The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-20 00:00:00

PIE SUN, _LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AUGUST 20, 1863.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

MEXICO.

MADRID, AUG. 20.
Intelligence received here from the city of Mexico
to the 12th July states that Cobos and Benavides
have agreed with Jaarez to demand, in common
of the Powers, that the French intervention should
be limited to the application of the Treaty of
London.

CHINA AND JAPAN,
ATTACK ON NANKIN BY THE IMPERIALISTS,
EXPULSION OF FOREIGNERS FROM JAPAN.
(By Telegraph from Suez.)

SHANGHAE, JULY 4.
The city is quiet. The Imperialists have attacked
Nankin, and captured the outworks.
Intelligence received from Japan announces that
the Japanese have paid the indemnity. The Mikado
had issued orders to expel foreigners and to close the
ports.

The loss of property caused by the earthquake a
Manila amounts to forty million dollars.

MARSEILLES, AUG. • 20.
The Messageries Imperiales steamer Peluse left
this port yesterday with mails for India and China,
36 passengers, 451 packages of merchandise and
specie, value £136,032.

CONGRESS AT MALINES.
(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)
MALINES, Wednesday, Aug. 19.
You called the attention of your readers, on the
20th ult., to the kind of Social Science Congress
which the religious world of Belgium, essentially a
Catholic country, intended to bold in this its old
ecclesiastical metropolis, and to which were invited
foreigners connected with any of the religious works
to whose social influence the attention of the in-
tended gathering was to be directed. The invita-
tion of the committee of the society, or " Assemblee
des Catholiques Beiges," has been responded to in
a most extended way ; and yesterday, at half-past
ten, we witnessed a gathering of representatives of
all nations in the fine old Cathedral of St. Rombauf,
to the number of something like three thousand, to
assist at the grand high mass, which was the open-
ing ceremony of the meeting. His Eminence Car-
dinal Wiseman was the observed of all observers,
as he sat in the sanctuary next to the cffi.
crating Cardinal Archbishop of Malinne, and held
the first place in a long line of prelates,
beginning by the Armenian Catholic Archbishop of
Jerusalem, and ending with Mgr. Geoghegan,
Bishop of Adelaide, in Australia. Between these
two extreme points were seen various Bishops from
Germany, Belgium, Holland, and England, the
latter being represented by Dr. Corinth waite,
Bishop of Beverley. Several French bishops had
expressed their intention to be present, but it seems
that their temporal Sovereign objected to their
going, on the principal of discountenancing all ten-
dency to religious independence from State nursing,
and that he had intimated to some of them that the
borders of Belgium were like a prison the threshold
of which may be crossed on entering but not on in-
tending to return. France, however, was nobly re-
presented, in this assembly of children of that
Church of which she is the eldest daughter, by her
best known writers, priests, and zealous laymen,
among whom
might be observed the President-
General of that world-wide charitable organiza-
tion, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, M.
Adolphe Baudon, who still continues to direct
it in all other countries but France, where the
jealousy of Imperial power has forbidden the society
to have any sort of central direction.
At half-past 11 o'clock the gentlemen who had
gathered in the Cathedral marched—preceded by the
cardinals, bishops, and prelates—to the Petit Semi-
narie, or ecclesiastical college of the diocese, which
is situated at about 10 minutes' walk from the
cathedral, and they soon filled the immense hall
used ordinarily for the annual public exhibitions of
the college pupils. The upper end of the hall was
ornamented with a red velvet canopy, or throne
dais, under which was placed the crucified figure of
the Divine Teacher of Mankind. Above it, against
the wall, might be discerned the portrait of his Holi-
ness, the present Pope, surrounded by a trophy of
flags of all nations. Other trophies of Belgian
flags, with all the rich effect of black, gold, and red,
decorated the hall, and in the midst of the
most prominent was displayed the portrait of
the King with the mottoes of " Union" and
" Petrie," The chair on the raised plat-
form at the upper end of the hall, Was
at first occupied by his eminence the Cardinal Arch-
bishop of Mechlin, who opened the proceedings
with a most appropriate address, recalling to those
present the Christian precept of union and brotherly
feeling enjoined by the Saviour, and which he had
opfrotmhoisseedw t
ho reward
assembled
hs
name. specially in the midst
He spoke of
their meeting to confer on works of faith and of
charity, and on the duty of laymen to the Church
to support and defend her as children do for a
mother, a duty which they could but imperfectly
fulfil if isolated from each other. He invoked for
them the spirit of courage and wisdom, and recom•
mended them to aim at practical conclusions in
their endeavours to render service to the Church.
He recommended also the greatest consideration
and freedom to be extended to the expression of all
opinions morally just and honest. Their mission
was one of faith and charity, of truth and civilisa-
tion. It would tend to make them better citizens
and benefactors to their fellow men. He announced
in conclusion that his Holiness the Pope sent them
his blessing and a special brief, approving the
objects of the meeting. He promised that the
holy sacrifice of the altar would be offered

daily, either by himself or by some of the bishops
present for the success of the Congress, and he ter-
minated by again bestowing on the assembly his
own blessing. His eminence then left the chair, to
sit in the body of the hall in the midst of the pre-
lates, who formed the first line of spectators, and at
the left hand of his eminence Cardinal Wiseman.

In a few minutes, M.Dupectiaux, the indefatigable
secretary and organiser of the Congress, had sub-
mitted to the assembly the names of those proposed
as officers of the meeting, and soon the venerable
Baron de Gerlache was seated in the chair as Pre-

sident of the Assembly, and began to read an address
which received additional interest from the weight
of authority of such a man, who, after having been
the President of the first Belgian National Assem-
bly, and the most prominent author of its free con-

stitution, now leads a secluded life and speaks very
seldom in public. The assembly heard him, with
ever-increasing delight, define the object of this
meeting as being—not to widen the divisions
already existing in Belgium and throughout Europe,
not to foster party spirit, but to unite more closely
together Christians of all countries, whose device
was love for friends and for enemies. If Catholicity

was a party, it was that of the people and of the
poor; while those who opposed it had no fixed
principle, but that of aiming at power for the pur-
pose of enjoying its fruits among themselves only.
The perpetual agitation produced by such ambi•
tious instincts compelled Catholics to hold such
assizes, not to be left defenceless, at its mercy.
Liberty was not to be separated from religion.
Catholics should 10-te liberty dearly, for without it
they c,;uld not be thus assembled. The Church was a

mother towards whom they had a double duty as
citizens and as Catholics. In Belgium they had for-
merly experienced what it was fora Catholic nation

to be subjected to a foreign Protestant Power; but
they now found that it was very similar to being
under the rule of free-thinkers, who, mingling vio-
lence to cunning, destroyed gradually all real
liberty in the name of the law. Catholics, on the

other hand, never provoked their enemies, but wished
simply to profit by the freedom which the con-
stitution had decreed to belong to all. Under their
formerstate of subjection in Belgium, they had seen
themselves compelled to receive even their clergy at
the bands of Xing William of Holland, Who insisted
ou ystps priests being mado to study in ©dim tional