THE TABLET
A W eek ly N ew spaper and Review .
DUM VOBIS G R A TU LAM U R , ANIMOS E T IA M ADD IM U S U T IN IN CCEPTIS V E S T R IS CO N STAN T ER M ANEATIS.
From the B r ie f of His Holiness Pius I X . to T h e T a b l e t ! Ju ne 4, 1 8 7 0 .
V ol. 59. No. 2194. L ondon, A pr il 29, 1882.
P r ic e sd , b y P o st , 5
[ R e g i s t e r e d a t t h e G e n e r a l P ost O f f i c e a s a N ew s p a p e r .]
C h ro n ic le o f t h e W e e k :—
Page
The Royal Marriage. — The Budget—Corrupt Practices’ Bill. —The Lords and the Land Act.— Report of the Lords’ Committee. —The Government and the Land Law Amendment B ill.—Return of Mr. Parnell.—The Peers and Mr. Gladstone.—The Lunacy Laws,— S ir William Harcourt at Derby.— The Convict Lamson.— Foreign
Interference with Criminal Ju r is diction.—Canada and Commercial Treaties.—Canada and Ireland.— America and Ireland.—Emigration of the_ Unemployed.—The New Prussian Legation to the Vatican,—The Crisis in Egypt.— Retirement of Sir Ashley Eden.— The Funeral o f Mr. Darwin.— Accident to a Boulogne Steamer. —The Royal University Fellows h i p s ...................................................637
CONTENTS.
P e t e r P e n c e . . L e a d e r s :
Page
The Corrupt Practices Bill . . 641 A Catholic Defeat .. Amendment of the Irish Land
A c t .. Schoolboy Ideals . . Corrupters o f Words
. . 643
N o t e s .......................................... R ev iew s :
German Culture and Christianity 647 The “ Dublin Review ” . . . . 648 Recreations o f a Literary Man . . 649 S hort N o t ic e s :
The Altus of St. Columba . . 649 Forensic Anecdotes . . . . 649 St. Joseph’s Foreign Missionary
Society . . , , , . , , 650 I m p e r ia l P a r l ia m e n t . . . . 650
C o r r e s po n d en c e :— Rome : —(From Our Own Corre
spondent) . .
Paris :—(From Our Own Corre
Page
653
spondent) . . . . . . . . 654 Dublin (From Our Own Corres
pondent) . . . . . . . . 655 United States (From our American
Correspondent) . . . . . . 656 L e t t e r s to t h e E d it o r :— Was Shakspeare a Catholic ? . . 658
The Mission at Huntingdon . . 658 The Days o f Persecution.. .. 658 Outrages on Men and Animals . . 658 A Case of Distress............................. 658 Espionage in Catholic Colleges . . 659 Our Lady o f the Sacred Heart,
Wellingborough . . . . . . 659 Books of Devotion . . . . . . 659 C atholic N o t e s ............................... 659 M o n ey and T r a d e ............................... 660 Obituary . . . . . . . . 661 The Royal Wedding . . . . . . 661
P age
SU P P L EM E N T . Decisions of Roman Congregations 669 N ew s from t h e S chools:—
Thirty-fifth Annual Meeting of the
Catholic Poor School Committee 669 Religious Knowledge in the
Diocese o f Hexham and Newcastle . . . . . . i . 670 Royal University Fellowships . . 673 E n g la n d :—
Westminster
. . . . 673
Southwark . . . . . . . . 673 L i v e r p o o l .......................... . . 673 Newport and Menevia . . 674 Nottingham.. . . . . . . 674 Salford . . . . . . . . 674 Quarterly Meeting o f the Society of
St. Vincent de Paul , . . . 674 S c o t l a n d :—
Aberdeen . . . . . . . . 675
CHRONICLE OF THE WEEK.
ON Tuesday morning Princess Helen of Waldeck-Pyrmont, with her .......... — _ father and mother, the reigning Prince and Princess, and her young brotherw and sister, arrived at Queenborough in fine weather, and proceeded under pitiless rain to Windsor, where they were welcomed by the Queen and the Royal family. The next day arrived by the same route the King and Queen of the Netherlands, brother-in-law and sister of the bride, and on Thursday the marriage was celebrated in St. George’s Chapel with all possible solemnity and rejoicing. All the Queen’s sons are now married, and her subjects are of one mind in hoping that this latest union may be as happy as those which preceded it.
The public had been prepared for a tame THE Budget, and the only change in the incidence of taxation during the coming year will be in thedirection of an increased licence duty upon carriages. For in fulfilment of a promise given to Mr. Harcourt, the member for Oxfordshire, Mr. Gladstone proposes to relieve the ratepayers, in respect o f the charges which have been transferred to them through the abolition of turnpikes and the augmentation of the highway rates, to the extent of ^250,000. This is a move in the right direction, as the carriage tax at least has the advantage of making those who use the roads contribute towards their maintenance. Mr. Gladstone has not "been able to announce any diminution of the public burdens, and while pointing out that the national expenditure is a growing one, attributed the sluggish state of the revenue to the slow recovery of the country from its long period of depression. The actual revenue of the year was ^85,822,000, and the the actual expenditure ,£85,472,000 showing a surplus of ,£350,000 of income over expenditure.
On Monday the Attorney-General moved the second reading of the drastic measure b ill. which is to secure the purity of elections. Sir
Richard Cross, while promising a general support, characterised the Bill as too severe, and in particular objected to the clauses dealing with a candidate who had been guilty of corruption by his agents “ He thought it a terrible penalty to prevent a man for ever from sitting in Parliament for acts of some one over whom he might have no control.” Upon this the Attorney-General explained that the reason why a candidate was to be disqualified for life from sitting for a constituency which had been corrupted by his agent tvas because it was felt that if an agent knew that if he were guilty of corrupt practices he would lose his candidate altogether, he would be much less likely to resort to bribery than he was now. This is a piece of reasoning which may appear correct enough, but it looks very much like an attempt to secure electoral purity by establishing a system of vicarious terrorism. Much opposition, too, was offered to the proposed limitations on election expenses and the number of agents to be employed by any one candidate; but throughout the debate it was apparent that the principle of the Bill was accepted by the great majority of the House and that the real struggle would be in committee. On the subject of expense some remarks of the Attorney-General were instructive. “ The true way,” he said, “ to cheapen and purify elections would be to substitute for paid agency a volunteer agency. The return of expenses at the last election reached the largest sum it had ever reached. This expense was not a matter of necessity, it was one of custom. In Montgomeryshire, with a constituency of 5,291, and in which 4,232 voted, the unsuccessful candidate polled 2,041, and spent ,£ 13 ,0 5 3 , or ,£ 6 5s. a vote : while in Herefordshire, the successful candidate polled 2,726 votes at an expense of ,£ 296, or about 2s. a head. The reason of this difference was that one worked with voluntary agents and the other was black-mailed by a host of unenthusiastic agents.”
The debate in the Lords on the suggested
TH- r s amendment of the Land Act was marked the land act. throughout by a bitter ability. Lord Dun-
raven, who opened the debate, dwelt with great force upon the inconvenience arising from the existing difference of opinion between the Prime Minister and the High Court of Appeal, as revealed by the decision in the case of Adams v . Dunseath, and pertinently asked which of the two authorities the Sub-Commissioners were likely to follow:
The Prime Minister had said that the Government must carefully observe the action of the Sub-Commissioners before they decide what they will do. The Premier now appeared to have constituted himself a Final Court of Appeal. I f his words meant anything, they meant that the decision of the High Court was erroneous, and he went further, and suggested that the Sub-Commissioners in Ireland should not regard, in similar cases, the decision of the High Court of Appeal. The Prime Minister went the length of saying that the decision of the High Court of Appeal in Ireland was wrong ; and, if his words had any meaning,
N ew Series, Vol. XXV I I . No. 702]
