THE PROPHECIES OF 1883.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIX, Issue 6874, 12 March 1883, Page 6

THE PROPHECIES OF 1883.

(Frm tl i« AV* York Trikunt.) The mantle of the late Lieutenant Morriton, of the British Wavy, who for many year# propheiied with more or teas success in the page* of " Old Mooro’a Almanac,” seems l to have detoonded upon a crowd of leaser seer*. Firtt, there t« the gentleman who hat taken the place which Mr Morrison vacated. Xhie tee», like the majority of hie rival*, prophecies "•j good of the new year. The world ie to be troubled with storms and ware and rumour* of ware, with conapiraoiee, rebellion*, and attaiiinatioa*. Crowned head* are to fall low, political upheaval* are to take place, and terrible fcempeeU are to cause great destruction of life and property, including eeriau* damage to crop*. Meat on the list come* the confident Canadian prophet, who predict* that during the earlier month* of 1883 we are to experience a *uooei*ion of atmospheric convul•ionteo frightful that they will exceed anything remembered by the oldest inhabitant. Than there la Mr James M. Swormsted, of Oinoiunali, who tells us that in the course of the present year w* shall all be ruined by the results) of a financial panic, and that those who •arrive will experience the terrors of » communistic war, and of an unexampled whirlwind, the particulars of which were d«eeribed two thousand yean ago by the proWe do not, however, place much in Mr Swormstedt's predictions, for ho

(DM on to talk in no eccentric way of the appearance of moo great comet*, and be betrays hi* Ingenuous patriotism by affirming that tba millennium will begin jo th* Doited State* fort/ year* earlier than *l*#wber*. Il«. that the## who with to at old U.# coming trouble* may tic 10 by going to Kg/pt and camping out under lb* ehadow of the Pyramid of Oh cop* —an aMertion which look* a* if it might hare been prompted by tome nooonscientiou* otsieiary of cno of th# great tourist agcnci**. Mr Bw*rm«t«dt lifted up hi* voice on Dec. 19, and th# fact »h*t Oioo-rtnati po*»e**«d #o bold a seer naKuaily awoke the rivalry of How York. Th# result wa* that if* day# Ut#» Mr Wil'.iaui H. Drake, of the Kmpir* City, a!*o joined fhe rank* of tba prophet*. Mr Drake claim* tu bo a peyahometer, and to j bar# received numerous impression* and warning* from »plrit guide*, who hare very aonsideraUly informed him that during 1883 not only this country, but emy other, will feel the horror* of war, famine and pestilence, earthquake*, flood* and terrible oonvulricn* of mature. They bare al*> told him of the near approach of the milUnium. A second and more venturesome Saw York prophet took up hi* parable on Christmas Day, This year, according to thi* leer, the Western States of the Union will teceda from tho*« of the Kait, and will elect their own President. There will be a brief but Soeflectjre campaign, and peace haring been r#-#*iahliihed, the country Hill he further troubled by the die*flection of the Southern, and of tome of the Hew JEcgknd State*, which will Anally unite into a confederation, under the supreme direction of a •orereign with limited constitution! power*. Other prophet* predict th* oc- ?eace of a social revolution and the **'<b,««ha>Mfe of a republic In Kogtand, the assumption by M. Qambetta of imperial ew*y in France, the amaeiiaation of the Czar, a mutiny of the native troops in India, and the death of the Kmperor William. In fact, there is scarcely an evil which one leer or another doe* not tay will afflict our unhappy planet in 1881. We can beet reaeiure oureelm by the reflectione that during the last thousand year* or to prophet* hare not, upon the whole, been very eooeew ful, and that the prophet* of the preeent day are not likely to be much more clear-sighted than their predecessor*. Of Michael Hoetradamns’s half-million prediction*, leu than half a dozen were ever fulfilled • and of the nnmerouc prophecies ascribed to Mother Sbipton, all tho«« which to a modern reader seem to have any reason in them were, it is now well known, forged only a few year* ago by an impudent scoundrel named Hindi*/, nineteenth-century prophets differ by a good deal from th* oracle*, both earned and profans, of older times. Oar Mere are now, as a role, either weak-minded or knavish •, and the wiie man will do well in the** degenerate day* to disregard all prediction* save those of the Signal Service.