THE TABLET

A W eekly Newspaper and Review

D UM VOBIS GRATULAMUR, ANIMOS ETIAM ADDIMUS U T IN INCCEPTIS VESTRIS CONSTANTER MANEATIS.

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

Vol. 54. No. 2069. L o n d o n , D e c e m b e r 6, 1879.

P rice sd ., b y P ost

[R eg iste red a t t h e G en er a l P ost O f f ic e a s a N ew spaper.

C hronicle of t h e W e e k

Page

The Contest in Midlothian.— Mr. Gladstone at Edinburgh — Mr. Gladstone at West ("aider.— More Speeches by the Wayside. — The Irish Agitation. — Cooperation of Classes in Cork and Limerick.— The French Government and the Chamber. — M. Waddington’s Challenge. — The Sections of the Majority inReply. —Attempt on the Life of the Tsar.— The Holy See and the Belgian Episcopate. — Marriage o f the King of Spam.—The ExAmir -Sir Bart'.e Frer* on the Transvaal. — The President’s Message to Congress.— Death of Mr. Roebuck, &c. . . . . .. 705

CONTENTS.

P e t er P ence ........................... 709 L e a d e r s ;

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Action of the Government in Ire­

land .. . . .. . . 709 Mr. Gladstone on the Conditions of Successful Agitation.. . . 709 The Tenure of Land in Ireland.. 710 The Dissolution of Anglicanism.. 711 Military Service and Emigration in Prussia.. .. .. .. 713 The Cardinal o f Westminster and the Religious Orders in England 714 Catholic and Non-Catholic

Charity towards the Poor . . 714 R ev iew s :

The Roman Breviary . . . . 715 England .. .. .. . . 716 The “ Quarterly Review” . . 717

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S hort N otices ;

Frank Blake the Trapper.. .. 717 The Young Buglers .. .. 718 C o r r e spondence :

Truthfulness and Ritualism : Dr.

Littledale’s “ Reply to the Abbé Martin,” Why Ritualists do Not Become Roman Catholics .. ^ ......................... 718 Catholic Education . . .. 725 Reclamation of Irish Waste Lands 725 The Last of the English Saints.. 725 The Marriage L aw . . . . . . 725 St. Gregory the Great . . . . 726 Distress at Merthyr Tydfil .. 726 School Rates ......................... 726

R ome : — Letter from our own

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Correspondent............................721 D io cesan N ews

Westminster . .

, , 723

Southwark . . . . . . ••723 Birmingham . . . . .. 723 Clifton . . . . . . . . 723 Hexham and Newcastle . . .. 724 Liverpool .. . . . . , . 724 Middlesbrough ............................ 724 Northampton . . . . . . 724 Plymouth .. . . . . .. 724 Shrewsbury....................................... 724 I r e l a n d : . . 727 F oreign N ews :

Germany .. . . . . . . 728 G en er a l N ews : . . . . . . 728

CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.

IN MIDLOTHIAN. T

THE CONTEST

HE cool-headed Scot has developed a real capacity for hero-worship, and Mr. Gladstone has been received north of the Tweed with a growing enthusiasm which his vigour, dash, and staying power have combined with his seductive eloquence to excite. But Scotchmen are rather sceptical about conversions outside the Liberal camp. They may be heard to express their opinion that their compatriots are accustomed to make up their minds pretty decidedly, and tha*, when they have once made them tip, neither the copious oratory of Mr. Gladstone nor the neatest epigrams of Lord Beaconsfield could exert any practical influence on their vote. As to the result of the future contest in Midlothian, no prediction is worth anything. Mr. Gladstone, indeed, declares himself confident of success, but so does every sanguine candidate for popular suffrages. On the other hand the Conservatives have predicted— though that was before Mr. Gladstone’s triumphal progress— that they would beat him by about 80. That is not a very large majority in a constituency whose numbers approach 3,000; and to whichever side the victory falls, the majority, we fancy, will not be large. But if Mr. Gladstone’s success is to depend upon his oratorical campaign, one cannot help asking oneself whether he will not have to do it all over again. The admiration so excited does not remain for ever at a white heat, and the effect of this last week’s vigorous insuffllation will scarcely keep the furnace burning till this time next year. It might have a sensible effect on an election to be held this winter, but a dozen issues may arise to make it a matter of ancient history before next autumn. We cannot help suspecting that Mr. Gladstone has let off his big guns before the enemy was in range.

SIR. GLADSTONE

AT EDINBURGH.

The last two speeches delivered by Mr. Gladstone in Midlothian were spoken in the Corn Exchange and the Waverley Market in Edinburgh on Saturday. The meeting in the Exchange, which was organised by the Liberal

Corn Associations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the provinces, was addressed by him on the financial superiority of a Liberal budget. This speech alone fills nearly five columns of the Times, and anything like an exhaustive summary of it would far exceed the limits of our available space, but the pith of it was this. After crediting his own Government with a deduction of about four millions for the discharge of the Alabama claims, and the present Government with an equal sum of four millions spent on education and the relief of

N ew Series, V ol. X X II . No 578.

local taxation, the Liberal expenditure was, he says, seventy millions, and the Tory expenditure seventy-eight millions. The late Government during its five years of office had surpluses averaging three millions and a half annually, or in all seventeen millions of money. The rule of the present Government being divided into two periods, the first, down to the inauguration of the “ spirited foreign policy”— as Mr. Gladstone sarcastically terms it,— was occupied in getting rid of the surplus by three millions annually. The second has been employed in creating deficits amounting in the aggregate to six millions. At the same time the public debt of India has been raised from 107 millions and a half to 134 millions and a half, and whereas Lord Northbrook left the finances of India nearly seven millions to the good, the present Administration has accumulated an aggregate deficit of nearly six millions, “ in beautiful correspondence ” with the deficit promised at home. The increase in the general home expenditure Mr. Gladstone ascribed in a large measure — and no doubt rightly— to the increased costliness of our military and naval establishments. But he seems to take it for granted that no such augmented charges could ever have been forced upon a Liberal Government. And perhaps, if he could realise his ideal of a foreign policy, he might be right. “ What Pericles said of women, I,” said Mr. Gladstone on another occasion, “ am very much disposed to say of foreign affairs ; their great merit would be to be never heard of.” No doubt if there were no such things as foreign affairs, or they were never heard of— which comes to the same thi'jg— we might dispense with all forces beyond those necessary for the police of our own dominions, but sometimes, unfortunately, foreign affairs will make themselves heard of, and though the Government might resolutely turn a deaf ear to them, they would be heard of by the nation, which would be apt to call a too parochial Government to account. The truth is that every now and then a crisis occurs in European politics which would force any Government, Conservative or Liberal, to assume a decided, and what its enemies would call a threatening attitude, as the surest way of maintaining peace. That the Opposition of the day should make this a topic for its criticism is very natural, but we suspect that thi difference is much less between the conduct of the two par ties when in power, than between those who have to act and those whose role it is to find fault.

Mr. Gladstone delivered the third of his m r . Gl a d s t o n e addresses to the electors of Midlothian on w e -t c a l d e r . Thursday of last week, at West Calder. The town contains no building capable of holding an audience of any considerable dimensions, and it was therefore necessary to erect a temporary structure in order