THE TABLET A MAeekly Newspaper and Review.

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

From the Brief of His Holiness to The Tablet, "June 4, 1870

Vol. 46. No. 1861. L ondon, D ecember i i , 1875.

P r ic e 5d. B y P o s t s ^ cL

[R e g is t 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

Page

H RONICLE OF T H E W E E K :— England and the Suez Canal.— Diplomatic Explanations.— Criticism at Home.—A Russian View. — Egypt, Abyssinia, and Zanzibar.—The French Assembly and Egypt.—The Question of Dissolution.— Reunion of the Republican Fractions.-Prince Bismarck and Count von Arnim.—The Scheme of Mobilisation.— President Grant’s Message. — The South African Question.—The Prince of Wales in Ceylon.—The Redesdale Correspondence.— Catholic Marriages.— The Language of Telegraphy .. .. .. 737

CONTENTS.

The Canadian School System .. 741 The Lull in Emigration .. .. 741 The Bismarck-Arnim Little W ar.. 742 Oxford.. .. .. .. .. 743 Driectness and Simplicity in

Music, Prose, and Poetry .. 7 44 R e v ie w s :

Bullettino di Archeologia Cristiana 745 Low Life Deeps .. .. .. 746 The “ Month” for December .. 747 S hort N o t ic e s :

Maiolica .. .. .. .. 747 Catalogue Descriptif et raisonné

des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèquejde Tours .. .. .. 748 The Cyclopædia of Costume .. 748 Washbourne’s Catholic Calendar.. 748 Organum Comitans ad Graduale 748

S hort N o t ic es (continued) :

Officium in die Nativitatis .. 748 Magazines for December .. .. 748 Literary, Artistic, & Scientific Gossip 749 C o r r e s pon d en c e :

Secularism in Elementary Educa­

tion .. .. .. . . 730 The Agricultural Children’s A ct.. 750 Indian Missions .. .. .. 750 A Great Want .. .. . . 751 Ratisbon .. .. .. .. 751 The Christmas Truce .. .. 751 St. Mary’s Orphanage, Black-

heath .. ,. .. .. 731 R ome :— Letter from our own Cor­

respondent .. .. 733 Peter’s Pence .. .. .. 734 D io c e s a n N ew s :—

Westminster.. .. .. . . 754

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D io cesan (continued) ;

Page

Southwark Beverley

.........................754

Northampton .........................754 Nottingham .. .........................754 I r e l a n d :

Letter from our Dublin Correspondent .. .........................755 F o reign N ew s :—

Russia..

Germany Austria

.........................755

........................ 756

M em o r a n d a :—

Religious Educational .. G e n e r a l N ew s .........................75S

CHRONICLE OF THE W E E K .

ENGLAND AND THE SUEZ CANAL. T

H E excitem ent on the continent about the purchase b y England o f the K h ed iv e ’s Canal shares is gradually subsiding, as it m ight have been expected that it would. People have had tim e to discover that nobody is hurt. T h e K h ed ive wanted to sell, and no one but England was in a. position to buy ; the thing sold, moreover, had a value for her which it did not possess for any one else. T h e Austrian Foreign Office, which is rumoured to have felt at first some annoyance, has d iscoveredor reflected thatEngland sends more ships through the Canal than all other countries together. And the National Zeitnng points out that France was not in a position to avail herself o f the opportunity, adding that “ France in Egypt would have alarmed Europe, whereas the ■“ impression caused by this English move will soon calm “ down.” But though the fact that France herself was unable to make the purchase, and the conviction that England is, if they were to be sold, greatly to be preferred as a purchaser to any other Continental power, must be fully present to the minds o f French statesmen, a vague feeling o f mortification is still apparent through all that is written on the subject in Paris. France, we seem to hear, has lost that preponderance in Egypt to which the nationality o f the originators of the Canal, and the extent of F rench investments in it, entitled her. T h e feeling is, perhaps, a natural one, and we cannot be astonished at the expression o f it, but we are sorry for its existence, as nothing is farther from the m inds o f Englishmen than a desire to humiliate or weaken France.

DIPLOMATIC

EXPLANA

TIONS.

T h e despatches recently published in the LivreJaune show that this vexation was considered by the French Governm ent serious enough to render some explanation desirable.

T h e se despatches, five in number, were all sent from the French Embassyin London to the M inistry o f Foreign Affairs in Paris since April, 1874, the first two being from the Duc de B isaccia-La Rochefoucauld, the next two from M . Gavard, and the last from the Marquis d ’H arcourt. T h e first three despatches have reference to a possible transfer o f the property o f the Suez Canal by the company itse lf; and Lord D e rby’s determ ination not to violate the com pany’s independent right is recorded, as well as his apparent wish that the com pany might be induced to cede them to an international Syndicate or Commission. T h e fourth despatch is concerned with a rumour that the Khedive was negotiating for a sale o f his shares to the Société Générale, and it repeats Lord D erby’s declaration that England, being more interested than any other Power in the freedom o f the passage, could not allow the control o f it to be monopolised by any other country ; that the control possessed by the Porte was no longer worth anything as a guarantee, and that England— if the remaining guarantee provided by the interest o f the K h ed ive in the undertaking also disappeared— could not look on with satisfaction at the absorption o f that interest by French shareholders, who already held n o millions out o f the 200 millions o f francs which represent the capital o f the concern. T h e last despatch, from M . d ’H arcourt, gives Lord D erby’s statem ent to the F rench Ambassador subsequent to the late incident. I t is dated the 27th November, and puts an end to the supposition that the purchase was a step which had been long contemplated. I t was not, says Lord D erby, till the beginning o f this week that we knew that the K h ed ive j wanted to sell his shares. W e should have preferred his j keeping them, but as he could not, and as he had been in negotiation with the Société Générale for the sale, we could not hesitate to buy them ourselves, in order to prevent a still greater preponderance being g iven to foreign influence in an affair so important to ourselves. Lord D erby then expresses the greatest consideration for M. de Lesseps, acknowledging that “ instead o f opposing “ his great creation we should have done better to “ take a part in it,” and he disavows, for his colleagues and for himself, any intention o f making such a bad use o f the recent purchase as to force the decisions o f the shareholders. What England has done is “ purely defensive,” and Lord D erby repeats what he said some time ago in the Lords, that he would not oppose an arrangement for putting the Suez Canal under an in ternational Syndicate. “ I will not “ make the proposal,” he says, “ but I do not withdraw “ my words.”

T h e Governm ent— backed as they are by criticism at (.jjg g enerai opinion o f the nation— are o f u ' course prepared for a good deal o f carping and criticism when Parliam ent meets. I t will no doubt be urged that we have got very little for our money ; that we are to be kept out o f possession for nineteen years— receiving indeed 5 per cent, interest— that i f during that tim e we can vote, which is said to be doubtful— the K h ed ive voted the first year after his disposal o f the coupons under protest, but not since,— that even i f we can take part in the meetings and management o f the Company, we have no more than ten votes— a statem ent which is supported by a telegram from Cairo. But the Government will be able to answer that this only confirms what Lord D erby said to the Marquis d ’H arcourt a fortnight ago-— that the step was purely a defensive one, and that our object was not so much to obtain power ourselves as to prevent the rise o f a too greatly preponderating foreign influence. T h e suggestion o f Lord Sandhurst, that we should back out o f what he

New Series, Vol. XIV. No. 370.