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

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 MALINES.
(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)
MALINES, Aug. 31.

A second day of the Congress has added a good
deal to its interesting character. The real practical
good to be (Erected 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, bat who might never have been brought
tcgether 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 Matinee periodically ;
so that a regular set of Malines' 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 theme
selves into groups about' the large courtyard before
the hall, and form themselves into an immense open
air conversazione. 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 ti 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 modern French legal
notions, thought of making light of and of opposing
the ancient principles of the mortmai❑ 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. Stoflet, 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 toinistry among the Paris workmen.
The rev. chaplain spoke in the most witty and
amusing manner upon the important point of mak-
ing 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 namber of interested readers.
The Abbe Mullois is himself a well Inown 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 scion
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 razsonie 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
Redemptorist 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 de Melon, and
published in periodical bulletins. M. Wigley 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, G er man, Italian, and Spanish works.
He found that, as London correspondent of the
Monde of
Paris, many private correspondents
selected him to recommend them English works
for general reading, translation, and educational
purposes. The Abbe Mullcis observed that the
Vicomte de Melun's committee was already known
to him; but that he thought a committee coming
from the Molines congress would be more effective
and international. The Able de ()Tann suggested
that the Academie Catholique to be created at
Brussels as a bond among Catholic writers of vari-
ous countries, should be selected as the literary
tribunal required. The motion of M. Lasserre was
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
th© Church. The pro-
gramme suggested local committees to be formed
formed for the purpose. M. AVigley suggested also
to adapt to this purpose the British remedy for
grievances in general of ig writing to the 2 imes,',
in the shape of Catholics Writing to the j ournals 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 sf such clubs,
offering on the part of the Paris Ctub to admit re.
ciprocally to the benefits of the club the members
of all other similar institutions. M. Neut, the
agreed upon by the Catholic
chairman of the section, announced that this reci-
procity had already been
clubs of Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Liege, &0., in
Belgium. The meeting of the section adjourned at
twelve.

At 3 p.m. the general meeting of the Congress
began. Ido not dwell upon the interval, which
was filled up by one of those delightful open air
conversazioni—and a most agreeable gathering at
dinner in the large refectory hall of the Setainaire.
At 3 p.m. the chair was taken by the venerable
president, the Baron de Gerlache, and M. Ducpe-
tiaux read the report of the Central Committee on
the labours of that committee to carry out the reso-
lutions 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 so well known in 1857 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 and military spirit and tone. 31.
Ducpetiaux had not proceeded far with the
reading of his report, when another and
much louder outburst of enthusiastic feeling