Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1837-04-05

auo destroyed q portion OF the Indian
population which might have seemed ia
defy the infections of Europe in theil
unfathomable solitudes. But the cho.
lera was not to be escaped, and the
mortality was deeply felt among the
thlnned tribes of The vast country
stretching in the rear Of the U. States,
Thence, by a sudden spring, it fell up.
on Mexico, Havana, and the Spanish
settlements south of the line, finally
wandered away into the deserts, until
life went out, and disease could slay
no more. II then crossed the Atlantic
again, and threw Europe into new
alarm at a disease which thus seemed
to be marked for the perennial scourge
of the earth. But It's visitation, as il
passed along, wssa. 0 slight, until il
reached the confines Of Mahometan.
ism. There it swep, all before il, as
II kindled from some new furnace OF
wrath-it devastated Egypt by thou
sands and tens of thousands. From
Egypt it assembled to Constantinople.
There it riyalled the plague. Multi.
tudes persisted. 1t then partially re.
turned TO Russia and Germany. In
the Polish wal j, fearfnlly increased
the mlseries OF that time Of wretched.
ness and blood. Constantine, the Arch.
duke, closed his hall insane and tyran.
nical life by it; and Diebitsch, the ia.
nous passer ofthe Balkan, with q large
share OF the Russian army, were car.
RED to the grave along with him.
Spain, Portugal, and Italy still had es.
capped, and the world was asking by
what means this singular preservation
was effected, when the cholera broke
out in Lisbon-from Lisbon it passed
to Madrid, and from Spain to Italy. In
Italy II is now raging. The cast coast
has been seized within these few
months, and Greece, the nearest shore
is tremblinsly tdop ing measures of
%prccaution. Bosnia, and the wild coun.
try bordering on the north of her king.
dom, is already seized, and thousands
are perishing day by day. When the
science and comforts Of civilized coua.
tries have been so Intellectual, what
resistance Ear be made by the igno-
rance and w~retchedness of barbarism.
The disease will take its way through
the wilderness, and cease only, MS it
ceased in South America, by its going
beyond the confines of man.
In this sketch, which of course has
merely traced the leading lines of its
progress, we have "a view Of the most
extraordinary operation ofhuman NOR.
tality within the history ofour species.
The great plaques which have visited
Europe since the fall of the Roman
Empire have all had nearly q common
character. All have fallen, with more
or less violence, upon the extremity of
the continent, when 1t touched upon the
realms Of Mahometenism, always the
original soil Of the disease, and have
thence gone regularly on, covering the
earth with corpses, like the march ola
destroying army. In the lesser plaques,
peculiar cities were ravaged as in the
plague Of London, and like the violence
Of fever in a sick chamber, the disease
terminated with the death of those sci.
zed within the limit, and beyond was
harmless. But the cholera more re.
sembled the floating Of a cloud charg.
cd with elements Of death-here scarce
ly shadowing the atmosphere, there
turning it into utmost darkpess-in one
region sweeping onward with an un.
comfortable rapidity, in the next lin.
gering till it almost ceased to move.
Carried, as if by the chances of the
wind, passing by kingdoms that lay
directly in its path hurrying to others
across mountains and plains-appa.
rently emitting some whose poverty
contained every preparation for dis
ease, and fixing On others where every
human power was ready to repel its
devastation, yet finally shifting all.
1t is not for us to weigh the wisdom
of Providence, nor 10 its
mysterious will. But if it had been
that will to awake the mind Of nations
to a peculiar sense ola Supreme Being
at this time, or perhaps to prepare
them for some moral and physical trial
speedily demanding all their moral
preparation, could at least the wisdom
of nan conceive a more powerful
teacher than the progress of this
strange and powerful agent ofmortali-
ty? A lesson, gradual yet unremit-
ting; individual. yet national /; slow
yet impressive /; not destroying with
one wide burst of ruin, but sparing even
in the midst Of destruction, and giving
its teaching successfully to every peo-
pie of the civilized globe.-Can such
things be, and DO for nothing1 Or
does the declared course of Providence
entitle US to believe that they are ! Or
is there not a sudden, strange. and
fierce out burst of mingled unbelief,
profiigacy, and rebellion in the world
of our day sufficient to more than vim
dictate the Divine visitation.