News and Miscellany by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 9, 1875

News and Miscellany.

By Editor

—According to the latest accounts, the cholera seems to be on the increase at Antioch and Damascus.

—A gentleman from northwestern Missouri reports grasshoppers by the million just hatching out in the district visited by their ancestors in June last on their journey northward.

DUBLIN, August 31.—The Synod of Irish Archbishops of the Catholic Church, summoned under the express authority of the pope, met at Maynooth to-day, Cardinal Cullen presiding. It is understood the educational question will be the principal subject of deliberation.

PARIS, August 31.—A private letter from Egypt reports great confusion and excitement there in consequence of military preparations. Troops are being dispatched to the Abyssinian frontier. At the same time the Khedive expects a call from the Porte for aid in suppressing the Herzegovinian rebellion.

—The Catholics have uttered a warning to the New-York Herald. That paper is informed that if it does not change its tone on Catholicism, the priests will from the pulpit forbid its entrance into Catholic families. The experiment would be an interesting one to look upon—this attempt of the Catholics to muzzle the press.

—Of the progress of the Herzegovinian insurrection, a Times Berlin special says: "After the recent appointment of Mehemet Pasha as Grand Vizier there is less hope than ever of the insurgents coming to terms. He is regarded as champion of absolute government, and his very presence in the Cabinet is calculated to make the insurgents desperate. His appointment, unless from mere caprice, is proof that the Sultan is determined to maintain the system which produced the present outbreak."

—The Merchants-Shipping bill, introduced by Sir Charles Adderley after Mr. Plimsoll’s demonstration, and passed by the House of Commons, has finally passed the House of Lords. It give some very definite guarantees to seamen. A small proportion of any crew may, if they believe their ship to be in an unseaworthy condition, summon the proper officers to make an inspection without making themselves liable for the costs thereof. So long as the inspectors are competent and trustworthy, therefore, there is reasonable security for the seamen.

—The fact that thirteen hundred children died in two weeks in the tenement-house districts of New York, calls for immediate action on the part of the city authorities, to do something for the hundreds of mothers who through poverty are almost helpless to do anything for their dying babes. As a slight mitigation of their suffering, a new barge has been secured and fitted up expressly for the purpose of giving excursions tri-weekly on the river to thousands of mothers with sick children. It is hoped that fresh air, the change of surroundings, and the wholesome food provided on the boat, will do much for the health of the mothers and children.

—Russia has gone to work in good earnest for utilizing her Khanate of Khiva. Russia told England when she sent Gen. Kauffman into Khiva that all that was intended was to whip the Khan into good behavior and release some Russian prisoners whom he held, just as England did by Theodore of Abyssinia. That was done and now this refreshing paragraph is read by the English Government: "Gen. Ivanoff, the Governor of Russian Khiva, proposes to connect the Sir Darya and Amu Darya Rivers by means of the Yani Darya River. The proposed canal is to be made navigable for steamers, and also to serve as a means of creating arable lands to be colonized by Russian settlers." These "arable lands" are intended to bear iron mellons for the British India market.