THE TABLET

A W eekly Newspaper and Review

D u m VO B IS G R A T U L A M U R , A N IM O S ET IA M ADD IM U S U T IN IN CCEPTIS V E S T R IS C O N S T AN T E R M A N E A T IS .

from the B r ie f o f His Holiness Pins I X . to T h e T a b l e t , June 4 , 1870.

Vol. 51. No. 1981. L o n d o n , M a r c h 30, 1878.

P rick 5c!. B y P o st 5 %

[R e g is t e r ed 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 ronicle o f t h e W e e k :—

Pa^e

Resignation o f Lord Derby.— The Present Outlook. — Our Objections to the Russian Scheme.— Russia, Austria, and England.— Russia and Roumania. — The Grand Duke and the Sultan.— Maritime Belligerent Rights. — The Easter Functions at Rome.— The Holy See and Russia — The Church and the German Empire. — The Pope and the Sovereigns. — The Scottish Hierarchy and Scottish Law. — Mr. Gladstone and the Greenwich Liberals. — Episcopal Seminaries and the Religious Orders in France.— In. crease of Anglican Bishoprics, &c. 385

C O N T

L e a d e r s î

Page

The Congress Negotiations . . 389 The Loss of the Eurydice .. 389 The Holy Father on Modern

Civilisation and the Church . . 390 The Treaty of Peace . . . . 391 R e v iew s :

Festus . . . . . . .. 394 The Bibles in the Caxton Exhi­

bition .. .. . . . . 394 The Contemporary Review .. 395 S hort N o t i c e s :

The Freedom of Science in the

Modern State .. .. .. 395 Consulat et Empire . . .. 396

E N T S .

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

Page

The Reform of Church Music . . 396 St. Etheldreda’s Re-opening and

Church Music . . . . * * 396 Catholic Liberal Education, and the True Source of its Unification . . .. .. . . 396 Pope Martin V. and the Council of Constance . . . . . . 397 The Fast of Lent in England . . 397 Lenten Dispensations in England 397 The Dominican Nuns of Perugia 398 St. Benedict’s Monastery, Fort

Augustus . . . . . . . . 398 The Distress in South Wales . . 398 P a r l i a m e n t a r y Su m m a r y . . 399 R o m e : — Letter from our own

Correspondent . . . . . . 4 0 1

D io ce san N ews :—

Page

Westminster.. . . . . 403 Southwark . . . . . . . . 403 Beverley . . . . . . 403 Birmingham.. . . . . . . 403 Clifton .. . . . . . . 4Q3 Hexham and Newcastle . . . . 403 Liverpool . . . . . . . . 403 Newport and Menevia . . . . 405 Nottingham.. . . . . . . 405 Salford . . . . . . . . 405 Shrewsbury .. . . . . . . 405 Scotland— Western District . . 405 I r e lan d :—

Letter from our own Corre­

spondent . . . . . . «. 406 F oreign N ews

Germany . . .. .. . . 406 G en er a l N ews . . . . . . 407

CHRONICLE OF THE W EEK .

RESIGNATION

OF LORD DERBY. O

N Thursday Lord Derby made the announcement that he had ceased to hold office as Secretary for Foreign Affairs, stating, at the same time, that he did not feel at liberty to explain the nature of his difference with his colleagues. H e would only say that he agreed with them as to the aim which they proposed to themselves, but not as to the means which they intended to adopt. Lord Beaconsfield, however, was less reticent, thinking that silence on this point might give occasion for misinterpretations, and said that Ministers had advised her Majesty to use those powers which she possesses, and avail herself of the services of the Reserve Forces. A message will be laid before Parliament according to the provisions o f the Statute in that respect. We need scarcely add that this precautionary measure does not by any means of necessity imply that all hopes o f the maintenance of peace are at an end.

It is fortunate that the question o f peace or THE wat has not to be decided by the newspapers. outlook But although the decision does not rest with them, they have a dangerous power to blow the coals of national irritation which, almost before we can realise the peril, may kindle into a flame. The relations between England and Russia are, undoubtedly, what it has become the fashion to designate as “ strained,” but it does not appear to us that the points at issue are such as ought to lead to so terrible a calamity as war. The Preliminary Treaty of Peace is now before Parliament and the public. The only articles which can possibly give rise to a definitive and fatal disagreement are those which concern the limits of the new Bulgarian State, the control of the mouths of the Danube, and the territorial equivalents for the indemnity. A real willingness to come to an understanding ought to be successful in devising an acceptable settlement of these matters. And it is certain that on the part of the English Government that willingness is not wanting. We wish we felt certain that the same could be said of the Russian ; for just at present there seems to reign at St. Petersburg nothing but indignation against England, which is represented as the sole obstacle to peace, and the disturber o f the general peace o f Europe. And yet England has asked for no more than a practical recognition o f the principle that Europe has a right to discuss the details of the proposed arrangement— a principle which Russia has in theory professed to respect. And although the St. Petersburg Cabinet, in refusing formally to submit the Treaty to the Congress, declared that

P ew Series, V ol. XIX. No. 490.

such a step was rendered unnecessary by the communication of it to each of the Great Powers, nevertheless, to the conciliatory question whether that communication might not be considered equivalent to laying it before the Congress, the British Government has received no satisfactory reply. A statement, indeed, somewhat to that effect is reported to have been made to Austria, but England has as yet received no answer beyond the angry declaration o f Russian newspapers that their country has made concessions enough already. It is getting a question of temper,and the Russian publicists have evidently lost theirs.

Yet we in England are not so unreasonable objections as thef represent us to be. We are not so to the foolish as to suppose that Russia is not to have Russian any return for her expenditure of blood and scheme. treasure. We do not grudge her the legitimate fruits of victory, nor do we intend to protest against the settlement o f the Eastern question in a manner satisfactory to the Christian nationalities of Turkey. On the contrary, it is precisely because we do not think the proposed settlement likely to be permament, and do not consider it just to all the Christian nationalities that we have objections to offer to that part of the scheme which regards the new Bulgaria. The project sacrifices the Greek population to the Slav, and cuts Turkey in Europe into three fragments— a bit o f Roumelia, an isolated peninsula intbe Higean, and an awkward territory impossible to govern, consisting of Thessaly and Epirus, Albania, reduced to a strip along the Adriatic, and a neck8o miles long, and in some places only five miles long, liable to strangulation by Servia and Montenegro, and terminating in Bosnia and Herzegovina as the head. For all practical purposes all that can be said to remain to Turkey is the district around Constantinople ; for it is quite inconceivable that she should be able permanently to retain her hold upon the outlying fragments which are left to her. Then, as to the Christian populations,there can be no doubt that, wherever the natural boundaries surrounding Slav districts have proved inconvenient, those boundaries have been pushed forward so as to include considerable districts, exclusively Greek and Musulman, and that the new province, as it is proposed to constititute it, will effectually smother such an expansion of the Hellenic race as would be perfectly legitimate and desirable, supposing the rule of the Turks to be removed. The objections to the mouths o f the Danube being under the control of Russia instead of a minor State are too obvious to need specifying. These, therefore, are points on which if England insists that there shall be an unfettered discussion she cannot justly be treated as unnecessarily obstructive and quarrelsome.