The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-05 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

INDIA AND CHINA MAILS.

MARSEILLES, SEPT. 4.

The Messageries Itoperiales mail steamer Peluse
arrived here at 2 p.m. to-day with the above mails,
600 bales of silk, and 02 eases of rhubarb for
London.

THE CONGRESS AT MALINES.
(FROM OCR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT).

INIALINEs, Sept. 3, 1864.

Yesterday was the last day of the Congress pro-
perly so called. There remains only for to-day's
programme, a general meeting at 8 o'clock in the
morning, at which the President, Baron de Ger-
lache, is to deliver the closing address ; after which
we are to hear in the cathedral a parting sermon
from the celebrated Pare Fe ix ; and so must end
this delightful gathering, of which we are promised
a renewal only in two years' time. A banquet at 7
P. will still be the last opportunity of meeting for
a few hundred of the members of the Congress. But
let us speak of yesterday. The sections held their
fast meeting in the morning, and my steps led
me to the first section, where were being discussed
the interesting subjects of St. Peter's pence, and the
mode of propagating it, and the pilgrimages in
general, and especially that of the Holy Land, At
half-past 2 the general meeting began by a report
on the Exhibition of Christian Art, which has
gathered in the Hotel Liedkerke at Matinee the art
treasures of the greater part of the churches and
monasteries of Belgium, in addition to several
foreign contributions. The Exhibition is to re-
main open till the end of September, and is in
some respects mere complete than the Loan
Museum was at South Kensington. The report,
which was read by the Senator Cannart d'Hamale,
Malines, was intended chiefly to usher in the list
of prizes awarded for a competition in religious
sculpture, goldsmith's work, and stained glass,
which had been proposed by the Exhibition com-
mittee. This list was read by the Chanoine de
Bleser. Two prizes of 200 fr. and 100 fr, were
awarded to the sculpture competition, both being
gained by Belgian artists. The goldsmith's prize
was given to a German from Aix la Chapelle, while
the prize for stained glass was awarded to Mr N. J,
Westlake, of London.

MGB.. DE NV onmoNT, chaplain of the Pontifical
Zouaves, then came forward to give a few particulars
about the life of those Catholic volunteers of the
Pope's army, among whom there are a great many
Belgians. He spoke of the intellectual, religious,
and charitable occupations of these young men, who
wherever they are sent in garrison establish a society
of St. Vincent de Paul, and visit and relieve the
poor. He mentioned also the fact that a role, who
was in the nuave Brigade, had come into it from a
vow he had made to serve in the Papal army, should
a child of his who was . dangerously ill, recover.
God had granted life and hea.th to his child, and
the grateful father cheerfully and exemplarily dis.
charges his obligation. _ _

M. DE LA BATTIE, from the Isle of Bourbon, gave
a short account of the progress of the Society of St.
Vincent de Paul and of the Catholic press in that
French colony.
A Hungarian, in his national costume and whose
name I understood to be Mager, gave us in excellent
French an account of the state of the Catholicity in
Hungary, the youngest child of the Church in
Europe, as he observed, for its conversion to Chris-
tianity only dates from the ninth century. Part of
it, and that the most fertile, was for 160 years sub-
ject to the Turks, and now one-third of the popula-
tion had become Protestant, Their national policy
had in consequence been much influenced in a Proa
testant direction, while the Protestants had nearly
the whole of the press in their hands. What, how-
ever, was the strength of Catholicity in Hungary
was her clergy, who were most edifying and learned.
They had also established for some years the Society
of St. Stephen for the diffusion of good books, and
that of St. Lldislaus, founded in 1830, to assist the
Catholics of the Eastern rites. Both societies num.
bered 24,000 members. Religious societies of work-
men also existed, A Catholic press was much
wanted, and ho regretted that the clergy in general
did not yet completely understand the great need
of it in the present age. Ho concluded by quoting
the words of the well-known French oratorian,
1:1(re Gratry, on the subject of Catholic journals.
The Rev. Fere DECIIAMPS, a Belgian Redemp-
torist, then spoke briefly, to justify the Congress
from the charge of being political, as it was not
gathered for a political end, but came across politics
as they were more or less mixed up with every
social question. He spoke of our verable president
the Baron de Gerlache, as the hero of the national
struggle of 1825, and as ever in the foremcst rank
as a champion passione of true liberty.
The Rev. Father HERMANN, superior of the Car-
melite Friars of Kensington, then addressed the
in England. He spoke of the great
oCfoengatrheosslictiotygive them some particulars of the state
progress it had made ;of late years as due in great
measure to his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman, who
was the only Catholic in England who did not per-
ceive that his own diocese had made the most pro-
gress of any; for while in the rest of England the
Catholic clergy hed increased bat threefold since
the year of the Catholic emancipation, inthe diocese
of Westminster they had increased fourfold. The
general religious habits of the Catholics had become
more healthy. Fcrnlerly they were almost afraid
to display, even in their own churches, their devo-
tion for the Blessed Sacrament, and for the Blessed
Virgin Mary. No sermon on the Blessed Virgin
was hardly ever heard from the Catholic pulpits of
the land which once boasted the name of Mary's
Dowery. These outworks of the fortress of faith
had now been prominently restored. And this was
due especially to the Cardinal and the Fathers of
the great Society of leen!, who ever held their foot-
ing in England even when there was hardly any
secular priest left in it, by the persecution of two
centuries duration. Now the Month of Mary was
duly observed throughout the land,
and all Catholics
therein displayed their devotion for the Rosary and
Scapular. The Scapular, that great devotion of
English origin, given by Our Lady in England to
an English saint, seemed to him a pledge of the
future return
to the Church of that noble
country. Father Fisher, that great ascetic
writer of modern times, whose death has
left such a void in the English clergy, used
to say that if more Protestants were not converted,
it was because the blessed Virg was not sufficiently
honoured by the Catholics. Devotion to the blessed
Virgin
Sacrament was now especially
it might be said that
revived in England.
Even in Catholic countries
God in the Eucharist was too
much of an unknown
God. Every new sanctuary Bet up in London, in
that vast city of three millions of inhabitants,
was another court of adorers gathered to
ossessed six tali.
compensate for the indifference of the rest of the
population. England now P
gions houses where the perpel
cal adoration of the
blessed Sacrament was kept
up, and two of these
hhoouusress' twieproesiitni
oLnoonfdtohne.
blessed T et e
Sacrament was devotion of the forty
re-
vived in all the churches ; and an association for its
adoration during the night had been formed by
several pious men. The greatest union reigned in
England between the secular and the regular
clergy. The Society of St Vincent de Paul was now
spread throughout the land, and kept up its num-
bers and works without any opposition. The atti-
tude of general society in Eeglaed towards the
Catholics was much improved. In fact, Catholicity
is better known, and it can only profit by being
known, as the Congress itself proves. The first
Catholic made one of the judges of the land was
appointed lately. The rev. father then described
the kindness and attention which he had received
from the prison authorities and the sheriff on the
occasion of his having to prepare for death four out
of the five pirates of the Flowery Land, who were
executed on the 22d of February last. Ido not
wish in any way to spoil the description which
Father Hermann gave of this moving scene by any
abridgment. I understand that his eloquent and
interesting address is to be translated whole
and entire into English.

M. LE NOEMANT, 9n of the 'Ate well known pro-