THE TAB L

A VReekly Newspaper and Review

D u m VOBIS G R A TU LAM U R , AN IM O S ET IAM ADDIM U S U T IN INCCEPTIS V E S TR IS CONSTAN TER M AN EA T IS .

From the Brief of H is Holiness to T he T a b l e t , June 4, 1870.

Vol. 45. No. 1833. L ondon, May 29, 1875.

P rice 50!. B y P ost

[R e g is tered a t th e G en e r a l P o st O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper

C h ro n ic le o f t h e W e e k :—

Page

Russia and the Holy See.— Processions in Belgium.—The Duchesne Affair.— Another Offer to Murder.-The Alleged Plot against Prince Bismarck and Dr. Falck.— The Administration of the Sees of Posen and Breslau.— Germany and France.— The Italian Government and the “ Exequatur.” — Mr. Grant Duff on the Prussian Policy. — Prince Bismarck and Prince -Gortschakoff.-Russia and England. Church Legislation in Prussia — Count Munster and the English Press.— The Tipperary Petition.— Baroda.— The Protestant Alliance and Catholic Pauper Children.— Political Meetings at Madrid, &c. 673

C O N T

L e a d e r s :

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Mr. Disraeli and Count Munster 677 Education of Pauper Children .. 677 Small Landed Proprietors, Ireland 678 O ur P r o t e s t a n t C o n tem po r ar ie s :

The Church in the West . . .. 679 R e v ie w s :

The Dublin Review . . . . 681 Norton Broadland .. . . .. 682 The Contemporary Review .. 683 Principia Dogmatico-Moralia Uni-

versae Theologiae Sacramentalis 684 S hort N otices :

St. Patrick’s Manual . . . . 684 Mary, Star of the Sea . . T. 684 C hurch M usic :

Accampagnements d’orgue com­

posés pour le Gradual, & c . . . 684

E N T S .

C orrespondence :

Page

Church Music . . . . . . 685 Jubilees. .. .. . . . . 680 The Catholic Schools o f the Holy

Land . . .. .. . . 686 The Lock-out at Pontypool .. 686 The Long and Cruel Lock-out at

EbbwVale.. .........................686 P a r l ia m en t a r y S ummary . . 686 R ome :— Letter from our own Cor­

respondent .........................689 D io c e sa n N ew s :— Westminster.— Pastoral Letter to the Clergy and Laity of the Diocese of Westminster, Trinity Sunday ....................................690 Southwark . . . . .. . . 691

D iocesan (continued) :

Birmingham .. .. .. . . 692 Clifton .. .. . . .. 692 Liverpool . . .. .. . . 692 Newport and Menevia . . . . 692 Plymouth .. . . . . . . 692 Shrewsbury .. . . .. . . 692 Scotland— Western District . . 693 I r e l a n d :

Letter from our Dublin Corre­

spondent . . . . . . . . 693 F oreign N e w s :—

Belgium . . . . . . . . 694 Germany .. . . . . . . 694 France.. .. . . . . . . 695 M em oranda :—

Religious .. .........................696 Cricket .. .. .. .. 696 G en er a l N ews ......................... 697

CH RON IC LE OF T H E W E E K .

THIS is one of those moments in which al­

most everything that the telegrams have bjsjs asserted is being contradicted. It is denied at St. Petersburg that any such agreement as had been alleged to have been negotiated between Russia and the Holy See has been concluded, and the same authority adds that on the contrary the modus vivendi in operation since 1868 is now to be departed from, and that direct communication between the Bishops and Rome is no longer to be permitted by the State, all such communications passing for the future through the Russian Ministry.

It is also denied, and in the most positive processions manner, by the Norddeutsche Zeitung, that in Belgium. p r;nce B ism a rck ever issued a circular despatch directing the attention of the Powers to the growth of the French military organization, and it is stated that there is no truth whatever in the report that Count Perponcher had presented to the Belgian Government a demand for the suppression of religious processions. But though Germany may not have brought any pressure to bear in this direction, and though the Belgian Government has not itself done -anything of the kind, many of the municipal authorities are so hostile, and known to be so hostile, to religion, that the Radical mobs in the great towns, always fond of the argument of the stick, are having it very much their own way. Thus at Ghent last week a procession of pilgrims to a sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin at Oastacker, near that town, were set upon by a crowd of men armed with bludgeons and life-preservers, who were drawn up systematically on each side of the road which the pilgrims were to take. O f the pilgrims 500 are said to have been injured, and one has died— the doctors say from sunstroke, but his friends are inclined to believe from a more material blow, inasmuch as the day was not sunny, and the incident occurred at six in the evening. Neither the police nor the municipality seem to have shown any great zeal in the punishment of the offenders, but the municipality of Liège has prohibited the great procession of Corpus Christi, and that of Brussels, a pilgrimage which “ was organized in that city.” Another procession, not in any way connected with the latter, but which started from one of the parish churches of the capital on Sunday, was set upon by a mob of roughs and students, broken up, and dispersed, but the police charged the rioters with drawn swords, and the students subsequently restricted themselves to hooting in front of the different Religious houses in the city.

The Court of First Instance at Liège has th e duchesnf. decided that Belgian law affords no ground affair . for proceeding against Duchesne for the pro-

posai to enter into a conspiracy for the purN ew Series. V ol. XIII. No. 342.

pose of assassinating Prince Bismarck. The papers relative to the affair were communicated to Count Perponcher, the German Minister, on Saturday, with explanations, as Count d’Aspremont Lynden stated in the Senate on Monday, reserving further comment till the communication to the German Government had been acknowledged. The Echo du Parlement learned “ from a good source" that the Government intended to bring in a Bill making a proposal to commit a crime of this kind punishable, even though no attempt should be made to put it in execution, and on Tuesday Count d’Aspremont announced that intention to the Senate. “ An unaccepted offer or proposal to attempt the life of any “ person ” is to be “ severely punishable, in the same manner “ as a threat to make any such attempt.” Baron d’Anethan, in the name of the Right, and M. Dolez, in the name of the Left, both approved the course taken by the Government, and a resolution to that effect, proposed conjointly by those two members, was unanimously carried. But while Baron d’Anethan defended M. Dolez censured the utterances of the Belgian Bishops, and especially the Pastoral of the Bishop of Namur, to all which criticism M. Malou, the Minister of Finance and brother of the late Bishop of Bruges, replied that “ Belgium must be careful to uphold liberty of speech at “ home,” but that “ people should only speak with wisdom “ and moderation of what passed in other countries adding, “ We are now in a position which it is the interest of parties “ of all shades of opinion to bring to an end ”— none of which propositions will anybody be inclined to dispute.

A precisely similar case seems to have offerHEto ar‘sen Austria. A man of the name of murder. Wiesingen has been arrested at Vienna, accord­

ing to Reuter’s telegram, for having attempted to extort money from the General of the Jesuits, and is suspected of having offered to assassinate Prince Bismarck. According to the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph the charge on which the man is arrested is actually that of having proposed to commit the murder. The telegram adds that the Most Rev. Father-General, on receiving the letter, wrote to the Father-Provincial in Vienna, directing him to denounce his correspondent to the police. To our mind the strangest feature about these affairs is not so much that there should be scoundrels who propose to commit murder for the sake of gain, as that they should think for a moment of addressing themselves to men of such singularly high personal character, not to say sanctity, as the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris and the Father-General of the Jesuits. The explanation of so extraordinary a blunder can only be found in the vitality of the delusions engendered by fictions such as that of Eugène Sue, and by histories of an equally fictitious character. But the Vienna Presse has learnt from “ clerical sources in Rome ” that the Most Rev. Father General had no knowledge of the offer to attempt the life