NOTES OF THE MONTH.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 208, 8 February 1875, Page 4

NOTES OF THE MONTH.

, {From the Spectator.') The election of 400,000 Municipal Councillors for the 37,000 communes of Fiance was completed on November 22nd, but the returns have as yet been received only from the towns.. They show that the electors have in general become once more Radical, very few urban constituencies —and only one of any importance, Dunkirk —having elected a majority of Conservatives. In all the large cities—Paris excepted, where no election has •yet been held—the Radicals have gained a complete and easy triumph, the Monarchists seldom venturing to go to the poll. The Moderates of the Left Centre have been beaten as much a* the Monarchists, and the cities may be said to be in the hands of Gambetta’s following. The Conservatives affirm that these returns do not signify that the rural communes will show a different return, and that the Radical councillors will not exceed 100,000, but we suspect, from the great delay in publishing the rural returns, that their hopes will be disappointed This new evidence of the temper of the cities will, we fear, alarm the “friends of order,” and as we have explained else where, may lead to still more severe measures of repression. In France Conservatives consider the Radicalism of a constituency a reason for disregarding ita behests. We ventured to suggest, when the news of the Nana’s arrest first reached England, that Scindiah had svrrendered him out of fear, or revenge for his conduct in 1858, It appears from the detailed accounts that this view was accurate, and that Scindiah has himself admitted his motive to his Durbar, though he boasted also of his fidelity to the English. “ During 1857-58,” he said, “ the Nana Sahib Peishwa was the principal means of sowing the seeds of rebellion in Lushkar Gwalior, but the British Crown, according to the Seventh Article of the Treaty of 1844, ratified between me and the Government of India, again rendered me aid and caused my State to flourish. This fellow was no well-wisher to either Government, and he was the author of the mutiny, hence he has been made over to the Resident on the 22nd instant.” Scindiah made the arrest in person, taking with him a regiment of cavalry, one of infant) y, and a battery of artillery, and so excited was public feeling in Gwalior, that it was necessary to place the whole garrison under arms. The Government, we perceive, trusts its prisoner only to Europeans, but he will have a public trial at Oawnpore.

The elections at Birkenhead went again in favor of the Conservatives, but by a much reduced majority. The Liberal candidate, Mr Stitt, received 2474, Mr Maclver 3421 votes, —Conservative majority, 947. Last February, the Conservative majority was no less than 2112 ; and even in 1868 it was nearly as great as now, —namely, 882, The result is the more remarkable because the Roman Catholics are said to have coalesced with the Orangemen, and voted for the Conservative. If that be so, the access of Liberal Protestant fervor to the Liberals has more than balanced the desertion of the Roman Catholics to the Tories.

In the Times of November 24th Lord Acton came forward to support his assertion that one of the few Popes who had also been a saint had commissioned an assassin to kill Elizabeth ; that Fen Mon had privately declared that his submission to the Holy See’s condemnation of his book was a mere form, and quite consistent with his complete adhesion to the opinions condemned ; that the treacherous massacre of St Bartholomew was really the subject of rejoicing to the Pope and the Curia ; and that generally. Popes have preached immoral doctrines, like the needlessness of keeping faith with heretics, —a doctrine which the better lay Roman Catholics have in all ages ignored, and which now they would generally condemn. The letter is a very learned, temperate, and on some points a very candid one,and for many of his assertions Lord Acton brings something very like proof, especially, we should say, as to the doctrine against keeping faith with heretics* But in reference to one point, on which Protestants are as deeply interested as Roman Catholics—for Fenelon, though a most devoted Roman Catholic, was a spiritual hero to us all till Lord Acton threw this slur on his sincerity—a letter in this week’s Tablet, signed “B. S. K.,” seems to us to have completely refuted Lord Acton, No one can read that letter and its quotations without being convinced that Fendlon was guilty neither of duplicity nor of inconsistency ; that he declared, privately as well as openly, that he admitted the justice of the condemnation as regarded what he said, though not as regarded what he meant to say ; nor that he declared openly as well as privately that his real doctrine was not that which the Holy See legitimately found in his words, but was perfectly orthodox, nay, that it was the duty of all good men in Rome to see that it did not suffer from the condemnation which his inaccurate exposition of it had justly incurred.

As regards the charge that Pius V. really gave his approval to Ridolphi’s scheme assassination of Elizabeth, the Tablet also contains a pertinent defence, though it does not amount to a vindication. It attacks Bidolphi’s honesty, on which the whole force of Lord Acton’s proof seems to depend, and shows a certain amount of presumption at all events, that he (Ridolphi) forged a letter from the Protestant Duke of Norfolk, which he showed to the Pope and concealed from the Pope the fact that the Duke in question was a Protestant. However, the character of St Pius, though of interest for Roman Catholics, and to some extent, of course, for all students of history, is not of the first moment to Englishmen in general. And wc can well afford to leave the controversy till it has been fairly debated out by Lord Acton and the Saint’s adherents. It is, at all events, satisfactory to see that Roman Catholics treat.the crime imputed,— falsely imputed, as they think, to Pius by Lord Acton, as a heinous one. A pastoral was read last Sunday, November 22nd, in the various Roman Catholic churches of the diocese of the Bishop of Birmingham (Bishop Ullathorne) on the dangers of the times, and especially the “ Old Catholic" hereby, in which the Bishop comes round, of course, to Mr Gladstone’s pamphlet, calls him (quite truly, we think), “a Protestant, if ever man was Protestant,;’’ accuses him of interrogating his Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, “in a see-saW, selfcontradictory fashion, as to their duties of civil allegiance to the State;” and asks, it> rejoinder, what would Ireland have been, with all her grievances, “if her Bishons and clergy had not incessantly inculcated the Catholic’s duty of obeying the civil authority.” He then adds, with great

bitterness: —Hut the author of ilns insulting pamphlet shall have his special reply, and we securely appeal to his own memory and conscience. During the sitting of the Vatican Council, being then Pr me Minister, he wrote a letter to an intimate friend, who was a Catholic, and in that letter it was said that if the Church invaded the civil sphere she must expect the law of retaliation. To this letter its receiver invited the Bishop of Orleans and the present writer to reply. What the Bishop of Or leans did we do not know, but the writer of this pastoral replied in a letter communicated to Mr Gladstone, in which, among other things, it was plainly stated, not merely on the writer’s own authority, but on that of one of the Cardinal Presidents of the Council obtained for the purpose, that there was no intention in any Act or decree of the Council to invade the civil sphere. With that letter of the year 1870 in his possession, it seems almost incredible, but for the fact, that its receiver should raise the question anew in 1874, and that on the score of the ancient doctrine of Infallibility,” Bishop Ullathorne seems to think that even a 11 Cardinal President” ought to be regarded by Mr Gladstone as infallible, though for a Catholic only the Pope is so. It is surely open to any political critic to contend, in spite of the opposite opinion of any “ Cardinal President,” that if the Papacy were to make one last great political effort to restore the temporal power, the Vatican decrees would be exceedingly useful levers for that operation, and useful especially in neutralising national and loyal claims on Catholic conciences. And that is precisely Mr Gladstone’s thesis.

It seems that the Pope really did utter the speech attributed to him by the correspondent of the Daily News, on ;Mr Gladstone’s pamphlet, in which Mr Gladstone was called “ a viper ” though we cannot assert that the viper was represented as doing so very unusual a thing with vipers, as biting at “ the bark of Peter.” The Roman journal J which denied the fact, and which appears to have convinced Reuter’s agent that it was not a fact, was the Osservatore Romano , the organ of the Vatican; but unfortunately for it, the Armenia has printed a report of the speech before the speech was suppressed. The Italic made a very good joke on the denial. It remarked that the only fitting commentary on the business would be to reprint the passage in “Lothair ” in which Cardinal Grandison assures Lothair that the news of the battle of Montana must be true, “ because it is recorded in the official organ of a power which is truth itself.’’ We do not, however, suppose that the Pope’s view of Mr Gladstone as a “ viper” was pronounced ex cathedra with a view to teach the Church. The arrest of Count Arnim has called nut remarks in the German Parliament The Government has recently imprisoned three “ Socialist ” Members of Parliament, and is prosecuting editors on all sides, generally for translating articles from foreign papers, and, as Herr Windhorst put it, the area of arrest has been widened, until it may some day include a National Liberal. Herr Lasker, chief of that party, though deprecating allusion to a case under trial, still lamented the want of a preliminary public inquiry as a blot on the German criminal system ; but the majority appear to have been little moved, though the members imprisoned were being punished for speeches within the Reichstag. As for Prince Bismarck, he declared that the only cause of the mulciplication of arrests was the growing irreverence for law, especially among the classes which ought to show it moat respect. He was not afraid of the discussion. It is clear from the attitude of the German Parliament that he needs not be, even it he arrests and imprisons half the members and all the editors in Germany. The Liberals will bear anything rather than vote against a man who has given them military ascendancy in Europe, and hold liberty, even for themselves, unimportant, compared with State prestige. Imagine the House of Commons afraid to inquire why Mr DisraeH had prosecuted Mr Peter Taylor for words spoken in the House, and we have the situation.

Mr Clare Read, in a speech delivered to his constituents at Diss, Norfolk, made a remark which is understood to mean that the Government will next session introduce a mild tenure Act, giving compensation to farmers for unexhausted improvements. He said, “ should a Bill be introduced to give legislative protection to the capital of tenant - farmers, he was quite sure that the just rights and interest of the landlord would be properly regarded, although this was not the case with the Irish Land Bill.’ This means, we suppose, that the farmer is to be entitled to the two years’ notice which Mr Disraeli has almost promised, and to compensation for unexhausted improvements, when sanctioned previously by the landlord, or when, at all events, not forbidden by him. That will scarcely be deemed sufficient by farmers who know that if a landlord can contract himself out of the law, a dozen sanguine young men are waiting ready to sign anything if only they may begin to farm. The Metropolitan Board of Works and the City Corporation have, it is said, resolved to introduce Bills into Parliament giving them power to buy all metropolitan gas works, to make and supply the gas themselves, and to establish a grand manufactory on land to be secured in Woolwich and Barking, two places which, what with gas, soldiers, and sewage, will soon be too comfortable to live in. They also propose, as an alternative scheme, to be allowed to enter into competition with the existing gasworks. The gas companies, on their side arc preparing Bills allowing them to amalgamate, but they may not light so hard as is anticipated. Their shareholders evidently enjoy the idea of being paid oft' in Metropolitan bonds at the rate of, say, £2OO for £IOO, and gas shares have risen from 1 to 2 per cent. The representative bodies would supply better gas at a cheaper rate, but the wisdom of the scheme will depend a good deal upon the aggregate capital required, London would look rather foolish saddled with a debt of some millions for gasworks which a new discovery in the art of illumination had suddenly made worthless. No such discovery is probable, for light cannot be produced without consuming something, but still it is within the bounds of possibility. Mr Holms, member for Hackney, sends to the Times a very strong statement about desertion. He says that in 1873 2078 results entered for the Cavalry, and 934 de (sorters were advertised for ; 3479 recruits joined the Artillery, and 1868 men deserted: 143 entered the Engineers, and 131 wert advertised ; while though 10,760 recruits were added to the Infantry of the Lino and the Guards, 3509 deserted. The

Ducket is kepi full, but bus an everwidening hole at (h> bottom. Mr Holms’*, lemedy is a smv.ll array, good pay, short service, and a large reserve costing £2O a year per man, but wc think it inferior to the one suggested in another column. Mr Holms’s plan is the cheaper, but it is based upon the assumption that we could always get the reserves when wanted, an assumption which, in this country, we doubt greatly. We could not shoot our Laudwebr in heaps, as the Prussian Government, if necessary, could and would, and the evasions when the necessity arrived would be endless. We want the men in barracks, ready at an hour’s notice, not scattered over whole counties, or in cities where, as it is, a deserter can never be discovered. The enforcement of the contract would be the press gang business over again, and might be as unpopular.