THE TABLET

A W eekly Newspaper and Review.

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

From the Brief o] H is Holiness to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, 1870.

Voi. 41. No. 1725. L ondon, May 3, 1873.

Price5cL B yP o sT s^ d .

[R eg is tered a t t h e G en e r a l P o st O f f ic e a s a N ew s paper .

Page

^Ch r o n i c l e o f t h e W e e k : Direct

Taxation. — Local Taxation and Income Tax.—Titles and Transfer o f Land.—The Court of Judicature and the Chancery Bar.— Irish Railways. — Woman Suffrage. —• 'T he 25th Clause.— The Paris Elec­

tion.— Its Effect on the Govern;ment Policy.— Declaration of M. Thiers.— Opinions of the Press.— Rumoured Ministerial Changes.— The Anarchy in Spain.— Political History o f the Crisis.— The Carlists and their Rivals.— The German Persecution and Schism.— The Bishop o f Bâle.— The Modoc

Indians.— The Athanasian Creed . 553

L e a d e r s :

O N T E N T S

Page

C orrespondence :

Page

The Paris Election The Callan Schools

Bouverie’s Motion Church and State R e v ie w s :

Roots Little Kate K irby Madonna’s Child and • 557 Mr.

• 557 • 559

. 560 . 562 . 562

S h ort N o t i c e s : The Dove of the

Protestant Orders . . . 564 “ Catholic Popular Literature” . 565 The Church o f the English Mar­

tyrs, Tower-hill . . . 595

P a r l ia m e n t a r y S ummary

• 565

R ome :

Letter from our own Correspondent 569

Tabernacle. — Etudes Religieuses. — Revue du Monde Catholique.— The Month o f Mary for Interior S o û l s .............................................563 N ew M usic :

Mass of S. Wilfrid

563

D io c e sa n N ew s :

Meeting o f the Catholic Poor

School Committee Westminster Southwark Beverley

• 570 • 570 . 57i

571

I r e lan d :

Page

Letter from our Dublin Corre­

spondent ...................................... 571 F oreign N ew s :

France

Russia

571

572

M em o randa :

Fine Arts :—

The Art and History of Illumi­

nation ..... 573 Legal :—

The Trial o f Castro, otherwise called Orton, otherwise Sir R. Tichborne, Bart. . . . 573

G en er a l N ews

• 576

CHRONICLE OF THE W EEK .

DIRECT TAXATION. W 'E ventured to anticipate last week that whatever subject might engage the attention o f our legis­

lators, refreshed by the Easter recess, it would be discussed in a purely party spirit. In that prediction we were tolerably safe. It has been fulfilled already. The motion o f Mr. W. H. Smith, that the House should refuse to make any further reduction o f indirect taxation until the Government revealed its intentions on the collateral subject o f direct taxation, was supported by an able speech, and provoked from Mr. Lowe an equally able rejoinder. But both the attack and the defence owed their vigour to motives and feelings in which the public interest had the smallest possible part. It was something less prosaic and monstrous which gave to the debate its unusual vivacity. When Mr. Smith suggested that the consumer would derive no benefit from the reduced duty on sugar, he was more anxious to damage the Government than to protect the public ; and when Mr. Lowe replied, with an animation which almost surprised the Llouse, that this was equivalent to a “ vote of censure,” he showed that he neither attributed to his political opponents, nor claimed for himself any sentimental regard for the tax-payer. Both were, thinking of something else, and the ostensible subject o f discussion was nearly lost sight o f in the more exciting struggle of party warfare. This is the first chapter of the revived Session, and we may be sure that all the rest will resemble it. Whether the nation is likely to profit by such a mode o f conducting its affairs, it would be idle to enquire, nor are we sanguine enough to dream that future legislation will be shaped by any larger or purer motive. As long as political parties aim first at their own glorification, and devise measures chiefly with the object of promoting it, the public at large must be content to feed upon such crumbs as fall from their well-spread table. Parliamentary government, as everybody knows, is the most perfect device o f human wisdom, and England possesses it in its noblest form ; yet it is perhaps permitted to regret that its incomparable excellence should be dimmed so often by human selfishness, and impaired by the too frequent introduction of side issues with which the public welfare is only remotely concerned.

LOCAL TAXATION AND IN­

COME TAX.

But while deprecating the decision o f such questions on party grounds, we cannot pass over some of the other arguments employed without a word of protest. Mr. Goschen seems to make it a matter of accusation against the Conservatives that they would saddle personal as well as real property with the obligation of contributing to local burdens]; and further, that when taxation is to be diminished they would give the preference to payers o f income-tax rather than to the

New Series. Y o l , IX. No. 234.

payers o f indirect taxes. Now we consider it unfair and mischievous to endeavour to affix to either political party the stigma that it is sacrificing the poor to the rich. In the first place it is untrue, for the limits between poor and rich and those between the payers o f direct and indirect taxes by no means even approximately coincide. And in the second place, as far as future financial legislature is concerned, the richer classes are far more likely to be sacrificed to the poorer than the poorer to the richer. And we will go with the Conservatives so far as this, that we think there is a good deal in the point which the Standard makes when it asks why the merchant who earns ,£50,000 a year in Liverpool should contribute less to the revenues o f the town than the owner o f ,£1,000 a year in cottage property ; why the millowner, who has ,£100,000 invested in his mill, machinery, cotton, and wages fund, should pay only for the ¿£20,000 invested in the mill, while the land-owner, whose property is worth ¿£100,000, pays on the whole. And we are also disposed to admit that there is something in the argument that as, whenever there is a deficit, it is the income tax which is augmented, it is oniy fair that when there is an excess of revenue the income tax should be the first to be relieved.

TITLES AND TRANSFER OF

LAND.

On Tuesday the Lord Chancellor brought in his Bill for the simplification of the transfer o f land. The principle o f the change consists in the establishment o f an official register, not only for absolutely unassailable titles, o f which it has been proved that there are comparatively few— there having been only 547 applications, and only 274 successful applications, for registration under Lord Westbury’s Bill— but for all other titles good enough to come into the market. Any measure that the present Lord Chancellor introduces is sure o f a respectful reception from the profession, and Lord Cairns expressed a hope that the measure would receive full consideration and then become law. But he thought that a measure so abounding in details ought to lie on the table for at least a month before its second reading. Lord Hatherley started an objection concerning the proposed cutting down o f the statutory period of limitation, and suggested the necessity o f a map, which the Lord Chancellor said he did not intend to introduce as a rule ; but these are minor points which will be easily arranged, and if Lord Selborne succeeds in enabling people to execute a conveyance for a reasonable sum, as well as in reconstructing our Law Courts, he will only have to codify our law in order to have accomplished by himself reforms which will suffice for a whole generation.

THE COURT OF JUDICATURE AND

THE CHANCERY

BAR.

He has, however, received a warning which it would be well not to neglect. Nearly the whole of the Chancery Bar have delivered to him a protest against one feature in the new Courts o f Judicature Bill. The Equity business is daily increasing and treading closely on the heels