The Suez Mail.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1703, 3 August 1875, Page 2

The Suez Mail.

SIR JULIUS VOGEL IN ENGLAND,

The London correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald writes : — " Sir Julius Vogel, who has been knighted, with the additional dignity of K.C.M.G. appended to his mane, appears to be going back to the system of making emigrants pay by promissory notes for their passage to Mew Zealand. A deputation, consisting of Mr Arch and others, is said to have waited upon him but to no effect. Although under this plan the emigrants formerly became indebted some £20,000 to the Government, of which total about £1000 were recovered at law after an expenditure in prosecution of a good deal more than that, the plan seems about to be revived. If it is, a serious check will be given to emigration to New Zealand ; then attention will be drawn to its heavy debt, and the effect will be a sudden collapse. It is at least thought that Sir Julius is carrying matters with too high a hand, and that he is placing in unnecessary risk the already precarious prosperity of his colony.

religious excitement at Brighton:

A great religious convention has been held at Brighton, lasting for 10 days, under the direction of Mr Pearsall Smith, also an American, and originally a Quaker, who seems to possess the mysticism and enthusiasm of some of the earliest members of that sect. The Pavillion, the Corn Exchange, and other public buildings at Brighton, which we all know as a sort of London-super-mare, we are appropriating to this convention, which was attended by several thousand people from all parts and every denomination, including from two to three hundred delegates from the Continental)churches. Mr Smith preaches a special doctrine of holiness, or as it is called, sanctification by Smith. These religious movements, however judged, are one

of the features of our time, and at leastlali cate a life better than the cold stagnation! mere orthodoxy. They are in some degree reaction against the influence of materiaUiL* GREAT PARTY RIOTS ]N BELGRjS: Belgium is agitated by religious feuds. TV Ultramontane party is forcing itself upon *k attention of the Government in a mann more urgent than the German dispatcW The Protestants in Belgium are a tM&. minority, but the Catholic population )> eludes a powerful liberal element, anditsfc \ sections, the liberal party and the p r jj ;/ party, have come into sudden and dani / rous collision. While the Government wj§f still endeavouring to ajust the questi ot | raised by Germany, they found themsel^! summoned to the more difficult dfc of preserving order at home. The Belgj a J priests, taking advantage of the Pope's d e . claration of a year of jubilee, had organised extensive pilgrimages. The Liberals, however, regarded these pilgrimagos as political demonstrations favourable to the extreme pretensions of Ultramontanism, which would set the church over the state. The popnU feeling' showed itself first at Ghent, where some 25,000 pilgrims, mostlj peasants, were interrupted ia their journey ; and in fe conflict that ensued one man was killed and some 500 persons were hurt. I n towns the ordinary religious processions were broken up in their passage thronghth e streets. At Brussels, on Sunday, May 2? the ranks of a procession were broken by the spectators, and ordered was only restored by the police charging drawn swords. On the following Sunday another procession left the same city under a cavalry escort, and an attempt to break it up was frustrated only by the troops. Last Sunday Brussels was placed under arms, aa it might have been if an insurrection w eM impending. Bodies of troops were stationed at special points, and the streets were lined with an armed force, all that a religious procession of the sacred _ Host—priests with crosses, aDd young girls with fWergmight pass through the streets unharmed.' At Antwerp a slight incident roused a furious storm. A schoolboy belonging to the Athen£eum or, Government school, which would be called a " godless college " by the Jesuits, did not lake off his cap when the Host wsb passing. He was taken severely to task by a washerwoman standing by, and some school:.' boy chaffing ensued. The rumour spread that the young "iconoclast had blown out one of the holy candles. Forthwith the whole fishmarket arose in arms, and laid siege to the Atheiitoum, the windows of which,were broken ; crowds gathered in the street with sticks, and not a few persons came out withrevolvers in their pockets. It wanted only another spark to kindle a general conflagration ; but, happily, the catastrophe was, avoided. The offending boys were conveyed quietly away, and night cooled the turbulent crowds. These quarrels, however, are but indications of opposing currents that are beginning to run strongly in Belgian politics, and to affect social life. The newspapers talk of the possibility of civil war, and rather fan the flame than subdue it- by their, articles.