THE TABLET

A W eekly Newspaper and Review.

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

From the Brief oj His Holiness to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, 1870.

Vol. 40. No. 1707. L o n d o n , D e c em b e r 28, 1872.

P r ice 5d. By P ost s tA

[R egistered a t the General P ost O ffice as a N ewspaper.

C hronicle of th e W e e k : The

Page

Suppression of the Religious Orders in Rome.— Mr. Gladstone on Intellectual Progress and on Misbelief. Dean Stanley on Missions.— More Speeches on Education.— Education in'Canada.— The Political Po.sition of Catholics.—The French •Crisis during the Recess.— The Sub-Committees. — The Nantes Riot. — Raw Materials and the Treaty with England.—Atheism in Court.— M. Thiers and the War. The Due de Gramont and Austria. The Prussian Ministry.— Persecution in Poland.—The Church in the Turkish Empire. — The Slavery Question in Spain.— Mr. Froude and Fr. Burke, &c. . . . 801

CONTENTS.

L eaders :

Catholic Interests in Italy, Austria,

Page and Prussia .... 805 Ministers on Education . . 805 The “ Saturday Review” on Count de Montalembert . . . 806 The Principles of Communism . 808 O ur P rotestant Contemporaries:

Rome and Protestantism.— Confiscation in Rome.—A Day of Intercession ..... 809 R eview s :

The Life of Charles Dickens . 810 Christmas Books for Children and

Young People .... 812 The Sacristy . . . .812 The “ Contemporary Review” . 813

S hort N otices: Etudes Religieuses,

Philosophiques, Historiques, et Littéraires.— Revue Catholique.— Old and New London.—The Catholic Calendar.— The Illustrated Farmers’ and Gardeners’ Almanack.—

The Gentleman’s Annual Correspondence:

The Priesthood in Irish Politics The Carlist Rising in Spain Walthamstow House The Poor of Westminster Poverty at the West-End R o m e ....................................... R ecord of German Persecution,

Page

. 814 . 815 . 815 . 815 . 815 . 815 . 817

&c........................................................818 “ Emperor and Pope.”— Continua­

tion of the Resume of Herr von Gerlagh’s Pamphlet . . .819

Page

D iocesan N ews : Westminster...................................... 820

S o u th w a r k ...................................... 820 Nottingham ..... 820 I reland:

Letter from our Dublin Corre­

spondent ...................................... 821 Foreign N ews :

France

. 821

M emoranda :

R e l i g i o u s ....................................821 Catholic Union: The Bishop of

Salford on the Political Position of Catholics .... 823 Educational ..... 824 General N ews 824

CH R O N IC L E O F TH E W E E K .

THE SUPPRESSION OF THE

RELIGIOUS ORDERS IN

ROME.

S U M M A R Y o f the Pontifical A l lo ­

Acution delivered at the recent Consistory will be found elsewhere. I t w ill be seen that the H o ly Father comments energetically on the in iquity o f the persecution to which the Church is now subjected, especially in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. In the latter country in particular the flood o f v io lence and in justice is on the point o f reaching a culm inating point. T h e Italian A ssem b ly has separated for the recess, but its first act after its return will inevitably be to pass the law suppressing the Religious Orders in Rome. B y a pretence o f moderation, in tended to blunt the opposition o f foreign Powers, the in ternational character o f the residences o f Generals was acknowledged, and the bare existence o f such religious houses, though not their rights or their property, was to be respected. What amount o f security will remain even for them is sufficiently indicated by the denial even o f this privilege to the Society o f Jesus, without any colourable pretext and out o f mere hatred to the Order, by the fate o f the B ishops them selves under the law o f Guarantees, and by the destruction o f Catholic seminaries, threatened by the last circular o f the M in ister o f Public Worship. While then the H ead o f the Church on earth raises his A postolic voice to protest against such infamous wrong, it is well that his children should do all in their power to expose it in a ll its palpable in justice, which, from a merely human point o f view, .should ensure its speedy and utter condemnation. T h e Baron d ’Ondis R eggio, well known form erly in the Italian Parliament, has ju s t issued a treatise, o f which a French translation is shortly to appear, and which should be read by every statesm an who wishes to make up his m ind on the point o f public right. But still more remains to be done. There never was a moment at which a collective demonstration from Catholics o f different nations was more loudly called for by the v iolation not only o f the most sacred rights but o f their own common interests. T h e cause o f the Religious Orders in R om e is the cause o f the whole Church, and i f o f the whole Church, then o f every individual Catholic. Such, we are convinced, they all know it to be, and it would be well if as many o f them as circum stances will permit to do so would jo in in a united utterance o f what they each and all feel.

m r .J[g l a d STONE ON INTELLECTUAL

PROGRESS AND ON MISBELIEF.

W e have dealt elsewhere with the political aspect o f Mr. G ladstone’s L iverpool speech on education. But there are one or two points in it which deserve a word or two o f further notice. First, his estim ate o f the in tellectual claim s o f the present age. More wealth, he tells us, has been made in this little island during New Series. V o l , VIII. No. 216

the present century “ than in all the preceding ages, from the time “ say o f Julius Ctesar.” I t has been a wonderful age; but let us not exaggerate. “ I t has been, and it is, an age o f “ immense mental as well as material activity ; it is b y no “ means an age abounding in minds o f the first order, who “ becom e great immortal teachers o f mankind.” “ T o per“ feet the locom otive has perhaps not required the expendi“ ture o f more mental strength, and application, and dem o t io n , than to perfect the violin .” ‘ ‘ In the material “ sphere the achievem ents o f the age are splendid and un“ mixed. In the social sphere they are great and noble, but “ seem ever to be confronted w ith asuccessionofnew p roblem s “ which almost defy solution. In the sphere o f pure in tellect I “ doubt whether posterity will rate us as highly as we rate “ ourselves.” H is conclusion well deserves to be meditated by more than a few writers in the daily press. “ What I “ most wish to observe is this, that it is an insufferable “ arrogance in the men o f any age to assume what I may “ call airs o f unmeasured superiority over form er ages. G od, “ who cares for us, cared for them also. In the goods o f “ this world we may advance by strides, but it is by steps “ only and not strides, and by slow and not always steady “ steps that all desirable im provement o f man in the higher “ ranges o f his being is effected.” T h e other rem ark which appears to us to call for special record is that in which Mr. G ladstone denounced the popular “ opinion and boast ” that “ man is not responsible for his belief.” H e had heard from Lord Brougham the needful and due lim itation o f that proposition, “ Man is not responsible to man for his belief.” Even this proposition would, under certain circum stances, require some further lim itation, but what Mr. G ladstone went on to say is so good that we must quote it at length.

As before God, one and the same law applies to opinions and to acts — or rather to inward and to outward acts, for opinions are inward acts. Many a wrong opinion may be guiltless because formed in ignorance and because that ignorance may not be our fault; but who shall pre sume to say there is no mercy for wrong actions also, when they, too, have been due to ignorance, and that ignorance has not been guilty ? The question is not whether judgments and actions are in the same degree influenced by the condition of the moral motives. If it is undeniable that self-love and passion have an influence upon both, then, so far as that influence goes, for both we must be prepared to answer. Should we in common life ask a body of swindlers for an opinion upon swindling, or of gamblers for an opinion upon gambling, or of misers upon bounty ? And if in matters of religion we allow pride and perverseness to raise a cloud between us and the truth, so that we see it not, the false opinion that we form is but the index of that perverseness and that pride, and both for them, and for it as their offspring, we shall be justly held responsible. Who they are upon whom this responsibility will fall it is not ours to judge.

T h e tone o f these remarks stands in favour-

d ean Sta n l e y ab ie contrast to those o f D ean S tanley in his on iwissio- . sermon p reached on the occasion o f the Anglican prayers on behalf o f foreign missions— though the D ean would very lik e ly not object to subscribe to the pro-