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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · July 23, 1867

News and Miscellany.

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

—The receipts of internal revenue for the fiscal year just closed are reported at nearly $266,000,000.

—Mississippi sent 75,000 men to the rebel army, losing 27,500. Her colored population is 50,000 in excess of the white.

—Telegraphic announcements to July 20, state that the President has vetoed the Supplementary reconstruction bill, recently passed by Congress, but that both houses have passed it promptly over his veto. Senators Sumner, Butler, and others utter strong sentiments relative to impeachment. A fight is reported between the Garibaldians and Italian troops. President Juarez declines to be re-elected as President of Mexico, and, it is said, favors a project now on foot, of annexing Mexico to the United States.

—Dispatches from Madrid announce that Gen. Prim, the noted revolutionist, who has been for some time an exile from Spain, has landed in the province of Catalonia. Though nothing is definitely known of his destination, fears are entertained that he designs an insurrection in that province.

—The Papal Government is much alarmed by the menacing attitude of the Garibaldians, and the batteries around Rome are to be put in an effective condition. The Pope has asked aid of France to protect the city of Rome, and Napoleon has consented to give it.

—The appointment by the House of Representatives of a Committee to investigate the conspiracy which led to the assassination of Lincoln is an event of no slight importance. The chairman of the committee is Gen. Butler, whose lifelong experience as a criminal lawyer eminently fits him for such a task. The other members of the committee are Shellabarger of Ohio, Ward of New York, Julian of Indiana, and Randall of Pennsylvania. James Redpath, of Boston, has been appointed secretary of the committee.

—It will surprise no thinking citizen to know that negotiations are in progress for the transference of the Sandwich Islands to the United States. Mr. Harris, the chief minister of the government of the Islands, has lately come hither on a special mission; and if the truth were known, we suspect it would appear that our naval authorities on the Pacific Ocean have been for some months under secret instructions, in case of the death of the present king, he having no legitimate successor or heir, to seize the islands in the name of and for the United States. The native race is rapidly dying out; civilization is fatal to them, and by the year 1900, at the present rate of decrease, they will all be gone. The white population is several thousand, chiefly American, who are the principal business men, planters and government officers. By location, by commercial association and use, and by the right of conversion to Christianity, the islands are fairly ours; and in one way or another it has been for some time evident that we shall speedily inherit them. The sugar for the Pacific states is chiefly raised there; they are half way across the Pacific ocean to China and Japan; and our whalers make them a common rendezvous. “Manifest destiny” must have its way, and the Sandwich Islands be ours in fact and form, as for long time in tendencies and spirit.—Springfield Repub.

—D. D. Home, the spiritualist, who began his curious career in this city, is undergoing another singular experience. Mrs. Lyon, the rich convert he made last fall, who adopted him as her son and heir, and gave him $120,000 in hand as evidence and foretaste of her good intentions, has now turned against and disowned him, and commenced suit for the recovery of her gift. She had him arrested and thrown into the Whitecross prison, London, on a charge of obtaining money by undue influence, and though he was bailed out the next day, the shock to his delicate nervous system is said to have been so great that it made him seriously ill. The case is a singular one, and the trial of it before the courts will be of great interest, as the nature and reality of spiritualism itself will be investigated. Mrs. Lyon still believes in spiritualism and does not charge Home with deception or fraud, but alleges that he has “a familiar spirit,” by whom she was practiced upon and induced to part with her money. Home will now drop the suffix of Lyon, which he had attached to his name in honor of his munificent disciple and patron.—Springfield Repub.

—The amendment to the constitution proposed by Mr. Ashley of Ohio has several good features. It apportions representatives in Congress according to population, declares all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction to be citizens, forbids any State to make laws abridging the rights and immunities of citizens, and declares all male citizens twenty-one years of age to be qualified electors, with a provision that after the 4th of July, 1876, they shall be required to read and write the English language as a qualification to vote. This, at the right time, would have been the best basis of reconstruction. It will be a good thing any time, and its adoption in substance is essential to the perfection of the constitution.

Pestilence in China.—San Francisco, July 16. The ship Chelsea, from Hong Kong, with dates to the 24th ultimo, had arrived.

Steamer Ajax, from Liverpool, arrived at Hong Kong, May 24, and brought intelligence of a dreadful pestilence at Maneylus. It was first confined to the natives. It is supposed to have originated in unwholesome food. When the Ajax left, the people were dying at the rate of 200 a day of the disease and bilious fever, similar to that seen in the West Indies. The state of the Island was dreadful, people lying in scores dead and dying. Nearly every other house was closed and hospital accommodations were insufficient, and miserably neglected huts were erected for temporary hospitals, into which the sick went to die. Quinine was seventy-five dollars an ounce. There was great and complete panic among the people.

Sunday Preservation.—The following notice appeared in the Chicago Journal of July 6, 1867:—

MEETING ON THE SABBATH QUESTION.—A meeting of the citizens of Chicago in favor of the preservation of the Sabbath, will be held in Crosby’s Opera House tomorrow, the 7th inst., at 7½ P. M. The meeting will be addressed in German and English, by Rev. Philip Schaff, D. D., of New York, Rev. Joseph Hartman, D. D., H. G. Spafford, Esq., and other distinguished speakers of this city. The music will be led by the German and English choirs of several churches. The attendance of all our citizens, of every sect and nation, who desire the preservation of the right to rest on the Sabbath is earnestly requested. Seats free.

Protestant and Catholic Councils. The fifth general assembly of the Congregational Alliance will be held at Amsterdam, Holland, from the 18th to the 28th of August. Prof. H. B. Smith of New York has been appointed to make a report to the alliance on the state of religion in this country. Rev. Mr. Spurgeon of London, Dr. Krummacher and Dr. Kregel of Germany, and Grandpierre of Paris, are a few of the many celebrities whose presence is promised. All the Protestant countries and denominations of the world will be represented, and a hall that will seat 1600 persons is engaged for the meetings. Some of the topics named for discussion are the relation of Christianity to society, to human misery, and to heathenism. Protestants are urged to make this a great and influential meeting that it may counteract the grand Catholic council at Rome, which has been attended by more than 400 bishops, who brought contributions to the pope amounting to nearly eight million francs. The pope intends to call together soon a grand ecumenical council to declare the infallibility of the pope, which has been a belief, but not an authoritative doctrine, of the church hitherto. The Catholic church is making vigorous efforts to strengthen itself everywhere, and its unity gives it advantages over the fragmentary Protestant churches. To bring these fragments into working unity is one great object of the evangelical alliance.

Enlarging our Territory.—A treaty has recently been ratified between Russia and the United States, by which Russia cedes to this country all her possessions in the north-western part of this continent, including the strip four hundred miles long between the British possession and the Pacific, and the adjacent islands, for $7,200,000. This is the largest amount of territory ever annexed to the United States, comprising an area of 480,000 square miles, about equal to that of all the country east of the Alleghanies, and when added to our present territory, will make our country as large as all Europe. One-third of the country is north of the Arctic circle. It has a scanty population of about 54,000, largely Esquimaux, and is particularly valuable for its furs, fisheries, and timber. The treaty declares that the cession is made to strengthen, if possible, the good understanding between Russia and the United States. It is stated that Russia will take her pay for the territory in American iron clad vessels-of-war.