General News | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 14, 1868

General News.

THE papers talk of war prospects and probabilities in Europe, but there is nothing of especial interest transpiring at present. There is the same spirit of uneasiness and distrust, and there seems to be a spirit of constant expectation of a change in the affairs of the Papacy.

The authorities in Canada have been making considerable preparations to repel a Fenian invasion. The year 1868, so far, has been unusually prolific of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes, storms, &c., as well as in crimes of every grade. A large number have been killed by lightning.

A Beaufort, S. C., correspondent of a Connecticut paper writes: “The people of the North have little idea of the amount of suffering there is in the South. Property is unsalable. If you care for it, you can publish the following list of recent sales of property at auction in this State: 350 acres of land, $50; 250 acres, $310; 95 acres, $45; 107 acres, $225; 70 acres, 100; 1,000 acres, $1,065. Sheep $1 per head, and every thing else in proportion. It will take thirty years for this country to get on its feet.”

—The statue of Martin Luther was inaugurated at Worms, Prussia, June 25th, in presence of a vast concourse of people from all parts of Europe and America. The king of Prussia and Crown Prince witnessed the scene. When the statue was unveiled salvos of artillery were fired, and as soon as the applause subsided, a hymn was sung by several thousand voices with immense effect.

The West Indies.—HAYTI.—The civil war in Hayti continues with unabated violence. A schooner had arrived there from Curacoa, and landed 1,000 rifles and a large supply of ammunition and war material for the revolutionists. The forces of Gens. Pretor and Fauber had united with Gen. Nissage, and, with large re-enforcements from the Cacos, the combined forces had commenced the siege of Fort Alexander, the last stronghold of Salnave. A proposition had been made to Gen. Salnave to resign the Dictatorship, which he had assumed, and retain the Presidency, but it was not entertained. The assassin of Gen. Montas was killed in a recent battle. Ex-President Cabral of St. Domingo, with his followers, had joined the revolutionists in Hayti, in revenge for the assistance given by Salnave to Gen. Baez. The latest news from Port-au-Prince is that Salnave has just fought a desperate battle with the Cacos, in which he was victorious.

St. DOMINGO.—The news from St. Domingo is meagre. The government is acting in a most despotic manner, and arrests and expulsions continued. It was reported that Gen. Baez was greatly alarmed by the news from Hayti, as he had reason to expect an invasion of St. Domingo by Ex-President Cabral with an army of Haytiens after the defeat of Salnave.

—The most important religious intelligence of this week is the account of the allocution by the Pope on the state of religion in Austria. Austria embraces nationalities using seventeen different languages. The population consists mainly, however, of Germans, Slavonians and Magyars, with a few Greeks and Armenians, and 70,000 Gypsies. Since the late war with Prussia, Austria has evinced a great desire to improve the condition and character of her people. She wishes them to compare favorably, man by man, with the people of the other great nations of Europe; she wishes them to advance in wealth and the useful and ornamental arts, and to be equal to the best. She also wishes them to be sincerely attached to their own government, and able to hold permanently the position of a first-class power. She is oppressed with debt, and wishes, if possible, to obtain some relief from the burden of taxation. To meet the imperative demands made with reference to these objects, the government has proclaimed the equality of the different religionists before the law, recognizing its obligations to protect all citizens alike, and established the institution of civil marriage taking from church ministers the exclusive right to solemnize marriage. These, and other great organic reforms looking to the elevation of the people, are not approved of by the Pope. He declares that the concordat should have been perpetually maintained, and warns all persons who approve of the progressive legislation of that empire concerning the press, religious toleration, civil marriage and public education to beware of the punishments to follow the violation of sacred rights in these matters. It is a great misfortune of the Pope and of Christianity, that he should claim for the Christian religion any right to resist the progress of the human race in Austria or anywhere else. The claim of such a right in respect to Austria or any other nation, brings Christianity into the false position of arraying supposed divine law against such as are really divine, demonstrates that the court of Rome has, in that particular, misjudged its duty, and creates a demand not always to be resisted, to practice the same re-consideration of cherished purposes and aims which are incumbent on other governments both temporal and spiritual.

ROME, June 30.—A bull has been issued by the Pope, summoning the General Council of the Church to meet in the Vatican on the 8th of December, 1869. The bull prescribes that all persons required to attend the council must appear either in person or by proxy.