News and Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 3, 1867

News and Miscellany.

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

The Victims of War.—A learned German, M. Hanssener, estimates that the wars waged from 1815 to 1864 caused the death of 2,762,000 men, an annual average of 56,367 men, without including the deaths by epidemics resulting from the war. The losses in the Crimean war were 508,600 men; in the Caucasus, 330,000; in the Indian mutiny, 196,000; in the Polish insurrection, 190,000; in the Hungarian insurrection, 142,000; in the French campaigns in Africa, 146,000; in the Italian war, 129,870. The total number of lives lost in Europe during the wars from 1792 to 1815 amounted to 5,530,000, being an annual average of 240,435 deaths.

—The population of the earth is estimated by a German statist at 1,350,000,000, of whom 285,000,000 are in Europe, 796,600,000 in Asia, 3,850,000 in Australia and Polynesia, 188,000,000 in Africa, and 74,500,000 in America. This estimate, it is acknowledged, is only an approximation; for the statist admits that it is impossible to arrive at anything like an accurate statement of the population of Asia and Africa, there being no census or other means of ascertaining the number of inhabitants in those portions of the globe.

—At the Evangelical Alliance General Conference recently in session at Amsterdam, Holland, an interesting report on the religious condition of the United States was read by an American clergyman. It will surprise some persons to know that the Roman Catholics are now the most numerous sect in the United States, numbering not less than 4,000,000 souls, or just twice as many as the next strongest, namely, the Methodists, who number 2,000,000. But a somewhat curious feature is, that though the Catholics so greatly outnumber the others in membership, they are by no means so well furnished with church edifices as most of the Protestant denominations. The Methodist, for example, with 2,000,000 less souls, having 10,400 churches; and the Baptists with scarcely one-sixth of the amount of congregation, possess 17,220 places of worship, while the Catholics have only 3,800.

—The Hartford Courant says, that a canvass of their parishes by the Congregational ministers of Connecticut shows that in 100 towns, at least one-third of the families are not in the habit of going to church. Irreligion was found to increase in proportion to the distance from the center of the towns. It prevails more in sparsely-settled farming districts than in the manufacturing villages. The State Committee on Home Evangelization say in their report: “The returns give the impression that the Roman Catholic population do not often sink to so low a grade of heathenism as the irreligious native-born population. They do not entirely abandon some thought of God, and some respect for their own religious observances. Uniformly the districts most utterly given over to desolation, are districts occupied by a population purely native American.”

The Colored People Not Yet Delivered.

The Washington Correspondent of the Independent thus speaks of the present condition of the colored people in Maryland, and other parts of the South:

“According to newspaper accounts, the colored people of Maryland are under a tyranny surpassing any to be found at this day in any part of Europe. Women and children are shot down in daylight, and the murderers are not compelled to answer for their crimes. These are the allegations of our most trusted friends in that State, and I fear that the report of the Judiciary Committee will show them to be true. What Congress will do for the protection of the colored people in that State remains to be seen. The Civil Rights bill was passed for this purpose, but does not accomplish it. What will become of the colored people of Maryland and Kentucky, God only knows; but it is evident that they must suffer before the day of their deliverance arrives.”

Conference for the Arbitrament of the Roman Question.

PARIS, Nov. 25.—The Emperors of Russia and Austria have formally signified their intention of participating in the proposed conference for the settlement of the Roman question, as suggested by Napoleon, as have also nearly all the smaller powers of Europe. The course that Prussia will pursue is not known; but it is believed she, too, will send representatives. The note recently sent from Great Britain on the subject, is accepted here as a formal objection. The Pope is known to oppose in advance any action of the conference which invades the rights he now enjoys, and particularly, any plan divesting him of his temporal power.

Cause of Garibaldi's Illness.

LONDON, Nov. 25.—Evening.—Despatches received here state that the illness of Garibaldi was caused by the harsh treatment of Italian prison officials, who took that course with the view of driving him to the United States or elsewhere out of the country.

The testimony of Detective Baker before the Impeachment Committee casts a little additional light on the manner in which pardons have been procured at the White House. He swears that Mrs. Cobb told him the President knew she was getting money for the pardons which she procured. For obtaining pardons for two noted Richmond rebels she received $3,000, and, feeling kind to Andy, she bought his hopeful son, “Colonel Robert,” a pair of kid gloves, and put a $500 bill in each one, and presented them to the nice young man. It is not stated what Bob did with the money, nor whether the “old man” got any of it; nor whether the “lady” was in the habit of dividing the black-mail she levied on pardon-seekers with the offspring of the Executive parent. The cause of her influence with the President is fully explained in another portion of the same testimony.

Impeachment.—In the House, on Monday, Mr. Boutwell, on behalf of the majority of the Judiciary Committee, presented a report in favor of the impeachment of President Johnson, as guilty of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The principal charges are in substance these:

Unconstitutional usurpation of power to organize Civil State Governments.
Denial of the right of Congress to control the work of reorganization.
Willful and corrupt assumption of power.
Illegal sales of government property—especially Southern Railroads, which were turned over to Southern men against the advice of the Secretary of War and the Quartermaster-General.
Corrupt and unconstitutional exercise and abuse of the veto power.
Abuse of the pardoning power.

The report is signed by Messrs. Boutwell of Massachusetts, Thomas of Maryland, Williams of Indiana, and Lawrence of Pa.—5 Republicans. Two Republicans (Wilson of Iowa, and Woodbridge of Vt.) presented one minority report; and the two Democratic members (Eldridge of Wisconsin, and Marshall of Illinois) another. The Republican members of the committee, it will be observed, stand 5 for, to 2 against impeachment.

The report of the majority created a profound excitement in Washington, and the Capitol was crowded at an early hour. No important question was taken, but the whole subject was postponed till Wednesday.—Independent.

—The European Conference on the Roman question has been fully agreed upon, the Holy Father having withdrawn his opposition to it. It will be held at Munich, and, as regards the number of States represented at it, will be the largest assembly of this kind since 1815. It is highly improbable that the Conference will be able to further in the least a solution of the Roman question.

A Frightful Incubus.—According to careful statistics, it appears that from 1860 to 1863, the European nations, in a time of prevailing peace, maintained a standing army of 3,815,847 men, being one soldier to 76 inhabitants, at an annual cost of 3,221,400,645 francs, or more than $600,000,000, being 32 per cent. of their total national expenses. Should they mutually agree to diminish their armies one half, 1,907,724 able-bodied men would be restored to the occupations

of peace, at a direct saving of 1,600,000,000 francs, which would enable them to add over 6,000 miles of railway track to existing lines each year, and still have a surplus sufficient to establish a free school in every county town; or it would accomplish the entire payment of the European debt, amounting to about 57,500,000,000 francs, in about 36 years. This is exclusive of what would be realized by the labor of those nearly two million men, who when engaged in useful toil would create a daily product of 20,000,000 francs, amounting every year to 7,000,000,000, to say nothing of the moral benefits that would result from restoring to their homes and families so vast a number of men, who are now spending the flower of their lives in the idleness of garrisons. These powerful considerations in favor of European disarmament are strongly urged by some of the most able and influential of the journalists of France, who also find strong arguments for it in the example of this country, which, with its small army in time of peace, is respected by the whole world as a power of the first order.