THE TABLET A IVeekly Newspaper and Review\
W ITH S U P P L EM EN T .
Voi. 35. No. 1567. L o n d o n , A p r i l 23, 1870.
P r i c e sd . S t a m p e d 6d.
[ R e g i s t e r e d f o r T r a n s m i s s io n A b r o a d .
C h r o n ic l e o f t h e W e e k : The
Convent Question— Convents and the Ecclesiastical Law—The Liverpool Meeting— London on Good .Friday — Easter Monday — The British Idol— The League and the Bible — Emigration — Military Offenders— The French Ministry — The Plebiscite—The Duchesse <de Berri— Condition of Italy— Mazzini and his Successors-—Red Sea Navigation— Russian Persecution— New Zealand — British North America— &c., &c. . . 509 (Le a d e r s :
Inspection of Convents . . . 513 The Deadlock of the Session . .5 14 Dr. Newman and his Critics . . 515 Poor School Committee and its
W o r k .......................................... 517
CONTENTS.
L e a d e r s (continued) :
Peter’s Pence....................................518 T h e A n g l i c a n M o v e m e n t :
Conversions................................... 518 R e v ie w s :
The Life o f S. Teresa of Jesus . 519 Mr. Robinson’s Alpine Flowers . 520 As Regards Protoplasm. . .5 2 1 S h o r t N o t i c e s : The Messenger of the Sacred Heart of Jesus— Doctrines Romaines sur le LibeV. ralisme — Mr. Jennings on the
Rosicrucians— Mr. Brough’s Idolatry of Rome—The See of S. Peter. 521 C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :
Mr. Newdegate .... 522 Real A s s e n t ....................................522
C o r r e s p o n d e n c e (continued) :
F. Waterworth and Canon Ray-
nal’s Reviewer .... 523 Conventual and Monastic Defence
Fund ...... 523 On Moral Unanimity in Councils . 523 L e t t e r from R om e ; Functions—
Holy Week—The Revolution— Tullio Dándolo .... 524 D io c e s a n N ew s :
Westminster................................... 525 Southwark ..... 525 Beverley ..... 526 Hexham and Newcastle . . 526 Liverpool . . . . 526 Newport and Menevia . . . 527 Salford . . . . 527 Scotland.— Western District . . 527 Arctic Missions ....527
I r e l a n d
F o r e ig n N ew s :
Russia ■ Russia and the Austrian
• 527
Ministry —- Russification of Poland — Our Relations with America — Cholera — The Emperor— Russian J ustice . . 528 Japan : Persecution of Christians . 528 M e m o r a n d a :
Religious: The “ Pall Mall Ga
zette ” on Dr. Newman—The Inspection of Convents . . 529 Educational Literary . Scientific Weather. G e n e r a l N ew s
• 532 • 532 • 532 • 533 • 533
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
THE CONVENT QUESTION. w rE hear that in the clubs people are beginning to ask how it is that Mr. Newdegate can suffer “ the lie to be given” him, as he has. by Sir Charles Clifford, Fr Gordon, Mr. Langdale and others, and not come forward like a man to attempt to substantiate his charges or to retract them. Meanwhile the sub-committee formed at the Stafford Club meeting has been at work. A declaration has been drawn up to be signed by the Catholic gentry throughout the country, and another has been prepared by the English ladies. Catholics thoroughly understand that what threatens them is a system o f persecution without statutes. The ultimate aim with many is to suppress religious communities altogether : if they cannot •confiscate their property to the State, they would destroy their freedom by placing them under State control. This ■ determination has been embodied in recent resolutions passed by the Freemasons abroad. Catholics, however, have made up their mind to one thing, and that is to refuse any kind o f State inspection whatever: they will have neither that o f a Parliamentary committee, nor that o f a Statutory commission: they will make no choice between modes of persecution : the choice must lie with the persecutors ; and things shall be called by their right names. Elsewhere we publish a collection of the most important portions o f letters which have appeared in the public Press upon this subject.
A correspondent o f the Times, whose letter and^ h e k - y as signed “ C .,” and was published on the 14th clesiastical }nst-> said It appears to me most desirable,
law . in dealing with the motion o f Mr. Newdegate,
to ascertain from authentic and reliable sources under what conditions, restraints, and laws the inmates of convents are.” This very conscientious person, therefore, proceeded to lay before the British public a number o f passages purporting to be taken from the works o f S. Alphonsus Liguori, the Canons o f Trent, and other authorities o f the Catholic Church. We say “ purporting,” because, on turning to the Canons o f Trent, we found that, at least, these “ authentic and reliable sources,” had been treated by “ C .” after a fashion much used by gentlemen o f his way of thinking. “ The Council o f Trent,” said he, “ decides ”— and hei«, by employing the usual signs o f quotation, he professed to give the very words o f the Decree— “ that nunneries be carefully closed, and egress forbidden to the nuns under any pretext wiiKout episcopal licence.” But, in spite o f the inverted commas, the exact words o f the canon are not given, and an important qualification_“ unless for a legitimate cause”— is omitted. Thus we find th at “ C while professing to quote, does not really quote, a fact which tends to shake our confidence in him. He goes on, however, to say : “ The Fathers o f Trent also enacted, ‘ Let no
N ew Series. No, 76.
professed nun come out o f her convent under any pretext. I f any o f the regulars pretend that fear or force compelled them to enter the cloister, let them not be heard within five years o f their profession.’ ” Now, to say the least, this method o f quotation is confusing, though we doubt not it has a meaning ; for two sentences are brought together, the first o f which— if it exists anywhere— certainly has no connection with the second in the Canons o f T r e n t ; while the second, as it stands in those canons (Sess. xxv. cap. 19), says the exact reverse o f what “ C .” makes it say. Its words a r e : “ I f any regular pretends that he entered religion through force or fear, . . . let him not be heard unless within five years, and no more, from the day o f his profession.” After this little discovery, it is difficult to put any trust in “ C .” ; but it is easy to see how fitted he is by nature to be an ally o f Mr. Newdegate.
notes on convents.
With great regret we find the D a i ly News o f Thursday morning supporting Mr. Newdegate in his attempt to trespass on the privacy of religious ladies. In reply to the letter of “ A Nun ” which it had published the day before, the D a i ly N ew s urges that Mr. Newdegate and his supporters are only making a “ natural and reasonable demand forinformation,” and it adds that “ our laws protect the Roman Catholic Church in acting by every legal means in its power on the consciences of its members.” This we flatly deny. The laws o f England begin by making pious purposes illegal and by giving to these purposes the name o f “ superstitious uses.” It is then a bitter derision to talk to us, after this, o f our liberty to employ all “ legal means.” Suppose an endowment to have been made for the purpose o f ensuriug prayers for the dead ; this is a “ superstitious use,” and the property, if discovered, is forfeited to the State. Therefore, no legal foundation is possible for such a purpose. Hence, as all Catholics are bound to pray for the dead, we may be said to have no legal foundations. However this may be, our convents are certainly, in the eye o f the law, mere private houses, in which certain unmarried ladies think fit to live together. The fact, or the rumour, that any particular building is a convent, cannot legitimately remove it from the category o f private houses, and a fo r t io r i , cannot justify Mr. Newdegate in knocking at the door with a “ natural and reasonable demand for information.” The Echo also, on Thursday afternoon, takes up the same line of declamation— one cannot call it argument— and holds that, as “ workhouses and factories” are subject to inspection, it is an anomaly for English convents to be “ left wholly without surveillance by the State” ; and it goes on to say that Catholics are guilty o f “ monstrous” absurdity when they “ claim for their institutions a privacy unheard o f elsewhere in the kingdom.” We can only adopt the expression of a great Frenchman, and exclaim, in wonderin pity— “ Where on earth can these writers have been brodgft up ? ” H
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