THE TABLET

A W eekly Newspaper and Review

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

From the B r ie f o f His Holiness Pius IX. to T h e T a b l e t , June 4, 1870.

V o l . 5 4 . N o . 2 0 6 6 . L ondon, N o v e m b e r 1 5 , 1 8 7 9 .

5 i by post SKd

[R eg is tered a t th e G en e r a l P o st O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper.

Page

«Chronicle of th e W e e k

Defeat of the. Persecutors in Geneva.—The Situation at Cabul. The Condition of Ireland.— The Irish Prelates on the Present Distress.— Memorial o f Trish Members of Parliament.— Meeting of Irish Landlords— Lord Beaconsfield at the Guildhall.— The Belgian Bishops on the Education Question.— The “ Saturday Rev iew " on French Republicans and the Church'— What England has done for India.— The Basutos.— The South American War. — The Russians in Armenia.— Italy and the Roman Pontiffs.— The Bishop of Salford and the Irish Electors, &c., &c. . . .. 609

CONTENTS

Page

P e t er P ence ............................613 L eaders :

Lord Beaconsfield at the Guild­

hall.. . . . . .. . . 613 Catholics and the English Law of

Marriage .. . . . . . . 613 Official Reports on Irish Distress 615 Tokens o f Repentance in Italy . . 616 Po'and and Russia . . . . 617 R eview :

A Lady’s Life in the Rocky

Mountains . . . . . . 618 S hort N otices :

Utopia .. . . . . . . 618 The Religious and Social Ques­

tion . . . . . . . . . . 618

S hort N otices (continued) :

Page

Lyra Apostolica . . . . . . 618 Catholic Magazines for November 619 Messrs. Cassell’s Publications . . 619 C orrespondence :

Truthfulness and Ritualism : Dr.

Littledale’s Reply to the Abbé Martin," Why Ritualists do Not Become Roman Catholics .. . . .. .. 619 Dean Neville and the Alleged

Gallicanism of Maynooth, and of the Irish Clergy . . . . 622 The Dayly Exercise .. . . 623 The Case of the Lieut.-Governor of Quebec . . . . . . 623 R o m e : — Letter from our own

Correspondent . . . . . . 624

D io c e sa n N ews Westminster

Page

627

Birmingham . . . . . . 627 Clifton' ....................................... 627 Leeds.. .. . . .. . . 627 Newport and Menevia . . . . 628 Nottingham . . . , . . . . 628 Salford . . . . . . . . 628 Shrewsbury..................................... .628 S cotland :

Dunkeld ......................... . . 628 Galloway . . . . . . . . 628 I r e lan d ..................................................... 629 F oreign N ew s :

Germany .. . . . . . . 630 Belgium . . . . . . . . 631 M em o r a n d a :

Religious . .

G en er a l N ews : ...............................632

631

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

IN GENEVA. I

DEFEAT OF THE

PERSECUTORS

N the present lull of expectancy as regards Catholic matters on the Continent— a state o f suspension owing to the protraction of the negotiations between the Holy See and

■ Germany, and to the postponement until the meeting o f the French Chamber of the decision on the Ferry Bill— the election in Geneva o f the Government which will rule the Canton for the next two years acquires an exceptional prominence, and its importance is much increased by the fact that Geneva has for the last seven years been one o f the prin•cipal centres o f the persecution to which the Church has been subjected. At this time last year we were able to record the defeat of the persecuting party in the elections for the legislature— the Grand Council as it is called. But the two bodies, the Government and the Legislature, though each elected for two years, are not renewed at the same time, but in alternate years. The Carteret Government, therefore, which was the source o f the persecution and its active agent, has remained in power for the last year, together with a legislature the majority o f which was hostile to its tyrannical policy. Now the Radicals have been defeated again, and placed in a minority in the Government, or Council o f State, as well as in the Grand Council, or legislative assembly, and number only three, including M. Carteret himself, as opposed to four pledged to a juster and more truly liberal course of action. The practice hitherto has been to deprive the Catholics of their churches and presbyteries by an uncanonical popular election o f new parish priests, at which the real Catholics could not vote, and in which a very small minority of schismatics and unbelievers who styled themselves Catholic for the occasion haditall their own way. The consequence has been that the Catholics have been deprived equally o f the churches in the country parishes, which were guaranteed to them by treaty at the time of the creation of the Canton of Geneva, and o f the churches in the city, which had been built with their own money and money collected throughout Europe for their benefit. We may hope that we may soon be able to congratulate the Genevese Catholics on the restoration of their lawful property, and on the actual commencement of a reign of justice and Christian freedom, of which this electoral victory furnishes a hopeful augury. For the address o f the “ Union des Campagnes ” contains the following expressions. The previous Government is spoken of as composed of “ men who have created and prolonged regrettable conflicts in the canton” ; while the Opposition list is declared to be composed of “ men who, we have every reason to believe, are animated by a spirit of justice,impartiality, and moderation.” And the aim which the “ Union” proposes to itself in supporting the latter is to obtain “ a Council of State which shall not make itself the champion o f a religious

N e w Sr k i e s , V o l . X X II . No. 575.

system (that of the so-called ‘ Old-Catholics ’) but shall set itself resolutely to the task of re-establishing religious peace.”

THE SITUATION IN CABUL.

The junction between GeneralRoberts’s force at Cabul and the column advancing from Jellalabad was effected on Thursday the 6th. As we said last week, General Roberts himself joined General Macpherson’s brigade at Batkak on the 2nd. General Macpherson having left Cabul on the previous day. Two days were spent in reconnoitring the passes, the roads by Lataband and Chinari were found to be by far the most practicable and convenient, and General Macpherson advanced by that route towards Jagdalak, while General Charles Gough marched from Gandamak through the Jagdalak pass, and the junction was effected. A t Cabul, whither General Roberts returned on the 5 th, all is quiet. The Military Commission of Inquiry into the circumstances of the massacre was still trying suspected persons, and up to the end of October eleven men have been convicted and hanged. The suspicions of the Amir’s guilt, instead of being dissipated, are growing stronger. It has been discovered — so say the correspondents of the Times— that, the night before the battle of Char-Asiab, he was visited in his tent by Naib Mahommed, who commanded the enemy the next day, and it is also stated that a plan for his escape has been found out. He is now virtually a prisoner, and has been removed under an escort of the 9th Lancers from the Siah Sang camp to the cantonments at Shirpur, where the troops are now comfortably quartered for the winter. A sentry is constantly on duty within his quarters and a strong guard is kept outside. It is thought that he will be sent as a State prisoner to India, and it is probable that to be removed from Afghanistan is what he would himself most wish. H e is reported, indeed, to have said to GeneralRoberts that he would rather be a grass-eater in the British camp than Amir of Cabul, and that he was willing to go to India, Malta, London, or whereever we might send him. Nor do we see why the sincerity of these words need be doubted. For, even if he was to a certain extent implicated in this outrage against the law o f nations, it was probably because he felt himself utterly powerless to prevent it, and a mere puppet in the hands o f his unruly subjects. He must [know that if he were reseated on the Cabul musnud he would infallibly find himself again between the hammer and the anvil ; and to be a State pensioner— or even a State prisoner— in India must appear to him far better than the task of ruling a ferocious rabble with a paralysed hand.

The Report which the Local Government THE _ Board has furnished to the Irish Government o f ° ? r e l a n d a f f ° r d s to the public the most authentic informa­

tion which can be obtained as to the actual condition of Ireland. There has been so much exaggeration on the subject o f impending distress, and such alarming statements of the total failure of the potato crop and the