THE TABLET

A W eekly Newspaper and Review

Dum VO B IS g r a t u l a m u r , a n x m o s e t i a m a d d i m u s u t i n i n c c e p t i s v e s t r i s c o n s t a n t e r m a n e a t i s .

from, the Brief of His Holiness to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, 1870.'

Vol. 49. No. 1930. L o n d o n , A p r i l 7, 1877.

p™ s

[R e g is t e r ed a t th e G en e r a l P o st O ffice as a N ewspaper

C hronicle of th e Week :—

Page

The Revival of the “ Roman Question.”— Cardinal Simeoni’s Circular.— The Catholic Union and the Clerical Abuses Bill.— Preparation^ for the Pope’s Jubil e . —The Protocol.— Its Consequences.— The Press on the Protocol.—Turkey and Montenegro. — The Bosnian Rebellion.— Mr. Layard’s Appointment.— Prince Bismarck’s Re tir«ment .— Illness of Count von Arnim.—President Hayes’s Southern Policy —The Suppression of the Paris Catholic Committee.— Belgian Politics.— Catholic Prospects in Mexico.— The Establishment and the State. —1-The Greek Army, & c.................417

C 0 N T

Page

L e a d e r s :

The Cardinal Archbishop of West­

minster’s ForeignMission Meeting next W e e k ......................... 421 Prince Bismarck’s Last Move . . 422 The Clerical Abuses Bill in Italy 423 The Irish Members and the Pri­

sons Bill .. . . . . . . 424 Coercion Acts and Crime in Ire­

land . . . . . . . . 425 The French Army in 1877 . . 425 Cardinal Sinjeoni’s Reply to the

Italian Circular . . . . . . 426 R e v ie w s :

The Nineteenth Century.—The

True Story o f the Vatican Council . . . . . . . . 427 The Principles of Punishment . . 428

E N T S .

S hort N o t ic e :

Page

Act of Parliament Bishops . . 429 C hurch M usic

C o r r e s p o n d e n c e :

Prophe tic Solution of the Eastern

Q u e s t io n .................................... 430 Electri city and Magnetism .. 430 R ome :— Letter from our own Cor­

respondent ......................... 433 Protest of the Catholic Union of

Great Britain against the “ Clerical Abuses ” Bill in Italy 434 The Cardinal Archbishop on the

Roman Question.. . . . . 434

D io cesan N ews

Page

Westminster.......................................435 S o u th w a r k .......................................43s Birmingham.......................................436 L i v e r p o o l ....................................... 436 P l y m o u t h .......................................436 Salford . . . . . . » 436 Scotland— Eastern District . . 436

— Western District «. 436 I r elan d

Letter from our Dublin Corre­

spondent . . . . ...

F oreign N ews

436

France ....................................... 43^ Germany .......................................437 Austria ....................................... 43S M em oranda :—

R e l i g i o u s ....................... . . . 43& Gen er a l N ews .............................. 439

CHRONICLE OF THE W EEK.

THE REVIVAL

OF THE “ ROMAN QUESTION.”

SEVEN years ago the prophets who teach the world its duty and tell to the world its future through the contradictory columns of the daily Press declared that the “ Roman Ques-

41 tion ” was now a thing of the past. It had been 4‘ solved,” they said, on the day when, with the help of Generals Cadorna and Bixio, Cavour’s programme of a “ Free Church in a Free State” was introduced through the •0umhline walls of the capital of Christendom into the immediate vicinity of thp thron» of tHc vicar or C irk t Tint this solution was, as our Cardinal Archbishop said on Sunday last, “ not that of Divine Providence. It was a solu“ tion by Revolution and Sacrilege. That solution will not “ stand.” And now the ghost which the world thought had been laid has reappeared. “ The recent revival of the Roman 41 question,” telegraphed the Vienna correspondent of the Daily News on Monday last, “ has caused General Ignatieff “ to pay much attention to the Italian Ambassador.” It has caused many other persons to “ pay attention” also. In the midst of the complications caused by the questions now being raised in the East, it must be a strange thing to those outside the Church to see, not only the whole Protestant Press o f this country, but also journals like the N eueIreie Presse, o f Vienna, the Opinione, Nazione, and Liberta of Italy, and the lo li t ic a of Spain, devoting column after column of their valuable space to a question which was solved in 1870, and which has only been revived by one speech “ of an old man 41 who calls himself a prisoner.” “ For six years, in calm “ and majestic silence, Pius the Ninth has borne the insults 41 and the blasphemies that have filled the air he breathes. “ . . . . Now at length he lifts up his voice.” And the result is that throughout Christendom there is a response, and politicians are afraid that Rome will not, as they would wish, continue as it is. “ The true solution of the Roman “ question,” to quote his Eminence again, “ is that the Vicar “ of Christ should be independent.” Whenever a general war breaks out this will be the point at issue, and the world will learn to its cost that the sacrilege consummated in 1870 must sooner or later be atoned for.

The Holy See has replied to certain portions s im eoni^s

S i g n o r Mancini’s manifesto by means of a c ir c u l a r , circular addressed by Cardinal Simeoni to the

Pontifical representatives at Foreign Courts. Signor Mancini’s own words, it says, are sufficient proof of the deplorable state of things described in the recent Allocution. From the time that the publication of Pontifical utterances is subject to the good pleasure of a Keeper of the Seals, the liberty accorded to those utterances is, and can only be, illusory. It notes also the fact that the Press

N e w Se r i e s , V o l . XVII. No. 439.

hostile to the Church is allowed to say anything, while the Catholic Press is forbidden to make any commentary whatever in defence of the Allocution. The circular shows that if the Italian Catholics have just ground for considering themselves injured by the present state of things, the Catholics of other nations have not less reason to complain ; and therefore their respective Governments have a special interest in seriously considering the position ; and that while the Holy Father appeals to the action of the faithful towards their Governments, he nevertheless wishes that their action should be in accordance with the laws of the different countries.

The protest against this Bill, signed by the Du^e of Norfolk on behalf of the Catholic t h e c l e r i c a l Union of Great Britain, is concise, clear,-and a b u s e s b i l l , dignified. It protests against the measure for five principal reasons. Because it is class legislation, depriving the clergy of their rights as citizens ; because it interferes with the essential function of the sacred ministry, the chief sphere of which is in the conscience, individual and public ; because the terms of it are vague; and because it is directed, first against the Sovereign Pontiff, and next against the Church itself. It is well in this nineteenth century to insist as frequently as possible on the “ sphere of “ the functions of the sacred ministry being in the public “ conscience.” “ It involves the duty of denouncing sin in “ Princes and Governments, as well as in peasants and til“ lers of the earth ; of denouncing sacrilege when committed “ by Royal armies as well as by revolutionary mobs; and, “ above all, of denouncing the robbing of the rising genera“ tion of their inheritance of the faith.” For this reason we were glad to see that the protest occupied a prominent place in the columns of the lim es and other papers last Wednesday.

We understand that the date on which the ttons^ ob English deputations, or at least that from the t h e p o p e ’s Catholic Union of Great Britain, will have the j u b i l e e . honour of an audience of the Sovereign Pontiff,

will be settled next week. It is to be hoped that this deputation will be a large one, and also that every Catholic who can go to Rome in May will do so, be he a member of the Union or no. It is not to be expected that we can equal in numbers the representatives of Catholic countries like France and Spain j still it should be remembered that this is an exceptional occasion, and that the Holy Father in his Allocution declared that “ the crowds of all nations “ who flock to Rome are manifest tokens of the anxiety and “ solicitude which agitates the hearts of the Faithful,” and “ that this anxiety ought to go on increasing until full and “ real liberty be restored to the pastor of the Universal “ Church.” The present occasion is most suitable also for a pilgrimage to Rome. In this country we are rather too