News and Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 5, 1867

News and Miscellany.

Can ye not discern the Signs of the Times? Matt. xvi, 3.

The Year 1866.—The year 1866 will stand conspicuous in social history for its fatal accidents and melancholy disasters. Storms by land, storms by sea, desolating hurricanes in the tropics, fearful shipwrecks in all parts of the globe, famines in the far East, conflagrations in the far West and Japan, our flocks desolated by murrain, crops destroyed by rain, a bloody war begun and finished in Central Europe, increased armaments and threats of war, rumbling in the crater of the volcanic Eastern question, floods sweeping with destructive violence over whole counties; and finally a succession of colliery explosions, following each other like claps of thunder, and all attended with the most frightful havoc—these are the striking incidents which have gloomily illustrated the story of the expiring year.

Earthquake.—According to a cable dispatch, a terrible earthquake has occurred in the island of Cephalonia, the largest of the Ionian group, on the west coasts of Greece, destroying every town.

Senator Wilson succeeded in getting the West Point appropriation bills amended so as to prohibit drills and parades on Sunday, and to make it the duty of the chaplain to organize a class for Biblical instruction and give his whole attention to the religious welfare of the cadets.

Permission has been given by the French imperial commission to the Bible society of France to have its stand in the park surrounding the Paris exhibition. The Bible committees of England propose to unite in the movement, and to make the occasion one for the wide distribution of the whole Bible, or the New Testament, in many different languages. It is thought that some 2,000,000 copies may thus be disposed of, and the sum of $30,000 is now being raised by subscription in England to aid in this enterprise.

Luxury.—At this present moment luxury in France, America, and even England, has advanced till it is becoming mischievous. Men, and still more women, make of outward luxury a passion, till they expend toil and mental force and life itself to gratify it, feel delight when their equipages are the finest, their plate the heaviest, their wines the most expensive, till in fact, mere surroundings have become part of themselves, absorb and stifle all that is nobler in them. To “rise” is to have rich things, to “shine” to have their richest things, to “succeed” to have immensely rich things, and to “fail” to give up rich things, or

not to get them. There is no harm in the rich things, any more than there is in pigs' food, but to want them as pigs want swill is to be piggish without the excuse of a pig's nature; is to the individual, degradation; to society, an injury.—Spectator.

How to Take Cold.—As the thaw has come, the doctors are looking for an increase of business, and as every trade must live we offer a few hints upon the readiest methods of gratifying the fraternity. Persons who are partial to rheumatism should wear thin boots and be careful to keep them well soaked in snow water. A quick fever can be secured by leaving off overcoats. Neuralgia complaints are open to all who walk till they become heated, and then stop at the corner of a street and cool off by a genial chat with some good fellow. Coughs are free to all who will insist upon throwing open their coats in order to catch the gentle south breeze which prevails. The ladies are such thorough experts in this art that we need not offer them any suggestion, but by abandoning their cloaks and rubbers and resorting to their boots and shawls, they will reach a gruel diet by a short cut.

Two boys aged 17 have been arrested at Rochester, N. Y., for a wild but apparently deliberate attempt to kill the first man they should meet on the highway.

Impeachment.—The Judiciary Committee will report on the impeachment matter as soon as certain witnesses in the South sent for have been examined.

London, Feb. 23.—The news from Spain is of exciting interest. Though the Spanish government endeavors to keep the public ignorant of events, there is no longer any doubt that the outrages and high-handed proceedings of the Spanish Queen have at last culminated in the insurrection of many of her disaffected subjects.

Spain.—Spain is a unique country. Whatever despotic measures other governments may have adopted against Liberal representatives of the people, it has been reserved to Spain to exile by one stroke of the pen all the opponents of a new ministry. Still more exceptional (in the Nineteenth Century) is the exile of the nearest relatives of the sovereign, such as the only sister of the Queen, her sister's husband, the Duke de Montpensier, and the brother of the King. But the exile of the Queen's husband “crowns the edifice of the Bourbonic state.” Only one exile now remains to be made, that of the mad Queen herself—and this we shall probably not have to wait for long.

The Eastern Question.—A European correspondent of the N. Y. Tribune writes:—

The organ of Ali Pasha in Constantinople has an article almost every day to show that Europe must not meddle any more in the East, that the only hope of the East is in her being left to decide her own destiny. The Greeks, singularly enough, are crying out for non-intervention as loudly as the Turks. A very able pamphlet has lately been published in Syria showing that this is the only hope of the Christians of the Levant. The same cry of non-intervention is re-echoed from St. Petersburg itself, and declared by the official organs to be the policy of the Russian Government. The Russian Ambassador here professes to hold the same view, and I am inclined to think he is sincere.

If non-intervention were possible, I fully believe that this is the best thing for the East. Turkey wishes it because she thinks that if left to herself she can manage the Christian races as in years past, and hold them under her sway. Greece wishes it because she believes that if left to themselves the Christians will drive the Turks out of Europe, and that Greece will take their place. Russia wishes it because she expects that if left to themselves, Turks and Christians will cut each other's throats, until the Empire is so thoroughly weakened that it will naturally and easily fall into her hands. My impression is that all of them would be disappointed; that if left absolutely to itself the Turkish Empire would gradually disintegrate, without any great amount of confusion or bloodshed, and that within twenty years European Turkey would be divided into four respectable Christian kingdoms, one of which would be Greece, one Roumania, one Bulgaria, and the other Servia. But I fear that non-intervention is not possible, and that we have before us nothing better than war, rebellion, and general confusion, until the Turks are crowded out of Europe.

A Year's Work of Dram-selling.—Carefully compiled statistics show that sixty thousand lives are annually destroyed by intemperance in the United States.

One hundred thousand men and women are yearly sent to prison in consequence of strong drink.

Twenty thousand children are yearly sent to the poorhouse for the same reason.

Three hundred murders are another of the yearly fruits of intemperance.

Four hundred suicides follow these fearful catalogues of miseries.

Two hundred thousand orphans are bequeathed each year to private and public charity.

Two hundred million dollars are yearly expended to produce this shocking amount of crime and misery, and as much more is lost from the same cause.—Young Reaper.

Southern Presbyterians and the Negroes.—The Presbyterian Index, published at New Orleans and Mobile, says: “We honestly believe that the true policy of the Church, having in view the true elevation as well as the salvation of the colored race, is, so far as their ecclesiastical relations are concerned, to keep them as nearly in their former position toward us as their changed social condition will admit. Therefore, instead of repelling the charge made against our General Assembly of trying to hold the colored man in the Church just as he was before his emancipation, we confess it and glory in it.”