THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 62, 4 July 1874, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Thk City of Adelaide with the English mail arrived at Anoh *£ W ' ° f the 26th Ult " five **■ ovTr^er contract Sf? j r he dflayd f lay Was occasi <>ned by the detention of the Mikado four days at San Francisco awaiting the arrival of the Atlantic steamer, and a subsequent loss of 4e ZL °h some disarrangement of her tubes between Honolulu 3 Kandavu The intelligence received by the mail is of a raOr e than usually melancholy character, the record of the moXs disaster and destruction of life being great* than thTciT mcled for some time past. Both in the Old World and in the New the calamities have been so numerous and so heart trading that even in this far off land, removed by time and dtttance, we cannot read the particulars without betng sorely distressed at the miseries and misfortune, to wbSf •«Jf "S SU .° h Btr , angerS - ln E "S land a * ole *t W cane and thunderstorm had passed over London and the Midland counties, scattering death and destruction in its withering bias ; then we have the usual monthly item in the shape oi a railway colhsion, in which upwards of forty p^ons we« more or less maimed for life; and as if to complete Z chapter of misfortunes, we read that grave fears are entertained for the safety of a steam troop ship bound from London to Madeira with a large number of passengers on bo.rd. But it is m America that the hand of affliction seems to have faUan the heaviest, and from all parts of the Union comes tLwaS of suffering and the cry of distress. la the North three villages have been swept away by the bursting of a reservoir in Massachusetts. It appear the dam had be'en used far mill purposes the employ^ at which lived in the valW beneath. Suddenly and without auy warning the w all* If the reservorr burst, and the irresistible torrent rushed upon its work of destruction with frightful rapidity. Three villaps opposing its onward cour.se were swept away, and nearly two hundred persons hurried into eternity The report of the catastrophe is of a most appalling charactS almost all trace, of the ill-fated villages have bin obliS ated four hundred families have been rendered homeless and destitute, aad property to the extent of over a million of dollars destroyed. From the Crescent City also, an appeal for assistance is heard. Louisiana, situated on the banks ot the Missis.jpp!, is subject to periodicl inundations, varying according to the amount of rainfall in the country" higher towards- its source. . This year, however, the floods seem to have been of mors than ordinary magnitude, and the amount of Wry and distress caused by the destnxS on of homes and property to have reached the most alarming proportions, and famine gaunt and spectral stalks abroad amount its unhappy residents. The Mayor of New Orleans, oX to his inability to meet the calls f., r food made upon him by th e> wretched inhabitants, had telegraphed to New lork tor assistance m order to mitigate the horrors of famine with which the city has been afflicted. In his appeThe states that forty-five thousand persons daily are being partially that it will require at least one million dollars to minister to to the temporary wants of the people, and diminish the horrors hat prevail^ In Asia Minor also, famine is prevailing to an, alarming, extent, and the last reports stated that there were at least one hun.lred deaths per day from sheer starvation We who live in a land of plenty, where the word want is unknown, cannot realise the amount of suffering and misery which many who Jive in less favored countries than our own are forced at the present to undergo. From ' Canada we learn that enormous damage and destruction to property occurred through a monster iceberg at Quebec, several large steamers and other vessels being- totally destroyed, involving a loss of one million five hundred thousand pounds but happily with no loss of life, On the ' Continent of Europe the sacrilegious work of spoliation and persecution still continues in Italy, the Government, not- content with the already long

catalogue of enormities perpetrated against the Church has been seizing upon its patrimony, and property to the value of twenty millions of pounds have been ruthlessly taken from her, and put into the treasury of State. It is consoling, tfien, to turn from this long list of misfortunes and miseries to the few items of intelligence which are calculated to gladden the heart. At the latest dates the Holy Father, after suffering a severe illness, was once more able to appear in public, and witness the demonstrations of joy by which his restoration to health was received. It is cheering to know that notwithstanding the efforts which have been made by the usurpers and tyrants to rob him of his sovereignty, the deputations of sympathy which he is daily receiving from all quarters of the glope proves that he is enthroned in the hearts of 200,000,000 of the human family, and the grand old man, with the weight of over fourscore years, is a monarch with a greater and more powerful sway than any sovereign in Christendom. The mail mentions that a pilgrimage had left New York, to the number of one hundred persons, of those who desire to visit the Vatican, and lay their allegiance at the foot of the Sovereign Pontiff. When will the enemies of the Church read the lesson which the persecution of their pastor teaches ? Instead of crushing out Catholicity, persecution and the tyrannical measures which are at present put in force, will only serve to bind its members more firmly together, and the Holy Father, though now a prisoner in the Vatican, a Sovereign without a temporal throne, holds a higher place in the love and reverance of one sixth the entire universe than ever did pontiff when kings and Kaisers bowed their heads.