Things Said in London

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 10, 1872

Things Said in London.

At a thanksgiving dinner, given by Cyrus W. Field, in London, Eng., Nov. 28, 1872, Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone, speaking of the separation of the American colonies from the mother country, and the efforts of England to prevent that separation, said:—

“We, on our part, are now able to see that with motives honorable, we were in error, that we were struggling against nature. Struggling, I may venture to say, even against Providence.”

We italicize this last word, as it expresses the now prevailing conviction that Providence very manifestly worked in the establishment of this government.

Mr. Field, in responding, after stating that they were proud of what was already done in the way of connecting distant parts of the world by telegraphic cable, proceeded to state what was about to be done.

He said that “a cable was about to be laid from England to Brazil; another, from Panama down to the coast of the Pacific; another, from California to Japan and China; another, from Australia to New Zealand, and another, to the Cape of Good Hope. The gentlemen who surrounded him were a telegraphic family, and when all this work was accomplished he prayed God they might meet together and rejoice that they had done something to bind the different nations of the world together.”