BELFAST NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB: 

 Its Origin and Progress. 



In the opening months of 1863, the year in which 

 the Club was born, the world was in its usual state of 

 unrest. It may be of interest to glance, in passing, 

 at some of the causes of the strife and bitterness then 

 prevailing. 



America was embroiled in Civil War. The fratri- 

 cidal struggle between the Northern and Southern 

 States, on the question of negro slavery, had been 

 raging from 1859, and was not to cease until 1865. 



In Italy, Garibaldi was completing the triumphant 

 campaign which ended in the liberation of his country 

 and the placing of King Victor Emmanuel firmly on 

 the throne. 



The quarrel between Prussia and Denmark for 

 possession of the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig 

 had every appearance of leading to war. 



The Greeks had deposed their king, Otho, and 

 were trying, in vain, to induce our own Prince Alfred, 

 Duke of Edinburgh, to take his place. 



The French Emperor, Napoleon III, was exasperat- 

 ing Spain by an effort to place an Austrian archduke, 

 Maximilian, on the throne of Mexico. He succeeded 

 in his effort, unfortunately for poor Maximilian, whose 

 wife became insane, and who was, himself, shot by his 

 unruly subjects in 1867. 



Poland was in a state of armed insurrection 

 against Russian rule, which resulted in its being- 

 deprived of its separate government and losing even 

 the semblance of independence. 



In England a shortage in the supply of cotton, 

 consequent on the American War, was producing much 

 distress and unrest among the mill-workers of 

 Lancashire; and in Ireland Fenianism was rampant, 

 and secret preparations for a "rising" were being 

 feverishly pushed forward- 



