THE TABLET

A IVeekly Newspaper and Review.

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

From the Brief oj His Holiness to T he T ablet, June 4, 1870.

Vol. 41. No. 1713. L o n d o n , F e b r u a r y 8, 1873. .

P r ice sd. B y P ost 5%

[R egistered a t th e G eneral P ost O ffice a s a N ew spaper.

C hronicle of th e W e e k : Catholic

Page

Training for Catholic Children.— Irish Education. — England and Russia. — The Eastern Question and the Armenians.— Canada and the “ Times.” — The Collision at Dungeness.— Dr. Hessel and the Police.— The Lyons Contracts Debate.— M. Thiers’s Ultimatum.— The Second Chamber an d Electoral Reform. - The Gossip of the Fusion. — Prussian “ Amendments” on the Constitution.—The Bishop of Bâle and the “ Delegates.” — The Church at Geneva.— Spain.— Episcopal Appointments . . . 157

CONTENTS

L e a d e r s :

Page

Irish Education and Radical Tactics 161 The “ Spectator” on “ Loyalty and

Faith” .................................. 161 The Irish College in Paris . . 163 O ur Protestant Contemporaries:

Church Defence.—The Athanasian Creed.— Hagiology.— The Logic of H a te ........................................... 163 R eview s :

The Life and Letters of S. Francis

X a v i e r .................................. 165 The Quarterly Review . . .166 The Eustace Diamonds . . . 167 S hort N otices : S. Anselm’s Book of Meditations and Prayers.— Christianity Suited to all Forms of Civilization. - The Truth. - Modern

Page

Theorists.— The Diplomatic Review.— L ’Empire de la Vérité.— Le L i b é r a l i sm e ...................................168 N ew Music . . . . . 169 C orrespondence :

Geology . . . . . 169 Mr. Lecky and “ My Clerical

Friends” .......................................169 S. Isidore’s at Rome . - . 169 Appalling Distress in South Wales 170 P arliam entary Summary . .170 R ome :

Letter from our own Correspondent 173 Peter’s Pence]...................................... 174 R ecord of German P ersecution,

& c . ..............................................174

D io cesan N ews :

Westminster . Beverley Birmingham . Hexham and Newcastle Nottingham . I reland:

Letter from our Dublin spondent Foreign N ews :

Russia Brazil .... M emoranda :

Religious Catholic Union Educational . Legal .... General N ews

Page . 174 - 175 • 175 • 175 . 176

Corre

. 176 . 176 . 177

. 177 . 178 . 178 . 179

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

Conservatives at least do not subscribe to the doctrines o f that R eview although, as our contemporary is forced to admit, they are “ those o f the Conservative party at large.” Our contention is, says the John B u l l— that if distinctive religious education is right in England, it cannot be wrong in Scotland and Ireland, however much we may object to its Roman or Presbyterian character; and that however tempting it may be to secure Scotch Protestant votes against the Government, the result of a defeat of the Ministry on this question would only be to hand over to their Tory successors a perplexing problem, which in the long run can only be decided in one of two ways— allowing the Roman Catholics to give primary and higher education according to their opinions (taking, of course, ample security against any foreign interference), or else the establishment everywhere of secular education. The able advocates of the latter system know this perfectly, and will act accordingly. We earnestly trust that Mr. Disraeli, Jlr. Hardy, and Lord Salisbury will prevent the party gaining a temporary advantage at a fearful permanent loss of prestige, good faith, and power, for “ all the principles which the State has,hitherto adopted “ in regard to the work of education ” demand that Roman Catholics shall have equal justice with English Churchmen and Protestant Nonconformists ; and by equal justice we mean no special advantages or no special disabilities. A ccording to the D ublin Evening Post the Catholic U n ion o f Ireland has received a “ most gracious ” reply from Mr. G ladstone to its memorial on this subject. We publish elsewhere the Pastoral o f the Irish B ishops, which treats o f education generally, and a memorial from Catholics and Protestants o f the Southern counties on the subject o f in term ediate education.

ON Thursday, the Times commented in a leading article on a recent judgm ent o f u i n u u ^ the Court o f Queen’s Bench, by which children, the daughter o f a deceased Catholic was ordered to be brought up as a Catholic, in accordance w ith an express testam entary disposition o f her dead father. T h e Times admits that this decision was in accordance with ¡the law o f the land, but denies that it is ju s t in equity, on the ground that “ at the tim e o f the marriage the usual agree“ ment was made that the sons should be brought up in the faith o f the father, and the daughters in that o f the mother,” .who is a Protestant. N ow in the first p lace, such an agreement is a ltogether an illic it one, and being an agreement to do what is in itse lf wrong cannot be morally binding on those who have, we w ill suppose ignorantly, entered in to it. .I t cannot, therefore, be described as “ the usual agree-

m en t” in any o thersense than that in which a sin m ight be •described as “ the usual sin.” But the Times assumes a high tone o f ju stice and liberality, and says that it is a “ painful illustration o f the bigotry which embitters our reli“ gious differences that such an application should ever *' have been made.” I t would have been so much better that a girl o f ten years old should have been left “ under “ the nurture under which she had hitherto liv ed” in spite o f the dying wish o f her father. N ow there is a hollowness about this parade o f ju stice which is inexpressibly shocking to those who are conversant with the treatm ent which so m any other C a tholic children o f Catholic parents have received and are receiving at the hands o f public authorities in England. There are at present we believe some thousand Irish Catholic children in London who are being brought up as Protestants in workhouse sch o o ls ; and this system has been in such constant operation since about the year 1745 that there must be tens o f thousands o f Irish at present in London who have— either in their own persons or in that o f their fathers or forefathers— been robbed o f their faith by the agency o f these schools. Y e t the Times speaks o f the restitution o f Catholic education to one child— and that In accordance with her father’s express desire— as a positive grievance. I t is revolted at the idea o f the removal of a girl o f ten years o ld from its mother’s guardianship. W e are very much m istaken i f it would not have objected still more loudly i f she had been taken away at a more tender age.

T h e John B u l l has some comments on the article in the Quarterly on Irish Education, which are so fair and true that we cannot refrain IRISH EDUCATION.

from quoting them at length

New Series. V o l , XX. in order No. 222. to show that some

T h e Journal de St. Petersbourg has broken

England siience on the Central Asian question, and maintains that it is out o f p lace to m ix up the

Persian question with the other, for England and Russia have “ agreed to maintain the in tegrity o f Persia,” and “ Khorassan and the steppes north o f the A trek which ack n o w l e d g e a llegiance to Persia are not threatened b y “ Russia.” T h e “ very friendly negotiations which have “ been going on for three years” have sim ply for their object the tracing a line o f demarcation betw een “ the regions “ within which England and Russia are respectively to exer“ c ise their c ivilizin g influence.” W e wish it may be true ; we learn from the Queen’s Speech that the negotiations are intended to settle the northern frontier line o f Afghanistan, and we shall soon, we suppose, hear what Lord G ranville chooses to tell us ; but we should like to know how it is that, i f a fort is established at the mouth o f the A trek, “ Khorassan and the steppes north o f the A trek are not “ threatened.” Can these geographical expressions be meant to be distinct from the valley o f the A trek itself, which is that in which we are principally interested ? O r— what is more probable— that no advance in that d irection is now contemplated ? N obody supposed it was, but what we object to is the acquisition by Russia o f facilities for making such an advance— in othenvords o f the k e y to theroad.