p. 142 | Notes of News

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, February 26, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 9

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Notes of News.

—Vesuvius is again active.

—In January, the public debt was reduced $11,000,000.

—Recent floods are reported in several Spanish provinces.

—New York has over $100,000,000 of untaxed church property.

—German Socialists disclaim any connection with Russian Nihilism.

—Great Britain spends about $10,000,000 every year for new cannon.

—More than half of the Kentucky children of school age attend no school.

—The Milwaukee County Hospital was recently destroyed by fire; 2 lives were lost.

—General Roberts reports officially that 97 Afghans have been hanged, with his sanction.

—The total number of students at the University of Berlin is 5,301, the largest attendance it has ever had.

—It is said that there is not now one tramp in the Western States where there were 50 a year and a half ago.

—A dispatch dated Feb. 20, states that in Rio de Janeiro from 8 to 10 persons are dying daily of yellow fever.

—There are in this country 225 ministers of the German Reformed Church who preach in the German language.

—The total receipts of the American Board of Foreign Missions for the year ending Jan. 1, 1880, was $116,270.70.

—Every week, 118 meetings are held among the working-classes of Paris under the direction of Mr. McAll, evangelist.

—It is said that the stocking of Lake Canandaigua with salmon, trout, and other useful fish, has proved a great success.

—During the 16 years previous to 1867, Holland received an annual average of over $500,000 from the bulbs it exported.

—Last year California exported 2,000,000 gallons of native wine, $20,000,000 worth of wheat, and $26,200,000 of gold and silver.

—In Valparaiso, recently, 20 persons were killed, and half the building destroyed, by an explosion of shells in the arsenal.

—The Hartford Courant, which has attained the goodly age of 116 years, is the oldest paper of uninterrupted publication in the country.

—Spain has, indeed, abolished slavery in Cuba; but the cooly is to take the place of the slave. The laborers are to be imported from China.

—Since the Russians have taken possession of the district of Kars, 42,000 of the inhabitants have emigrated, so odious to them is Russian rule.

—The superintendent of the census has decided that the appointment of enumerators must be non-partisan, and that women are not ineligible.

—Martial law has been proclaimed in Constantinople, it is understood with a view to prevent disturbances in carrying out the military reforms.

—The Mexican government will protect the Mormons in their worship, but not in polygamy. This is somewhat discouraging to the “saints.”

—New York has followed Massachusetts’ example, and now permits women to serve as school trustees and to vote at elections for school officers.

—One of the boilers of a large distillery in Peoria, Ill., exploded on the evening of the 18th, killing two men, and fatally injuring seven others.

—A late dispatch states that the Ohio River has reached the height of 41 feet, and the water is still rising. In Kentucky the damage has been very great.

—According to the national bureau of statistics, the excess of exports over imports for the year 1879 is $251,350,000, $54,000,000 less than the excess in 1878.

—Lord Beaconsfield recently stated in Parliament that he thought the time had come when it should be forever settled who should possess the great gates of India.

—The custom-house returns for January, show that for the first time in 5 years the balance of trade foots up against the United States. The imports at New York aggregated $40,000,000.

—A dispatch from Nashville dated Feb. 19, states that the Cumberland River is again rising, large portions of the city are flooded, and thousands of persons have been rendered homeless.

—The pope has just published an encyclical, in which he asserts the claims of the Vatican, exclusive of the civil authorities, to absolute jurisdiction over marriages and divorces.

—Three men who were under arrest for robbing the Farmers and Mechanics’ Bank of Galesburg, Ill., have failed to appear before the Circuit Court, thus forfeiting their bail of $36,000.

—James Gordon Bennett has headed the Herald subscription fund for the relief of the suffering in Ireland with the large sum of $100,000; and contributions are said to be coming in at the rate of $500 per hour.

—The International Conference on Arctic Explorations has decided not to send a fresh expedition to the North Pole at present; but it advocates the gradual establishment of a chain of stations toward the Arctic regions.

—Leo’s banker at Rome has absconded, taking $150,000 belonging to the Vatican. The Christian Weekly thinks it strange that the church papers have not taken it as a text to prove the unsoundness of his religious faith.

—The Inter-Ocean thinks the announcement that the Prussian Diet will hold a supplemental session indicates that Socialism, and the disturbed relations between church and state, excite more uneasiness than is acknowledged.

—During the past year, a minister residing in Onarga, Ill., has distributed 2,300,000 pages of reading matter in the prisons of Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, California, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

—Captain Burton, the Oriental traveler and explorer, is about starting on his third expedition to the land of Midian to work the gold, copper, and turquoise mines known to exist there, and which are referred to in the book of Numbers.

—The great Arctic explorer, Nordenskjöld, thinks a north-western passage, opening Siberia to commerce through the Obi and Yenisei rivers, is practicable. An account of his recent voyage is soon to be published simultaneously in the Swedish, English, French, and German languages.

—Bismarck’s organ has published a remarkable article from which it appears that Germany augmented her military resources, not so much as a menace to any of the other powers as from the fear that the present Republican regime of France may not be able to hold its own. The peaceful assurances contained in the speech of the Emperor confirm this view of the political situation. Will the monarchists of France learn a lesson?

—The Christian at Work has the following: “Louis Kossuth says that idiot is a word of Greek extraction, and meant with the Greeks a man who cared nothing for the public interest, but was all devoted to the pursuit of private profit, whatever might have been the results to the community. With this definition, we shall have no difficulty hereafter in knowing under what head to class our Congressmen.”

—A treaty has been signed at Washington for the settlement of claims of French citizens resulting from the war of secession. The matter is to be definitely arbitrated by a committee of three, France and the United States each appointing one member, and the Emperor of Brazil the third. The counter-claims of American citizens are to be regarded; but the United States refuses to accept responsibility for acts of Confederates, or for any loss arising from loss or emancipation of slaves.

—Mr. Spurgeon, in his first sermon in the Tabernacle after his return from Mentone, Italy, accused England’s rulers of making bloody wars and oppressing nations. He said they consoled themselves with the reflection that the English are a great people, and can do what they like, and it will all come right in the end. But they should remember that pride went before a fall. The proudest and haughtiest of men and nations would yet be brought low. God’s chastisements, when they did come, would be terrible, even unto destruction.

—According to the last Congregational Year Book, there are 1,136 Congregational ministers without a charge, and 663 pastorless churches. These ministers have a hard time to get along. One says he “would saw wood or do anything to earn a living;” another returns an income of $13 a month, or $3 a week. The Christian at Work seems to think it strange that with “so much education—7 to 8 years in college and seminary—” they are yet unable to earn a farm-laborer’s wages; and suggests that fewer men enter the ministry, or that more go out into self-sacrificing missionary work, foreign or domestic.

—It is generally believed that the British government contemplates assuming a protectorate over Persia, and effecting with her the joint occupation of Herat. The terms of the treaty amount to an offensive and defensive alliance. Lord Beaconsfield, after having denied the rumor, now admits that negotiations are proceeding. A late cablegram from London to the New York Herald says: “The Russia bugbear is made to do duty once more as a pretext for these fresh entangling engagements and enormous responsibilities. The Liberal leaders are undetermined what line to adopt, but sober men of both parties are alarmed at these additional imperial burdens, and consider the project the most serious news since the Turkish convention, it being perfectly calculated to inflame the ‘Jingo’ spirit, captivate the masses, provoke Russian susceptibilities, increase the difficulty of withdrawing from Afghanistan, and pledge England to a policy of perpetual aggression in Central Asia. Nobody in Parliament thinks it worth while to denounce the flagrant immorality of transferring Herat, where England has absolutely no rights, to Persia, who hates the Heratese and is hated in turn by them. Evidently Parliament and the country will be refused an opportunity to express an opinion till the treaty is established.”