THE TABLET

A Weekly Newspaper and Review

D u m VOBIS GRATULAM U R , AN IM O S ETIAM ADDIMUS U T IN INCCEPTIS V E STR IS CONSTANTER M ANEATIS.

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

Vol. 41. No. 1731. L ondon, June 14, 1873.

prices* bypost5*sci.

[R e g 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 pa p e r .

C h r o n i c l e o f t h e W e e k : The

Page

Irish Courts and the Government o f the Church.— Lord Russell’s Nostrums. — The Law of Conspiracy.— The Rating Bill.—Diplomatic Relation with the French Government.— The French Budget and Commercial Treaties. — M. Ranc’s Election.— The Press Circular.— Circular to the Diplomatists.— Spain — The Federal Republie.-Third and Fourth ‘ ‘Crisis.” — The Carlists. — Disorganization o f the Army,—The Papal Allocution and the Prussian Courts.— Prince Bismarck and the Holy See. — Death of Dr. Loos — “ The Utrecht Catholics.” — China and the Pauthays, &c., &c. . . 745

C O N T

L e a d e r s :

Page

The Sixteenth of June . • 749 The Last Thing in Constitutions . 750 The Select Committee on the

Callan Schools .... 75° Royal Academy . . . . 751 O ur P r o t e s t a n t C on tem po rar ie s :

Quarrels of Unbelievers.— Apropos of M. Littré.— Freedom in Germany.— Journalism in Excelsis.— A Teacher of Religion . . . 752 R e v iew s :

The Question o f Anglican Ordina­

tions Discussed .... 753 The Catholic World . . 754 Manuale SacrarumCseremoniarium 755 S h ort N o t ic e s : Sins' of the

Tongue.-Modern Christianity and Civilized Heathenism.— The Con

E N T S .

Page temporary Review.— Lectures on Certain Portions of the Earlier Old Testament History. — Spiritual Guidance.-Cook’s Tourist’s Handbook. — Curability o f Cancer.— Essays and Tracts by Willis Nevins 755 C orrespondence :

“ The Dublin Review” and the Do­

minican Schools .... 757 O x f o r d ............................................... 757 The Heart o f S. Teresa . . 757 Mission of the Most Blessed Sacra­

ment ...... 757 An Appeal . . . . ,7 5 7 A C a u t i o n ...................................... 757 P a r l ia m e n t a r y S ummary . . 758 R ome :

Letter from our own Correspondent 76*

Album of Signatures Presented to

His Holiness, &c.

Page

. . 762

D io c e sa n N ew s :

Westminster .

. . 762

Southwark . . . • • 763 Beverley - 763 Birmingham . . 765 Clifton • 76s Liverpool • 76s Northampton . 705 I r e lan d :

Letter from our Dublin Correspondent

• 765

F oreign N ews :

France

M em o randa :

. . 766

Religious— Catholic Union—Legal 767 G en er a l N ews .... 767

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

THE IRISH COURTS AND THE GOVERN­

MENT OF THE CHURCH.

NOW that the text of the judgment delivered last week in the Callan case is before us, we cannot help thinking that it is far less favourable than it at first appeared to be. The main point, in our opinion, and a most vital one, is the legality— the permissive legality, if we may use the expression— of an act of spiritual government on the part of the Pope. But three out of four judges still affirm that the suspension was not “ legal,” on the ground that it rested on the Rescript, the Rescript being itself rendered 41 illegal ” by the statutes of Elizabeth. And, even although the Court should ultimately decide that the plea of privilege or any other plea in justification is good in law, the monstrous fact remains, that after all that has been done in the way of legalizing the free exercise of the Catholic religion, one of its main features, the supreme spiritual government of the Holy See, is crippled by the continued operation of a couple of antiquated Acts, avowedly intended to render the exercise of that religion impossible.

On Monday Lord Russell brought in a Bill russecl’s “ f°r t^lebetter government of Ireland,” the nostrums, remedies prescribed being the abolition of the

Lord Lieutenancy, the creation of a Secretaryship of State, and the transfer of the supreme control over education from the Irish National Board to the Privy Council Office at Whitehall. The first two proposals may be considered as padding, inserted that the Bill might not appear to be exclusively in the interest of Mr. O’Keeffe, for as practical suggestions for the “ better government of Ire“ land they are worthless.” The Lord Lieutenant is a State official of an ornamental character, the abolition of whose office would affect the government of Ireland about as much as the removal of the Lord Steward or Lord Chamberlain would affect the government of England. And as to the ■ creation of a Secretary of State for Ireland, there is one already, for the Chief Secretary is now a Cabinet Minister. We may fairly believe, then, that the last provision in Lord Russell’s Bill is the one to which he attaches most importance, and the prominence given to it in his speech showed his feeling on the subject. He was great on the question whether Ireland was to be governed by Queen Victoria or Pope Pius IX., and gave a fresh proof of his incurable inability to distinguish between spiritual and temporal government. One of his main points was that the Commissioners had no right to remove Mr. O ’Keeffe from the management of schools on the ground of his being a bad priest; they should have taken nothing into consideration but the question whether he was a good manager. He entirely forgot that Mr. O’Keeffe was ap-

New Series. Y o l , IX . No. 240.

pointed manager because he was the parish priest, and when he ceased in the eyes of Catholics to be parish priest, had no longer the same qualification as manager. There has been far too much talk about the rights of the manager ; what we want to see insisted on are the rights of the Catholic parents and children to have a Catholic and not a schismatical manager over the schools. And we hear little or nothing about the right of the local school committee who appointed Mr. O’Keeffe to have a manager of whom they approve. There was, by-the-bye, another proposal in Lord Russell’s Bill, intended as a remedy for agrarian outrage ; it was, that the verdict of eight jurymen out of twelve should be sufficient in trials which are not for capital offences; a somewhat curious method of stopping assassination.

The debate at the end of last week on the the law of “ Masters and Servants ” question, after elici-

ing from Mr. Eykyn the opinion that the gasstokers only got what they deserved, resulted at last in a definite statement of the grievance. It is this ; that though the Act applies to masters as well as to workmen, and punishes each with imprisonment for certain acts, it does not practically and never can apply to the former. How many masters, asked Mr. James, had been imprisoned under the Act? The Times supplies a pertinent answer in the form of two other questions. How many masters have committed the offence, and, if any, why have they not been prosecuted ? Many of the Unions have ample funds. The aim of our present legislation is to legalize combination but to prevent its being made compulsory, a distinction well insisted on by Lord Fitzwilliam in his effective oration to the miners of the Stubbin pit. If, however, Mr. Harcourt can devise any improvement in the law of conspiracy which will relieve trade unionists from unreasonable restrictions without enabling them to intimidate their fellow-workmen or the public, no one is likely to object any more than Mr. Gladstone did on Tuesday night. But the measure of relief must be carefully kept within these limits.

On Tuesday the Commons had a morning the rating s;tqng devoted to the interesting occupation of discussing in Committee Mr. Stansfeld’s Bills. The whole time was taken up by a hostile motion of Mr. Scourfield’s that the first of them, the Rating Liability and Valuation Bill, should be referred to a Select Committee. The Bill failed to redeem the pledge given in answer to Sir Massey Lopes’s resolution, it was a blank, and would create confusion in the assessment of rates, the machinery for rating Government property was inequitable, the taxing of woods would diminish the growth of timber, the high rating of country houses was unjust, and the rating of game impossible. These were the principal objections, and Mr. Ward Hunt and Mr. Henley both supported the motion for a Select Committee. Mr. Gladstone, however, pointed out