The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-16 00:00:00

The Catholic Congress at Maline'.

A correspondent writes to a contemi ormi : —0 On
y
returning from Malines, I find quoted in your and
I understand that this is the case wi
from the
the whole
round of the London press—a passage the Indepen-
dance Beige relating to the recent Ca belieom
Congress at
Malines, which throws a good deal of light on the kind of
independence' adopted by that journal • I find there stated
that at the call of the illustrious French preacher, the Pere
Felix—who for the last 11 years has preached the usual
course of Lenten sermons before the eminently intellectual
course of Lenten sermons before the eminently intellectu&
audie
Paris—'the
e which gather around the pulpit of Notre Dame de
the assembly (of Malines) replied by cries, a hun-
dred times repeated, of " Vive Jesus Christ !" ' One
might indeed have believed oneself at a banquet,' adds the
independent' scribe, 'at the moment when the health of
the host is proposed,' &o. On the whole, the call to hail
publicly the names of our Blessed Saviour, His Vicar on
Earth, and the Catholic Church, uttered by the first sacred
orator of France at the present time, is represented by the
Independence to have been responded to in such a way as
only fools or blackguards could do it. Now, sir, I was
present at the scene, and to one it seemed one of the
grandest I ever witnessed. I shall describe it
for the benefit of your readers. At the end of
one of his usual calm and clear discourses addressed
to the Congress in its hall of meeting, the Pere Felix, who
had been alluding to the insults infl,cted on our Saviour
by Renan and other recent writers, called for a special
manifestation, on the part of -the whole assembly, of its be-
lief and love with regard to the Divinity of Christ, His
Vicar, and His Church, and invited the assembly to repeat
after him the following acclamations, which he first prd•
nounced with outstretzhed hand, In a calm and firm tone of
voice, Viva Notre Signeur Jesus Christ, vrai Dieu et
t
vrai homme I' The whole of the 4,0f../9 gentlemen prose
in the hall at once stood up and stretched the:: right hands
like the speaker, end repeated in the same calm and eiZnest
manner, and in measured time, as it were, those 4,000 voices
speaking in unison, -Vivo Jesus Christ, Notre Seigneur,
vrai D:eu et vrai bomme In like manner were the other
two acclamations repeated, much after the manner in
which, from the earliest times, the members of the then
truly great Chrisl:arn assemblies, which are called the
councils and synods of the Church, repeat the ' Acclama-
tions' set down in the rituals for the conclusion of their
meetings. Far from appearing to my artistic appreciation
to be the act of either fools or blackguards, the whole scene
seemed to me not only enacted by sensible and earnest men,
but as the grandest and most appropriate declaration of
faith, like the taking of the oath of allegiance by a whole
host; in fine, a kind of renewal of a Christian's baptismal

vows.
" I need hardly dwell after this on the way in which the
independent' scribe speaks of my truly reverend friend,
Father Hermann, and the manner in which he makes out
that the five pirates of the Flowery Land, executed at New-
g rte in February last, were trade up of one Catholic and
three Protestants, All who have the happiness of knowing
Father Hermann, and M. Listz first of all, can testify to
his eminent talents as a musician and as a sacred orator,
just as they can attest to his constant humility, abnegation,
and religious fulfilment of his sacred vocation. It is no
credit to any one's judgment or honesty to speak of him
otherwise.

DRUNK FOR TWENTY YEARS.—Au inquest was
held on Wednesday in Cannon-street, St. George's- in- the-
East, as to the death of Sarah Whalley, aged fifty-nine
years. From the evidence it appeared that th• deceased had
beim a desperate drunkard for no less than 20 years—it was
her husband's opinion that she had not once been properly
sober in all that time—and had died suddenly on Monday
morning. The medical testimony showed that all the organs
of deceased were in a shocking state of disease, from her
habits of thinking, and that death had immediately resulted
from disease of the heart. The jury returned a verdict in
accordance with the evidence.