News and Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 25, 1868

News and Miscellany.

Can ye not discern the Signs of the Times? Matt. xvi, 8.

—At a temperance meeting in London, it was stated that the consumption of intoxicating liquors in England costs $400,000,000 yearly, of which some two-thirds are spent by the working classes alone. Nine-tenths of crimes committed are traceable to strong drink.

Spain.—PARIS, August 13. Intelligence is received that bands of armed insurgents have made their appearance in Arragon, at the town of Caspea. A detachment of Spanish troops has been sent in pursuit of the rebels.

The Cretan Insurrection.—PARIS, August 13. The Courier du Levant publishes the following news from Candia: “A battle took place between the Cretans and Turkish troops on the 27th of July, in which the Turks were badly beaten.”

France.— La Liberté asserts that a new difficulty has arisen between the French Government and the Bey of Tunis.

Singular Tidal Phenomenon.—SAN FRANCISCO, August 19. On August 15 a singular tidal phenomenon occurred at San Pedro, Southern California. A series of waves commenced flowing upon the coast, causing the tide to rise three or four feet above the ordinary height of the water, followed by a falling of the tide the same distance below low water mark. The rise and fall occurred regularly every half hour for several hours, creating considerable alarm among inhabitants thereabouts. The incident is attributed to some marine disturbance causing the bottom of the sea to rise and fall, thus impelling the waves toward the coast.

The Brandy Excise in Europe.— From the day of the abolishment of serfdom, they did not till their fields at all, or they did it so carelessly and insufficiently that a tolerable crop would have been a real miracle. “Their time was devoted to a pleasanter business than plowing and harrowing; brandy had been their idol ever so long, but now they did not stir from his altars. To

this filthy god they sacrificed all they had; the barkeepers were only bankers of the peasantry, they receive good money and give in exchange bad brandy; but now-a-days money is a greater rarity with peasants than even temperance; the barkeepers, therefore, have recently become pawn-brokers, and whole villages have sent their last piece of furniture, their last shirt in the tavern.” That looks like a most ridiculous exaggeration, and yet it is nothing but the plainest truth. We will give a few figures, taken from official sources, to illustrate this appalling picture, because figures, at all events, do not lie nor exaggerate, and because they speak for themselves, and we need not comment upon them with a single word. In the “great Russian” Provinces, the excise yielded in 1749 a clear income of 1,786,855 roubles; in 1849, 38,582,944 roubles, and in 1859, 74,171,015 roubles; that is to say, in ten years it has been almost doubled. In Prussia, the clear profit of the excise amounts to 6 per cent. of the total revenue of the State; in France, to 9 per cent.; in Austria to 10 per cent.; in England and in Sweden-Norway to 24 per cent., and in Russia 38 per cent. That was the proportion in 1849; now, most likely, it is different; for if in 1859 the clear income yielded by the excise amounted to 74,171,015 roubles, it was 115,600,000 roubles in 1866; and for 1868 it is estimated to be 119,590,870 roubles; so it has more than tripled within the last 20 years.—St. Petersburg Correspondence, New York Tribune.