A Weekly Newspaper a n d Review .

DUM VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.

F r o m th e B r i e f o j H i s H o l in e s s P i u s I X . to T h e T a b l e t , J u n e 4 , 18 70 .

V ol. 90. No. 2992. L ondon, S eptember i i , 1897. P r ic e $<3., b y P o s t

[R e g i s t e r e d a t t h e G e n e r a l P o s t O f f i c e a s a N ew s p a p e r .

C h ro n ic le o f t h e W e e k ! Page

Shall Palestine Revert to the Jews?— Three Years in the Far North— Unrest in Germany — T.-ade Unionists at Birmingham— The Franco-Russian Alliance and England--Another Anarchist Outrage in Barcelona — The Engineers’ Strike— The Royal Visit to Ireland : Au Revoir— The French Ministry and the People — The Peace Negotiations—The Indian “Frontier— Railway Developments 397 L e a d e r s :

The New Era at Oscott . . . . 401 T h e Indian Border.. . . . . 402 The Agricultural Commission . . 403 St. Augustine, Apostle of the

English . . _ . . . . . • 404 English Benedictines a t Ebbs

Fleet . . . . . . . . 405 N o t e s . . . . — — . . 4 0 7

CONTENTS.

R e v ie w s !

Page

Roger Bacon’s Opus Maj us . . 408 A Great Schoolmaster . . . . 410 A Saint’s Correspondence . . 410 The Last Entry . . . . . . 410 Old Corcoran’s Money . . ..411 The Church in the Antipodes . . 411

t

^

L e t t e r s t o t h e E d it o r (Con­

tinued : Teaching in the Church o f Eng­

Page

land ..................................... A Remarkable Omission . . 418 418 The History o f Messianic Interpre­

tation . . . . ,. . . 418

C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :

Rome (From Our Own Corre-

spondent) . . . . «. ». 413 News from Ireland — — 414 News from France . . . . . . 416

The Thirteenth Centenary of the

Landing o f St. Augustine . . 41g The New Central Seminary . . 420 The Dominicans . . . . . . 423

L e t t e r s t o t h e E d it o r :

St. Gregory’s Mass Book and

Antiphonary ......................... 417 The Authority o f the Anglican

Church . . . . . . . . 417 Vagaries o f the Post Office . . 417

An Anglican Bishop on the Lambeth

Conference . . . . . . . . 424 Will ................................................ 424 Books of the W e e k ......................... 424 S o c ia l a n d P o l i t i c a l . . . . 424

SUPPLEMENT. N ew « from t h e S c h o o l s :

Page

Oxford and Cambridge Higher

Certificates Examinations . . 429 Religious Teaching in Board

Schools . . . . . . . . 430 Nonconformists and the Creed . . 431 The Treatment of Backward

Children . . . . . . . . 431 The Areas of Schools Associa­

tions . . . . . . . . 432 N ew s from t h e D io ceses : Westminster

Southwark . . Hexham and Newcastle . . Liverpool . . Nottingham ......................... Salford ......................... The Vicariate .............. Glasgow Dunkeld . . . . , r

432 432 433 433 433 434 434 434 435

Rejected MS. cannot be returned unless accompanied with address

and postage.

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

SHALL PALESTINE

REVERT TO THE

JEWS?

S '

OME public interest has been

aroused in England, as on the Continent, with regard to Dr. Herzl’s proposal for the purchase of

Palestine by the voluntary contributions of the Jews o f the world. Those who remember the impassioned pleadings in D a n i e l D e r o n d a will under stand how powerfully such a scheme must appeal to the imaginations of men familiar with an abiding tradition that the Holy Land shall some day take its place among the nations as an independent Jewish State. It is not a little curious, therefore, to note that the official leaders of Judaism in this country, as in Germany, are absolutely opposed to Dr. Herzl’s plan. Dr. Adler, who is the Chief Rabbi of the United Orthodox Congregations of the British Empire, has denounced the recent Zionist Congress at Basel as an egregious blunder. He believes that the idea of establishing a Jewish State in Palestine is absolutely mischievous. “ It is contrary to Jewish principles, the teaching of the prophets, and the traditions of Judaism. It is a movement that can be fraught with incalculable harm, which can be entirely perverted, and which might lead people to think that we Jews are not fired with ardent loyalty for the country in which it is our lot to be placed.” Dr. Adler adds that in speaking thus he believes that he is but expressing the common opinion in the Anglo-Jewish community. Mr. Oswald Simon takes the same view. He urges that the chief promoter of the movement, Dr. Herzl, is not an orthodox Jew, but an agnostic. He holds the leaders of “ this wild agitation ” responsible for a folly which may claim many victims. Even if it were possible to secure a national independence for Palestine as a petty neutral State, would that be the realization of the Prophets’ ideal ? Finally he denounces the scheme as an outrage upon common sense, and one which is calculated to attract an emigration to Palestine which would end in disease and starvation. He concludes that it is the duty of the Rabbis to discourage by every means in their power emigration to a country which is already over populated and unhealthy.

THREE YEARS

IN THE FAR NORTH.

Arctic exploration and the men who have undertaken it have had a large place in the public mind during the past twelve months, and the arrival of Mr. F. Jackson, the

leader of the Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition to Franz Josef Land, in London on Saturday, has served to jog the general interest. Mr. Jackson left the Thames on July i r , 1894, in the steam yacht W in d w a r d, and has now returned with the members of his expedition all safe and sound, after a sojourn of three years in the far north. The results of the prolonged and persevering scientific observations made by the expedition cannot yet be made public. It would hardly be possible for the meteorological and magnetic observations extending over so long a period, and the geological, botanical, and zoological collections which have been made, to be barren in results. The geographical work accomplished has been partly described and partly anticipated by Nansen, who had told us the news o f the careful mapping out of Franz Josef Land and of the settlement of the much-vexed question of the existence of Gillies Land. Nansen’s theory that only sea stretches to the north of the frozen areas is confirmed by Mr. Jackson’s discoveries. Gillies Land has been proved to be nonexistent, at least where the geographers placed it. The place assigned to it is occupied by an archipelago, and north of that an open sea, which has been named Queen Victoria Sea. Mr. Jackson was interviewed immediately on his arrival in the Thames, and gave many interesting details of his sojourn in the Arctic regions, the full measure of the success of which we are yet to learn. Even with our present knowledge of what has been accomplished, there need be no backwardness in saying that the expedition has been singularly successful. It met Nansen and Johansen at a critical moment in their long tramp over the ice, it has mapped out Franz Josef Land, and has come home without the record of a day’s sickness. One statement of Mr. Jackson’s shows how vu y far out of the ordinary world he was. Until he returned to a post-office and telegraph station he did not know that the F r a m had arrived in safety a few days after Nansen. He gave the interviewer some interesting details in regard to the Arctic winter. In the Arctic regions the sunset is last seen about the middle of October, and no sunrise is seen till about the third week of February. Until the second week in November, however, there is a period of two or three hours’ twilight in the middle of the day, but from November to February there is no difference between midday and midnight. Speaking of various methods that have been suggested for reaching the Pole, Mr. Jackson says that he sees nothing to prevent Andrée getting there, but that luck will be a considerable factor ,in his success. At any rate, provisions have been left for him at Eltnwood in a hut marked

N e w S e r i e s . V o i . L V I I I . , N o . 2 ,3 0 1 .