THE TABLET

A IVeekly Newspaper and Review.

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

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

Voi. 45. No. 1830. L o n d o n , M a y 8, 1875.

P rice 5d. B y P o st 5^^*

[R eg i st e r e d a t t h e G e n e r a l P o st O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper.

«Ch r o n ic l e o f t h e W e e k :—

Page

Germany and Belgium.— The Last Belgian Note.—The Obligations o f International “ Amity.” — Church Legislation in Prussia.— The Use of Refuted Fictions.— Persecutions and Prosecutions.— The Prince Bishop of Breslau.— The Religious Orders Bill.— 'Church and State in Italy.— The Irish College in Paris.— The Peace Preservation Bill.— Strangers in the blouse.— Sunday Closing in Ireland.— The Tipperary Petition. — The Cabrera Negotiations.— T h e Reprisals.— Spanish Telegrams.—The Nuncio at Madrid. — Life in the Air.— The Bunker’s Hill Explosion.— Centenarians . . 577

CONTENTS .

L e a d e r s :

Page

The Freemasons in Ireland . . 581 Irish Waste Lands’ Bill .. . . 581 Blasphemy in Ita ly .. . . . . 582 O ur P r o t e s t a n t C on tem po r a r ie s :

Modern Thought and Modern

Legislation.. . . . . . . 583 R e v ie w s :

Schliemann’s Troy . . . . . . 585 Constance Sherwood . . . . 586 The “ Month ” for May . . . . 586 Short N otices :

Pontificale Romanum . . .. 587 Missse pro Defunctis cum Ordi-

nario .. . . . . .. 587 History of Greece . . . . . . 587

N ew M usic :

Verdi’s Requiem Mass C orrespondence :

Page . . 588

Presentation to the Cardinal Arch­

bishop of Westminster Scotch Universities.. Irish College Education .. A Second Cry from Dowlais

588 588 588 589

Ebbw Vale . . .. . . . . 589 P a r l ia m e n t a r y S ummary . . 590 R ome :— Letter from our own Cor­

respondent .. . . . . 593 The Devotion to the Sacred

Heart .................................... 594

D io c e sa n N ews :—

Westminster—Address from the

Page

League of St. Sebastian to his Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop ...................................... 595 Liverpool . . . . . . . . 596 Salford— Opening o f the Ne^

Church of the Mother of God, and St. James, Pendleton .. 596 Shrewsbury— Opening o f the New

Church o f St. Francis, Chester .................................................. 593 I r e l a n d :

Letter from our Dublin Corre­

spondent ..

599

F oreign N ews :—

Germany .. . . .. . . 600 G e n e r a l N ew s . . . . . . 6or

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

GERMANY AND

BELGIUM. O

, N Monday Lord Russell moved for copies of the correspondence between Germany and Belgium, with a view o f ascertaining whether the existing Belgian law sufficed to punish the announcement o f an intention to assassinate the Minister o f a Foreign Power, and if not whether the Belgian Government proposes to take steps for the amendment of the code in this respect. Lord Russell argued that the matter was one which concerned England very nearly, for, as we had guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium, we were bound to ascertain whether she was fulfilling her obligations to Foreign Powers. Lord Derby’s answer was that the papers had been communicated to him confidentially, and were still the property of the Belgian “Government, which meant to lay them before the Brussels Chambers, and that it would be only fair to allow that Government first to tell its own story in its own way. There was, however, as far as he could learn, nothing unfriendly in the correspondence, and no appeal had been made on •either side to the Guaranteeing Powers.

THE LAST BELGIAN

NOTE.

Since this answer of Lord Derby the Belgian rejoinder to the last German Note has been communicated to the Chamber o f Representation at Brussels by the Comte d’Aspremont-

Lynden. It is cleverly drawn up, and begins by protesting against the interpretation placed at Berlin upon the first answer. The Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs declares that the statement of the Imperial Chancellor that the Government of his Majesty the K ing declines the demands set forth in the German Note of the 3rd o f Februaiy goes beyond the terms o f that reply. The Belgian Government therein declared that “ if the Powers modified the Common “ Penal Law in such a way as to make a simple extortion or proposal not acceded to an offence the problem of Penal “ Law would have to be examined, and Belgium would pro“ bably have to follow the movement.” Belgium, in fact, expresses itself perfectly willing to take into consideration the adoption of any changes which may be introduced by the principal European Powers, and as Germany has acknowledged that her own laws are defective in this respect and has announced an intention of modifying them, Belgium simply waits to see what is done “ in Germany and else“ where,” and will then “ approach the examination o f the “ subject with the most sincere desire to aid in the main“ tenance o f good international relations,” being “ fully re“ solved to fulfil her duties as a neutral State in an amicable “ spirit, and to the extent assigned to them by Interna“ tional Law.” It would be scarcely possible to take ex“ ception to such a reply as this, as a small country like

Belgium could hardly be expected to take the lead in so important a modification o f the law of nations, and accordingly we find that the Note o f Count d ’AspremontLynden is considered at Berlin, a satisfactory close to the first act in the drama. When Germany has prepared its own amendments to the law, the second act will, pose, begin.

we sup

It is doubtless exceedingly proper that any threat of assassination should berepressed as well ternational as an attempt at assassination would be repressed

“ amity.” by the country in which they are uttered. And if any uneasiness has been caused by the Ger­

man representations concerning the obligations imposed on foreign Governments by what Lord Westbury called “ the Queen’s amity,” it has no reference whatever to cases of this kind. But when people see how extraordinarily elastic is the theory o f the German Government with regard to the acts to be classed as offences against the State at home, they are naturally anxious about what may or may not be included in the category of acts which it expects a foreign Government to put down. In the calendar o f convictions and sentences just published by the Frankfurter Zeitung we actually find a sentence of imprisonment for fourteen days inflicted on the editor of the Schlesische Folkszeitung “ for writing disrespectfully o f a measure laid “ before the Chamber o f Deputies.” And if criticism o f a Bill which has not become law is thus punished, what, in the view of Berlin bureaucracy, would be the fitting penalty for a protest against the justice o f a law already on the Statute Book ?

CHURCH LEGISLATION IN PRUSSIA.

The Bill for the suppression of Religious Orders in Prussia has been sent back with the Emperor’s signature, but the following modifications have been introduced into it. The maximum term o f respite for the teaching Orders is to be four years instead of two, and the Orders engaged in attending on the sick are to remain subject to the pleasure, not of the Minister, but o f the Crown. On Saturday the Lower House o f the Prussian Diet passed without amendment, by 238 against 82 votes, the third reading o f the bill concerning the administration o f Catholic Church property, by which the control o f it is vested in an elective lay Council, subject in its turn to the Minister of Public Worship, a device somewhat similar to that which has been found to act so successfully in Geneva and Berne for the expulsion of the real Catholics— who will not vote— from their churches.

THE USE OF REFUTED FICTIONS.

During the debate Prince Bismarck made a speech in which he seems to have repeated all the statements respecting Gregory X I I I . and St. Pius V ., exhaustive refutations of which

N ew Series. V ol. X I I I . No. 339.