A Weekly Newspaper and Review.

DOM VOBIS GRATOLAMDR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMÜS OT IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEAT1S.

From the B r ie f oj H is Holiness P iu s IX . to The T ablet, June 4, IS70.

V o l . 89. No. 2957.

L ondon, J anuary 9, 1897.

P r ic e sd. by Post s$£d

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

C hronicle of t h e W e e f •

Page

The German Emperor on Duelling — Sir Edward Clarke on the Taxation of Ireland— The Cause of the Inequality — Twenty Years of “ Truth ”—M. He NelidofTs Nnte to the Sultan— Dolls in Churches — The Development of Devonport — A Miners’ C o n fe r e n c e a t Leicester— Colliery Explosion in South Wales-TitheCommutation : Present V a 1 ties — Remarkable Finds at Nuflfar— Mr. Rhodes at Capetown—The Banquet— A Protest from Pretoria— The Question of Justice in Taxation — Great Britain and France in the Red Sea . . ......................... ..41 L e a d e r s :

Cardinal Vaughan on the Schools 45 'Russia and the Manchurian Rail­

w a y ............................................... 45 'The Pictures of Mr. G. F . Watts,

R .A ., at the New Gallery . . 46

CONTENTS.

“ The Church Tim es” on Con­

tinuity . . . . . . . . 4 7 The Origin of M a n ......................... 49 N o t e s ..................................................... 5° R e v i e w s :

Page

A Modern Tertullian . . . . 52 Letters of Frederick Lord Blach-

ford.. . . . . •• •• 53 The Life and Works of Lord

M acaulay.. . . . . . . . 54 Tom Sawyer, Detective . . . . 54 Swept out to Sea . . . . •• 55 The Farm in the Karoo .. . . 55 The Royal Christopher l . . . . 55 Books of the Week . . . . •• 55 C orrespondence :

Rome :—(From Our Own Corre­

spondent) ......................... — 57 News from Ireland ... — — 59 News From France . . . . 61 L e t t e r s to t h e E d it o r :

Evolution and Dogma . . . . 62 Dr. Creighton and the Nuncio . . 63

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

tinued : Relics o f St. Thomas of Canter­

Page

bury.. . . . . . . ..64 ‘ ‘ Diana Vaughan ” .........................64 The English Ordinal The Catholic Social Union Some Anglican Law Are there Female Freemasons? Church or Chapel ? The Education Question Association o f the Venerable Col­

lege of St. Thomas de Urbe The Late Mr. Bertram W. Currie.. Cardinal Vaughan at the Article

C l u b ......................... . . . Grievances of Irish Catholics “ The Feast of the Purification ” .. Social a n d P o l it ic a l

SU PPLEM ENT. N ew s from t h e Schools:

Undenominational Teaching at

the Charterhouse.. The Education Bill

N ew s from t h e S chools (Con­

tinued): Sir John Gorst and the Education

Crisis . . ......................... n-i A Methodist Defence of Denomi­

national Schools .. Hopes for the New Year . . The School Question at Exeter The Educational Outlook The Condition of Rural and

Page

Small Schools. English as She is Wrote Downside and the Universities. N ew s from t h e D io ceses Westminster

Southwark . . Birmingham.. Clifton Middlesbrough Northampton Aberdeen On the Way to Mauritius The Literature o f the Pope1

on Anglican Orders

Bull

79

Rejected MS. cannot be returned unless accompanied with address

and postage.

CHRONICLE OF THE V/EEK.

ON DUELLING. A

THE GERMAN EMFEROR

C A B I N E T Order has been issued

by the German Emperor in which rules are laid down with _ view to the discouragem ent o f duel­

lin g in the army. T h e simple plan o f announcing that every officer who k illed a man in a duel would be promptly hanged, and that in cases where a duel had no fatal termination both combatants would be dism issed from the service, was probably im possible in the present state o f public opinion. A l l disputes are in future to b e subm itted to a Council o f Honour which will investigate and report. That, at any rate, secures delay, and in matters in which temper plays sc large a part •delay is o f much importance. T h is Council is to be com posed o f a captain, a first lieutenant, and a second lieutenant o f th e regim ent or battalion to whom the parties belong. T h is Council has authority over all subalterns, the higher officers o f the army being dealt with separately. I t may decide that the case is too serious to be settled summarily, or it may decide that it is too trivial to affect the honour o f either party. T h e latter finding is equivalent to a prohibition of the duel— the former involves a reference to a Court o f H onour composed for subalterns o f all the officers o f the regim ent or battalion, presided over b y th e commanding officer. There is an appeal from the Court o f Honour to the Emperor in person. Whether these regulations will prove effective in discouraging duelling obviously depends upon the prevailing sentiment as to what professional honour requires. I t is a little curious that no provision is made either to give satisfaction to the insulted party or to punish the aggressor. T h e function o f the investigators seems lim ited to ascertaining whether the provocation offered is serious enough to justify a duel in military opinion. T h e C a th o l ic Kolnische Volkszeitung says : “ That the order will finally eradicate the duel in the Prussian army no one who reads it will ventu-e to hope. T o achieve that end it would have required to have something o f the same tenour as the supplement to the A rticles o f W ar which abolished duelling in the English army— every officer who fights a duel will be dism issed the Arm y. T h e Cabinet order is not based upon the English view, as is evident from the repeated employ-

Nrw Series Voi.. T.VII., No. 2,?66

m e n to f th e expressions 'p ro fessional honour’ (Standesehre), and ‘ rules o f professional conduct’ (Standessitte) — attributes which, it would seem, reserve for the officer a peculiar code o f honour and rule o f conduct o f his own.” T h e VossiscAe Zeiiung remarks that the order is distinctly less stringent than a set o f regulations on the same subject that were published in 1843. These began with the unequivocal words : “ Duelling and challenging to a duel are forbidden by the law and constitute a penal offence.” N o t th e less the Cabinet Order is a step in the right direction, and will at least lim it the number o f duels— and public opinion must do the rest.

In his address to his constituents at

S A E rH FA t

a

P lym outh on M onday evening Sir

o f I r e l a n d . Edward C la rke once more came forward

as the candid friend o f the Government.

H e devoted h im self to the consideration o f the situation opened out by the Report o f the F inancial Relations Com mission, and declared that i f the grievance was really as represented b y the Report the Unionist Party should show itself ready to right the wrong. T ru st in the willingness o f the Im perial Parliam ent to do justice to Ireland had been one o f the strongest arguments in warding o ff H om e Rule, and the maintenance o f such an attitude was necessary i f the position won by Unionists was to be held. Sir Edward C la rke’s sketch o f the financial relations between England and Ireland had the merit o f brevity and clearness. P re vious to the Union the Exchequers o f the two countries had been distinct, and Ireland was in debt. A ccordingly, when the amalgamation was effected it was arranged that Ireland should bear two-seventeenths o f the taxation o f the whole country, which worked out in such a way that every individual in Great Britain paid threearid-a-half times as much as persons in Ireland. Owing to the continuance o f the great war, however, Ireland could not pay her share o f the taxation, and accordingly a readjustment took p lace in i8 r 6 b y which it was determ ined that all future expenses should be defrayed indiscrim inately b y equal taxes on similar articles in each country, and such taxes should be im posed and applied, subject only to particular exemption or abatements in Ireland and Scotland as circum stances might appear from time to tim e to demand. From that tim e the system o f taxation in Great Britain and Ireland had been one and the same, subject o f course to the “ exemptions and abatem en ts” in question. T h e separation in the government o f the two countries in volved in the H om e R u le schemes of 1886 and 1893 rendered necessary an