The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 20, 1863.

GREAT CONGRESS AT MALINES.

FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
In less than a month from this day there will be assembled
together, at Maline., an immense Congress, composed of
distinguished personages from all the great countries of
Christendom. The precise date fixed for this vast assem-
blage is the 18th day of August. It is a distinctly inaugu-
ral meeting—a meeting inaugurative of a movement calcu-
lated to exercise an extraordinary influence over the future
interests of morality, of enlightenment, of education, of
b- nevolence, throughout all the various States of the Euro-
pean Continent. The title of the Congress is simply,
L'Assemble Generale des Catholiques en Belgique. It is
designed to hold its meetings henceforth annually—now in
one city, no win another. The Baron Gerlache has been
selected ac the President of this Great Congress tor his
the year of its inauguration. And it is significant
of the importano attached to the whole scheme of the pre-
ceedings that the State dignitary thus chosen as President
for the very first year of the Congress should be no less ele-
vated in position than the chief judge of the Cour de Cat•
satioe, a legal lumin.ry exactly correepondi, g in his posi-
tion In Belgium to that oceupied amongst us here in Eug-
land by the Lord High Chancellor. In order to realise at
once, as vividly as possible to English minds, the motive
of the design kept in view by the originators of this project,
Presented to notice for the first time, by the gathering
together of this remarkable Congress at Malines,
we may describe it as based upon a scheme in a
great manner analogous to that marking out
from year to year the proceedings of the British
Association. Only with this difference—that the Belgian
Congress now about to be convened for the first time on
the 18th of August, at Manners, and to be held thenceforth
annually at whatever place may in each successive year be
selected for the next rendezvous—is what we have thus
hinted—and something more. It is more than the
mere expansien of the original ie ea of the projectors of
the British Association, into an European Association I It
is as if the Social Science Congress and the British Asso-
ciation were amalgamated, and, after being amalgamated
were applied not to the affairs or to the future of one na-
tion, but of all national In other words, as if those com-
bined projects after having been thus intimately combined
were transformed from a simply patriotic purpose into one
of a cosmopolitan character. Yet even then we have
hardly said all—in illustration of the scope or of the
significance of the Congress about to meet at
Malines. For, while that assembly is designed to
further the interests of art, of science, and of literature—it
holds still nearer and dearer to its desires the hope of
beneficially influencing the higher, and far more sacred in-
terests of morality and religion Its design relates not
merely to the furtherance, if it bo possible, of the general
development of the benign scheme of modern civilisation,
but with that, and beyond that, the furtherance also, in so
far as may be, in any wey possible to it, of the ineffable inte-
rests of that which is far above civilisation, and in no imagin-
able way antagonistic to it, Christianity ! To summarise, as
rapidly as possible, in a very few words, the merest outline
of the Congress about to be inaugurated at Matinee, it will
be sufficient if we add, here, this evening, but a sentence
or two additional. The General Assembly will, it appears,
be subdivided Into Five Sections--the Ist relating to Re-
.igious Works; the 2d, to Works of Charity; the 3d, to
Instruction, and especially Christian Education ;
the 4th to Christian art, the sth and last being of a very
miscellaneous character, having reference at once to reli-
_ions liberty, to publications, to internati deal correspon-
dence, and so forth. The labours of the C .ngress are to be
. Trended annually over a period at the least of ebou four
d tye--ebout four days, that is to say, upon the average.
Each year these proceedings are to be nattered in by the
solemn celebration of Divine service. At halt-past Woe
o'clock, for example, on the morning of the 18th proximo
the membees of the Congress assembled together for the
first time at Matinee Irene all parts of Europe are to meet at
the place of rendezvous, thence to proceed in a body to the
metropolitan church of St. Rombaut, where mass is to be
pontifically celebrated at 10 a.m. by his Eminence the
Cardinal Archbishop of Matinee, the Primate ei
Belgium. Afterwards the members of the Con.

gress will repair to the place where 'they are to hold
their sittings. They will then listen to the inaugural
address of the Baron Gerlache, already mentioned, as the
Lord Chancellor of Belgium in his official capai•ity as, Chief
Judge of the Cour de Cessation, the learned Baron having

been selected as President of the Committee of Organiza-
tion. The Congress, or Assembly, will then be formally
constituted. The members of the Central Bureau will be
nomirated, and Presiden s of the various sections ap•
pointed. According to the regulations already chalked out,
the sittings of the Sections are to take place in the morn-

ings—those of the General Assembly of the members in the
afternoon—those of the more public assemblages connected
with the Congress taking place in the evenings.