Losses of the Past Year.
By Editor
HENRY WARD BEECHER, preached a masterly discourse at his church in Brooklyn, on Sunday, on the disasters by sea and land the past year, to an immense audience. From the report of the discourse in the New York Times, we copy the following: “God is chastising us for our unwise legislations which will preserve peace without regard to justice. To show how God has shown his displeasure, Mr. Beecher said he had obtained the following statistics: During the past twelve months, more than 4,000 American vessels, including those on the lakes and rivers, have been lost. This is no minister's calculation who is not expected to know anything of such matters, but has been computed by those who are expected to feel these losses most severely. During the same length of time, the number of vessels lost throughout the whole world was 10,000. Can it be said that it was chance alone that has caused the United States to furnish 4,000 out of the 10,000 that have been lost? Up to the year 1850, the average number of vessels lost all over the world, averaged 3,000 a year. The amount of Insurance paid by the Marine Insurance Companies in New York, last year, amounted to twelve millions. The losses on land by rail roads and otherwise, amounted to eighteen millions of dollars. It is to be remarked that God has in most instances struck directly at the pride of our strength. The noblest, the newest of our vessels are the ones taken, as if he meant to prove that it was himself that had done it: and that men might not say, they fell by their own weakness. Let men therefore depart from their infidelity, and put their trust in Him, and He will gather them under his wings and “no evil shall come nigh them.”—Morning Star, Nov., 1854.”