p. 15 | News and Miscellany

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 11, 1875

News and Miscellany.

—Mayor Otis of San Francisco died at his residence, Saturday morning, Oct. 30.

—The orange trees of San Bernardino are loaded with their golden fruit this season.

—The California “winter” or rainy season has been fairly inaugurated by two heavy showers during the last week. The change is quite refreshing. The dust is washed from the trees, and the air is so cleared that the hills look a third nearer than before the rain.

—The announcement that the Queen would become a patron of the Church of England Temperance Society is followed up by the almost equally gratifying piece of news, that His Royal Highness, Prince Leopold, will become President of the Oxford branch of the same society.

—Judge Boreman, in the Third District Court, has decided that the order made by Chief Justice McKean some time since, ordering Brigham Young to pay Ann Eliza Young $9,500 alimony pendente lite, be enforced and that Brigham Young be imprisoned until the same is paid, with costs.

—Slowly the Chinese are learning to prize the privileges of American civilization, and claim the rights of citizens. The latest development among them is the publication of a Chinese pioneer newspaper in San Francisco. There are few newspapers in China. English enterprise has stimulated presses in Hongkong and Shanghai, and there is one at Pekin, an official gazette, giving the decrees of the Emperor, petitions of high officers, and Government changes.

WASHINGTON, November 1.—Several pastors of different denominations in this city who were apprehensive that the government was about to abandon its peace policy against the Indians, called on the president to-day. The only change proposed was that of having the supplies for the Indians purchased and distributed by military officers who could be strictly punished should they prove unfaithful. The president said it was a mistake to suppose that military men wanted trouble with the Indians. It took them to the frontier; there was no glory to be gained by fighting the Indians; and as to promotion by the death of superiors, that was out of the question, for they always made the Second Lieutenants do all the fighting.

—The English Lords of the Admiralty have recently issued a circular directed to officers in command of her Majesty’s ships, instructing them in regard to their treatment of fugitive slaves who may take refuge on board their vessels. “The broad rule is,” they say, “that a fugitive slave should not be permanently received on board any description of ship under the British flag, unless his life would be endangered if he were not allowed to come on board.” Another rule is, “that the slave must not be allowed to remain on board after it has been proved to the satisfaction of the officer in command that he is legally a slave.” In that case he is to be surrendered to his master. Even when the slave has been received on board the ship on the high seas, he must be returned to slavery in the event of the vessel returning to territorial waters. This monstrous reversal of the settled policy of England for more than a century is already provoking severe comment, and will form not the least of the offences for which the Tory Government will ere long be called to account.

VIRGINIA CITY.—The people of California and Nevada have answered nobly the calls for help from the afflicted city. San Francisco has proved to the world that “every man for himself” is not the sole principle of action in that City. The merchants have done themselves great credit in their liberal donations of clothing, boots and shoes, blankets, hardware, and groceries; while those who had none of these have given the always acceptable cash. Gen. Schofield has sent twenty-five army tents which will answer a good purpose as temporary shelter. Bedding and stoves seem the things most needed. But the spirit of the enterprising city still lives, and every preparation is being made to rebuild the city. Said the Virginia Enterprise of Oct. 30, “It was a sight to see the workmen clearing the wreck. Along the streets there was a continuous assault made upon the debris.” Around the disabled works of the mill and shafts the same clearing work is going on.

—MR. G. T. LANGAN, in two letters to the Independent, gives what seems to be a very intelligent and fair account of the famous Guibord case, and the subject has assumed such importance that we condense the substance of his statements. The power of the Ultramontane Catholics in Canada has been very great. In recent years, it has suffered some diminution, especially through the influence of thousands of young Canadians who were a good deal liberalized by a temporary residence in the United States. The Ultramontanes have consequently redoubled their efforts to assert and maintain their supremacy, and both sides have been disposed to measure strength with each other. The case of Guibord has brought the question whether the church is subject to the State to a direct issue, and this having been fully decided against the church in the highest English court, the question whether the law itself can be defied by the mob is as yet undecided. Guibord, who died six years ago, was a member of the “Institute Canadien” at Montreal—a society resembling an English mechanics’ institute, or American lyceum, professedly Catholic, but liberal in its tendencies. The bishop at last forbade membership in the institute to Catholics, on the plea that its library contained books forbidden in the Index, and treated with contempt a respectful invitation to point out the obnoxious books. The more courageous members defied the bishop; the more cautious, Guibord among them, appealed to Rome, whereupon they were cut off from the sacraments. While the appeal was pending, Guibord died, without the last rites of the church, and was refused interment in consecrated ground. In his widow’s name, the liberals of the institute appealed to the civil courts to compel the interment, and the case was carried up until it reached the English Privy Council. Their decision was unanimous, ordering the issue of the writ of peremptory mandamus, and obliging the church to pay the very heavy costs of the legal proceedings. But the attempt to inter the body last September was successfully resisted as our readers will remember, by the disgraceful violence of a mob, with the connivance of the police. There the matter rests at present. The church authorities have had no word of condemnation for the rioters. Party spirit runs high, and an obstinate contest may be expected even when the immediate issue is decided. It seems impossible to doubt that the church will eventually be forced to confine itself to its proper field.—Christian Union.