Troubles Abroad | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 8, 1861

Troubles Abroad.

It is no relief from our own national troubles to turn to those of other countries, but it gives us juster views and a more patient spirit to reflect that ours is no exceptional case, but that apprehension and disturbance constitute the rule among the nations of the earth, rather than security and tranquility.

To the south of us, Mexico lies in her chronic condition of internal warfare. Her capital, lately invaded, has been freed from the immediate danger of attack by hard fighting on all sides; but success in the field seems only to lead to feuds among the victors, so that security is never to be reckoned among the fruits of triumph. Farther on, New Granada has just gone through with a revolution, somewhat bloody but probably bootless. Among the States of South America there is hardly one but that has its internal troubles, although they are of so little concern to the rest of the world, as in general to pass unnoticed.

Looking upon Europe we behold the two great governments of England and France in a state of apparent peace and professed security—and yet the former is bristling with riflemen and steel-plated frigates, and the latter bears the tramp of more soldiers and armed horses than this country does at this moment, having added within twelve months six millions of dollars to her warlike expenditures. Some nations had rather be plunged into actual fighting than to be subjected to such onerous preparations.

The great empire of Austria is drifting upon dissolution, or upon the bloody assertion of its despotic claims. Of its thirty-five millions of subjects, sixteen millions refuse to accept the new constitution and to send members to the Imperial Council. Italy will wait no longer than spring for the release of Venetia, by sale or otherwise, from the grasp of the Hapsburgs; and if Hungary postpones open revolt to that period, it will only be from motives of policy. The estrangement seems to have gone beyond remedy, but the prospect of a combined attack on two sides of Austria is a great inducement to patience on the part of the Hungarian leaders.

In Italy, Cialdini is crushing out brigandage and reactionary demonstrations with a vigor which the friends of the Union in this country may well emulate. The Pope's troubles continue, and may be immensely aggravated some morning by the withdrawal of that staff of the French military support, on which he has hitherto leaned for his existence as a sovereign. In the north of Europe, the Russian difficulties with Poland threaten momentarily to break out into conflict, and the commotions excited by the emperor's emancipation scheme are unabated. The Holstein quarrel is so far from being composed, that it was noticeable that the last public declaration of the king of Denmark was the first implication of expected war that has passed his lips. In the eastern part of the continent, Omar Pasha is carrying on a vigorous warfare against the insurgents of Montenegro.

And so it is the world over—a world, if not "lying in wickedness," yet surely not exempt anywhere from troubles and all the dangers of blood-shed. Even the "gorgeous East" is passing through the ordeal of terrible revolution, Japan is the theatre of the conflict between the powers of darkness and seclusion and the powers of light and friendly intercourse. China is prolific in mysterious disturbances, and our last advices tells us of a new insurrection near Pekin, and of the breaking up of commerce beneath the fitful blows of imperial and rebel successes. While, then, we behold the nations of the earth subject to the extremes of afflicting plagues—to the fire running along the ground or the darkness that may be felt—why should we wonder that our long unexampled prosperity has at last been interrupted for a season?—Boston Journal.