tration, with some three or four millions of bushels of grain and flour annually brought from America, and some 70,000,000 lbs. of wool, and we know not how much gold, annually, brought from Australia, that in proportion as the people in these other countries increase, (and of their increase in an accelerating ratio there can be no doubt,) the people here may increase. Nor does it now require any proof, however much the statement may have been slighted or neglected, that the productive power of man depends on his knowledge and his skill, and that these increase as his numbers increase. The Registrar-General states: likely again to occur; and during the greater part of the other thirty-five years it suffered under corn and other restrictive laws, that were more ruinous and desolating than the most exterminating wars. Through the greater part of the period the people were continually complaining of want of room; there was a continual and universal gene; but it was a moral, not a physical want; and every successive reduction of taxation and abolition of restrictions, as at the close of the war, as after the Reform Act was passed, as after Sir Robert Peel began his commercial reforms in 1842, and after they were carried out further in 1846, and 1849, the gene, the limits, the want of "It is one of the obvious physical effects of the room disappeared, and periods of prosperity enincrease of population, that the proportion of land sued. We cannot, therefore, infer, from the to each person diminishes; and the decrease is slight retardation in the rate of increase, which such that, within the last fifty years the number has certainly taken place in the three last decimal of acres to each person living has fallen from 5.4 periods, through twenty-eight years of which the to 2.7 acres in Great Britain; from four acres to law shut out food from the people, as compared two acres in England and Wales. As a counter-to the decennial period 1811, and 1821, when its railing advantage, the people have been brought malevolent effects were only beginning, that such into each other's neighborhood: their average a retardation is hereafter to be the rule. On the distance from each other has been reduced in the contrary, now that the people are at liberty to get ratio of 3 to 2; labor has been divided; industry food wherever they can, now that their industry has been organized in towns, and the quantity of is in a great measure free, and that they, in comproduce either consisting of, or exchangeable for mon with nearly all the people of Europe, are the conveniences, elegances, and necessaries of anxious to preserve peace, and increase their life, has, in the mass, largely increased, and is in-wealth, it is to be inferred that the population creasing at a more rapid rate than the population. One of the moral effects of the increase of the people is an increase of their mental activity; as the aggregation in towns brings them oftener into combination and collision. will increase faster than ever, and that before the close of the present century it is more likely to amount to fifty, than not to exceed thirty millions. These facts and these deductions are of the Here is another startling fact. While the po- highest practical importance. Society and popupulation has increased in this wonderful manner, lation are one, and all the new phenomena of sothere has been a still more rapid increase in "the ciety are subordinate to the increase of population. conveniences, elegances, and necessaries of life." The vast relative increase in population in this With this is conjoined another fact, that the century, explains at once those greater political "mental activity," which implies an increase in changes that have taken place in it, than in seveskill and knowledge, which again implies an in-ral preceding centuries. Catholic Emancipation crease in productive power, "is a consequence of Parliamentary Reform, religious and commercial the increase of the people." The question, there- freedom, are a few of the leading changes in the fore, which the Registrar-General raises, whether last thirty years, which, in themselves, and their the population can be sustained at the present consequences, surpass all the previous political rate of emigration, and whether the increasing changes that were made from the Revolution to population can be profitably employed, or rather the close of the century. As population was will be able profitably to employ themselves, are comparatively stationary before the commencesurely and clearly answered in the affirmative by ment of the century, so were our institutions; the facts he has stated. The reproductive spring and as population has increased, so have our inof population, provided food can be obtained, is stitutions necessarily undergone a change. It is powerful enough, as our offspring in America palpable enough, that the same cause which forced prove, to fill up all the vacancies of emigration; Manchester, and Birmingham, and Leeds into and the increase of mental activity, of skill and Parliament, is still in active operation, and is knowledge, which are the main sources of pro- forcing other townships, and other rising homes ductive power, will undoubtedly be great enough of people also into Parliament. Where this very to supply the increasing people with ample means rapid progress is to stop, no man pretends to of subsistence. know; and he is rather presumptuous than wise who undertakes to predict whither it is to go, and where it will reach even in the next twelve months. Let us remember that the first fifteen years, nearly, of the fifty years in which the population has increased as much as it increased in all the preceding ages, the country was involved in a Some clue to it may be found in the past inruinous and desolating war, such as seems un- crease of particular classes of the people; and a better clue will be supplied when the changes in the occupations of the people are ascertained and published. The Registrar-General tells us that, calling the detached houses, the villages, and the small towns without markets, the country, at the present time the town and country populations differ so little in numbers, that they may be considered equal; 10,556,288 persons live in the towns thus classified, and 10,403,189 in the country. Adopting this classification, although it obviously includes in the country much that belongs to town life, and town industry, and townbegotten wealth, we all know that the rapid increase in the first half of the century has been almost exclusively of a town population. The population of the towns of all classes was, in 1801, 3,046,371; and in 1851, 8,410,021; an increase of 176.067 per cent.; while the general increase in the same period was 98-177; so that the town population has increased nearly twice as fast as the average increase. "The towns," says the Registrar-General, "have increased most rapidly in which straw-plait, cotton, pottery, and iron are manufactured." Thus, while the average increase of the town population in the century was 176-076 per cent., the percentage increase in the town population engaged in the manufacture of straw-plait has been 351-558; of iron, 589-918; of cotton, 282-391; of pottery, 260-972; or, taking another classification, between 1801 and 1851, the towns have increased, per cent.-London, 146-358; county towns, excluding London, 122.096; watering-places, 254-125; sea-ports, excluding London, 195-554; manufacturing towns, 224-174; mining and hardware towns, 217.303. Thus, the great increase is in a town population, and of that the great increase is in the seaports, the manufacturing towns, and the watering places. The increase is of comparatively wealthy and intelligent people, and that progress seems likely to continue. Such, then, will probably be the progress of society, which will give laws to all future lawgivers. That probability progress statesmen ought to study; for to that their policy and their acts, to be at all successful, must conform.-Economist. PARDSHAW CRAGG. (Concluded from page 15.) Linked to the highest moral character, they admit the existence of a Titantic intellect, a large catholic heart, and an indomitable will, ever subservient to manifested duty; but the true genius of the prophet-priest and cos-mopolitan reformer has been too much overlooked in the acrimony of sectarian dissensions. In his lonely, prayerful meditations, by groves and meadows, and in the hollows of trees, he obtained above all men of his time a marvellous insight into the eternal realities of life and nature which underlaid the cant and hypocrisy that invested nearly all things around him, secular and religious. He stripped creeds of their man-made rites and forms and observances; declared that to be educated at Oxford or Cambridge was not needed to qualify a man, nor could it of itself be a qualification, to become a messenger of the gospel; that they who preached for the loaves and fishes, were wolves in the fold and not pastors; that the temple of God was not the church of stone and mortar, as the idolatrous superstition of the time implied, but the human heart itself, and proclaimed with inspired eloquence that they who 'worship the Father aright must worship him in spirit and in truth.' He revived the almost forgotten and quite disregarded truth, that God is the common Father, and all we are brethren, and for the first time since the primitive ages of Christianity, promulgated a code of rules for the government of society based upon this presumption: how admirable and practical it is has been testified by the approbation which many experienced statesmen, wholly opposed to the doctrinal points of Quakerism, have expressed of its internal discipline.' How much more my young friend might have added in eulogy of one who had excited his reverence so deeply, I do not know, had I not interrupted him by saying, that having determined to study for myself the history of Fox and his mission, it was perhaps better that he should not prejudice my judgment on the subject. don't you think it a pity," I asked, "that the Quakers of the present day, liberal and philanthropic as they are well known to be, should mar their usefulness by the exclusiveness and punctilious observance of peculiar and unsocial customs in speech, dress, and address, for which they are equally conspicuous?" "I must confess that some of their singularities appear to me a good deal obnoxious to your objections, nor do I think that the clear understanding and liberal heart of George Fox would altogether justify them, were he living now. The times are changed since they received his sanction, and however sound the principle of conservatism may be in matters of pure faith and doctrine, it is plainly rational that those manners and habits and customs which are accidental to man, and moulded by ever mutable taste and circumstance, ought to be subjected to the remodelling influence of mental and practical progress. Modern Quakers, I believe, have been too apt to lose sight of this, to an extent even that has brought upon them, in the face of their activity as general reformers, the charge of attempting to stereotype the mind. A distinction, however, requires to be drawn between the motives which ruled George Fox in recommending that departure from the fashions of the world which occasions the 'peculiarities' of Quakerism, and those which influence the sect at the present day in still adhering to them. The age in which these peculiarities' arose was one signalized above all others in English history for its hollowness, flip pancy, and open immorality. The example of a been himself a member of the Society of Friends, profligate prince, and the corrupt though polished and may therefore be held excusable if he was a court which surrounded him, acted as a canker little mistaken in regard to some of the peculiariat the heart of society, destroying virtue in all its forms, and infecting with its demoralizing taint ties which have marked the Society from its rise the institutions, literature, and amusements of to the present time. We do not find that Friends the people. To stem this tide of iniquity was a adopted a costume of their own, as distinguished part of Fox's mission, and he had to adapt his from what was usually worn in their time; but means to his ends. It was a case of life and retaining the form of dress which was common death the corrupt members must be sacrificed, or the whole body would perish. The abstract- among the graver class of their cotemporaries,` edly innocent and refined arts of music and sing- they rejected such appendages as were designed ing had become associated with low and impious for ornament and not for use; and their peculilanguage; dancing, the 'poetry of motion,' was arity of dress in the present day so far as it is equally prostituted; theatres and other places of diversion were, of course, above all else affected peculiar, has arisen from their declining to by the general corruption, and quite justified the change the form and color of their garments in imputations of the Latin poet respecting them; compliance with the usage of an eve-varying world. the common courtesies of life, which seem native Yet when changes in the form of apparel, conduto civilized humanity, had given place to artifi-cive to usefulness and convenience, are introduced, cial forms of breeding marked alike by their insincerity and their flattery of the creature: in fine, England was one vast Augean stable. And when the question, 'how must it be cleansed?' came over the mind of Fox, or rather weighed upon his heart, what other conclusion was possible than the one he came to, namely, that these things must be abolished in toto, as irreconcilable with the spirit of truth, and too vicious to be susceptible of amendment. In this way arose the distinctive peculiarities in the externals of Quakerism; whether, as I said before, they may With regard to the use of thee and thou, we not now be regarded as having done their appointed work, and that when thee and thou' and a may easily perceive that as these words hold a broad-brimmed hat and a plain coat have ceased necessary place in the English language, as atto be substitutes for anything more objectionable tested by their use in the translation of the scripin the world at large, they may not themselves tures and in all the higher orders of composition; be dispensed with, you may judge for yourself hereafter, but I do believe that had it not been the practice will cease to be a peculiarity whenfor their interposition, and for the check they ever those who speak our language shall unite in exercised over the vicious tendencies of every-speaking it correctly. thing relating to 'la mode' in the reign of the second Charles, England would not have made the progress she has towards the realization of Christianity." After a good deal of further conversation with my companion on various topics of this nature, but not without a renewed promise on my part to inform myself more fully upon the lives and times of the early Quakers, we reluctantly bade each other adieu. In the meantime, I resolved, instead of any more indulging in ridicule and merriment at the expense of Quaker simplicity, to remember the words of my mountain friend, that beneath the rough Gothic exterior of many an humble follower of George Fox there throbs a great human heart.—R. Ü. J. [London Friend. Our readers will observe that the young man who gave these explanations respecting the principles and motives of George Fox, and his coadjutors, does not appear from the narrative to have Friends do not refuse to adopt them, for convenience sake. Hence it has happened that the appearance of the consistent and sober class among us, had become very different from that of our ancestors of the 17th century. Friends do not, and never did, object to the adoption of real improvements in dress or in any thing else, but they do object to following the freaks of fashion for fashion's sake. THE CROSS. "The, cross if freely borne, shall be Thy cross of suffering and of shame Thine was the seed time; God alone SUMMARY OF NEWS. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.-The Steamship Franklin arrived at New York on the 14th inst., and the Arctic, on the 18th, bringing English dates respective to the 1st and 7th inst. ed, and it is intended to modify, by degrees, the military institutions by which these provinces are now ruled. The measures necessary to carry the decree into effect on the 1st inst. had been already adopted. RUSSIA AND TURKEY.-The question at issue beHarriet Beecher Stowe was one of the passen-tween these governments is still unsettled and apgers in the Arctic. prehension continues unabated. ENGLAND.-The Queen had left Ireland and gone to her residence at Balmoral, Scotland. The principal members of the Cabinet remained in London, awaiting the termination of the Turkish question. The weavers of domestics by power looms, at Manchester, and the cotton skein dyers from twenty-two establishments, had struck for higher wages. Ninety-three emigrant ships sailed from Liverpool during the past month, carrying upwards of 20,000 passengers, of whom 18,000 were for the United States. The ex-royal family of France have engaged a steamer to carry them to Lisbon. The Bank of England has raised the rate of Letters from various departments state that the price of wheat continues to decline. Numerous vessels had arrived at Marseilles, with wheat from Odessa. These advices were of 31st ult. The price of wheat had fallen considerably at Rouen and Lille, and likewise at Villeneuve, Astaffort, Marmande and Moissac, in Lot and Ga ronne. CHINA.-Advices from Shanghai to 6th mo. 30th, have been received. The main body of the insurgents still remain at Nankin, Chin-kiang-foo, and on the northern banks of the Yang-tse-kiang. They had taken Tal-ping-foo, a city of great strength, to the westward of Nankin. No movement had been made northward, or in the direction of Soochow and Shanghai. The city of Yan-ping-foo had been besieged and was supposed to have fallen, and all communication with the interior was cut off by the rebels. The imperialists still hold Chongchow and Tang-wa, where there had been constant fighting and much slaughter. The insurgents had possession of Amoy. BUENOS AYRES.-A letter in the N. Y. Courier and Inquirer states that Urquiza, being deserted by his fleet and menaced by Gen. Flores, addressed a note to the city government of Buenos Ayres, saying that he had resolved to retire from the State, and recommending that it should consent to a peace with the rest of the confederation. The government consented to do so, and Urquiza left his intrenchments on night of the 7th mo. 13th, and proceeded to the bank of the river, where he embarked on board of the U. S. steamer Water Witch. The Entre Rios troops were embarked on board a British vessel, and all sailed immediately for Entre Rois. HONDURAS.-Letters from Balize, Honduras, have been received. A letter from Paris says that the Government is seriously occupied in considering all the regulations referring to the sale of bread in Paris. The present system of retaining a store of flour in warehouse, as a supply for the inhabitants in case of scarcity, is condemned as defective, notwithstanding the enormous expense it entails. The An earthquake had occurred along the Salle supply at present in the granaries of Paris, is not shore which was very violent at Biloxi, and much more than sufficient for seventy days' consump-damage was done to the place. The houses rocked tion. and the people were greatly alarmed. A seditious address was posted upon the walls of Rheims, during the night of the 1st inst. Next morning, crowds assembled to read it, but no disposition to make a disturbance was manifest. PORTUGAL.-Lisbon letters of the 19th announce the closing of the Cortes on the 15th, by royal deThe prospects of the country were very unfavorable, owing to the rapid and general spread of the grape disease: the grape shipments by the packets will not, it was expected, reach more than 10 per cent of the quantity usually shipped. cree. His SARDINIA.-The funeral of Bartholemi Bottaro, a democratic priest, at Genoa, had been made the occasion of a grand political demonstration. body was attended to the tomb by as great a concourse as that which followed the remains of the mother of Mazzini. Bottaro had been censured by the Holy Congregation of Rome, for his "political psalms," but refused to retract his opinions, and therefore became an idol with the Republican party. His death was sudden, and a post-mortem examination of his body show traces of poison. An inquest into the circumstances of his death had been commenced. Guatemala had captured the Honduras towns of Quira and Truxillo. MEXICO. Late intelligence from Mexico informs that the two important States of Guanajuato and Guadalajara had declared against Santa Anra, and it was believed that Chihuahua and several other States would soon follow the example. The immediate causes of the movement appear to have been the imposition of new and grossly oppressive taxes, a forced levy of troops to make up the army of 91,000 men, and the substitution of military for civil government in the several States. Many Mexicans had fled across the frontier to avoid the conscription. DOMESTIC. An earthquake took place on the 11th inst. along the coast of Louisiana. The yellow fever continues to decline at New Orleans. Thirty-two deaths from this cause are reported for the 24 hours ending on the morning of the 16th inst. The total number of deaths from the fever from the commencement to the 10th inst. was 7381. At At Natchez and at Vidalia, opposite to it, the epidemic was raging with great violence. Mobile, business was almost entirely suspended. One-half of the population of Grand Gulf, Miss., ITALY.-The state of siege in Venice and Lom-were attacked with it in less than a week. It also bardy is to be removed. According to a decree prevailed to a frightful extent at Vicksburg and of the 13th ult., it was to be immediately mitigat-other towns on the Mississippi. FRIENDS' REVIEW. VOL. VII. A RELIGIOUS, LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS JOURNAL. PHILADELPHIA, TENTH MONTH 1, 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. DOMESTIC IMPROVEMENT. It was said by the pious Howe, a man of much reflection and observation, and a sincere friend to the cause of christianity, that "It is the duty of every person coming into the world, to leave it as much better than he finds it, as he can." No. 3. the disposition and abilities of their parents. In general, however, neither of these are wanting. The parish of Hoff contains more than four hundred souls, yet there is only one parishioner, upwards of eight years of age, that cannot read; and this individual is prevented by a natural infirmity. "Their method of education has a very favorable effect upon them, in many respects. It is considered the duty and interest of the mother to form the minds of her children, and to instruct them in the first rudiments of learning, as soon as they are capable of receiving it. The father then teaches such other branches as appear desirable. "Thus, without the expense, exposure, or loss of time, which most experience, they acquire a perfect understanding of things necessary and expedient. And in many instances those who have never been at school, are capable of reading authors of several different languages. Were this maxim observed, and our minds imbued with that love which breathes "glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace, good will towards men," with what pleasing anticipation "The predominant character of the Icelanders, might we contemplate the near approach of that is that of unsuspecting frankness, pious contentday, when "swords shall be beaten into plough-ment, and a steady liveliness of temperament, shares, and spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.' Yet, as a proof how much may be done in this important business by individual care, industry and perseverance, I take pleasure in introducing a few extracts from the journal of a very interesting tour in Iceland, performed by E. Henderson in 1814-15. In his visit to that inhospitable clime, embracing most parts of the island, he had great opportunity of becoming acquainted with the habits, manners, situation and wants of its inhabitants. He says that, "Though there is but one school in Iceland, and that solitary one is exclusively designed for the education of such as are afterwards to fill offices in church or state, yet it is exceedingly rare to meet with a boy or girl, who has attained to the age of nine or ten years, that cannot read or write with ease. And there is not a peasant, or scarcely a servant girl, in Iceland, who is not capable of reading the most ancient documents extant on the Island, though it has been inhabited near nine hundred years. "There being no parish schools, nor indeed any private establishments for the instruction of youth, their mental culture depends entirely on combined with strength of intellect, and acuteness of mind. They are kind and hospitable;\ and in their general knowledge, superior to people of their rank, in most other parts of the world. "As I was riding along one day, I was entertained by the interesting conversation of a peasant, who was going to a market town with his produce. The knowledge he discovered of the geography, politics, &c. of Britain, quite astonished me. He gave me a long detail of circumstances, and proposed many questions. "Among other things, as a proof that he had not read the Scriptures without reflection, I may mention his being somewhat at a loss to account for the term 'wrath' being ascribed to God, in the Bible. And it was not until I explained to him the difference between holy and reasonable anger, and that which is unreasonable and malicious, and shown him that those expressions, as applied to the Divine Being, signified his disapprobation of every species of iniquity, and was ultimately resolved into his love of righteousness, that he declared himself satisfied on the subject. "On enquiring of my hostess, how many children she had, her reply was, 'I have four, two of them are here with us, and the other two are with God. It is best with those that are with |
