News and Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 9, 1867

News and Miscellany.

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

—The total loss of cattle in Holland from the rinderpest, is stated at 115,962.

New York.—A corporation is proposed, with $2,000,000 capital, to convey the Saratoga Springs waters in pipes to New York city, for the jaded fashionables to drink fresh.

—Mr. F. Lambie leaves Detroit Apr. 13th, for Scotland and other European countries, for the purpose of inducing emigration to the United States, especially to Michigan. To forward his enterprise, he will take out specimens of the mineral and agricultural productions of this State. Mr. L., himself a Scotchman, describes this country as the one “to which all look as the land of promise for the poor and the oppressed.”

—The Connecticut election has gone Democratic.

—A number of the New York city clergy, bankers and merchants, have united in requesting A. T. Stewart, a Commissioner to the Paris Exposition, to use his influence in favor of closing the United States’ department on Sunday during the continuance of the Exhibition.

Another Terrible War Impending.—The Herald’s Constantinople correspondence, dated February 23th, says Turkey is concentrating her hosts of various nationalities in great force in and around Constantinople. Russia is re-inforcing her regiments and advancing on her frontier line, and the Turks of all classes seemed impressed with the belief that a struggle was at hand in which the Sultan’s position must be maintained at the cost of much blood or the Crescent be retired from Europe to the Asiatic shores of the Bosphorus. The Viceroy of Egypt, moved, it is thought, by French advice, bears himself more independently toward the Sultan as he understands the near approach of war.

Paris.—April 1.—The great Paris Universal Exposition was formally opened this morning. The day was observed as a holiday by the entire population. At 11 o’clock the doors were opened, and by the time the Emperor arrived there were 5,000 persons inside. Outside at least 100,000 people had assembled. There were 8,000 police on duty, and the order was excellent. Every carriage in Paris seemed to have been employed.

The Virginia Colliery Explosion.—While Louisiana is threatened with ruin by the waters of the Mississippi, Virginia suffers a more startling though less extensive calamity from subterranean fires. An explosion in the Clover Hill coal pits, about 20 miles south west from Richmond in a straight line, has killed 69 miners and, at last accounts, the fire was still unsubdued.

—The Methodists are building a large Monumental church at Washington, to cost $200,000. It will be the largest and most imposing edifice on the continent. Pews will be set apart for the President and his Cabinet, the Judges of our courts, Generals of our army, and other distinguished persons. Seats, also, will be provided for the different States, so that strangers from every section of our extended republic may feel that they have a place to worship when visiting the metropolis. Being national in character, persons of every denomination have taken an interest in its completion. Chief Justice Chase and Gen. Grant are members of the Board of Trustees, and the first men of the nation are among the contributors to this great monumental edifice, which is destined to stand for ages to come as a temple of truth and citadel of freedom.

—It is generally admitted by newspapers throughout the country that this has been an exceedingly fair winter for farmers. There has been snow enough to protect the wheat, and there is every prospect of abundant crops.

The Condition of Spain.—William C. Bryant, in his last letter from Spain to the N. Y. Evening Post says:

I think the population of Spain, as a whole, the raggedest that I ever saw in any part of the world. A deep discontent, if I may trust what I have heard and seen, pervades all classes of the inhabitants, save the priesthood and the small minority which adheres to them. The regulations of the government obstruct in a thousand ways enterprise and the exchange of commodities,and now, as if to try the patience of the people to the utmost, the government has codified in this present year the taxes of the next, doubling the public burdens at once. In case the army, three-fourth of which, according to the estimate of some, is already disaffected, should demand a change of administration, it is apprehended by many that the people, seizing the opportunity, may inflict a bloody vengeance on their oppressors. It is, however, altogether as likely that the change will take place quietly, when the Queen and her immediate advisers shall see that resistance to change is utterly hopeless.

—Professor Agassiz, at his late Cooper Institute lecture, showed the futility of all theories concerning the origin of man, except that of special creation.

The Sunday in Venice.—“Carleton,” the well-known correspondent of the Boston Journal, now traveling in Europe, gives the following description of the Sunday in Venice, which may be regarded as illustrative of the state of things in Roman Catholic countries:

“The church bells were ringing, and I went out at an early hour to see how the Sunday would be observed. Nearly all of the shops were open, and men were hard at work. They had all kept All Saints, and had lost one day’s wages during the week; there was to be a regatta at noon, and an illumination in the evening, and therefore, the morning must be given to labor. In the churches priests were saying mass. Here and there a poor old woman was kneeling on the cold marble floor, counting her beads, and here and there, also, a beggar in tatters, who paused in his praying to ask for soldi. Outside of the church a huckster had piled his cabbages and turnips for sale, while in front of it a straggling company of gymnasts had got up their theatre—four men and a woman, with their faces daubed with red and yellow paint. The woman dressed in a short, dirty frock, was beating a brass drum, one actor blowing a trumpet, one scraping a violin, one turning a crank of a hand-organ. They were orchestra and company, and after a clatter of instruments, they went through a series of tricks on a spring-board for the amusement of the crowd, a half dozen bells ringing all the while in the belfry above them, and a hundred or more priests, not a stone’s-throw distance, saying mass for the dead.”

—Twenty years ago there were no newspapers in California. To-day there are twelve dailies, one tri-weekly, and forty-one weeklies in San Francisco alone. In the remainder of the State there are twelve dailies, one tri-weekly, and seventy-three weeklies. Californians are a reading people, and the State press is quite up to the average of our best papers.

—Letters from Vera Cruz state that Marshal Bazaine, with the last of the French troops, embarked on the 13th; and a Havana letter states that he was in the latter city on the 23d. Vera Cruz was in a state of siege, and the news received there from the interior is said to be “of a doubtful character,” an expression which, when we consider the character of Mexican news generally, will be understood to impart a pretty decided condemnation. Another attempt at revolution is reported in Hayti. According to one account, the revolutionary leaders were executed, and all was peace; according to another, President Geffrard had found it necessary to take refuge in Jamaica. The inhabitants of Cuba had been invited by certain gentlemen in Spain, whose names are not given, to depose the Queen and declare a Republic. So that in “Latin” America, if there are no wars, there are, at least, “rumors of wars” in plenty.—Detroit Tribune.

Trial of Jeff. Davis.—Judge Underwood, of Virginia, has been in Washington for several days in conference with the Attorney General respecting the trial of Jeff. Davis. It is said to be the intention of the court to have this case tried at the May term, and it is understood that Chief Justice Chase will preside.

—Mr. Seward, on Saturday morning about 2 o’clock, concluded a treaty with the Russian ambassador for the purchase of the territory known as Russian America. A proclamation was at once issued, calling on the homeward bound Senators to stop and ratify it. This country is about 600 miles square, with a narrow tail about 400 miles long extending Southward along the Pacific coast.

The Mississippi Levees.—The numerous breaks in the levees render certain the devastation of the richest portion of south western Louisiana. The giving way of the Grand Levee at Morganza overflows seven parishes. This was one of the largest works of the kind in the world, and was but recently completed. Work is progressing at the Romans crevasse, fifty-six miles above New Orleans, with some hope of closing it. The most recently-reported break is nine miles below Baton Rouge, which will do immense damage, cause great suffering among the poorer classes of whites, and throw thousands of freedmen upon the resources of the Bureau.