THE TABLET

A Weekly Newspaper and Review

WITH S U P P L E M E N T .

Vol. 3 5 . No. 1 5 7 4 . L ondon, J une i i , 18 70 .

^«sd. stamped«4 [Registered for Transmission Abroad.

C hronicle of the Week : The

Council — The “ Augsburg Gazette” again — France and the Definition—The Chapter of Westminster and the Oratory— Roman Correspondents — The Prussian Note— The French Ministry— Italy—Spain—The Duke of Edinburgh in India — Fenians in America—New Zealand—Trials in Ireland — Catholic Will Case— Meetings on Education — Mr. Forster at Bradford—Mr. £ . S. Ffoulkes—&c., &c. . . . 733 'L eaders :

The “ Times” and its Roman

Vision . . . . . . 7 3 7 The Virtue of Inconsistency . . 737 Eenians in England . . . 738 “ Superstitious Uses ” . . . 739

CONTENTS.

L eaders (continued) :

Primary Education in Ireland.—

Reports of Assistant Commissioners..................................... .• 740 Peter’s Pence................................ 741 The late Bishop of Southwark . . 741 The A nglican Movement :

The Bishop of Bath and Wells.—

“ Conversions” .... 742 R eviews : Modern Russia .... 742

The Household Fairy . . . 744 Mr. Locker’s London Lvrics. . 744 The Church and the Age . . 745 The ‘ ‘ Contemporary Review ” for

J u n e ............................................ 745 Short Notices : Nine Visits to the

Blesserl Sacrament—Directory of Eloly Indulgences—Blackwood— Britannia— Food Journal—Edwin

Drood—The New Edition of Mr. Kent’s Poems — Life Duties—• Three Legends of the Early

C h u r c h .....................................746 Correspondence:

The late Bishop of Southwark . 746 Orphanage of the Faithful Virgin,

Norwood, Surrey . . . 746 Irish Catholic Education . . 746 Parliamentary Summary . . 747 L etter from R ome ; Italy—Pon­

tifical Army—Offerings to the Pope —The late Bishop of Southwark— Latest Diocesan News : • 748 Westminster . • 749

Southwark

Nottingham .

Shrewsbury .

Salford .

. 75°

■ 750

• 75°

• 750

I r e l a n d .............................................. 75r F oreign News :

Russia : The Emperor and the

Church—The Russians in India. 751 France: An Afternoon in a Paris

Clinique . . . . . 7 5 1 Memoranda :

Religious: The Brompton Ora­

tory and the late Mr. Herbert H a r r i s o n ................................... 752 Educational : Mr. Forster and the

Bishop of Winchester on the “ Religious Difficulty” . . 753

.........................................754 bcientinc ..... 754 Fine A r t s .....................................• 7ca. W e a t h e r ................................... 755 General News .... 755

C H R O N IC L E O F T H E W E E K .

THE COUNCIL.

N Friday in last week the Fathers of the Vatican Council closed the debate upon the General Schema. For many days they had been listening to nothing but repetitions, and it appeared that they would have to endure the same waste of time for weeks if not months to come unless they put a stop to it. For several days they had determined to demand the close of the debate upon the general subject. Instead of io Fathers petitioning the President to put the ■ question that the debate be closed to the Council, 1 5 0 signed the requisition. It cannot be denied that the majority in the Council has manifested singular patience ; it has borne with the discussion for three weeks. The minority has had full opportunity to make known its feelings, and it has not abstained from doing so. Most of its principal orators have been heard, but so far as can be gathered from conversation not more than two or three have denied the doctrine. The day before the vote, when it became generally known that the Fathers were going to petition for the close of the debate, Mgr Dupanloup put ■ down his name to speak. The result of this will be that •a certain party will have an opportunity of saying that the Council has refused to hear the Bishop of Orleans, and it is probable that they will not fail to avail themselves of it. But it should be observed that there ■ were some 50 or 60 names down to speak, that the Bishop of Orleans would have had to wait for weeks before coming on in his turn, and that the Council would have had to sit through all the other speeches for the sake of hearing his.. What took place in the Council on the 3rd was sure to have been misrepresented by the hostile press. As to the statement of the A ugsburg Gazette with respect to the “ shameful interruption” of Mgr Maret’s discourse it is scarcely worth noticing. The Bishop of Mayence, who is himself now claimed as one of the opponents of the Definition, has taken the trouble to publish a pamphlet expressly to denounce the untrustworthiness ot that paper as regards its news from Rome. The facts, however, are as follows. Although the Council manifested its displeasure at what it had to listen to, and the President rose to call Mgr Maret to order, he continued to read his paper, as, being very deaf, he could neither hear the marks of disapprobation nor the voice of the President. He was .accordinglytallowed' to read to the. end. When Be had finished, tBeicli’ffifend fqr the cfose of the discussion was' ~putTO theTvbn^iiithè regülar course. There is an end to human*endurance, especially in a Roman June. And it is surely within the competence of every deliberative assembly to decide by vote whether it has exhausted a debate or not, and how long it is to listen to wearisome repetitions of the same argument, especially when, as in this Vàs.e, it has had before it in print the pith of what its membcrs-Tmve to sav.

*NEw Series. No. 83.

’'V1-•

Accordingly when, as they were bound to do, the Cardinal Presidents put it to the general vote of the Council whether on the main point it had not already heard enough, there was an immense majority in favour of the close of the discussion, only fifty remaining seated. On Whitsun-Monday, in order to implore the special illumination of the Floly Spirit, the Pope in person visited S. Peter’s, and the Fathers of the Council were invited to attend and unite their prayers to his. The discussion on the particular paragraphs of the Decree began on the same day, and the procemium was voted at that sitting. The next day the first two chapters out of the four were passed, and the third was to be taken on Thursday. The fourth chapter is the one upon which the principal discussion is expected. It has been stated in many Continental papers that the first three chapters are accompanied in the usual way by corresponding Canons, but that the Commission d e F id e has thought fit to leave to the Council itself the task of preparing the Canon to be appended to the fourth chapter.

t h e

We have another illustration of the value

“ augsbubg to be attached to the Roman news in the g a z e t t e ” Augsburg Gazette. A short time ago t i n t agahm. paper asserted that the Archbishop of Catai.ii had reasoned thus : S. Paul had preached at Catana the doctrine of the Infallibility of S. Peter and his successors, and when the people disbelieved it, he told them to go to the Blessed Virgin. Whereupon they wrote to her and she replied that it was the true doctrine. It was deliberately stated that the Archbishop had used this argument in the Council, and the story found its way into and was apparently believed by some of our English contemporaries who ought to have known better. We took no notice of so palpable a falsehood until it was in our power authoritatively to contradict it. We are now in a position to assert that it is a pure and simple invention, without any shadow of a foundation.

We suppose that, in the present excited

THE DEFINITION.

FRAI?,CL AND state ° f feeling respecting the decisions of the

Council, we must expect a perfect rain of false intelligence respecting the diplomatic action ot the several Governments, which it may perhaps take several weeks to disprove. Of this nature probably is the last assertion of the correspondent of the A llgem eine Zeitung, who would have us believe that France has notified to Cardinal Antonelli that on the day of the declaration of Papal Infallibility the Concordat will be considered abrogated, “ the State will separate itself from the Church, and the French troops will withdraw from the Papal territory.” This note is supposed to 'h av e been sent by M. Emile Ollivier, while administering foreign affairs a d in terim . But the Indépendance B e lg e has received a despatch from Berlin stating that in official circles there nothing is known of am such menaces on the part of France, and one of the^tf* grams from the Roman frontier, which are always irï 4 lj