THE TABLET m TABLE OP CONTENTS’.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

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RELIGION AND POLITICS

Dr. Wiseman and the London Dis­

Page trict ....................... . . . . 593 Swiss Affairs ................................... 593 Convocation . . . . . . . . 593 The New Bishop o f Spitalfields . . 594 Mr. Anstey and the Confederation .. 594 RF.yTEWS MoliSre and the French Drama—The

Constitutional History o f the University of Dublin. By Mr. D. C. Heron, A .B .—Catholic Hymns for Youthful Minds—Refutation of Mr. M’llwaine’s Six Charges against the Church of Rome. By the Editor of the “ Belfast Vindicator”—Portrait of St. Alphonsus .. .. . . 595 CATFOLTC INTELLIGENCE:—

Mr. E. G. K. Browne and the Corres­

pondent o f the “ Herald” .. .. 596 Notices to Correspondents .. . . 600

The Late Cardinal Acton. Letter of the Rev. F . Mahoney.. L owdon :—

St. George’s—St, Marie’s at Rugby —and Dr. Wiseman—The ProVicar-Apostolic and the Prime Minister.. P r o v in c ia l :—

Bolton : Opening o f the New Catholic Church of St. Marie—Rugby: Opening the New Church of St. Mary — Stourbridge : “ ThirtyNine ” still at W o r k ........................ W ales :—

The Harvest — Circular o f the Bishop o f A p o l lo n ia ........................ Scotland :—

Edinburgh : The Holy Guild of St. J o s e p h ............................................. I reland :—

New Marble Altar for St. Francis’ Church, &c.........................................

FOREIGN & COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE:—

11aly—Rome—Leghorn—Romance at

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La Ventura—France—Spain—Portugal — Russia— Saxony—Germany —Prussia—Switzerland : The Cantons and the Confederation—America : A Now Labour School— United States, &c................... 538 NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS :— SECOND EDITION:—

Dr. Wiseman’s Refutation o f the

Slanders—Latest News from Italy— Threatened War—Austrian Aggression—The Foreign Powers—Signor Mazzani—Papal Volunteers—The Free Trade Congress in Belgium— Official Changes—Proposed Congress of English Railway Companies —Sympathy with the Pope .. •• 600 Conversions .................................. 601 DOMESTIC NEWS:—

C ourt and F ash ionable L ife

T h e Queen’s Progress in Scotland •• 601 P E R S O N A L :—

Difficulties o f a Noble Duke—Com­

modore De lvay—Death o f a Princess - The Sanitary Commission — Jenny Lind, &c. ....................... 603 P O L I T I C A L :—

The E l e c t i o n s .................................. 603 PROTESTANTISM : MISCELLANEOUS — LAW AND

POLICE — ACCIDENTS AND OFFENCES, &c. :— IRELAND - POLITICAL:—

Loyal National Repeal Association—

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State o f the Country—Progress of Fever, .. ............................................. 604 NAVAL AND MILITARY NEWS:— GAZETTES RAILW AY INTELLIGENCE 605 MONEY MARKET AND CITY NEWS 60G MARKETS .................................. 607 A D V E R T IS EM EN T S ........................ 608

V ql. VIII. No. 385.

SATURDAY,

SEPTEMBER 18, 1847.

P r i c e 6 d.

D R . W I S E M A N A N D TH E L O N D O N

D IS T R IC T .

Many o f our readers, even in London, will probably learn fo r the first time, through this announcement, that the R igh t Rev. D r . Wiseman has been appointed to superintend, for a time at least, the concerns o f the London District. His Lordship arrived from Rome on Saturday. The news o f the decease o f the late lamented Dr. Griffiths reached Rome only just before D r . W iseman’s departure, and it was in London by letters which followed him almost on the instant that he learned his appointment o f Pro-Vicar-Apostolic.

There are rumours afloat touching the purpose o f this temporary appointment, to which it may be proper for us to allude. The unusual step o f making, on the sudden, a temporary arrangement to supply a vacancy, o f itself suggests the notion of a change of system. Rumour converts this possibility into a fact, and speaks o f a Hierarchy, with Dr. Wiseman fo r the Archbishop o f 'Westminster or London. Whether this rumour comes to his Lordship’ s ears now for the first time, we cannot say, but we believe we are correct in stating that no intimation o f such a design has been made to him from Rome, and that the letters which convey his appointment to this temporary function are quite silent about the ulterior purposes of the H >ly See in our legard.

In the meantime, it is our pleasing task to congratulate the London District on the temporary appointment that has been made, and to express our hope, as well as our expectation, that, under some form or other, it w ill be permanent. In saying this, we do not mean to treat with disregard the feeling of'm any o f the London Clergy, who, having set their hearts upon the appointment o f a Bishopfrom among their own body, and feeling a strong and well- merited regard for one or two particular narftes, will have been taken by surprise by the actual nomination, and whose surprise, therefore, may possibly be accompanied by some m omentary feeling of disappointment. W e neither disregard this feeling, nor lay much stress upon i t ; the first, because it is real, genuine, honest, natural, and creditable— the second, because we believe it to be on ly temporary. The feeling that occupies us in the matter is that o f unlimited confidence in the H o ly See, and a firm belief that such an appointment would not have been so promptly made without very fu ll and exact previous inquiries, very mature deliberations, and a most settled design."

Looking at the state o f affairs in this District from many aspects, it would be idle to contend that the one thing specially wanted in London was a continuance o f the old routine. W e do not now refer'to any point of mere personal disposition; greater or less energy o f mind ; greater or less enterprise and vigour o f character. W e speak far more largely. Whatever personal characteristics the change may assume, we feel most thoroughly convinced that the old system is no longer tolerable under the altered ciicumstances o f the time. W e are not for urging on inconsiderate changes; fo r letting zeal outrun discretion ; for perilling funds in dangerous enterprises; for incurring great risks, or indulging in fanciful speculations ; fo r taking up new theories, and running astray after every W i l l -o ’ -the-wisp or Jacko’ -lantern in the shape o f a new light. W e are for no powdered flunkies, or carriage in the p a r k ; nor is it mere Gregorian Chant on which our hearts are set. But we confess there are two things to which we do attach the very greatest importance— two things which with an almost sanguine expectation we connect with D r . W iseman’s appointment. One is the restoration o f Canon L a w ; the other, a more prominent position and increased activity given to the Religious Orders.

The present system carefully fosters two opposite evils to cripple and to weaken us. I t takes from the Secular Clergy all independence o f po sition ; makes them the mere stewards or spiritual bailiffs o f the Bishop during his good pleasure ; gives them no stimulus to extraordinary exertion; so far as self-interest can actuate them, studiously dissuades them from making sacrifices; and in the absence o f all legal guarantee leaves their career in a parish in which they may be zealously and successfully doing the work o f God, liable to be cut short by whispered slander and unproved suggestions. O f course, we do not say that this last result has ever happened ; but we do say that the existing system provides no security against it. and that the next worst thing has happened most notoriously— namely, the removal o f Priests whom the present system left under the impression that they had been dismissed unfairly, and that the Bishop's private inquiries had failed to do them justice. There are exactly two parties whom we regard as being placed in a veriinjurious position by this order o f affairs; one is the ruler, and the other is the ruled. It is a system which we should like neither to be snbject to as Priest, nor to administer as Bishop.

place in the globe in which the labours o f the Monastic orders are so much needed as in London ; in which their labours would be sure to be attended with such signal b en e f i t ; and yet, while they are spreading all through England, with a very inconsiderable exception thsy have hardly got a foot across the London border. One Jesuit Church, with a limited number o f Priests, is in the course o f erection ; a few R e ligious have been occasionally borrowed from other districts for preaching Retreats; but London, le puted to be incomparably the wealthiest o f the eight districts, and certainly the most in need o f all the spiritual help that can be scraped together, has not a religious house that it can call its o w n !

One is very apt to take one’s own strong wishes for a proof of their fulfilment, and perhaps something o f this sanguine feeling may have come over us. But we confess that when we hear o f Dr. Wiseman’s appointment as Pro-V ica r with rumours o f a change o f system, we cannot help entertaining a very strong conviction that such a change must point in two main directions— an increase in the justice o f the rule by which we are governed, and an increase in the spirit o f perfection to which and by which we are guided— that is, Canon Law and the Religious Orders. These and, no doubt, other benefits we look lor from D r. Wiseman’s nomination, considering it not merely as the preference of oneindividual ecclesiastic over another, but as evidence, more or less conclusive, o f an intention on the part o f the Holy See to direct and effect a change.

That this change, i f our surmises prove correct, may involve increased energy and enterprise with nndiminished prudence and the general satisfaction and happiness o f all parties and classes, is our most sincere wish and most earnest desire.

O f D r. Wiseman’s personal qualifications for the high office to which he has been appointed it is needless for us to say anything— more particularly as Father Thomas has with much felicity taken this department o f the subject out o f our hands. His Lordship’s great and amiable qualities are not unknown, and we hope that he may long rule over us to make them even better known and more h ighly estimated.

SW IS S A F F A IR S . A paragraph in the Daily News o f Wed nesday gives us both the late intelligence from Switzerland and (unintentionally) a very clear prospect o f the glaring iniquity o f the cause which the Daily News espouses.

I f the H o ly Father were indifferent to the affairs o f this district and this kingdom ; if he had appointed the first comer, or treated the case as one o f comparative unimportance, and a matter o f mere routine, we should look upon the appointment, as upon everything coming from the H oly See, with respect, but we should see no grounds fo r peculiar confidence. Here, however, the case is very different. So far from being careless about England, the Pope pays the most extraordinary attention to our affairs, and regards this portion o f his flock with the most anxious solicitude. He does not decide our English business without consideration, nor does he treat it as a matter o f routine ; but really gathering from every quarter the best lights that are accessible, His Holiness takes the very best course that, after the most anxious consideration, seems attainable. Surely, i f we have good ground fo r believing that a special inspiration guides and directs the H o ly See in its government o f the Church, there can be no occasion on which we should pay a more religious respect to its determinations than the present.

The appointment o f D r . Wiseman is not to be taken singly. I t is evidently not the mere choice or preference o f one Priest over another, as in a diocese, where everything is settled, and nothing is to be done but to administer according to certain fixed laws.

In placing D r . Wiseman amongst us, His H o liness has evidently in view a change o f system— new measures that have special reference to the altered circumstances o f the times— measures by whicn not merely religion will be advanced and promoted, but, i f we might hazard a conjecture, very probably the position o f all classes o f the Clergy may be improved also.

Our most earnest hope is, that part o f the change which the exceptional appointment o f Dr. Wiseman may herald to us is the substitution o f Law for W i l l ; the known law o f the Church,with its wise and provident guarantees, for the discretion, however respectable, o f any fallible individual.

But while the energies o f the Secular Clergy are crippled, on the one hand, by the absolute discretion to which they are made subject; on the other, they are crippled by not having the assistance to which they might otherwise look for aid. The discipline o f the Catholic Church, when in full vigour, combines in the highest degree the opposite advantages of permanence and change; o f routine and new blood ; o f settled and steady management, with occasional vigorous impulses and renovations. The existing system gives us neither benefit in its fu ll perfection. Where Canon Law provides permanence and stability, we have everything unsettled and liable to derangement. Where the Church provides for the admission o f new life into a settled administration by means o f the Religious Orders, we have unfortunately nothing o f the kind. W e speak, o f course, o f religious men; thank God, we are not destitute o f Nuns. But o f Monks, Friars, Jesuits, and other Religious, there is not a house in the D is tr ic t ! The Catholic population, more numerous than the entire population ot Rome— as numerous as the entire population o f Lyons— considerably more numerous than that o f any ether French city or town, except P a r is ; Church accommodation for about half the F a ith fu l ; and yet not a single^ religious house to cope with this alarming destitution W e suppose there is no

The Swiss Diet, as we announced would probably happen, has adjourned to the 18th October, for ilie purpose o f allowing time to the cantonal Governments to give instructions to their respective deputies on the question o f the measures to be adopted to eniorce the execution o f the decisions which the Diet lias come to, and which have been hitherto resisted by the cantons o f the League. Tile division which now disunites and distracts the Swiss Confederacy may be thus briefly stated. The Confederacy consists o f twenty whole cantons and four half cantons, varying within very wide limitB in population, territory, and wealth, and dithering also in language, religion, and customs. Eight whole cantons and two half cantons, Including those o f greatest population, wealth, and intelligence, such as Berne and Geneva, are desirous o f consolidating the Swiss nationality by giving greater strength and power to the. federal Government, which presides in common over all the cantons, as distinguished from the cantonal Governments by which the internal affairs o f the cantons respectively are directed. They are also desirous o f expelling the Jesuits from the territory o f the Confederacy, and o f declaring any partial lea gue 01 confederacy between any particular cantons illegal. T o these measures the remaining eight whole cantons and two half cantons are opposed. But, as the majority in the Diet necessarily decides, the question has now arrived at the praetica! issue as to how the federal Government is to compel these eight cantons and two half cantons to submit to such decision. The despotic States of Eastern Europe and France take the side o f the minority in this dispute; England is represented as favouring the federal Government. Tire matter, however, must now be speedily brought to an issue.

I f the reader attentively considers the passages marked in Italics, he will see at once that the majo r ity o f the cantons even in the writer’ s opinion have no case either on the score o f law or o f justice.

I t is clearly admitted— as the fact is— that the majority are aggressive. They wish to strengthen the federal Government; to alter the la w ; to change the terms o f the compact among the cantons ; to make a serious breach in the articles o f a treaty, not by persuading the smaller cantons to come into their views, but by arms and force “ to “ compel these cantons to submit.” I t is as i f Russia, Austria, and England wished to alter the Treaty o f Vienna, and were to make war upon Prussia “ to compel her to submit.” Or it is as i f — contrary to the compact between the United States o f America— a majority o f those States were to unite together “ to compel the minority “ to submit” to the establishment of an hereditary monarchy. The cantons have entered the Confederation on certain term s; subject to those terms, they have retained each its individual sovereignty; the majority o f the cantons, and the Daily News to back them, wish by an arbitrary act o f power to violate those terms, and to deprive the cantons by force o f the political power they have reserved to themselves, preserved from a long series of ages.

The question of the Jesuits is in exactly the same predicament. There is no law against the Jesuits. There is no law limiting the power o f any canton in the matter o f education ; and other cantons besides Lucerne have for years past enjoyed the services o f the Jesuits in large and flourishing colleges, which no one ever dreamed o f assailing as contrary to law. Y e t now, in the absence o f all law, it is proposed to expel the Jesuits from the Canton o f Lucerne, and to com pel that Canton to submit to a breach o f law, backed by a majority and military force. What the Daily News evidently admires is not law, or justice, or fair dealiug; but the practice o f Lynch law among the Alps ; a H o ly Alliance to put down freedom and annihilate local independence, whenever these are enjoyed by men whose political theories or religious opinions are at variance with its own.

The question o f a partial league among the cantons is o f the same kind. The Sonderbund is strictly a defensive alliance; it has never been used for purposes o f aggression; it, or something like it, was needed to defend the smaller number o f cantons against the (,'orps Francs— the freebooters whose officer is now ch ief o f the Swiss Executive. Such a partial league is strictly in accordance, not merely with the letter o f the law, but with recognised practice, and cannot be altered without either the voluntary consent o f all the cantons, or an act o f despotic authority as gross as that of Austria and Russia in Cracow, and o f Austria in Ferrara. Y e t these iniquities are defended by the Daily News, and seem to meet with general approbation on the part o f the English Liberal press!

On the subject o f Swiss affairs, our readers will peruse with great interest the translation of the first half o f an article from a recent number o f the Revue des Deux Mondes.

CONY O CATIO N T The election o f an Trisli Peer occasionally, and the election o f the Scotch Peers from time to time, create some slight rippling on the surface o f the political pool. The House o f Commons seems otherwise to absorb all interest and excitement in itseif, leaving, perhaps, a local residence to its own bantlings, the corporate governors o f our provincial cities. Few people are probably aware that there is another election, concurrent, with that by which the Commons are formed, which in theory is not o f inferior import, though in fact it is only what it was called by one who shared in it the other day, an absurdity. When the Crown summons or dissolves a Parliament o f the lay subjects of the realm, it summons also or dissolves a Parliament o f its spiritual subjects. These latter are not less obedient to the Royal voice than the former ; while they are far more tractable during the time o f their existence, and give no trouble whatever to man, woman, or child.

This clerical Parliament lives only during the life o f the lay Parliament. As soon as it meets, the Crown is pleased to prorogue it, never to be called together again even for its final dissolution. The treatment it receives savours somewhat o f contem pt; but with this we have nothing to do. On the dissolution o f Parliament the Sovereign is also pleased to dissolve the Convocation o f the Clergy, and at the same time to issue a writ to the Archbishop, commanding him to take the necessary steps towards forming another. The Archbishop and the L ord Chancellor discharge like function*