News and Miscellany

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 15, 1871

News and Miscellany.

“Can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

LONDON, Aug. 10.—Private information from a correspondent at Salzburg says the military organization in Russia is being pushed vigorously on the Prussian system of compulsory service, and rigorously carried out without exception. In consequence of the enormous extent of country, provincial depots are to be established. Officers are to examine the frontiers, and it is reported that the government is trying experiments to see how soon corps d’armee advancing can lay a line of railway for forwarding supplies. If such is the case, everything politically promises well for Austria’s making an alliance with Germany, which is apprehensive between France and Russia. This is the chief question of discussion between the Emperors of Austria and Germany. They meet at Ischl to-morrow.

DUBLIN, Aug. 6.—In spite of the prohibition of the authorities, the friends of amnesty attempted to hold a meeting this afternoon in Phoenix Park. Mr. Smyth, member of Parliament; Mr. Sullivan, editor of the Nation; Mr. John Sullivan Byrne, of the Irishman, entered the park with a large crowd. Police Superintendent Hay, standing on Wellington monument, ordered Smyth and his followers to desist, when he was hurled to the bottom of the monument and seriously maltreated. A fearful riot ensued. The police charged upon the mob, and beat and kicked men, women, and children, indiscriminately. The fight lasted half an hour, when the police, having been reinforced, succeeded in dispersing the mob. Smyth, Sullivan, and a man named Nolan, were badly wounded. Over one hundred injured have been taken to hospitals. The authorities are firm in their determination to prevent any meeting, and the leaders of the attempt to-day will be prosecuted.

CHICAGO, Ill., Aug. 8.—A terrific tornado, moving from east to west, passed over Winneconne, Wis., last night. A boom on the Wolf River, five miles above Winneconne, containing 50,000,000 feet of logs, was broken up. The steamer Star was capsized and Capt. George Smith drowned. One of the raftsmen was also drowned. All rafthouses were blown over and completely demolished, and thousands of window-panes broken; thirty chimneys were blown down. Grain in the shock was scattered over the fields, and all the corn is flat. The lumber interest suffers a great loss. The Roman Catholic Church in Granville was destroyed by the storm.

The extraordinary phenomena produced by Home, the American medium in London, are being made the subject of careful examination by Prof. Crooks, an eminent chemist; Dr. Huggins, an equally prominent astronomer; and Mr. Sergeant Cox, of the English bar. The results of their yet incomplete examination is recorded in the London Scientific Journal. The investigators are satisfied of the immense scientific importance of the subject. Prof. Crooks and Sergeant Cox both seem to be convinced of the existence of a nerve atmosphere, of various intensity, enveloping the human structure. Dr. Huggins has not yet been able to satisfy his mind, and wants to make further experiments.

ROMAN CATHOLIC NEWS.—The following is the Pope’s allocution addressed a few days ago to the Sacred College:—

“We are, my very dear brethren, in the hands of Divine Providence. We have nothing to expect from human aid; for man has abandoned us. Why should we dissemble? It is better I should tell you. Kings and governments, forgetting their promises, leave us to our fate. They have addressed us in fine phrases. They sent us the warmest congratulations on the day of our jubilee; but they are far from taking a step in support of their messages. We can hope for no help from any quarter. King Victor Emanuel will be here in a few days, and will be attended by the ministers of the Catholic states. We have done all that was in our power; but our efforts have failed. All is lost. You will tell me, perhaps, that we have still hope in France; but France can do nothing. She is going through a frightful crisis, which may be succeeded by others yet more dreadful. I repeat it, all is lost, and only a miracle can save us. Turn, then, to the Almighty, and seek this interposition from him.”

The Catholic World says: “While the State has rights, she has them only in virtue and by permission of the superior authority, and that authority can only be expressed through the church—that is, through the organic law infallibly announced and unchangeably asserted, regardless of temporal consequences.” And the Civitta Cattolica supplements the doctrine of church rights by saying: “The Catholic church has a right to impose temporal punishments, even severe temporal punishments, on those who disobey her laws; that is, on heretics and schismatics. The church has always enforced this right when she could do so, though always within the limits of a wise mercy; and if, at times, she has been unable to enforce this right and cannot do so at present, this is at once a symptom and the effect of a very melancholy period which has passed or rather is passing.”