The truth is that there are certain times and seasons which are more than usually disastrous to a certain class of persons and objects over which there is but little, if any, control; and thus it is that physical and political disquietides(sic) become epidemic.
It is a remarkable fact that the turbulent scenes of the spring of 1848, when Austria, Prussia, Poland, Greece, Italy, Spain and even England were all in commotion, and when Louis Phillipe was driven a fugitive from his throne, and our own good Queen (three weeks after her acconchment) together with the whole of her family, fled to the Isle of Wight from the threatening demonstration of the Chartists, there were violent perturberations in the atmosphere as well as in the human passions. Gales of wind, hail, rain, sleet, lightning, aurora, inundations, &v., followed each other in rapid succession. So, also, during the [one or two lines here accidentally cut from the newspaper] of the opposing armies, there occurred a simultaneous warring of the elements, each increasing, as it were, in magnitude until the final conflict, when it is said the armies withdrew amidst one of the most terrible thunder storms on record. We might also allude to the extraordinary climatic influences which prevailed both during the Russian war and the Indian revolt, by which many thousands of brave fellows were brought, as it were to an untimely death. Thousands of English, French, Turks and Russians perished more from the vicissitudes of heat, drought, cold, storms, shipwreck, pestilence and famine than in actual combat.
England is a powerful nation, with almost unlimited wealth and resources; she produces the most skillful artisans, the most eminent philosophers, the most ingenious machinists, the most able commanders, and the greatest men in practical science; yet, as was recently shewn by the Chinese disaster and the accident to the Great Eastern. The race is not (always) to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all Eccles. IX. II. Here, then, we have the authority of the wisest of men that "time and chance happeneth to all" and that there is a time for all things. We have, moreover - unless we are wilfully sceptical and prejudiced beyond reasonable grounds - daily proofs that the orbs of heaven are "for signs and for seasons" and that "hteir influence is divided unto all nations". How far such influence is comprehended by human intelligence a little judicious enquiry and impartial examination can determine. We have already shewn in a general way the agreement between the meteorological occurrences of the last few weeks and the predictions of certain writers whom we have quoted. We purpose now to -
