6 SEPTEMBER 1873, Page 1

Eight hundred Irish, English, and Scotch Catholic gentlemen, ladies, peasants,

and peasant girls, left London on Tuesday by as

excursion train for Paris and Paray-le-Monial. They behaved, an eye-witness tells us, just like other people ; but they had services en route, were exceptionally sea-sick, the weather being bad, were unnoticed in Paris, arrived at Paray-de-Monial an hour late, went through two processions, and complain as yet only of the charges at the refreshment buffets, where it seems pilgrims are charged like other people. At the conclusion of their func- tion they shouted for " Catholic France," wishing her and the Pope deliverance from tribulation. Except in its object, the pil- grimage does not seem to have differed from any other holiday trip, and it has been pronounced needless by the Pope, who has • just allowed the Italians, who have been forbidden to make pilgrimages—crowds of excited and half-fed persons spreading cholera—to read all about the road in a guide-book, and imagine the devoutness they would doubtless feel.