FRIENDS' REVIEW. VOL. VII. A RELIGIOUS, LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS JOURNAL. PHILADELPHIA, TWELFTH MONTH 17, 1853. EDITED BY ENOCH LEWIS. PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY SAMUEL RHOADS, No. 50 North Fourth Street, PHILADELPHIA. Price two dollars per annum, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE, or six copies for ten dollars. Postage on this paper, when paid quarterly or yearly in advance, 13 cents per annum in Pennsylvania and 26 cents per annum in other States. No. 14. obtained from the Bible Society in London, which books were to be obtained from their agent at Stavanger, to whom the Friends there were to account for the produce of sales, whether at reduced prices or otherwise. From a letter to a Friend in London, on transmitting the answers to the queries, the following remarks are extracted: "There is a very inadequate supply of the Holy Scriptures amongst them, the price being too high for many of them to obtain a proper SOME ACCOUNT OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF supply for themselves or their young people. THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS IN NORWAY. (Continued from page 195.) 4th mo. 1st, 1843. Elias Tasted's letter of this date introduces to the notice of Friends of Newcastle, the young man already mentioned, who was about twenty-three years of age, and was desirous of acquiring a better knowledge of the English language, Endre Jacobsen Dahl, whose marriage has been noticed. He remained at Newcastle three months, made good progress, and was much beloved by the Friends there for his pious frame of mind, and amiable conduct. When the time came for his return home, he took his passage in a small vessel, where he was in imminent danger of being lost, by the vessel being run down in the night by a Scotch ship, and sunk. The five persons on board with much difficulty escaped in the boat, and reached the vessel which had occasioned the accident, and were brought back to Sunderland, from whence E. Dahl rejoined his friends at Newcastle, and soon afterwards got safe home. In the above letter, E. T. mentions the receipt of the Yearly Meeting's epistle, "which has been often read to Friends and others. We now hold our meetings in our little new-built meeting house; and we have many more attending our meetings than before. Our meetings are mostly held in silence; but after meeting, we sometimes read in Friends' books, with which Friends and others are well satisfied. Here is a little distraining for the school tax, and priest's tithes. ELIAS TASTED." When Endre Dahl returned home, he was liberally furnished with a number of Friends' books by the Meeting for Sufferings, and a good number of Bibles and Testaments at the expense of a few Friends of Newcastle Monthly Meeting. At the instance of Josiah Forster, a grant was They are much interested in the perusal of Friends' books; but their supply of them, in their own language, is extremely scanty. A list is subjoined. They have been liberally supplied with Friends' books in English, but only Elias Tasted can read them; except Osmund Sorensen, who can read a little. Imperfect as these means are, they have been resorted to, much to their edification. When we consider the evidently increasing number of serious enquirers into the principles of the Society, they do appear to have a strong claim upon the attention of the Meeting for Sufferings, whether more ample and effectual aid should not be afforded them. "It appears that Friends and their views are often adverted to in the provincial newspapers, and much that is erroneous is mixed up with such notices. "It does not appear that they have any fragment in their language respecting George Fox; and the few Barclay's Apologys which they have are lent about from hand to hand. "The Tracts, lately printed by the Tract Association in London, in the Danish language, are well understood, and are very useful. "From what we know of the Friends of Stavanger, they appear to be a tender spirited people, well worthy of encouragement. The books in the Danish language, now in their possession, are as follows: "About eight copies of Barclay's Apology. "Penn's Key, printed there. "Christopher Meidel on Baptism and the Supper-100 on hand. "On Silence and Watchfulness, by Richard Phillips-printed at Bergen. Friends of Newcastle monthly meeting subscribed about sixteen pounds to remedy this deficiency in books, especially the Scriptures. "Allen's Carnal and Spiritual State considered. "Memoir of Thomas Chalkley-a Tract, by the London Association. "On the Love of God, by do. do. "On the Teaching of the Holy Spirit. "On the Holy Scriptures, and the Duty of reading them, by Hans Ericksen of Christiania. "Whether any thing can be done to obtain relief for them in reference to oaths, and for their affirmation to be in all cases accepted where an oath is required, is a subject worthy of the consideration of the Meeting for Sufferings. Your affectionate friend, G. R. "Newcastle, 5th mo. 5th, 1843." The following extract will show that they continued liable to sufferings "3rd mo. 2nd, 1844. Affliction and distress are as necessary for our humiliation, even as outward bread is needful for our bodily sustenance; and happy are they who can abide in patience, during these seasons of creaturely abasement. It is such who will be happy in the end. All this, my dear friend, I am aware thou knowest. I have many things in my heart to say to thee in my own case; but I cannot find words for it in your language. I often feel tenderly for you, and also for my friends here, and desire that all of us may be kept subject to the grace of God. Then, I hope, we will, from time to time, feel something of his mercy; and then we shall love him for his goodness, through all. "I am among the poorest of his flock: it is through poverty of spirit that the kingdom is to be received. Something of this poverty is the experience of Friends here. I believe they will learn obedience by the things which they suffer. The people generally are kind, and speak well of the Society; the magistrates, also, are kindly disposed; but there is one of our Friends, who, by the law, is required to pay, until he bring his child to the baptism, for the first week as much as two shillings and sixpence English, and double every week after. His name is Halversen Micalsen." 6th mo. 26th, 1844. In this letter, Elias Tasted very feelingly alludes to the death of William Backhouse, and makes some instructive remarks on the event. "It was a hard blow to us; and what may it not be to his dear family and Friends in your parts? But we must believe that what God, in his wisdom, has appointed, he will execute to his own honor and praise. All who know him as a God, know him as a Father of mercy. Even when it feels to his children as though he was taking their life away, yet a secret hope is felt, even in the time of deep humiliation, that he will eventually favor them with a true sense that their life is hid with Christ in God. Happy are all those who hold out in patience, passing through death to life. These magnify the mercy of God to their souls, giving glory to him, and celebrate his praise for the least as well as the greatest of his mercies. O! happy day for that soul who knows him thus, through all his dispensations. You know these things; but the love I feel constrains me, as a partaker of the sufferings, and of the unity which we have in Christ. "At our last two months' meeting, there came seven Friends here, who desire to be members; and some of them are well known to us, and felt near to us in the bond of unity. But, in our youthful days, there are many difficulties and dangers to be encountered; and there are few fathers amongst us. Many believe our principles to be right; but the way of the cross is too hard for them. "I hear that Lucy Stead (of Sunderland) is ill. Thou must give my love to her. She has had a deep concern for our help and welfare, for many years; frequently writing to us, and evincing her love in various ways." (He also desires his love to several other Friends by name.) "Some time ago, I gave forth a paper, which was published, concerning the sufferings of our Friends, addressed to the magistrates and priests. It has been generally read to the satisfaction of the people.' The following is a translation of the said paper. See next number. "I think the increase of our members is from twelve to twenty-four in two or three years; and the two months' meeting is kept as usual. "I hear our dear and beloved Friend, William Allen, is gone to his long home. His memory is very precious to me, and I hope to many; and I believe he rests in peace with the Lord. "I hope thou wilt remember me when thou bowest down before the throne of grace. Thy sincere Friend, "ELIAS TASTED." THE COTTON CULTURE IN ALGERIA. A Paris correspondent of the New York Courier furnishes some interesting information in relation to the efforts that have been made by France to cultivate cotton in Algeria. In 1851 there were only six or seven acres devoted to the culture of cotton throughout the whole colony; and this year, (1853,) there are 1730 acres. The Government is quite sanguine upon the subject. One of the oldest cotton-manufacturers in France, in a letter addressed to the Moniteur, makes this statement: "The cottons produced in Algeria from the seeds of Georgia sea-island cotton have preserved the qualities of the good American article, the strength, fineness, and length of staple. These cottons, as well those of the province of Oran as those of Blidah, would sell to-day in the Havre market at from 700 to 900 francs the 100 killogrammes. The better qualities of these will spin up to the No. 300,000 metres, (328,000 yards,) that is to say, absolutely the finest thread, the wants of manufacture hardly ever exceeding 250,000 metres. What proves that the sea-island cotton of Algerian production has not degene- | Leone lie along 4000 miles of coast, beginning rated, is the fact, that this cotton has yielded from beyond the Senegal in the north, to the Porseeds which, planted in Algeria, have produced cottons comparable for fineness, length, and strength of staple, with the best American specimens sent to the Exhibition of London." Mr. Feray concludes his letter by strenuously advising that the culture of cotton, and especially of the long staple (sea-island) cotton, be henceforth encouraged by all possible means. The culture of the short staple cottons may, he thinks, be advantageously deferred yet some years, until the pressing call for the long staple shall be satisfied, and experience shall have indicated in what portions of the territory of Algiers the latter cannot be successfully cultivated. He recommends also, most emphatically, that the culture in Algeria, if it is ever hoped to compete successfully with American production, be left free. The planter must not be harassed and controlled by governmental regulations. Intelligent self-interest, he wisely argues, will promptly indicate and insure the adoption of the best methods. It is not without interest to mention, in this connection, the fact, that Count Choiseul, Consul of France at Charleston, S. C., has recently prepared and sent home to his government an interesting and valuable paper upon sea-island cotton, giving information upon this subject collected during the many years of his residence in Charleston, and personal intimacy with the sea-island planters. M. de Choiseul has given particular instructions relative to the planting and treatment of the cotton from the sowing of the seed to the packing of the cotton for shipment. The paper was forwarded by authorities here to the governor-general of Algiers, who has caused its publication for the common benefit of the colonial planters. AFRICAN LANGUAGES. A Timneh and English Dictionary has been prepared, as well as grammars of the Vei and Bornu languages. S. W. Koelle has collected specimens of languages from the natives of different countries in Africa who have been brought into the colony of Sierra Leone. The results of the investigation into these languages are of an astonishing kind, and unfold such a view of the multitudinous inhabitants of that vast continent, and of the variety of their languages, as to fill the mind with new thoughts of the greatness and difficulty of the work which lies before the Christian church in the evangelization of Africa. They show that in Sierra Leone there are one hundred and fifty-one distinct languages spoken, besides numerous dialects. These languages have been arranged under twenty-six groups, but there still remain fifty-four unclassified languages, more separate and distinct from each other, and from all the rest, than the languages of Europe are from each other. The natives represented at Sierra tuguese settlements south of the line. They extend to the interior throughout the whole course of the Niger, from its sources in the mountains behind Sierra Leone, to its estuaries, comprising Timbuctoo, the emporium of African commerce, and the vast provinces subdued by the fanatical Mohammedan Fulas, and numerous small tribes who appear to have floated down the large volume of waters to settle on the delta. At Sierra Leone are also found those who have wandered over the trackless Sahara from the very borders of Egypt, and those who have inhabited the islands of lake Tchad, in the centre of Africa, or borne office in the powerful kingdom of Bornu, or fought in bloody battles with the warriors of Darfur. Even the deep recesses of Southern Africa have furnished their tribute to the motley population of the British colony. There are those now casting their nets into the Atlantic, who, in their youth, sported on the shores of the Indian ocean, and looked across the Mozambique. From that part of the southern continent which has hitherto been a perfect blank in the maps, there are those in Sierra Leone who can tell of their native towns, which require a day or more to traverse from end to end; of broad and deep rivers; of nations of tall and strongly built warriors; of savage cannibals; and of peaceable and generous nomadic hunters. And they are all ready to tell of the wants of Africa's hidden millions of immortal souls. Their breasts heave with emotion when a friendly question is made respecting their fatherland: they eagerly supply the information, and appeal, often in fervid language, and with moving eloquence, to those who possess the best gift of God to a fallen world. And shall they plead in vain, in the very spot where they may have been brought together, the asylum of liberated Africans, freed from the grasp of the oppressor, and settled in a quiet home by the powerful arm of Great Britain?-shall they plead in vain for that second boon, which shall make them and their country "free indeed?"-Abstract of the Report of the Episcopal Church Missionary Society, 1853. THE TWO ARMIES. A striking contrast is contained in the following statements, which we find in the Economist. "The United States army numbers about ten thousand men, and they cost the country, last year, eight million two hundred and thirty-five thousand two hundred and forty-six dollars for pay, subsistence, clothing, &c. That is to say, eight hundred and twenty dollars per man, or, if we deduct the militia expenses, eight hundred dollars per man. It would puzzle any one to tell of what service were those men, living uselessly in barracks and old forts, eating three meals per day, and turning out occasionally to touch their caps to their officers. The Illinois Central Rail-, road army numbers ten thousand men also, and they receive from the company three million seven hundred thousand dollars per annum; in return for which they labor twelve hours per day upon a work which gradually stretches through the most fertile plains, connecting the great lakes with the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and ultimately with the Gulf of Mexico." when it was being exhibited in Paradise Square, long, long ago. This was an elephant, however, that had lived before the days of Wombwell. Long before King Alfred had laid the foundation stone of University College, or the Fellows of St. John's had begun to enclose the nightingale-haunted groves of Bagley Wood, did this elephant, in company with others of his class, fearing no The prospective building of the Great Central protector, roam over the tract of land on which Railroad of Illinois alone, has added to the wealth the undergraduate now lounges, looking about to of that state, in the appropriation of wild lands, see how he may spend paternal moneys. Times the sum of forty millions, within a strip of but are changed, and we ought to be thankful for it. twelve miles in width; and the actual construc- Great would be the annoyance suffered by the tion of the road will bring to a ready market mil-white-throated M. A., who in eighteen hundred lions of acres of land now owned by the general government, which, were the road not constructed, would lie waste for years to come. The federal government employs ten thousand men, at the expense of eight millions of dollars, to carry about muskets. The Central Railroad Company, employing ten thousand men at less than four millions of dollars, confers a vast property upon the State, upon the Federal Government, and upon thousands of farmers. Year after year the government spends its millions of dollars, effecting nothing, producing nothing, and resulting in nothing but the turning loose of superannuated soldiers, made paupers by a life of idleness, to prey upon the industrious during the remainder of their existence. The Illinois Company, by three years expenditure, establishes seven hundred miles of iron rails through prolific farms, many of them owned by the persons whom they employed to build the road; men of industry, vigor, wealth, and intelligence. The United States, in thirty years, have spent three hundred millions of dollars, enough to build a track to the Pacific; and they have nothing to show for the money but some old forts, guns, tattered uniforms, and demoralized veterans.-Evening Post. OLD BONES. Not many years ago there were discovered by some laborers who were digging in the gravel in front of St. John's College, Oxford, some "giant's bones." They were carefully placed in a wheelbarrow, and trundled off to the Professor of Geology, who had the reputation in that town of giving the best price for all old bones. The discoverers presently returned to their fellow-workmen, with information that the doctor had decided the bones to be, not bones of giants, but of elephants, and that he had given them (although there was no brag about it in his windows) two Sovereigns more per pound than they could obtain at any other house. But how came an elephant to have been buried in the middle of the street? The oldest inhabitant at once decided, that although the doctor had as usual his own book-learned theory, the elephant was one that died in Mr. Wombwell's menagerie and fifty-three should suddenly have his ideas disarranged by the apparition of that great leviathan on the top of Heddington Hill. There is no danger of that now; it is certain that these elephants are dead and gone, but at the same time it is not less certain that they died and went the way of their flesh in the neighborhood of Oxford; and not about Oxford only, but throughout nearly the whole of England. In the streets of London the teeth and bones of elephants are frequently turned up by the pick axes of men digging foundations and sewers. Elephants teeth have been found under twelve feet of gravel in Gray's Inn Lane. They have been found too at a depth of thirty feet. In digging the grand sewer near Charles street, on the east of Waterloo place, Kingsland, near Hoxton, in eighteen hundred and six, an entire elephant's skull was discovered, containing tusks of enormous length, as well as the grinding teeth. In the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, there are some vertebræ and a thigh-bone of an enormous elephant, which must have been at least sixteen feet high; these bones are in the most delicate state of preservation. They were found at Abingdon in Berkshire, about six miles from Oxford. Near the same place-namely, at Lulham― during the digging of a gravel pit, not very long ago, there were found some "giant's bones," that were indeed human, and must have belonged to a man of considerable size. This discovery made a sensation at the time; and, to quict the agitation and the scandal raised thereby, a coroner's inquest was held in due form over the skeleton, ending in a verdict, honestly arrived at by twelve true and lawful Berkshiremen. Upon subsequent examination by competent authori ties, the mysterious skeleton was pronounced, most decidedly, to be that of an old Roman, who had been buried with all his arms and military accoutrements near the camp to which he had probably belonged, and of which the remains are still to be seen on the two hills called the Dorchester Clumps. Little did his comrades think when covering him up with gravel, how their departed friend would be disinterred and "sat upon." With the elephant's bones found at Abing the wolf destroyer-for the museum contained wolves' bones in abundance. Fine patriarchal old wolves they must have been that run upon them. Many a fine old English deer, all of the olden time, they must have run down and devoured on the Mendip hills, their cry resounding through the valleys and over the dales where don were mixed fragments of the horns of several kinds of deer, together with the bones of the rhinoceros, horse and ox; showing that those creatures co-existed with the elephant, and that they formed a happy family. There were carnivorous races also then existing. We have only to go further down the Great Western Railway from Oxford, and getting out at the Weston-now the screaming whistle and rush of the exsuper-Mare station, ask the way to Banwell Bone press train startles timid sheep, who live in a Caves. There may be found evidence enough of land where their great enemy exists only as a the former existence of more rapacious animals fossil. than elephants or deer. The caves are situated at the western extremity of a lofty grass-colored range of hills. The hills contain ochre, calamine (carbonate of zine), and lead. Some years ago, when sinking a shaft into them, caves were discovered, and the quantity of bones then brought to light excited as much surprise among the learned as among the unlearned. The principal cavern is about thirty feet long, and there is a branch leading out of it thirty feet further. Of course it is quite dark, and visitors must carry candles. The visitor must take heed that he keeps his candle alight; no easy matter, for the water comes down pretty freely in large heavy drops from the stalactites above. By help of the light there are to be seen bones, bones; everywhere bones. They are piled up against the wall; they stick into the floor; they fill up recesses, in the most fantastic shapes. Here a candle is stuck in the eyeless socket of a skull; there John Smith, London, has inscribed his name in letters of hyenas teeth. We are invited to rest halfway upon a seat composed of horns and leg bones. They may be handled by the most fastidious; having lost all traces of corruption for some ages past. Yonder deer's bone was picked, perhaps, by the teeth in this huge hyena's skull; and as for the hyena himself he died of a good agethat his teeth tell us. His tough body, after death, may have been a dainty dinner to the bear whose monstrous skull is employed as the crown and summit of the monument of old bones raised in the cave in honor of a learned bishop-the Bishop of Bath and Wells. When the caves were first discovered, in eighteen hundred and twenty-six, it was he who took every means in the most laudable manner to preserve them and their contents in tact. Mr. Beard was appointed curator, and he has arranged in his own house a fiue collection of all the best specimens that have been found below. To Mr. Beard I went, and by him I was most hospitably welcomed. His museum displays a very fine collection of the remains of the ancient British Fauna. The bones of the bear claimed first attention, and especially one large bone of the fore leg, which measured at the joint seven inches round; being larger than the corresponding bone in any known species of ox or horse. It is quite evident that the inhabitants of the bone caves lived before the times of King Edgar Then, again, in those old days there were foxes living in a country that contained no hounds, who ground down their teeth to stumps that are exhibited in Mr. Beard's pill-boxes, and died of sheer senility. Glorious to foxes were the good old times, and the poor little mice that lived then, as we see by the contents of other boxes, had their bones crunched.-Household Words. THE MEDITERRANEAN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. The Mediterranean Electric Telegraph is, we are told, in a fair way of execution. Some contracts have just been entered into for the construction of the materials that are to become the vehicle of intercommunication between Europe and Africa; and it is confidently believed that before the end of next year the electric fluid will be travelling to and fro, over land and under water, in the service of commerce and civilization. "Vast," says a correspondent, "as the importance of the present line is, the magnitude of its usefulness will increase a hundred fold when its contemplated continuation to India shall have been carried out. Six thousand miles of telegraph now under construction in India, convey ing the thoughts and wants of 120,000,000 of fellow men, will be brought within a few hours of our own door. The multifarious and complicated relations of that immense empire with the mother country will find a daily, nay, hourly, expression through the silent yet eloquent wires that will soon be established between Bombay and the coast of Africa. Although the various States through whose lands the line must pass, are willing to lend all facilities and supports to the undertaking, yet the arrangements necessary to establish the concern on a sound and safe basis, in a commercial point of view, require time and consideration. Independently of the vast Indian connexion in prospect, the same company has already rendered to the mercantile community in this country, and in France and Italy, a very considerable service by bringing the heart of the Mediterranean Sea within the electric circle. Henceforth navigators by sail or by steam need no longer travel to a Continental port in order to communicate with their friends or principals in Europe; but passing by and stopping a few hours at a port in the island of Sardinia, they can send their tidings and receive their in |
