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

LATEST INTELLIGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

INDIA AND CHINA MAILS.
MARSEILLES, SEPT. 4.

The Messageries Imperiales mail steamer Peluse
arrived here at 2 F.m. to•day with the above mails,
600 bales of silk, and 92 cases of rhubarb for
London,

THE CONGRESS AT MALINES.
(FROM ot.:lt SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT).

MALINES, 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•
lathe, is to deliver the closing address ; after which
we are to hear in the cathedral a parting sermon
from the celebrated Pere Felix; and so must end
this delightful gathering, of which we are promised
a renewal only in two years' time. A banquet at 7
p.m. will still be the last opportunity of meeting for
a few hundred of the members of the Congress. But
let es speak of yesterday. The sections held their
last 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 Malines 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 more complete than the Loan
Museum was at South Kensington. The report,
which was read by the Senator Cannart d'Hamale,
of 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 Chanoino de
Bleser. Two prizes of 200 fr. and 100 fr, were
awarded to the sculpture competition, both being
gained by Belgian twists. The goldsmith's prize
was given to a German from Aix la Coapelle, while
the prize for stained glass was awarded to Mr N. J,
Westlake, of London.

MGR. DE WOELMONT, chaplain of the Pontifical
.nuaves, 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 Pole, who
was in the ZDuave 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 hie child, and
the grateful father cheerfully and exemplarily dig.
charges his obligation,

M. DE LA BainE, from the Isle of Bourbon, gave
a short account cf the progress of the Society of St.
Vincent do 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 Pro.
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. Ladislaus, founded in 18,50, to assist the
Catholics of the Eastern rites. Both societies num.
bored 24,000 members. Religious societies of work-
men also existed, A Catholic press was much
wanted, and he regretted that the clergy in general
did not yet completely understand the great need
of it in the present age. He concluded by quoting
the words of the well-known French oratorian,
Pre Gratry, on the subject of Catholic journals.
The Rev. Fdre DECHAMPS, a -Belgian Redemp.
torist, then spoke briefly,
from the charge of bei- t.l justify the Congress
eg political, as it was not
gathered for a politic et end, but came across politics
II
.ore or less mixed up with every
as they were re
social questie„. He spoke of our verable president
the I3ar°-.1 de Gerlache, as the hero of the national
et"-agle of 1830, and as ever in the foremost rank
as a champion passione of true liberty.
The Rev. Father HERMANN, superior of the Car.
melite Friars of Jiensington, then addressed the
Congress, to give them some particulars of the state
of Catholicity in England. He spoke of the great
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
Catholio clergy had increased but 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 tealthy. Formerly 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
duo especially to the Cardinal and the Fathers of
the great Society of Sane, who ever held their foot-
ing in England eves 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 Catho!ics
therein displayed their devotion for the Rosary and
_
Scapular. The Scapular, that great devotion of
English origin, given by Oar Lady in England to
an English saint, seemed to him a pledge of the
future return to the Church of that noble
country. Father Faber, 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 Virgin
Devotion to the blessed
Sacrament was now especially honoured by the Catholics.
revived in England.
was not sufficiently
Even in Catholic countries
it might be said that
God in the Eucharist was too
set up in London, in
much of an unknown
God. Every new sanctuary
that vast city of three millions of inhabitants,
was another court of adorers gathered to
ossessed six reli.
population. England now P
adoration of the
gions houses where the perpetual
compensate for the indifference of the rest of the
blessed Sacrament was kept up, and two of these
houses were in London. The devotion of the forty
hours' clposition of the blessed Sacrament was 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 England 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 tee 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 events by any
abridgment. I understand that his eloquent and
interesting address is to be translated whole
and entire into English.

AL LE NORMAN; son of the late well knoWn pro-