p. 109 | Untitled article

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, January 28, 1868

News and Miscellany.

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

—A Roman Catholic paper of England makes the following statement on the Romeward movement in the Church of England.

Thirty years ago, with the exception of the late Bishop Bramston, Vicar-Apostolic of the London District, the late Hon. and Rev. George Spencer, and one other priest who is still alive, there was not a single Catholic priest in England who was a convert from Protestantism. But at the present time, in the diocese of Westminster alone, there are no less than thirty-nine priests who are converts from Anglicanism. Of these nearly all were formerly clergymen of the Established Church. In the diocese of Southwark there are also several priests who are converts. There are now in England about one hundred and sixty priests, and rather more than two hundred Catholic laymen, now following various avocations of life, who were formerly in orders of the English Establishment, but who have, at one time or other, formally renounced their heresy and joined the Catholic Church.

Fenianism.—There is no doubt that the public mind in England is seriously troubled by the Fenian operations. They show a deliberate purpose to inspire a general terror. The London Times denounces them as horrible and repugnant to every manly and generous soul. It speaks of the Irish, or of the Fenian Irish, as a race beyond hope of true civilization. A writer in the Pall Mall Gazette declares that it is impossible to content the Fenian Irish; that “you may satisfy material interests, you can never fulfill a romantic idea.” He contends that there are two nations of Irish in Ireland, that England could not leave one to the mercy of the other, and that nothing remains but to redress every real grievance and remove every rational cause of irritation, put down sedition and rebellion with promptitude and severe determination, and trust to time. Mr. Baldwin Smith, who, as a sagacious political observer, and an especial student of Ireland, must always command serious attention, writes that, in his judgment, the peril of Fenianism is great. “We seem,” he says, “to be on the brink of a sanguinary struggle with the Irish of two hemispheres, and this at a moment when English society itself presents some very sinister appearances, and when organic change, involving a great transfer of power, is being carried on by such hands as never before, I believe, held the destinies of this nation.”

What Railroads Do.—The Union Pacific Railroad has already reduced in point of time the overland journey to California one week. A notable instance of the value of this saving in time by reason of the railroad facilities which this company have made available, is just announced. Dispatches received in New York state that the mails from China and Japan, which have heretofore been sent from San Francisco by sea, and which have occupied from twenty-two to twenty-four days in transit from that city to New York, left the former city by the overland route on the 26th ult., and will be due in that city this morning, only fifteen days from the Pacific coast.—Such rapidity of transmission is unprecedented, and the fact that it is now possible is due to the energy which has been manifested by the Union Pacific Railroad Company in the construction of the great national line which that corporation has had in hand. The total time from Japan to New York is now reduced to about forty days, while the Liverpool merchants may receive their advices by this route in nine or ten days more.

Starvation in Algeria.—A letter from Paris, Jan. 6, says:

The poorer classes are now undergoing tremendous sufferings, not only in France, but in Algeria. In that colony, according to the Archbishop of Algiers, the Arab population are dragging out an existence of misery—feeding, like animals, on the foliage of trees, wandering almost naked (writes Monseigneur) along the roads, awaiting, in the neighborhood of cities and villages, for the emptying of household refuse, to quarrel over the filthy remains. To these starving, nay, dying, tribes, nothing that can be devoured is repulsive. So desperate is their condition (I translate the Archbishop’s words), that “they actually dig up the carcasses of animals that have died of disease. A heap of ten and twelve bodies of dead Arabs lying by the roadside is no uncommon spectacle. When these poor men feel the approach of death—the slow and terrible death of famine—they do not complain; they stretch themselves near some roadside, cover themselves as well as they can with the wretched rags they may possess, and, covering their faces, await their last hour, murmuring the name of ‘Allah.’ It is thus they died of cholera all last summer; it is thus they now die of hunger, literally mown down by this plague. Calculations, which are not exaggerated, bring the number of the victims within the last six months to above one hundred thousand.”

A Word from Laboulaye.—M. Laboulaye is so honored and beloved in this country for his intelligent comprehension of our late struggle, and his eloquent presentation of the interests of free society, which were involved in it, that his views of the present situation are peculiarly interesting. In a late private letter he says:

“I can not believe in the repudiation of your debt. The measure is too palpably unjust, and it would injure too many interests in America to be popular. The Democrats may feel their way by such propositions, but it is difficult for me to imagine that they can succeed.

“I see, with more concern, that there is a disposition to make the blacks a separate caste, and to establish two nations in America, one of which is to be free because they have white skins, and the other serfs because they have colored skins. This is to lose the result of the war, and to sow the seed of fresh divisions. The aristocracy of the South will reconstruct itself with the political serfdom of the blacks, and the struggle between the North and the South will begin again. To what purpose, then, will so much blood have been already shed?”

The Eastern Question.—Turkey has at length become frightened at the attitude of Russia, and her intrigues to foment insurrection among the Sultan’s Christian subjects, and diplomatists have been sent to England and France, to ask aid from those powers in the shape of a protest against Russian interference in the Cretan quarrel.

Multiplication of Sects.—According to the certified list of the registrar-general, there are in England 89 different religious sects, the names of many of which are entirely unknown in this country.

—The pleasure of doing good is the only one that never wears out.

—The Cyclone in India, recently reported, was one of the most destructive ever known. At Calcutta, the loss of life and property was fearful. It is estimated that in the city of Calcutta and vicinity alone, thirty thousand persons perished, and thirty thousand huts and habitations were utterly destroyed.

—Apples keep best when cool and dry. Sudden changes of temperature induce the collection of moisture on the skin, which dissolves the delicate varnish with which the skin of the apple is covered, and it soon decays.

—Five years ago, Ohio cheese was the only kind sent to Chicago. Now, Northern Illinois contains more cheese factories than Europe, Asia, and Africa. Some of the best butter reaching New York City this season is from this section and from Wisconsin.

The Thickest Iron Plate.—The greatest triumph of the iron-rollers was recently achieved at the Atlas Works in Sheffield, when 200 men, half clad in steel armor covered with wet sackcloth, moved an immense mass of molten iron, twenty tons in weight and as many feet in length, to the iron-rollers, where it was rolled, gauged, and manipulated, till in a quarter of an hour, it was turned out a smooth polished plate, fifteen inches thick. Four years ago it was thought impossible to roll a six-inch plate; but the demand for monster plates for iron-coated forts has produced this unparalleled production of modern skill.

Bridging the Channel.—The project of connecting France and England by a tunnel under the British channel has been discussed. A French engineer has published a plan, which is commended by the French press, of connecting the two countries by a bridge broad enough for a double line of railway, a carriage road, and a path for foot passengers, with shops and a restaurant. The bridge would rest on 32 iron piles, 335 feet broad and 670 high, or 635 feet above the sea level, the piles to be connected by wire cables. The cost of the bridge is estimated at $80,000,000.