The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-13 00:00:00

ON, FRIDAY EVENINU, SEPTEMBER i, ISM

take place. The preceding sessions, the first of
which was held at Brussels, commenced in the year
1853. The following sessions took place succes-
sively at Paris, Vienna, London, and Berlin. The
head commission, charged with the organisation of
the Congress iu Italy, has for president the Minister
of Agriculture. Among the members are several
men of eminence, including Messrs. Ferrara, Pepoli,
Arrivalene, Boucompagne, Scialoja, and Selea.
Among the most curious questions to be discussed
by the Congress will be the best mode of taking a
census of the population, the organisation of a
system of credit and sinking funds, monetary cir-
culation, the moral condition of the army and navy
of various nations in Europe, their equipment,
alimentation, exercises, duration of service, and the
sanitary condition of troops. Papers will also be
read relative to mendicity, vagabondage, failures
in trade, and the regulation of prisons. The
deliberations, as a whole, at once so interesting and
so practical, will furnish to learned men, economists,
and even to Governments, information of great
value.

The Pope has confided the preparatory proposals
to be made to the (Ecumenical Council to a con-
gregation of seven cardinals, under the presidency
of Cardinal Patrizzi. This congregation, which is
to be called the Directing Commission, has already
met several times, and has made a division of its
labours. It is divided into sub-commissions, under
the following heads :—Dogmas, Canon Right, Dis-
cipline, Oriental Rites, and Politics as Connected
with the Church. Each of the presidents of these
five sub-commissions will be assisted by a certain
number of consulters—that is to say, persons of
whom advice may be asked. The Holy Father has
expressed a desire that the Patriarch of Jerusalem,
Monsigneur Valerga, should form part of the com-
mission on Oriental Rites, whose object will be to
ascertain the means of rendering as uniform as
possible the various Liturgies of the Churches of
the East.

The publication of a work is announced which
will be peculiarly interesting to lovers of the
drama, and, indeed, to the literary world in ge-
neral—a diary kept by the comedian, Lagrange,
one of the actors belonging to Moliere's dramatic
company. This diary will form a complete his-
tory of the Theatre Francais, and of French comedy
from 1658 to 1688. Lagrange kept his register
very carefully, and every day wrote down the name
of the play to be performed in the evening, the
character performed by each actor and actress, the
date, the changes made in the company, the repre-
sentations which took place at the palaces of
princes or the house of great men, the disputes
between rival actors and actresses, and indeed
every incident interesting to the company in general
or any of the actors in particular. Lagrange
also kept a record of the marriages between
comedians, births of children, deaths, burials,
and other particulars. Indeed all that apper-
tains to the state and progress of the drama
at his time is made with minute and scrupulous
exactness. This work will be published under the
auspices of the comedians of the Theatre Francais.
M. Edouard Thierry has written the introduction to
it. The spelling, the marginal notes made by
Lagrange, and other peculiarities,will be very closely
followed.

Information of the deaths of two distinguished
foreign personages has been received in Paris. The
Princess Olga Stourdza has just died. She was the
daughter of Prince Michel Ghika, and was married
to the Bezzade Gregoire Stourdza, son of Michel
Stourdza XV., Prince of Moldavia. She was
sister to the Princess Kortzoff Massalksy, known in
the literary world as Dora d'lstria.
The other death is that of the Bezzade Prince
Constantia Ghika, son of Gregory Ghika IV.,
Minister of Alexander, brother of Gregory.
The barometric indications point to storm, and
the weather is peculiar. This morning between
eleven and twelve there were several claps of
thunder, but no lightning was perceptible. There
was no rain at the time, but there were two or three
slight showers afterwards. The temperature was
warm but not oppressive.
Such is the advanced state of civilisation in France
that one would not believe in the existence of vam-
pires were it not for the authority of the serious
a i mann j,e namedre ia
CBertrand,
aaiersterg,tor'hl'aaovl tinea sb
goinge e been
h e arrestedir ro a n
do
sn
saw
ki/nooiNiviteaistr,,,
whichth v asi
tnapt
l
that a coffin had been taken out of a grave in that
sc huanrdgaey ofa
svt.i o aritiihneg p
portion of the cemetery devoted to poor people
The body was that of a widow of 42, and the in-
terment only took place on the previous evening.
The nails had been drawn out of the coffin, and the
body had been partially taken out and exposed, the
sheet in which it had been wrapped having been
taken away. This vampire is described as having
a monomania for such acts " having for several years
been addicted to the strange habit of disinterring
people." Robbery was not the motive of this vio-
lation of the grave.