constituents, namely: Schreibosite, of which there | evidently from some place where there is little are no natural specimens on earth. or no oxygen. Now the moon has no atmosphere, and no water on its surface, or we should find it out by its refracting power. There is no oxygen there then. Hurled from the moon, these bodies in the sun like polished steel, and on reaching our atmosphere would burn in its oxygen until a black oxide coated it; and this we find to be the case with all our meteorites-the black color is only an external covering. Dr. Smith presented these views with much clearness, directness and earnestness. The room was crowded throughout the delivery, and nothing but an oppressive want of time prevented an interesting debate from following it.American and Gazette. ORIGIN OF METEORIC STONES.-It was long supposed that these bodies were identified with the shooting stars, but that error was of easy demonstration. For in all the periodically return--these masses of almost pure iron-would flame ing occasion of shooting stars, there is not a case on record where the fall of a meteoric stone has accompanied them. Then we can obtain the elevation of the shooting stars, and without difficulty learn their velocity. They are often far beyond the circle of our atmosphere, and travel at the rate of sixteen miles a second, while we know that nothing can revolve around the earth at a swifter rate than five miles a second. Shooting stars then are cosmic bodies, revolving around the sun as a centre. They are self-luminous too. But meteoric stones could not strike the earth in their fall, coming at the rate of sixteen miles a second, without producing very different impressions from what are recorded of their fall. Nor can these stones be self-luminous in our atmosphere. They are of heavy iron. They cannot be mere connections of nebulous matter, as some have maintained. They have not the form that nebulous matter would assume on condensing. Evidently, then, they are not identical with shooting stars. ATTRACTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. Not long since there occurred in the Polynesian Islands a striking illustration of the attractions which Christianity, as a pioneer of peace, has for even the most benighted and barbarous. The inhabitants of one of the Marquesan Islands, being scourged by their bloody feuds, had heard a vague rumor of what it had done for the Sandwich Islands; and one of their chiefs came in person to beg for Christian teachers. They had They are not of terrestrial origin. The number of those who think that they are, is too limit-"somehow got the idea, that Christianity would ed to require a set refutation of that theory. They are not of atmospheric origin, aggregated from different directions, hardened like hail, though from different causes. Their form forbids that suspicion. Whence then are they? put a stop to the wars almost constantly waged among the tribes of his nation, and hence his earnest desire to have its doctrines communicated to them."-Advocate of Peace. SACRIFICE OF LIFE IN THE WAR OF 1793. Dr. Smith evidently accepted the "lunar theory." They were masses thrown off with great force from the moon, revolving around that body In the Westminister Review for June, 1844, until in the great eccentricity of their orbits, were the following remarks in a review of Alithey fall within the circle of our atmosphere; son's History of Europe:-"It appears from auonce within which, and with velocity greatly re- thentic documents which Mr. Alison has collecttarded, our earth becomes their centre. They ed, that from the commencement to the close of may be thrown out from the craters of volcanoes the revolutionary wars, the levies of soldiers in a long time ago, and been thousands of years re- France exceeded four millions, and that not less volving before their orbit brought them in con- than three millions of these, on the lowest calcu tact with our sphere. Laplace and Cerago, who lations, perished in the field, the hospitals, and once held this theory, gave it up, but were com- the bivouac. If to these we add, as we unquespelled to do so or surrender another belief of tionably must, at least an equal number out of theirs, that they are identical with shooting stars. the ranks of their antagonists, it is clear that One twentieth of the surface of the moon is vol- not less than six millions of human beings perishcanic, and if the craters, as revealed by the tele-ed in warfare in the course of twenty years, in scope, are only in the usual proportion to the the very heart of civilised Europe, at the comheight and depth of the volcanoes, there need mencement of the nineteenth century of the be no doubt that they have sufficient ejecting Christian era. But even these stupendous numforce to hurl large masses of volcanic matter to bers give no adequate conception of the destrucimmense distances. Remember, beside, that the tion of human life directly consequent on the attracting power of the Moon is but one-sixth wars of the Revolution and the Empire. We that of the Earth, and that bodies thrown from must add the thousands, who perished from want, its surface experience in consequence but one-outrage, and exposure, and the hundreds of thous sixth the retarding force they would have when ands subsequently swept away by the ravages of thrown from the Earth's surface. that pestilence which took its rise amid the reLook again at the constitution of the meteor-treat from Russia, and the crowded garrisons of ite,-made up principally of pure iron. It came the campaign of 1813, and for several years af sionary Society has "expended $817,383, the Bible Society, $41,500, and the Tract Society, $23,800; a total of $882,683; less than it costs to build a line-of-battle-ship, and keep it in service a year." There are in all christendom, nearly, if not quite, three thousand war-ships; and yet, a nation has been civilized and christianized at an expense less than that of building one of these ships and keeping it in service a single less than $30,000, a year; while Christian Europe alone spends for war purposes in peace, $1,000,000,000; more than thirty-three thousand times as much! Will not Christians ponder such facts?-Advocate of Peace. terwards desolated in succession every country in Europe. And even when we have summed up and laid before us in all the magnitude of figures, the appalling destruction of human life here exhibited, we can still only gather a faint and remote conception of the sufferings and the evils inflicted by the awful scourge. Death in the field is among the smallest of the miseries of war; the burned villages, the devastated harvests, the ruined commerce, the towns carried by as-year! All this by an average expenditure of sault, the feeble and the lovely massacred and outraged, grief, despair, and desolation carried into innumerable families; these are among the more terrific visitations of military conflicts and the blackest of the crimes for which a fearful retribution will be one day exacted at the hands of those who have provoked, originated, or compelled them."-Herald of Peace. JOHN FREEMAN, AN ALLEGED FUGITIVE. At page 40 of the current volume, an account was given of the arrest, under the character of a fugitive slave, of a highly respectable colored COMPARATIVE COST OF WAR AND OF MISSIONS. The American Board of Foreign Missons rep-man named John Freeman, who resided at Inresent, in their last annual report, the Sandwich dianapolis. This man, notwithstanding ample Islands, where their missionary operations began security for his appearance was offered, was deabout thirty years ago, as now christianized. tained in jail at a heavy expense to himself, "A fourth part of the population are members, while his friends were in search of evidence to in regular standing, of Protestant churches. Not establish his freedom. Proof was at length obless than sixteen hundred new members were tained that the slave, in whose name Freeman added to these churches the past year. In the was arrested, was then residing in Canada. same period, $24,000 were contributed in these Freeman was therefore set at liberty, but the churches for the support and propagation of the expense incurred in procuring his liberation, apgospel. The language is reduced to writing, and pears to have been about $1500. We find by read by nearly a third part of the people. The the "Free Democrat," published at Indianaposchools contain the great body of children and lis, on the 11th of last month, that a suit, instiyouth. The annual outlay for education, chiefly tuted by Freeman against the claimant, for by the government, exceeds $50,000. Nearly damages for false imprisonment, has been retwo hundred millions of pages have been issued cently decided in the Marion Circuit Court, by from the press in various works, making quite a the award of two thousand dollars and costs of respectable library, pre-eminent in which stands suit. the Bible. The first article of the constitution promulgated by the king and chiefs in 1840, de- THE COMPASS UNTRUE.-Public attention, clares that "all the laws of the island shall be in says the "London Examiner," has been again consistency with God's law." The laws and ad- drawn to another investigation instituted by the ministration of the government, since that time, Marine Board at Liverpool, into the conduct of have been as consistent with this profession, to Captain Noble, of the late Tayleur, which ended, say the least, as those of any other Christian like the previous investigation, in pronouncing government. Mr. Lee, the chief justice of the him entirely free from blame. He appears to Islands, in his report to the government, the have been a most skilful man; his ship was not present year, says, "In no part of the world, are short-handed, nor in any good degree ill found, life and property more safe than in these Islands. though she might not be quick in stays and might Murders, robberies and the higher class of felo-be long in wearing. He took every possiblenies are quite unknown here; and in city and country, we retire to our sleep conscious of the most entire security. The stranger may travel from one end of the group to the other, over mountains and through woods, sleeping in grass huts, unarmed, alone and unprotected, with any amount of treasure on his person, and with a tithe of the vigilance required in older and more civilized countries, go unrobbed of a penny, and unharmed in a hair. Where does the world afford a parallel of equal security?" at least customary-precaution with the com-passes: he examined them, he had the most skilful professional men to examine them, and the Board endorse his explanation. Nevertheless the compass is said to have been the real cause of the calamity. The "Times" adverts to a fact, not now noticed for the first time, but most important: Here follows the extraordinary part of the report: "This Board would call particular attention to the fact that numerous instances have And how much has all this cost? The Mis-been brought under their consideration of com passes having proved greatly in error on board of both wood and iron ships while navigating the Irish Channel, and which deviation is not accounted for by any theory at present." This is strange enough, but other instances are quoted of the like kind. On board of the Niagara, a wooden steamship, a change of four degrees occurred. The Teneriffe changed her magnetism in coming home a point and a half. Neither the principles of this important science, nor the details of practice and of mechanical arrangements to provide against deviation, are at all fixed. There can be no reason for supposing that such irregularities are confined to the Irish Channel. If there, no doubt the same things occur at other portions of the earth's surface. The result can be stated in a few words-the mariner's compass is a most uncertain guide. Cannot our scientific men suggest a remedy? FRIENDS' REVIEW. PHILADELPHIA, SIXTH MONTH 10, 1854. By a letter from Ireland we are informed, that the Yearly Meeting of Dublin was attended by about five hundred Friends, including the men and women. The meeting, which commenced on the first of last month, continued in session five days, and terminated without a jar in word or feeling. But no particulars respecting their proceedings have yet come to hand. We understand that our friends Eli and Sybil Jones, and their companions from Ireland, noticed in our last week's number, arrived at New York in the Asia on the 1st inst. In our last number notice was given of the excitement produced at Boston by the arrest of an alleged fugitive slave, who was said to have escaped from Alexandria, Virginia, and of the death of a man in the contest.* On the 2d instant the Commissioner gave his decision in favor of the claimant, and the man was conveyed to a vessel prepared to transport him to the region of slavery. So great was the excitement and manifested opposition to the surrender of the fugitive, that he was escorted to the boat by a military force said to amount to twelve hundred men. It appears that $1,200 were at one time demanded for the ransom of the slave, and that arrangements were made for the payment, but the ransom was subsequently refused. It is understood that the indignation manifested in the case was greatly increased by the passage of the Nebraska bill. If the law of 1850, for the reclamation of fugitive This man was at first reported to have been shot, but it appeared from further exnmination, that he was stabbed. slaves, can be enforced by no milder means than arming one portion of the free citizens of the North against another, we need no clearer evidence of its unpopularity. It is quite time that a law so revolting to the feelings of our most liberal and enlightened citizens, and so degrading to the character of our government, was expunged from our statute book. In the 4th volume of the Review, at pages 496 and 536, a suggestion was offered, whether as a matter of economy it would not be advisable to purchase, at the expense of the United States, such slaves as make their escape from the South and are found and identified in any of the free States. The enquiry was suggested by the case of Thomas Sims, whose recovery was said to involve an expense of more than $22,000, of which about $10,000 fell on the general government, and nearly an equal sum on the city of Boston. Of the expense incurrred in the case of Burns, the recent fugitive, it is not known that any reliable estimate has yet been made. Probably, when the items come to be collected, the amount will be more than double the expense of the Sims But even this sum, large as it is, to be ap plied to such a purpose, sinks into comparative insignificance when compared with the demoralizing influence of such exhibitions as the court house and streets of Boston presented. To contemplate an array of twelve hundred citizens of our boasted model republic, furnished with the instruments of slaughter, prepared at a moment's warning to spread death and destruction among a promiscuous assemblage of their fellow citizens, whose offence arose primarily and principally from their abhorrence of slavery, must be painful to any feeling mind. Boston certainly is not the place where such a law as the government of the United States ought to enact, must be enforced at the point of the bayonet. case. But to revert to the pecuniary part of the ques tion, let us soberly enquire whether a plan embracing the liquidation by purchase of the claims of the masters of fugitive slaves, is not worthy of grave and earnest attention. Though the constitutionality of the acts of 1793 and 1850 for the reclamation of fugitive slaves is at best extremely questionable, and the right of the masters to any compensation for the escape of their alleged property, is, when tried by any just moral standard, worse than nugatory, yet the force arrayed in support of such claims, and the general acquiescence of the free States in such a construction of the federal Constitution, seem to render hopeless any prospect of resisting those claims by any other means than a compromise. Now it is essential to a just and permanent compromise that it should involve no dereliction of the arrest of fugitive slaves is usually accompanied, would be totally prevented; and the riot the reclamation of fugitives from labor, would be divested of its most repulsive characteristics, and although the people of the free States might grumble a little at this mode of draining the treasury, the hostile feelings, which seldom fail to be aroused by every attempt to seize and carry off an alleged fugitive from labor, would no longer be If we estimate the relative advantages of this plan, it may be readily perceived that those in favor of the North, are of a moral character, and those in favor of the South, are of a pecuniary nature. The peace of the North would be no longer disturbed by the outrageous seizure of innocent persons, charged and chargeable with no crime, and the holders or claimants of eloping slaves would be more generally paid for them, than they now are, or ever can be under the present system. principle; and in whatever light the possessors of slaves may regard them, the great mass of the citizens of the free States are unalterably convinc-ous efforts at rescue would be unknown. In short, ed of the intrinsic injustice of slavery. Hence every law which supports the system, however, or by whatever authority enacted, must be regarded by them as radically iniquitous. They may feel bound, as peaceable citizens, to submit to these laws, but cannot be readily convinced that their active support is a duty. Indeed, the supposition that our duty requires an active support of an un-awakened into life. righteous law, involves the conclusion, little less than blasphemous, that the Divine law may be superseded by human authority. Consequently a compromise to which the conscientious citizens of the free States can cordially agree, must not involve the delivery into slavery of any one found within their jurisdiction. Happily, the fulfilment of the obligation imposed by the 4th article of the constitution, if we regard the principle rather than the language, does not require the delivery of the person. According to the vocabulary of slaveholders, the slave is property; and the escaping slave, when found in a free State, is claimed as property. If claimed as owing a debt of service, that debt must be susceptible of calculation in dollars and cents; or if claimed, as the fugitive slave always is, as property, the value of that property may be computed. If, then, in either case the value is fully paid, the obligation is answered. If, then, instead of the law of 1850, or that of 1793, an act was passed providing that whenever fugitive slave legally held in that condition, was found in a free State, and clearly identified, an estimate by a proper tribunal, of his market value should be made, and paid to the claimant out of the treasury of the Union, the spirit of the constitutional compromise would be preserved. The treasury of the Union would probably be less drained than by the cost of delivery under the existing law; the feelings of the people where the fugitive was found, would not be agonized by the transaction, and the fugitive would be at liberty to enjoy such domestic comforts as he had collected around him. The minutiae of the plan would be easily managed; our business at present is to suggest and advocate the principle. Under the system proposed, if the question of the claim and identity of the fugitive should still be confided to the same class of commissioners, those officers would be placed in much more elevated positions than at present. They would not stand between a slave and his freedom, ready to consignthe trembling and agonized victim to an irritated master, but they would stand between the United States and the claimants of fugitive slaves, to see that no claims were allowed which were not legally supported. The violence with which MARRIED,-At Friends' Meeting, Macedon, N. Y., on Sixth day, 26th ult., RICHARD R. MACOMBER, of Farmington, Ontario county, N. Y., to SARAH JANE, daughter of William Dean, of Macedon. DIED, On the 12th ult., at her residence, Elm Grove, Henry county, Indiana, in the 30th year of her age, ABIGAIL, wife of Isaac Gause, a beloved Friend and member of Spiceland Monthly Meeting. in this City on the 24th ult., SARAH JONES, a beloved member of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, aged 71 years. After a short and severe illness, at his residence, in Marion county, Indiana, on the 10th of Fourth month, in the 82d year of his age, JACOB CARSON, a beloved member of Fairfield Monthly Meeting. Having submitted to the yoke of Christ in his youth, he was enabled to support, through his long life, a course of conduct consistent with his religious profession. SLAVERY EXTENSION. In the National Era, of the 1st inst., we find the following article, said to be extracted from the Southern Standard, published at Charleston, South Carolina. It is not easy to believe that any sane man of the present day can deliberately propose such measures, as are here indicated, with an expectation that the people of the United States will consent so totally to disregard the principles on which our government was ostensibly founded, as to engage the energy and force of the Union in the establishment and support of a system, against which not only Christianity but common humanity will come when a treaty of commerce and alliance with Brazil will give us the control over the Gulf of Mexico and its border countries, tothis will place African slavery beyond the reach ther with the Islands, and the consequence of of fanaticism, at home or abroad. These two great slave powers now hold more undeveloped territory than any other two governments, and they ought to guard and strengthen their mutual interests by acting together in strict harmony and concert. Considering our vast resources and the mighty commerce that is about to expand upon the bo turns with abhorrence, and which the civilized, to Brazil as the next great slave power, and as world agrees to denounce. But after the un- the government that is to direct or license the blushing efforts to extend the area of slavery, development of the country drained by the Amazon. Instead of courting England, we should which have marked the proceedings of the exist-look to Brazil and the West Indies. The time ing Congress, and which have, in great measure, constituted the business of that body, and the success which seems to have attended those efforts, we can have very little reason to expect that the slaveholding interest will be satisfied with any thing less than the unquestioned ascendency of that interest. Slavery and freedom being in their nature irreconcileably antagonistical, it remains for the people of the United States to decide which shall predominate. Shall we leave the elevated ground on which our nation first took its stand, and instead of present-som of the two countries, if we act together by ing to the admiration and imitation of the world a model republic, labor to establish and perpetuate a despotism more degrading than the powers on the south of the Mediterranean exhibit? Can the freemen of this enlightened age and country be beguiled into the absurd attempt to give sta-Africa themselves. Look at the 3,000,000 in bility to a fabric, composed of materials as incongruous in their nature as those which constituted the feet of Nebuchadnezzar's image? It may be hoped that the stone cut out of the mountain which has smitten the fabric of slavery, will yet increase to fill up the earth, while the image itself, falling into dust, way become the sport of the winds. But, however justly we may acknowledge and revere the all-directing hand in the destinies of nations, we are not to forget that improvements in civil society are promoted, and evils warded off, by appropriate means. While means for the extension and perpetuation of slavery are strenuously applied, the advocates of justice and right have in their power the means to counteract them; and it is their imperative duty to use such efforts, to circumscribe the area and clip the wings of this overbearing despotism, as Christianity and a sound policy shall dictate. The article referred to, is as follows:"A general rupture in Europe would force upon us the undisputed sway of the Gulf of Mexico and the West Indies, with all their rich and mighty productions. Guided by our genius and enterprise, a new world would rise there, as it did before under the genius of Columbus. With Cuba and St. Domingo, we could control the productions of the tropics, and, with them, the commerce of the world, and with that the power of the world. Our true policy is to look treaty we can not only preserve domestic servitude, the United States who have had the blessings, There We have been too long governed by psalm-singing schoolmasters from the North. It is time to think for ourselves. The folly commenced in our own government uniting with Great Britain to declare slave importation piracy. Piracy is a crime on the high seas, arising under the law of nations, and it is as well defined by those laws |
