EVENTS OF 1883. (JANTJABY.) 



321 



women, a number of teachers in day-schools, 

 3 day-schools with 132 pupils, and 4 Sunday- 

 schools, with 191. The Committee on High 

 Schools and Education reported on the condi- 

 tion of Northwestern College, Naperville, 111. ; 

 the Biblical Institute; Union Seminary for 

 young men and young women (with which 

 a theological course is connected) ; Schuylkill 

 Seminary, Reading, Pa., a new institution ; 

 and the Theological Seminary at Reutlingen, 

 Germany, where nineteen young men had re- 

 ceived instruction during the quadrennium - 

 The attention of the conference was largely 

 given to matters of detail in discipline and 

 the management of the business affairs and 

 benevolent enterprises of the Church. A re- 

 port expressing the sentiments of the body on 

 various questions of public morals recom- 

 mended the legal prohibition of the traffic in. 

 intoxicating liquors ; advised a strict observ- 

 ance of the sanctity of the Christian Sabbath ; 

 and condemned loose divorce legislation and 

 speculations in stock and produce. The speedy 

 publication of a series of normal class text- 

 books, and the formation of classes for the 

 regular study of a course of instruction cov- 

 ered by them, with certificates of graduation 

 to ba given to those who complete the same, 

 were recommended. Provision was made for 

 the formation of a woman's missionary so- 

 ciety auxiliary to the Missionary Society of the 

 Church, for the organization of local branches 

 to co-operate with it. 



EVMTS OF 1883. The year 1883 was com- 

 paratively devoid of striking political events, 

 but with peace assured in Europe it was a year 

 of legislative discussion and activity. The pop- 

 ular unrest in Europe, heightened by the grow- 

 ing acuteness of the economical struggle for 

 life, manifested itself in characteristic ways. 

 The same circumstances impelled governments 

 to make commercial restrictions, and, in con- 

 junction with the absence of military dangers 

 at home, to seek acquisitions in the outlying 

 regions of the earth. There were constitu- 

 tional struggles and revolutionary attempts in 

 many lands, revealing the instability of their 

 political institutions. There was a more abun- 

 dant harvest in most countries. The year was 

 chiefly remarkable for extraordinary natural 

 calamities. A volcanic outburst devastated one 

 of the most populous and productive regions 

 of the world, the cholera mowed down the 

 population of another, earthquakes demolished 

 -whole towns, freshets ravaged the valleys of 

 Central Europe, and tornadoes spread desola- 

 tion in the United States. The minor catas- 

 trophes and accidents by land and sea, when 

 aggregated, present an appalling sum of destruc- 

 tion, suffering, and death. Thefollowing chron- 

 icle recounts the noteworthy events of 1883 in 

 the order of their occurrence : 



January 1. Inauguration of Governor Cleveland at 

 Albany. Floods at Vienna and on the Rhine ; 500 

 houses destroyed at Worms. 



2. Meeting of New York Legislature. Inundations 



VOL. xxin. 21 A 



extend in the valley of the Ehine and its tributaries, 

 causing great damage and suffering at Dusseldorf, 

 Mayence, Worms, Mannheim, and Ludwigshaven. 



3. Railroad communications between Switzerland, 

 France, and Italy, interrupted by high water. Plot 

 against the Austrian Crown Prince discovered at 

 Pesth. 



4. Sherman's bonded whisky bill passed in the 

 Senate. House of Representatives pass Pendlcton's 

 civil - service reform bill. Presburg, in Hungary, 

 flooded. Spanish Minister of Finance declares the 

 necessity of retrenchment. 



5. State Treasurer of Tennessee absconds, leaving 

 defalcations to the amount of over $400,000. Rhine 

 Hoods recede. Death of Gen. Chanzy. 



^ 6. Funeral of Garnbetta, at Paris, amid manifesta- 

 tions of public sorrow. 



7. Spanish Cabinet resigns. Sinking of the steamer 

 City of Brussels, run into in a fog by the Kirby Hall, 

 near Liverpool. 



8. Sagasta forms a new Ministry in Spain. 



9. Presidential succession bill passed in Congress. 

 English ship British Empire burned on the high seas. 

 German Emperor subscribes 600,000 marks for the 

 Rhine sufferers. The Opposition attack the Govern- 

 ment on the question of prohibiting American pork. 

 Spanish Ministry formed under the presidency of 

 Sagasta. 



10. Burning of the Newhall House in Milwaukee ; 

 nearly 100 lives lost. Prussian Diet votes 3,000,000 

 marks for the relief of the inundated. Flood devas- 

 tates the town of Raab, in Hungary ; many persons 

 drowned. 



11. Bill to restore Gen. Fitz-John Porter to his 

 rank in the army, without back pay, carried in the 

 Senate. Death of ex-Senator Lott M. Morrill, in Au- 

 gusta, Me. Histrionic triumph of Edwin Booth at 

 Berlin. German Reichstag rejects a motion to repeal 

 the anti-Socialist laws, the May laws, and all excep- 

 tional legislation. 



12. Shipping bill, with drawback and free-ship 

 clauses struck out, passed by the House of Repre- 

 sentatives. Arrest of Phoenix Park murderers in 

 Dublin. The Czar and imperial family take up their 

 residence in St. Petersburg in the Anitchkoff Palace. 



13. Fire in a circus in Berdichev, Russian Poland ; 

 300 persons burned to death. 



15. Arrest of Prince Napoleon in Paris for issuing 

 a manifesto. The British ship Pride of the Ocean 

 destroyed by dynamite. 



16. Floquet proposal to expel members of royal 

 families voted urgent in the French Chamber. Ter- 

 mination of Portuguese treaty with England relating 

 to the west coast of Africa. 



17. Execution of two agrarian murderers in Ireland. 

 Swedish Parliament opened. 



18. Prohibition amendment in Iowa adjudged in- 

 valid. Vote of thanks in the Reichstag for American 

 subscriptions to relief fund. The village of Marais 

 in Savoy destroyed by an earthquake. 



19. Disaster on Southern Pacific railway near Te- 

 hichipa, Cal. ; 15 lives lost. Sinking of the Hamburg 

 steamer Cimbria ; 353 drowned out of 420 on board. 

 The Russian city Kherson destroyed by fire. 



20. Gen. Iglesias proclaimed President ha Peru by 

 a Congress sitting at Catamarca, and accepts on con- 

 dition that the people are willing to make peace with 

 Chili. Skuptchina (of Servia) approve German com- 

 mercial treaty. 



21. Explosion of giant powder near Oakland, Cal., 

 killing over 30 Chinamen. Explosion of a gasometer . 

 in Glasgow. Death of Prince Frederick Charles 

 Alexander of Prussia. 



22. A clause of the Ku-klux law of 1871 decided to 

 be unconstitutional. Arrest in Germany of the offi- 

 cers of the English steamer Sultan, which collided 

 with and sank the Cimbria. The insurgents in Ecua- 

 dor gain a victory. 



23. John E. Kenna elected Senator for West Vir- 

 ginia, and Richard Coke for Texas. A number of 



