The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-01 00:00:00

ward professing the deepest concern in the injuries
of a mixed population who are allowed the use of
both languages, who have a separate representa-
tion and a share in the general government of the
Kingdom, and a dozen other advantages which the
Prussians have not. But the pretext is a very
flimsy one, and Europe has long been aware of the
real truth—that Prussia has been long determined
on annexing the Duchies, and that her assent to
the Treaty of 1852 was never meant to be more
than a temporary evasion. What if France should
regard the Treaty of 1815 in the same light, so far
as Germany is concerned ?

For lack, perhaps, of more stirring subjects of
thought and discussion, sanitary measures are rising
into unwonted importance both here and in India.
The late season of the year, and the long continued
drought, perhaps account for the sudden anxiety
manifested among our rulers for details of the public
health, for disquisitions on the sanitary condition
of watering plaees, and similar topics ; while the
publication of the Reports of the Registrar• General
and the Officers of Health, have served to direct
attention to many other questions intimately
affecting the physical wellbeing of the
people. Lancashire, we know, is getting good
out of evil by the carrying out of those
long deferred sanitary measures so greatly
needed by her large and densely packed population,
and all parties in that county are gladly availing
themselves of the favourable opportunity for reme-
dying past neglects, But is India, where those
glects have reached a pitch never dreamed of in
clean and orderly England, while the exigencies of
the climate render every sanitary precaution most
imperative, the position of the would-be reformers
is anything bat an agreeable one, It is impossible
for the most ignorant not to be aware that the utter
defiance of all sanitary laws and regulations in
which Hindoos live is not only fatal to themselves,
but dangerous to all around them. Any attempt
at official investigation brings to light a state
of things so shocking as scarcely to bear
repetition to English ears, bat still the evil remains
more difficult to deal with. English authority
may indeed be unquestioned, but it is a very diffi-
cult if not desperate task to deal with popular pre-
judice and time-worn custom. The quiet Hindoos
have also an inconvenient strength from their total
absence of that energy and activity Which is the
main spring of English life. They listen and sub-
mit apparently to the superior wisdom of the sahib,
but they go on their own way notwithstanding,
following it with a stolid indifference to all results
that is perplexing to an English mind. One would
think that they were naturally sufficiently acute
to have gathered from actual facts enough
knowledge to be aware . that impure water
is unwholesome, that swamps breed malaria,
that decaying bodies, whether human or animal,
and decomposing vegetable matter, of whatever
kind, are most prejudicial to health, and that any
accumulation of filth near places of habitation are
apt to generate fevers. These plain and simple rules
might, one would imagine, have been drilled into
their minds long before this if only from personal
observation. But fever and pestilence go on their
way unheeded, and we hear of stagnant ponds used
for baths, washhouses, and cisterns alike—of open
pits into which every description of refuse is flung
close to their places of abode—of graves in which
the dead are interred so near the surface that the
jackals dig them up at night. When we add to
all this the heat of an Indian sun magnifying
every evil, intensifying every danger, we need not
wonder that fever and cholera have their recognised
dwelling places in the native towns. Tt is very
difficult for the Government to act, yet act it must,
unless it is prepared to abrogate one of the chief
functions of an executive—the care for the lives of
its subjects. It is impossible to regulate all the
internal arrangements of a household by public
decree, yet something is withi❑ our ken, and much
may be done by a vigorous hand guided' by a firm
will and a temperate and conciliatory dis-
position. It is very evident that the Hin-
doo is totally deficient of any sense of
cleanliness, decency, and order in his domestic
affairs, yet that is no reeson why he should be
allowed to trifle with t!se public health by the en-
couragement of nuisances which in a more tem.
perate clime would be objectionable and dangerous,
but which in India are deadly. It has been suge
gested that the Government should at once under-
take the sanitary regulation of the large towns,
since the task is manifestly teo hard for the muni-
cipalities ; and this suggestion is, we think, a
wise one, since the native justices are worse than
indifferent in the matter. In all questions
of social routine or of points of internal
law, &c., the natives may fairly bo repre-
sented ; but with regard to sanitary regulations
the full authority of the Government will
be necessary to carry out any important reforms.
It might be rendered a legal cffenoe to dig those
shallow burying places which are productive of so
much mischief—mischief of so revolting a charac-
ter, and which the Made°, who professes to be

so especially scrupulous regarding the disposal
of the dead, seems quite unconcerned about.
The Government itself is not conscience clear about
the water supply, but energetic measures might be
taken to enforce a separation of the laundress's de-
partment from the bath and the source of household
supply. Inspectors might keep a strict watch
over any open receptacles of rubbish and refuse,
and might render the owner of the house

or hut in its immediate vicinity liable to a fine.
Some such means will have to be adopted before we
get the public health in India to be at all what it
might be, and before the terrible epidemics of fever
and cholera become, as they may hereafter do, as
rare in Hindostan as in England.

BREECH-LOADING RIFLES.—The Secretary of
State for War is desirous of receiving communica-
tions from gunmakers and others on the subject of the best
means of converting the Enfield r:fle into a breech-loader,
under the following conditions :-1. Cost not to exceed .C 1
per arm, 2. Shooting of the converted not to be inferior
to that of the unaltered arm. Descriptions of methods pro-
posed, accompanied by specimen arms, shonid be sent to the
Director of Ordnance, War-office, Pall-mall, on or before
the 20th of September. These descriptions and specimens
will then be considered by the Ordnance Select Committee,
who will select such of the plans as appear to them prima
facie promising. Six rifles will be delivered for conversion
to each of those gentlemen whose plans have been selected
' as above. They must be returned altered within five weeks
of the date upon which they are sent, accompanied by 1,000
rounds of such ammunition (and to be ignited in such
manner) as the competitors think most suitable. A sum of
£2O will be paid to each of the selected competitors, to
cover the expense of converting the six rifles and of the
supply of ammunition required.

A FELLOW-DZ-CE-IVID.—A stranger last week
entered a druggist's shop in Maryport, and asked
for a strong dose of poison to Lill rats. The shopkeeper
observed something strange about the appearance of the
man, and made him up a packet of magnesia, labelling it
" poison." The strbnzer went immediately to a public-
house and called for a pint cf ale, into which ho emptied
the packet of supposed poison and drank it off. He then told
the landlord and others in the house what he had done,
showing them the paper labelled "poison." The supposed
victim then took an affectionate leave of his companions,
and loft kind messages for his friends still there was no
symptoms of approaching dissolution. It: the meantime the
landlord slipped out to the druggist's and learned the secret
of the hoax. To punish the fellow an emetic was admi-
nistered, and some one, professing an anxiety to relieve the
sufferer proposed, for the want of a stomach pump, to in..
troduce the landlord's spiril syphon, but the tubes were not
flexible onough. The after-sickness endured by the man it
is hoped wilt cure him for the twine. He was turned over
to the police, as he might have been, for his deadly inten-
tion.— cuinberlana7 "'copra.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

SPAIN.
MADRID, August 31.
The Opposition journals assert that Senores
Salverria and Canovis have resigned. All these

rumours are at present, however, unfounded.

THE CONGRESS AT IVALINES.

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,)
,ALINES, Aug. 31.
A second day of the Congress has added a good
deal to its interesting character. The real practical
good to be effected by such gatherings is, after all,
the making acquainted with each other men who

ought to know each other, who have already corre-
sponded together, or know each other's name and
biography, but who might never have been brought
together in any other way. This second session

already shows that a great number of Catholics
of all countries look to the Congress as their yearly
holiday, and will return to 111alines periodically ;

so that a regular set of Matinee' men will be formed
in the course of time. The word of union among

men of such fraternal religious feeling is affected
not so much by meeting as during those intervals
when the members of the Congress disperse them•

selves into groups about the large courtyard before
the hall, and form themselves into an immense open

air conversazwfle. Moreover, this year two large
halls have been devoted to evening conversation,
where the real congressional work is going on

nightly 'with still more Effect than in the

courtyard aforesaid by day.

The Congress

seems also this year to be still more cosmo-
politan than last year. My making the
acquaintance yesterday of a young Mexican priest,
who was educated in a great measure in England,
led me to the discovery of a whole group of Spanish

priests and laymen, among whom there seem to be

several very learned theologians and jurists. I
understand that they displayed marked ability and
learning yesterday morning at the meeting of the
first section, which began like that of the four other
sections at about a quarter past nine. The first
section treats of religious works. The question
before the meeting was the all-interesting one of
the mortmain. Many of the Belgians present,

Imbued with their own mcdern French legal

notions, thought of making light of and of opposing
the ancient principles of the mortmain legislation,
_ _

which were amply vindicated, first by our Spanish
friends who showed that it completed most effec-
tually the great work of social organisation, which,

without it, was constantly threatened with a ten-

dency to dispersion. The same side of the question,
I hear, was taken also by Major O'Reilly, M.P:
who delighted the audience by the quiet, clear, and'
masterly way in which he analysed the whole sub•
ject. All were delighted with the deep and solid
learning so well displayed by the brave commander
of the Irish Pontifical Brigade. _ _ _

For my part, I selected once more the fifth section
on the press and publications, as my special section

and soon became an attentive listener to the advo•

cacy of cheap Catholic journals by a M. Stofiet, who
was succeeded by a worthy parish priest, who called
attention to the practical way of selling them by
constituting hawkers for the purpose in each village,
The speaker also suggested the institution of
regular village religious songsters, to counteract
the evils done by the general run of songs, and
instanced the district of Ypres as one where it had
been already successfully tried. M. Coomans, a
member of the Belgian Parliament, suggested the
division of journals into morning and evening sheets
to make them smaller, fresher, and more easily read,

He gave us a most amusing sketch of the history of
journals, from the primitive weekly Gazette to the
steam-wonders of three or four editions a day. He
was followed by the Abbe Mullois, one of the Em-
peror of the French's private chaplains, a priest
whose name is specially known from the success he
has had in his ministry among the Paris workmen.
The rev. chaplain spoke in the most witty and
amusing manner upon the important point of mak-

in; the most of the books given as prizes in the
various schools, which are the only given books
which are truly appeciated and read with
interest by the whole of a family, and which there-
fore ought to be selected with great care as to
proper spirit and suitable talent of composition, that

they might thus turn to a full account their insured
good luck, in point of number of interested readers.
The Abbe Mullois is himself a well-known author
of little books specially adapted to the taste of the
workpeople. A well known writer, the witty
author of Les Serpents, and the Evangile selon
Renan, was the next speaker, and proposed as a
practical conclusion to the Abbe Mullois proposal,
that an international committee should be formed,
to give a kind of catalogue ralson6e of the works
that should be recommended not merely for their
orthodoxy but for their literary merit. A. M.
Collinet of Liege, called attention to the importance
of selling good books and journals by means of the
general hawkers, by making them a great reduction
in price. The Rev. Father Dechamps, a well-known

Rede mptorist preacher and writer, brother of the

Minister of State of that name, called attention to
the good to be effected by each one personally, by
lending good books to friends and dependents. The
Baron de Montreuil stated that a committee very
much like the one suggested by M. Laterre to recom-
mend good books, of suitable literary merit, already
existed at Paris under the presidency of the well-
known philanthropist, the Vicomte do Melun, and
published in periodical bulletins. Di. Wrigley sug-
gested that, to give such a committee the proper
international character, the committee should not
limit itself to giving lists of French books, but also
of English,
German, Italian, and Spanish wcrks.
He found that, as London correspondent of the
Honcle of Paris, many private correspondents
selected him to recommend them English works
for general reading, translation, and educational
purposes. The Abbe Mulicis observed that the
Vicomte de :11-clun's committee was already known
to him; but that he thought a committee coming
from the Malines Congress would be more effective
and international. The Abbe de Geslin suggested
that the Acedemie Catholique to be created at
Brussels as a bond among Catholic .weiters of vari-
oustribunal required. The motion of Al. Lasserre was
countries, should be selected as the literary
was then unanimously adopted. The meeting of
the section concluded by taking into consideration
the means to refute the errors and calumnies so
generally
spread against the Church. The pro-
gramme suggested local committees to be formed
formed for the purpose. M. Wigley suggested also
to adapt to this purpose the British remedy for
grievances in general of " writing to the alines,"
in the shape of Catholics writing to thejournals when
they discovered that any calumny was spread against
the Church. M. de poncheville, a young Paris
student, then made a most interesting speech on the
institution of the Catholic Club of the Luxembourg
in Paris, and upon the organisation of such clubs,
offering on the part of the Paris Citib to admit re.
ciprocally to the benefits of the club the members
of all other similar institutions. M. Neut, the
chairman of the section, announced that this reci-
procity had already been agreed upon by the Catholic
clubs of Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Liege, &a., in
Belgium. The meeting of the section adjourned at
twelve.
At 3 p.m. th 3 general rue3ting of the Congress
began. Ido not dwell upon the interval, which
was filled up by one of those delightful open air
conversazioni—und a most agreeable gathering at
dinner in the large refectory nall of the ...i.nainaire.
At 3 p.m. the chair was tuken by the venerable
president, the Baron de Gerlache, and M. Doepe-
tiaux read the report of the Central Committee on
the labours of that committee to carry out the rese-
lution3 of the first Congress. Much enthusiasm was
displayed at the entrance into the hall of General
Campianmont, the chief conservative candidate at
the recent elections for Brussels, and who made
himself to well known in 1557 for his skilful sup-
pression of the democratic riots of Ghent. The
General thanked the meeting in a few words uttered
in a fine manly end military spirit and tone. M.
Ducpettaue had rot proceeded fur with the
reading of his report, when another and
much louder outburst of entilubihatie feeling