THE TABLET
A Weekly Newspaper and Review.
I )U M VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS UT IN INCCEPTIS V E STR IS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.
From the B r ie f o] His Holiness to T h e T a b l e t , June 4 , 1870.
Vol. 42. No. 1747. L ondon, October 4, 1873.
Pr ic e ¿d. B y P ost sj^cl.
[ R eg istered a t th e G en e r a l P ost Offic e a s a N ew spaper.
'C h ronicle of t h e W e e k : The
Page
Next Elections.—Our Imbroglio in Spain.—The Bombardment of Alicante.—The Press Decrees and the Carlist Campaign.—The Restoration and the Right.—Prince Napoleon and the Radicals.—M. L. Blanc, M. Gambetta, and M. Thiers. — More Fictions about Henry V .—Cardinal de Bonnechose.—Marshal MacMahon.-The Permanent Committee. — Victor Emmanuel at Vienna and Berlin. —The Persecution in Germany. —Ecclesiastical Prosecution at Bienne,—The Anglo-American Arbitration.—Transatlantic Ballooning.—The Catholic Armenians.— The Callan Scandal, &c., &c. . 417
CONTENTS
L e a d e r s :
Page
Nicholson y . Guiron . . . 421 The Intransigentes and the British
Government .... 422 Spoliation in Rome.—The Reli
gious in the Orphanages . . 423 Irish Prosperity.—V. . . 424 Our P ro testant C ontemporaries:
Corporate Reunion.—The Spifit of Revolt.—Profanity Rebuked . 425 R ev iew s :
ihe Most Blessed Virgin.—Vir F idelis.-Little Dorrit.-Simple Tales. —Poems, by the late John Williams.—Dr. Schmitz’s School History of England.—The Catholic W o r l d ............................................. 430 Correspondence :
Page
Anglicans and the Devotion to the
Sacred Heart .... 430 Antiquity of Pilgrimages amongst
Christians....................................430 Home Rule and Secularist Candi
Tent Life with English Gipsies in
N o r w a y ......................................426 Penruddocke . . . , 427 The Contemporary Review . . 427 S hort N o t ic e s : Meditations on dates ...... 431 The Persecution in Venezuela . 431 R o m e ................................................ 433
Discourse of His Holiness Pius IX .
to the Deputation of the Catholic S o c i e t i e s .................................... 433
D io cesan N ew s :
Westminster . Clifton Newport and Menevia . Shrewsbury . I reland :
Letter from our Dublin Corre spondent F oreign N ews :
France Spain .... Russia «... M em o randa:
Religious Literary Fine Arts G en e r a l N ews
Page
434 434 434 434
435
435 436 437
437 438 43S 439
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
I
T seems to be generally expected that th e next a the seat for Hull, vacated by the death e l e c t io n s . A- o f Mr. C lay, will go to swell the list of
Conservative victories, and the success o f Mr.
Henry Jam es in the approaching contest at Taunton is, to say the very best for it, extremely doubtful. A t the last «lection Mr. Serjeant Cox, a Conservative, was returned by a majority o f twenty-eight; and it was only by a one-sided scrutiny that twenty-nine votes were knocked off his list, leaving Mr. Jam es in a majority o f o n e ; the Conservatives maintaining that i f the scrutiny had been applied to his supporters also, he would still have been in a very decided minority. This time he has a popular local antagonist— to be a local candidate just now marks a strong point in a man’s favour— and after two day’s canvass, Sir Alfred Slade has informed his friends that out o f 300 votes solicited he has been promised 200. The report that the Catholics would all vote in a body for the Conservative candidate has been contradicted, perhaps by his committee in order that he may not be damaged in the eyes o f the Protestants; but Mr. Henry Jam es has shown himself such a violent champion o f Protestantism, that the Catholic support given to him is likely to be small. What invests this election with a special interest is the rumour that Government mean to treat it as a crucial test, and dissolve, i f they should be beaten, before the next meeting o f Parliament, perhaps next month. What foundation there is for this report we know not, we can only say that it is very generally believed ; and, o f course, if the run o f ill-luck seems to have no end, Ministers are very likely to have recourse to the old expedient o f changing the cards. Whether they will be more fortunate with a new pack is a secret in the womb o f the future.
We have managed, with the utmost ingenuity, 0UR to offend both parties in the Spanish struggle.
INBROGLIO IN
SPAIN.
The “ Intransigentes ” were mortally aggrieved because we had seized the two ships, by the help o f which, added to the remainder o f their fleet, they were confident that they could have secured the whole coast o f Catalonia and Valencia. The Madrid Government and its partizans were furious with us because we did not hand them over to them. The insurgents were not the least grateful to us for keeping them back from Admiral Lobo, and Señor Castelar’s friends thought nothing o f our depriving the insurgents o f the use o f them ; although,¿had they remained at Cartagena, the result of the bombardment o f Alicante might have been very different, and Barcelona and the other eastern ports might very possibly have followed the lead o f Cartagena. We have pleased neither side, and have put ourselves in an utterly inconsistent position. In the first place we were made a catspaw by the Germans,
N ew S e r i e s . V o l , X . No. 256.
who were too wise to keep the ships themselves ; and having them on our hands, we did not know what to do with them, as we acknowledged neither o f the belligerents as a regular Government. Then we were obliged to do something with them, and at last made up our minds to hand them over to the Madrid Government. But with characteristic blundering, we did so just too late. We only gave them up on the Friday, and the two days delay before the bombardment o f Alicante expired on Saturday night or Sunday morning. A t six in the morning the bombardment began, and it was o f course impossible that the V itoria and Almansa should be got ready and sent to Alicante in time to stop it. We do not in the least complain because, our squadron, together with the ships o f the other Powers, looked on, and “ kept the ring” for the combatants, but what we do object to is our taking possession o f the insurgent frigates in order to prevent the bombardment o f one town, and our neglecting to give them up—if we were to give them up— in time to prevent the bombardment o f another. Alicante may well be jealous o f the good fortune o f Almeria. It is true that we wished to insist on four days’ delay instead o f two, and that it was only General Martinez Campos’s impatience which, by insisting on fire being immediately opened on the insurgent ships, gave rise to the eventual compromise o f a two days’ armistice. But we have had plenty o f time in which to decide whether we were going to give up the vessels or not, and there can be no excuse for our running it so fine as that two days should make all the difference whether the ships could or could not be used to prevent the very offence for an intention to commit which they were originally taken into our custody.
A t six in the morning o f Sunday the insurgent frigates, the Nunancia and the Mendez a l i c a n t e . -Nunez, having taken up their position east o f the jetty, began to bombard the place, the
Mendez Nunez directing its fire principally against the Castle, which, i f it had fallen, would have destroyed part o f the town. The town itself is described as not regularly fortified, but defended by an improvised sea-wall on which guns were planted, and this suffered severely from the cannonade. About 500 projectiles were thrown into the place, some of them stated— probably erroneously, as in other cases — to have been filled with petroleum; several buildings were, o f course, destroyed, the Government house was struck, and eight persons are reported to be killed. But the fire o f the garrison was still more effective, the funnel o f the Mendez Nunez and all its “ dead works ” were smashed, the bridge o f the Numancia was “ covered with projectiles,” so that at half-past eleven the two ships sheered off towards Cartagena. The Fernando Catolico took no part in the attack, but went off towards the east before the engagement began,
