected, Ac
cused, and Cleared.— Fox’s Eulogium on him . . 4 . 451 Spring Exhibitions.— The French
G a l le r y .............................................452 T he A nglican Movement :
The “ Church Review” Evades,
while professing to Answer, the Question, “ What is the Criterion by which a Catholic Church may be distinguished from a Sect " .453 R eviews :
The Life and Letters of S. Francis
Xavier. . . . . . 454
R eviews (continued) :
Page.
The Rose Garden .... 455 The Contemporary Review . . 456 Short N otices : The Life of Marie
Eustellc Harpain.— The Vulgate New Testament. — Dictionnaire Encyclopédique de la Théologie Catholique.—A Brief Memoir of Pius IX .—The Passion-Play.— The Illustrated Review.— Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine.— Etudes Philosophiques, Historiques et Littéraires.—The Diplomatic Review.—The Ukara Lake.— Proverbia Communia Syriaca . . 457 Correspondence :
Easter Alleluias .... 457 The Catholic Reunion . . . 458 P arliam entary S ummary . . 459
R ome :
Page.
Letter from Rome .... 461 Inauguration of a Hospital for
Children at Rome . . . 462 D iocesan N ews : Westminster.......................................462
Northampton. .... 463 Nottingham ..... 463 Scotland—Western District . . 463 I reland :
Letter from our Dublin Corre
spondent .......................................463 Mr. Gladstone on Irish Affairs . 463 Foreign N ew s :
Germany ..... 464 M emoranda :
RehL •. — Educational. — Fine
Arts. - - Legal. — Military. — Political .....464 General N ews . . . . 468
CH R O N IC L E O F TH E W E E K .
be so progressive that speeches which go to the root o f the matter, like Lord Salisbury’s, are never superfluous.
ON F r id ay week Lord Salisbury attended a meeting o f the N a tional Society at r e l i g i o u s L iverpool, and said a good deal which
T h e labourers’ movement which has extended
C ultural from Warwickshire to other counties does movement. not: meet everywhere with the same difficulties.
education. was worth the attention o f others besides
In Cambridgeshire, where some men have been those whom he addressed. O f the pro
posal for “ unsectarian or “ undenom inational ” teaching, which till la te ly it was the fashion to advocate, h e rem arked that it indicated “ a somewhat innocent “ in telligen ce.” T h e illusion that you can teach Christian ity without any Christian truths has evaporated; it was “ words and nothing else.” Its promoters have over and over again been challenged to draw up a list o f doctrines which m ight be taught in a perfectly undenominational school, and they have never done i t ; for “ there is no doc■“ trine o f Christianity to which some persons claim ing the “ Christian name do not offer opposition.” There could not, said Lord Salisbury, be a more decided p roof o f this than the fact that the League have been obliged to g ive up ■ the idea, and adopt that o f pure secularism . T h e evils o f th is, he said, are manifold ; and one o f the worst is that no c lass o f men would undertake to teach children and exc lu d e religion, unless those men did not care much about religion itself. There could not, he thought, be a greater e v i l than the setting up in every parish a man whose duty it would be to press on the people and the young the superior im portance o f secular as com pared with religious knowledge. A nd, though the law as it now stands leaves to religious bodies the power o f establishing schools o f their own, and to School Boards the option o f having Christian doctrines taught although no special formularies are allowed, we must not, said Lord Salisbury, rely too much on the com prom ise o f two years ago. Lord R ipon and Mr. Forster have risked offending a large portion o f their own party in order to do what they believed to be ju s tice to all parties concerned ; and it would be wrong, as Lord Salisbury ju stly said, in those opposed to them in politics or religion, not to g ive them full credit for it. S till English Governm ents are weak, o f whatever colour they may be, and pressure w ill do a great deal. W e must say that the speech o f Mr. Stansfeld, at Halifax, delivered tw o nights before, was calculated to justify Lord Salisbury’s apprehensions. A vow in g him self a Secularist, he declared that he had subm itted to the compromise because his principles were not those held by the country at large. T h is last acknow ledgment was satisfactory as far as it went, but Mr. Stansfeld went on to say that the policy of the Governm ent was progressive, and expressed his hope that in another session the amendment most o f his hearers wanted— we suppose that concerning fees to denominational schools— would be carried. I t is because Governm ents are so compressible and lik e ly to getting only 10s. a week, many, i f not most, o f the farmers have spontaneously raised the wages to 1 is ., and do not punish combination with dism issal, so that there is no strike. T h e leaders o f the Cambridgeshire workmen counsel moderation, and evidently hope to arrive a t an understanding with their employers. We hear o f the movement also in L incolnshire and Herefordshire, and the D a i ly N ew s continues to publish moving letters from its correspondents concerning the deplorable condition o f the labourers in various districts— Hughenden, Mr. D israeli’s estate, furnishing materials for a special report. T h e principal grievance, after the insufficiency o f the wages, is the tenure o f the cottages, which are held from the farmers in stead o f the landlords, so that dism issal from employm ent meant also eviction. T h e defence offered for the system is that b y cottages being g iven in part paym ent o f wages the labourers get housed better than they m ight be i f they were left to find lodging them selves ; but though it may be very convenient to the farmer to have a lw ays at his disposition house accom modation for the hands he employs, yet it is extrem ely hard on the labourer who is thrown out of work that he should lose his home as well. Besides, i f his fam ily is large and earns nothing, it is only fair that he should have the chance o f spending less on his rent, i f he can, and more on food, whereas on the present system his house rent is fixed and paid for him.
W e fear that there was not very much foun-
THE; r dation for the rumour published in the M o rn in g difficulty. P o s t , that Governm ent have received a telegram from America which affords a prospect o f a satisfactory issue to the negotiations. T h e American E v e n in g P o s t , indeed, has stated that the difference between the English and American views d id not im p ly any bad faith on either s id e ; that England had in the treaty o f W ashington made an apology which a great nation m ight accept as a complete reparation ; and that America is agreed with England that the indirect claim s are inadmissible, and that th ey were in troduced into the case merely w ith a v iew to strengthening the case and heightening the damages. But though this may be the opinion o f many in telligent Americans, we shall be very agreeably surprised i f the United States Governm ent avouches it as its own. T h e P e r sev e ra n za o f M ilan published a rather rem arkable article on the subject last week, in which it stated that both in Europe and America public opinion was agreed that reason was on the side o f England, because indirect damages would be opposed to the
N ew Series. Vol. VII. No. 179.