AN ERROR CORRECTED by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 31, 1881

AN ERROR CORRECTED.

By Editor

A FRIEND in Edinburgh, as well as one in Maldon, England, calls attention to an item in the SIGNS published some time ago, copied from another paper, the item commencing thus: "An exchange says," etc., giving statistics of various matters. Among other things it says the salary of the Bishop of London is £50,000, whereas in fact it is only £10,000. The question is then asked, "Where is the authority?"

Our reply is, We do not know. We do not know to what "exchange" the paper referred from which we copied. In such cases we do as editors generally do,—copy items from other papers which, if correct in some respects, and containing nothing apparently improbable, we do not stop to verify in every particular. But we are always pleased to be corrected, and shall make speedy acknowledgement when corrected.

We can easily imagine how the error was made; £10,000 is nearly $50,000. The pound mark has been substituted for the sign of the dollar by somebody—by whom we do not know.

Our friendly correspondent says:—

"Your exchange, on England, gives figures as to crime in London, which are apparently equally correct. But even supposing them to be substantially true, they do not prove that the 'Modern Babylon' is a whit worse than any of the large towns of the old or new world. A poor consolation, I allow."

So we think. But the largest cities always appear at disadvantage in these statistical records. Still, for an enlightened nation, claimed to be first in the list as a Christian nation, the condition of London is anything but gratifying. Our friend adds:—

"Perhaps you could kindly let your readers know the statistics of crime in New York, and the salary of Dr. H. W. Beecher."

We do not feel flattered by comparing the state of morals in New York, or in San Francisco, with that of any other part of the world. It was not to make any such comparison that the item was published. We understand that the salary of H. W. Beecher is about half as much as that of the Bishop of London, and about five times as much as he would receive if he taught a theology more scriptural and less pleasing to the popular "liberal" sentiment of this degenerate age.