CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT CIVILISATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 82, 21 November 1874, Page 8

CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT CIVILISATION.

A coebeSpokdent of the London { Catholic Register ' forwards the following letter to the address of Mr Spargeon. The early hour he mentions as attending Mass in Belgium limits his observation to the poorest class of day laborers. From six to eight are the hours to see the largest number of day worshippers : —

THE OOSPEIi IN ENGHAmD AOT> BEEGHTOr.

Sir, — I should address you more reverently, but I understand you doa't like it. Your Lancashire sermons, as reported in tlie papers, speak so strongly against " Popery," that I am compelled to give you briefly my ten days' experience in Belgium, a thoroughly "priestridden land."

I landed at Ostend at 3.30 on Saturday morning and at five o'clock was awoke by the ringing of the church bells, got up and went to the church, where I found nearly 100 persons and morning prayev going on ; this was at 5.20. On Sunday, afc the same hour, the the church was crammed ; at 6 30 another congregation quite as full ; a<»ain another congregatioa at 7.30 ; altogether the church was filled four times over before ten o'clock— all separate congregations. During the remainder of my stay I put up at a little village inn in the country and I occupied the daytime in seeing all I could in town and country. Every morning I was awoke by the sound of the" church-going bell " (at five o'clock), and always went to see what was going on, and I always found some 30 or 40 at that early hour in the house of prayer, and the service going on, the organ being played by the village schoolmaster. This, lam told, is a sample of every-day life in Belgium. I could not but contrast the early and daily meetiug in the House of God with English practice, where churches and chapels as a rule are only open one day a week— on Sunday— and then the doors not open before'ten o'clock. In Belgiara the public houses are open on Sundays as on any other days. No Maine law. No Lancashire kicking. The bulk, of the people quiet, civil, industrious and happy. I only saw one drunken person aud he was a German. How am Ito reconcile all this with the turbulence, the insolence, and rudeness of large masses of the people in England ? Take the Black Country for instance (see 'Daily Telegraph' of this date). Again, look at the Lancashire manufacturing places ! It is impossible to travel in a third class carriage without soon finding out that you are not in accord with the crowd, with their smoking, bad language, drinking and unpleasantness on all sides, lhis is not the case in Belgium ; and yet, as I swd before, Belgium is a land of priests, monasteries and convents.— Yours truly, Jii. W. P s —It is a common saying—" The proof of the pudding is ia the eating." In Lancashire amongst the working clashes we hareBrutality, ") Vulgarity, L And Bibles Cruelty and Cm abundance. DrunkeneneßS,, J In Belgium amongst a similar class, it is— - Humility, ") . , Civility, L And Priests and Charity and W Nuna everywhere Sobriety, J Ju'y 9, 1874.