egtropmartitrt. OUR SPECIAL EUROPEAN CORRESPON DENT, ONE THOUSAND MILES AT SEA, STEA MER CITY OF BOSTON, May 28, '67. DEAR EDITOR:—" I'm afloat! I'm afloat!" ploughing my way over the Atlantic in this good steamer, and, as I judge four-fifths of your read ers have never been to sea, I will write what I see around me for their especial benefit. We left New York on Saturday last, at noon. The, steamer was crowded with the passengers and their friends who were bidding them adieu. At a quarter before twelve the signal bell was sounded, the friends went ashore, and soon we were gliding out into the stream. For five min utes the white handkerchiefs waved from the piei and from the steamer, and then we were done with adieus. :The beautiful bay of New York, with its handsome villas and its frowning fortresses formed a fine panorama on so bright a day.. We soon found that we were on a fast steamer, for we had already passed two steamers that sailed at the same hour we did, and were rapidly gaining on two others. The steamer England, bound to Liverpool, the Guiding Star, to London, and two others bound to Atlantic ports, were passed in fine style before we got to Sandy Hook, giving us presage of a quick pass age. Soon our engine was stopped, and our pilot, a tough-looking-little man, who had been peering out over the ocean with his large opera, or rather field glasses, slipped down a ladder over the side of the vessel, and was received into a little boat, that had shot out from a pretty little schooner painted bright green, with a large figure 9 on its sail, which had been watching for him. A num ber of letters were gent •ashore by him, contain ing last farewells to friends at home. The last link connecting us with our dear America was severed. Now for watching the receding shore. Away to the north-east stretches the low shore of Long Island. Behind us was the Jersey coast; in front and to the right of us the boundless At lantic. But now comes a blank—we saw no re ceding shore,—took no last glimpses of our dear old land—no,• no; the next twenty-four hours were spent in " settling accounts" with old Nep tune. lie demands tolls from, all landsmen, who venture upon his domain, and we took the advice of our pastor (who had been this way before) and quietly retired to our berths, kept our eyes shut, and suffered much less than we had anticipated. MONDAY, JUNE 3.-2700 _Miles at Sea.—We are now within 200 miles of the Irish coast, steaming rapidly over this broad Atlantic. It is smooth as a lake—a bright sun is shining—a vast waste of water far as the eye can reach—sea meeting sky in an immense circle around us—a snow-white breasted gull flaps its broad wings careering around ns; but nought else is seen out side of our ship, save the quiet piles of white clouds dreamily watching us from all around the horizon. An hour or two ago we exchanged signals with the steamer Persia, steaming at a rapid rate to the west. Very soon hull down, two little lines against the sky, (her masts,) anti then lost to sight. But stop—our voyage has not all been of this " summer day on a mill pond" fashion. On Wed nesday last a fine breeze from the north-west was driving our vessel at a rapid rate. The waves were crowned with glorious white caps, and they seemed to be running higher as we sat and watched them. The ship was rocking gaily, the southern side of it rising and falling as much as 12 or 15 feet at every roll. The scene was ex hilarating in the extreme. We read the 107th Psalm, and judged the writer had certainly been to sea and had seen what we were seeing then, though probably not from the deck of an iron built screw steamer of 350 horse power. Presently a report like a gun was heard; the topmost sail on the foremast was torn from' its fastenings and was cracking away wildly, 100 feet above us. The gale was evidently increasing, and the passengers began to retire from the deck, taking the opportunity to get towards the stair way as the vessel righted, for the deck was as steep as the roof of a house at every roll. The rolling became so severe that we were soon driven to our state-rooms, and 0 horror of her-. rors! there we lay for 48 long hours—sea-sick, helpless, cold—unable t:s. raise a hand to our head—vessel pitching so severely all night and all the next day that our limbs were made sore from merely bracing ourselves in our berths to keep from being thrown out into the floor. The doctor sick, almost every passenger also—out of 150 cabin passengers, only 10 up to dinner on Thursday. I thought I would have paid $lOOO in gold willingly, just fir the privilege of being sick in my own home, where I would not be rolled to death, and where I could be waited on. A good friend, however, a merchant from Bal timore, who never gets sea-sick (happy man,) guessed how forlorn we were, and put his head into the state-room door with, "Can I do any thing for you ?". He seemed like an angel sent to despairing souls—and we were better able to endure the horrdr. All Friday we had a very rough sea, and not until late in the day could we leave our berths, and then crawled upon the deck amongst forty others, looking as badly as we did ourselves. All day Saturday so weak, so unable THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 1867. to digest any food that we looked and felt as though we had just come out of a month's spell of sickness. So severe and so long continued a blow, is seldom experienced at this season of the year. Some who have crossed in December, tell us they never saw the like. To be caught in it makes one pay a high price for sight-seeing in Europe, far higher than we had bargained for. To-day, Monday, we have come up to our full ap petites and are enjoying the delightful view and fine, invigorating air, just as though.there never had been such .a thing as sea sickness. We have just read the 107th Psalm again, from the 23 to the 30th verses, and we feel how ver dant we were, when we read it on Wednesday morning last, before the storm. But enough of sea sickness—the thought makes us shudder. Would you believe it, we have had birds flying about us all the way across the ocean? Whole troops of Mother Carey's chickens—out 1500 miles from land—where do they rest ? To-day we saw 40 or 50 gulls merrily rocking on a wave. The chickens rest on the water in the same way. They are smaller than a pidgeon—the gulls con siderably larger. During a day we seldom see more than one or two vessels—not a dozen, as we had anticipated. The time is passed by the passengers reading, or conversing together on the deck. In the eve ning many sit down in the dining saloon and drink and eat together until 11 o'clock, when the lights are put out. Our company is, composed of representatives of our own continent, from Canada to Oregon. and from Central America to New York; also of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany. Among so many foreigners, there is much wine drinking—more at dinner in our cabin, than I ever saw among the same number in any of our hotels or at our watering places. We are favored by the presence of the Arch bishop of San Francisco, the Bishop of Detroit, and five priests. The Archbishop is a little, spare man, who spends most of his time over his books: The Bishop is a fat, jolly, " Dutch" look ing man, weighing about 300 pounds, who enjoys a joke and a glass of champagne hugely. The priests are very retiring, and I have never seen them converse with the Bishops nor the Bishops with each other. Coming from such widely sep arate districts, and going together to the great convocation at Rome, I thought they would have church matters to talk over that would keep them busy as our ministers so generally are, when they meet at Synod or General Assembly and occupy half the night and all day in conversation. The Bishops wear each a very handsome ring on the third finger of the right hand, and the Bishop of Detroit a handsome $5OO gold chain. By the way, I wish I could be in 'Rome at the time of the grand convocation of Bishops, June 29th. I bear credentials, you know, from our Young Men's Christian Association, and the Pope might allow me to represent their interests at this convocation. Yesterday was a beautiful Sabbath. At 10i o'clock the ship's bell tolled, and about 100 of the passengers, with some of the tars, well dressed and neat looking, assembled in the cabin to hear the captain read the prayers of the Church of England. Prayer-books and Bibles were dis tributed, and the captain, a fine, gentlemanly man, led off, very solemnly and impressively, the whole company responding promptly. We could not kneel, nor was any singing attempted, but the service was conductedin as impressiveand solemn manner as I ever saw it done on land. No sermon was preached, although two or three clergymen were present. The captain told me he had been refused so often, that for two years past he never asked any one to preach, though he would be happy to hear a sermon if any had proposed to officiate. We had the Rev. Mr. Kerr, a United Presbyte rian of Allegheny, whom we found to be a live man, with his heart in the right place; a rever end gentleman of Alabama, an Episcopalian, whose heart is still in the " Lost Cause," and who expects yet to see the South conquer the North and still gain her indepenVenee; also a local Bap tist preacher from New York, with whom I have not, in my short convalescence, as yet conversed. So you see, in our heteroge - neous company, we have some little element of good—probably enough "salt" to have saved the ship in the gale of last week. To-morrow we will be sailing up the Irish Channel, and in the night will be at the wharf at Liverpool. We will try to write again from London, or perhaps Paris. We hope to meet Rev. E. P. Hammond in Liverpool on Wednesday. Adieu. Yours, G. W. M. P. S.—TUESDAY JUNE 4, 6 P. M.—lrish Sea, Opposite Holyhead.—Just before dark last eve ning, a little cloud to the north, about the size of a large haystack, apeared to be less movable than the other clouds. Inlay. low down on the hori zon. Land ! land ! was passed along the deck, and instantly all eyes were strained toward it. The steerage passengers soon commenced dancing for joy, and general delight was felt by every soul on board. The haystack assumed more substan tial form, and soon another low cloud, larger, broader, swelling roundly above the horizon, also -took solid shape, and as the darkness was fast oming on, a little solitary light flashed out from it. The first light-house! We were nearing the Irish Coast. Rockets were sent up from the deck, giving, by the color of the stars, the name of our steamer. A signal light from, shore an ' swered us, and our arrival' was telegraphed to Liverpool. This morning, at 4 o'clock, we ar rived off Queenstown Harbor, and transferred many of our passengers, by a little, dirty, black British steamer, to the shore. This was our first view of Europe. The Irish hills looked green and brilliant in the bright morning sun. The hedges cutting up the farms into little fields, (no fences,) the low, white shanties, with here and there a better house, one Irish lord's summer residence, the white sails of ships and fishing boats coming into the harbor, all contributed to the beauty of my first view of an European shore. When I actually saw two horses grazing, and half a dozen sheep in the next lot, I felt happy, as if meeting old friends, having seen nothing of the kind since leaving America. All day we have been steaming up the Irish Sea. The Wicklow hills were in sight until din ner; then for two or three hours sea and sky again; then Snowdon hill, in Wales, the first glimpse got of England's shore, and now the beautiful bold promontory of Holyhead is before me. The setting sun lights up its gray cliffs, while the bright *hite light-house, near the beach, forms a fine •contrast with the dark covering of lichen and mosses which crowns the immense rocky mound. A most beautiful picture is Holyhead. It is the first distinct view we get of Albion's coast. Would that I could photograph it for you in this letter, and with it my feelings, as I now gaze upon it from the deck of our steamer. A curious fact in the difference of latitude and longitude be tween this and our home strikes us. It is now 9 o'clock P. M., but so far north are we that it is still day light and will not be dark for au hour. Last night we saw the light of the setting sun still lingering at 11 o'clock. By my watch, which is still right with Phila delphia time, it is 4 o'clock in the afternoon, though 9 o'clock at night by the sun. We have gained a half hour every day we have been tra velling toward the sun-rising. It has been mild and pleasant all day, but now so cold as to drive us from the deck down to the cabin. To-night in the Liverpool docks, to morrow on terra firma in old England. LETTER FROM AMBROSE. BAY CITY, May —, 1867 DEAR PRESBYTERIAN :—I do riot know how it is at the East, but in this Western country there is a good deal of what we call "progress." It is not confined to any section, nor to any one interest. Here at Bay City, for instance, we go on, very much as C,(hicago did, say from 1843 to 1850. There is a "dimilar stepping from one thing to another ; the like appearance of new faces in the town; the like getting up, of individuals in material prosperity; and the like talk of new en terprises. A list of incomes has just been pub lished for the year 1866. There is one report of $28,000; and several from $lO,OOO to $12,000, above the $l,OOO allowed. Probably quite a number of our non-resident proprietors would: re port much larger ; but these aie residents. They may seem to be small, in a city like Philadelphia; but they do very well for a town of eight thou sand; though I suppose a census of the town, and its adjuncts, might show as many as ten thou sand. Our churches grow with the growth of the town. The Lutherans are just finishing a build ing 40 by 70 feet, and a very good one of wood. The Methodists have lately enlarged; the Bap tists have built a Sabbath-school room, and are talking of a brick edifice, to cost $35,000. The Episcopalians have just enlarged; the German Methodists are building; and the Presbyterians are - talking of a lecture room. This latter Society have given for Home . and Foreign uses, the last year, about $1,500; be sides the current expenses, of salary, etc..; and besides donating their Pastor, since Jan. Ist—not $3OO, as your correspondent had it—but $5OO. The present and acting membership of the church has a little more than doubled within the two past years. Its Sabbath school has doubled with in the past year; and its congregation, within the first named period, has perhaps trebled. The past winter has not been characterized by any thing which might be called a revival; though some havebeen revived. ORGANIC LAW Michigan is about to remodel its Constitution, and the Convention is now in session. One of the matters to be looked into is the prohibition of the sale of liquors—distilled, vinous, or brew ed. Our present Constitution, perhaps you know, contains a most stringent prohibitory clause of this sort; but it is a dead letter through the en tire State—in this region it is a letter twice dead —and the question returns, whether it is worth the while to keep a proviSion in the Constitution which cannot be enforced, and to which there is not even an attempt to enforce it. There is a division of opinion on that point, here as else where, among temperance people. TRIBULATIONS OT 0. S The old muddle is on foot yet, in the Old School, at and about Chicago. Its point of battle is the Theological Semina7 at that place; but it really includes the whole matter, about which there has been a contest for the past year. That is, the grand underlying trouble is the same. The case of the Seminary is, that it wants money, and cannot get it ; the 0. S. in the West being weak, and , poor; with, the exception of a few men, who happen to be at present in a grouty condition of mind, and will not come down with the needful„ Their big man is Cyrus H. McCormick, of Reap er notoriety. He presented the Seminary with $lOO,OOO, to be paid in instalments. Thus far he has paid $75,000, but refuses, as the case stands, to pay further. To understand it fully, it is ne cessary`to go back to the beginning. Among the first undertakings of the 0. S. at Chicago, upon getting fairly on their feet as a Church, was a Theological Seminary. They placed it at Hyde Park, a southern suburb of the city, say five miles out. They started a town there, got subscriptions, and elected two Profes sors. The Professors were Drs. McMaster and Thomas, well known as anti-slavery men. In the mean time C. H. McCormick had got rich, and like other men from Virginia, perhaps a 'trifle ambitious. It seemed to him that the country, and especially the Northwest, was going to smash through abolitionism. Was he not ordained to avert it? At any rate, might he not arrest the 0. S. Church? He would try. So he got Dr. N. L. Rice, from St. Louis, to manage with and for him—bringing the Doctor to Chicago at some ex pense. The first thing done, was to kill the Seminary on hand, and Hyde Park went into the hands of the Gentiles. The ground being cleared, Mc- Master and Thomas out of the way, a new enter prise was undertaken.. Dr. Rice went to the Gen eral Assembly, backed by $lOO,OOO of McCor mick's money; argued his case through four days; got his Seminary located at Chicago, with 'four Professors, of whom neither .McMaster nor Thomat was one ; but of whom Dr. Rice was one. The Seminary has gone along very well, considering all its difficulties; fed, all the while with the money of McCormick and his friends in the North Church. Dr." Rice, however, left it some years ago, for tbe Fifth venue church in New York. At the last General Assembly, in St. Louis, Mr. McCormick, having returned from Europe, where he had been for his health, while the war lasted, appeared to look after the election of a Professor in his Seminary. His candidate was Dr. Rice again ; and he offered, if the ..iissembly would elect him, to give $25,000, possibly , $50,000 More, to the concern. But the Assembly, it seems; did not think Mr. McCormick's health sufficiently restored; and instead of Dr. Rice , who only got twenty votes, chose this, same Dr.llicilfaster once more by a vote of some 220, and who had no friend to back him up with any money at all. The good Doctor entered on his Professorship, but died during the year, much lamented by de vout men. But the man of Reapers is very much discomposed, considering the treatment of the Assembly ungenerous, and decidedly un, in sever al other respects; and so stands on his dignity, "at bay." _ How it will come out time will tell. I state the case historically, so that, if we are joined to gether again , we may all understand it. I notice that some of 0. S. people, in telling the story, do not begin at the beginning, and the writer here of has a memory. A great amount, of ink, and I am afraid of temper too, is being shed over it. I have some other topics, but my letter is long enough. Yours truly, AMBROSE. G. W. M I crave pardon of the audience, said a distin guished songstress of the last century at Drury Lane theatre, when called upon to warble a pop ular air. I have sung this song so often that I forget the first line, and until prompted. could not proceed. Long faMiliarity breeds contempt, as well as listlessness even with perils, as well as with songs. Hence, our apathy and listleSsness with regard to intemperance; an evil and a crime formidable enough of .itself alone to effect the ruin of a people. • ,: The growth of this evil among us has been so gradual as scarcely to have been perceived until its roots had stricken deep into our social soil, commingled with our usages, become part and parcel of the etiquette, and in truth,of the very hospitality of our time ! To denounce the use of intoxicating drinks as a crime has long'been . utter a Mere platitude. To assert that opium and alcohol have ever been, with the single .exception of. war, the deadliest enemies of mankind, and that since the Chris tian era they have destroyed five hundred and eighty millions of ,the human race! instead of awakening impressions terrible as 400tn ' are re ceived by our apathetic communities as the stalest of truisms,as thrice told tales signifying nothing. And the ather still mingles the mebriatingbever age in the presence of his young sons, and the husband still, night after night, returns to his wife and daughters saturated with the fumes of bachanalian revels. • Who can wonder at the in crease of besotted households? or, that, as the tide rolls on, houses of refuge are beginning to rise here and there as in NeW York, even for female inebriates? Look abroad over the land, take note of the habits of many of our so-called eminent men. Look into our State Legislative halls and into the halls of Congress. At the occupant of our chief executive chair! At those chosen by the suffrages of the nation to frame and enforce a nation's laws. Look,—but we sicken at the spectacle, and the reader cries forbear. The consequences of drinking have ever been disastrous, but the world is now being flooded through chemical agency, with new compounds of the most questionable character. The draught, that once only intoxicated, now maddens, and its actioa on the human tissues has become baleful to the last degree. Yet the dealers in this infuriatinc , poison abound and are on the increase on every side. They infest our cities in numbers and loathsome ness, equalled only by the pests that ravaged Egypt while under the special ban of God. They take all shapes and burrow in all loc'alities. On the corners often of our most brilliant avenues, they lure the young and the yet decent, by the splendor of marble counters, frescoed ceilings, and mirrored walls, and thence through ,every; grade of structure, appointments and proprietor-. ship, downward to those precincts which poverty and pollution have marked as their own. Thus numerous, thus widely dispersed, thus varied in character, are the resorts of our youth, where, THE SITMATION. morning, noon, and 'night, irrespective of age, sex or condition, are dispensed to all comers the bale-fires of hell. And still the number grows. Vainly we turn to this official or to that court, as the advanced posts of this detestable traffic are being pushed into new neighborhoods, to depreci ate property to the half of its former value, to banish quiet from its few remaining retreats, and to clutch more and yet more fresh victims into its infernal grasp. All remonstrance is vain where all are power less and all apathetic. Do, we not see offieial au thority, through this blasting posted on every hand? Our magistracy - and laws have-be come alike inefficient with any but the meanest and most _insignificant of offenders,_leaving in every 'department of out=lawry, the more accom plished and hence the more dangerous villains, to stalk with impunity at large. Now we submit that this state of things calls solemnly for renewed exertion, for some more earnest and bolder effort to save our civilization. The having attained, in any way, or by any means; to such a fearfully bad eminence ' proves the causes therein operating, to be of sufficient potency not only to loosen all , restraint, to throw the reins, free on the neck of the most .rampant and reckless extravagance, to deprive age of rev erence, virtue of respect,' and to brutalize the young, but; to finally elevate monstrous' crime out of its lurking-places in the purlieus, into an aggressive demon that shall more fully yet con front and perhaps assault us in our great thor oughfares of popular resort and in our very homes. We are sensible that all this is only stating our case and not so well perhaps as .it