THE TABLET

A W eekly Newspaper and Review

D um vobis gratulamur, animos etiam ADDIMUS UT IN incceptis vestris constanter maneatis.

From the Brief 0/ His Holiness to T he T a b l e t , June 4, 1870.

Vol. 49. No. 1918. L o n d o n , J a n u a r y 13, 1877.

P rick sd. By P o st s ^ d .

[R eg is tered a t th e G en er 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

Reply of Safvet Pasha.— Attitude of Turkey, England, and Russia.— Avoidance of a Rupture — Probable Concessions.—Further Progress of the Negotiations.— Proposed Arrangement between Turkey and Russia.— Recall of the German Plenipotentiary.— Turkey and Roumania.— The Russians in Servia.— The Greeks of European Turkey.—The Papal and the Turkish Governments. — The Turkish Ministry of Finance. The Pope and the Italian Pilf rims.— Further Details from )elhi.— The Louisiana Elections. —Local Victory of the Democrats. —The Civil War in Mexico, &c. 33

C O N T

L e a d e r s :

Better Prospects at Constantino­

Page ple ............................................. •• 37 The Sligo and Waterford Elec­

tions . . .. •• •• 37 The Banks o f the Thames . . 38 The Protestant Tradition.— V I . .. 39 The Grand Duchy of Luxemburg 40 P ic tures :

The Society of Painters in Water

Colours ..

. . ..42

C hurch Music .. . . ..42 R e v iew s :

La Sainte Vierge . . . . .. 43 A Ride to Khiva . . . . .. 44

E N T S .

S hort N otices :

Page

Twelve Years in South Africa . . 45 Magazines for January . . . . 45 Literary, Artistic, & Scientific Gossip 46 C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :

Parkerism in 1877.. A Change for the Worse .. The Third Order of St. Francis. The New Church, Clifden The Case of Imposture a

Lourdes ................................... An Appeal ..

46 47 47 47 47 47

R ome :— Letter from our own Cor­

respondent ......................... 49

D io cesan N ews

Westminster . .

Beverley . . . . . .

Page

5»

••51

Birmingham.. . . . . -.51 Hexham and Newcastle . . . . 5c Salford . . . . ..............51 I r e lan d

Letter from our Dublin Corre­

spondent . .

5z

Foreign N ew s ;—

Germany . . . . . . •• S3 France . . . . . . ..54 M emoranda :—

Religious .. . . . . . . 54 Political .. .. . . . . 5 5 G en er a l N ews ............................. 55

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

REPLY OF SAFVET PASHA. T

HE critical meeting of the Conference at the end of last week was got over without any rupture of the negotiations. The Turkish delegates still objected to an International Commission and to the neutral gendarmerie proposal, as being both of them inconsistent with the independence of the Empire, but they proposed that a Commission should be assembled in about two years to report on the efficiency of the reforms carried out during the interval. The objections of the Porte were embodied in a long and argumentative memorandum read by Safvet Pasha, and drawn up after a special meeting of the Grand Council of State. What may be called the minor objections— namely, the division of the Bulgarian district into two new provinces, the appointment of Governors approved by the Powers for a fixed term, and the cession of territory to Servia and Montenegro— were also maintained. The last of these proposals must doubtless be a bitter pill for the Turks to swallow, as it is scarcely usual that the victor should be called upon to give up his property to the vanquished.

The Turks indeed are said to complain that,

attitude of instead of the English demands, which they

England were prepared to take into consideration, they and russia. have been called upon to concede those of Rus­

sia. And they are disappointed and anything but pleased at finding that Lord Salisbury has yielded so far to the claims of General Ignatieff. Nor is their surprise on this head altogether unshared by bystanders, fcr even the Journal des Debats says that “ the English Plenipotentiary “ has made extraordinary sacrifices in the Conference to the “ by-gone clamour of the agitators ; he has pushed concilia“ tion very near the line of weakness and imprudence in “ order to avert from his country and Government all respons ib i l i t y for a war.” “ Yet,” adds the Debats, “ the first “ cannon-shot fired in the East would blow to limbo all the “ pamphlets, brochures, and speeches of the agitators, all the “ concessions to diplomacy, all the illusions of an Anglo“ Russian co-operation. England, by stern necessity, is “ and must be true to her traditional policy." But, as the Daily Telegraph justly points out, the proposals to which Lord Salisbury has given his adherence have never been formally protocolled, still less thrown into the shape of a joint ultimatum, as General Ignatieff is understood to have wished. They have all along been “ the maximum of five “ Plenipotentiaries, and the minimum— so long as might be “ convenient— of one ; so that Lord Salisbury’s reasons for “ lending them provisional countenance are apparent on the “ surface." So also are the reasons for which the Turks have

N ew Series, V o i . XV II . No. 427.

shown themselves resolute in resisting the objectionable parts of them. They have known from the first, not only that these proposals went beyond the minimum upon which all the Powers would collectively insist, but that even Russia herself was not likely to prefer war to a modification of them. For, in the words attributed to a member o f the Conference, “ the Russian revolver has missed fire.” Not only was the war loan a decided failure, but the results of the actual preparations for a campaign are universally believed to have proved a great disappointment to the Russian War Office. It seems to be perfectly true that the frauds of contractors have materially crippled the southern army in its material of war, that there is no little insubordination in its ranks as well as among the Russians in Servia, and altogether that the force which has been actually mobilised is a very different affair from what it was on paper. There is also a strange report, to which we can scarcely attach credence, that the Emperor has been disappointed in an attempt to obtain a Prussian commander for his army in case of war. Field Marshal von Mantuaffel has, it is said, been applied to, but the Emperor William has informed him that, although permission to accept the offer will not be refused, he and any other officers who may join the Russian Army must leave the Prussian service and forfeit their nationality. This of course puts an extinguisher upon the project, as far as any men of mark are concerned. And the Turks are no doubt thoroughly convinced that if they must fight for their existence they will fight now under much more favourable conditions than when Russia has had a few more years in which to complete her preparations.

avoidance OF a RUPTURE. — PROBABLE CONCESSIONS.

Monday’s meeting did not settle the question of success or failure any more than its predecessors. It is reported that at a meeting of the Plenipotentiaries of the Six Powers on the previous day the Comte de Chaudordy had acknowledged that there was a great deal in many of the objections urged by the Porte, and that the Plenipotentiaries would find it very difficult to answer them. But on Monday Count Corti was put forward to combat the arguments used by Safvet Pasha at the last sitting, and Lord Salisbury supported him ; still the Turkish delegates did not abandon their attitude of passive resistance, and the points at issue remained in the same undecided condition. But there was no rupture, and an animated conversation ensued on the general question of guarantees, and especially on the proposal touching an International Commission. The fact is, that while the demands actually made on behalf of the Powers are quite unacceptable by the Porte, and the counter proposals hitherto made by the Turkish delegates will not be accepted by the Plenipotentiaries, yet each party knows that the other will make concessions, and that its terms as