know of no rank, however exalted, in which | though surrounded with munitions of impregnable such a system would not prove beneficial.

Hints on the formation of Character.

FRIENDS' REVIEW.

PHILADELPHIA, FOURTH MONTH 15, 1848.

Though it does not fall within the plan of the Review to enter upon the field of political disquisitions; yet in common with others, we cannot fail to perceive that the time in which we live, may very probably be marked as an era in the history of the world. From the present appearance of the political horizon, we may hazard the conjecture that the nineteenth century will be designated by future

strength. The effort, whether successful or not, to establish a republic in the heart of Europe, composed of a population exceeding thirty millions, must unavoidably exercise a controlling influence among the neighbouring powers. The spirit of revolution when once aroused is very apt to run into excesses which the actors themselves did not at first anticipate. Happy will it be for the people of Europe if they sufficiently reflect that change does not necessarily imply improvement, or that thrones or governments established by violence may be overturned by similar means. The people of this country will doubtlessly await the tidings from the other side of the Atlantic with intense anxiety.

Yet amidst all the solicitude which we must feel

for the peace and happiness of our race, it is a consolation to repose in the assurance that the Most High still rules the kingdoms of men; and that while the potsherds of the earth are dashing together, there is still an overruling hand, which the earthquake and the storm, or the fiercer passions of man, can never turn from its purposes.

historians as the era of revolutions. About a century ago, the governments of Great Britain and France began to contend respecting the great valley of the Mississippi, which in truth belonged to neither of them, but to the native inhabitants of the soil. The contest, however, soon involved these nations in a long and sanguinary war, in which the inIf from the political world we turn our eyes to the habitants of North America, both Indian and religious communities of our day, we readily perEuropean, largely partook. When peace was at ceive that the spirit of revolution has made its ap length restored, the British ministry endeavoured to pearance also among them. We have cause to draw from their American colonies the means of tremble for the consequences which may possibly replenishing the exhausted treasury. Another con- arise from a disposition to remove the ancient landtest ensued, in which the monarch of France marks in church and state, and ought carefully to taking part with the revolting colonies, the flames of guard against innovations which are not clearly The zeal of war, kindled on this side of the Atlantic, again compatible with justice and truth. spread into Europe. A conflict of more than seven reformation, unless sedulously guarded, is liable to years was closed by the separation of the United lead its votaries into measures which their own States from the mother country. But the people of sober judgment cannot approve. Hence, extensive France caught the spirit of revolution; and a con- convulsions in the religious or political world are vulsion, unparalleled in modern history, ensued. usually attended with some degree of excess. It is, The military democracy of that devoted country therefore, of primary importance that those who are was overturned by the iron sceptre of Napoleon, and labouring to improve the opinions and practices of the potentates of Europe appeared for a time to their cotemporaries, or to defend the existing instiquail before that extraordinary man. But his course tutions from unauthorized innovation, should cherish was soon run, and having scourged the nations with the remembrance, that the cause of vital Christianihis whip of scorpions, he himself died in captivity.ty can never be effectually promoted in any other Fifteen years after the fall of Napoleon, the last of the than a Christian spirit. A zeal which is not temBourbons was expelled from the throne, and Louispered and rectified by the meekness of wisdom, Philippe, who had once wandered over Europe and however plausible in its appearance, or sincere in America an exile from his native land, was placed its intentions, will rather retard than advance the at the head of the French nation. work of reformation.

This change of dynasty in France was quickly followed by a revolution in Belgium; where in 1832 We give place in the present number to an a constitutional monarchy was adopted. And now epistle addressed to Friends in America by that after a reign of less than eighteen years, the citizen eminent apostle of modern times, George Fox. king of the French has been impelled to a precipi- This epistle, we may perceive from its date, was tate retreat from the land which he was so recently written before the charter of Pennsylvania was appointed to govern. This revolution, which was issued, and at a time when the Society of Friends apparently set in motion by the accidental discharge were thinly scattered over a great extent of counof a musket, shows that a sovereign without a peo-try, mostly covered by its primeval forests. Amidst ple to support him is little more than a shadow, his continual solicitude and labour for the preserva

tion and growth of the Society which he had been instrumental in gathering, and which was then spread over most parts of Great Britain, as well as some portions of the continent of Europe, his active and comprehensive mind was feelingly alive to the interest and prosperity of Friends in this western world.

The order and discipline which he first recommended, and successfully laboured to establish in this Society, have commanded the admiration of men who, from their intimate acquaintance with the systems of government adopted by other religious communities, were well qualified to judge of their relative excellence. The truly evangelical letter before us strongly inculcates the principles on which alone that order and discipline can be successfully maintained. The discipline of the Society was originally framed for a spiritually-minded people; and it is more than questionable whether it would be any thing better than a form without life, to any other class.

The Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia being about to convene, the reflections of those who have reached the latter stages of life naturally recur to the period of youth, and to Friends who, half a century ago, were bearing the burden and heat of the day. Within that period how many princes and great men have fallen in Israel! Well may we exclaim, "The fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?" Memory still recalls the clear, sententious observations of Dillwyn, the sage, judicious remarks of Cox, the impassioned eloquence of Lindley, the meek, unassuming expressions of Scattergood, the prudent, controlling influence of Hoskins, and a large number of worthies who have gone the way from which they will not return. The inquiry then arises, upon

whom has their mantle fallen? Whether this

question can or cannot be satisfactorily answered, of one thing we may rest assured, that the Master of assemblies is as able and as willing now as he was then, to favour his humble, dependent children, who sincerely desire that his will and not theirs, may be done in all things. Whatever changes have occurred among us, with Him is no variableness nor shadow of turning.

DIED, On the 21st ult., at her residence near Springborough, Ohio, in the 65th year of her age, HANNAH, wife of Hugh Henry, a member of Springborough Monthly Meeting.

At his residence in this city, on the morning of the 24th ult., DANIEL THORNTON, aged sixty-six years, a member of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting.

MEMOIR OF RICHARD PECKOVER HARRIS.

In the subject of this notice, the long-suffering and the grace of God, in and through our Lord Jesus Christ, were strikingly exemplified.

Although of strict integrity and uprightness in his intercourse with men, and of a very amiable disposition in the domestic circle, as a husband, father, and son; yet, for many years of his life, from his own acknowledgment, he turned a deaf ear to the strivings of the Holy Spirit, which, in adorable mercy, continued at times to plead with him; and, it is reverently believed, did not ultimately plead in vain.

During the last few years of his life, an evident change of heart appears to have taken place; and, although he was but little accustomed to give expression to his feelings, there is ground to believe, that, from this period, it was his sincere desire to walk in the Divine fear, and to be humbled under the sanctifying and refining hand

of his God.

Early indications of the change which had taken place in his views, was afforded by his regular attendance of a week-day meeting in the city,-a practice which he had long neglected., These meetings, though often held in silence, are reverted to in his memoranda, as seasons of much refreshment and comfort to him.

During a suffering illness, of more than three months, borne with exemplary patience, he often acknowledged, with overflowing feelings of thankfulness, the unmerited mercies of the Lord to him. He would often ask for a Psalm to be

read, when not able to bear a longer portion of Scripture, mostly wishing one of thanksgiving to be selected, as best suited to his condition; saying, on one occasion, "Let it be one of thanksgiving and praise; I have so many and such great mercies to be thankful for."

At another time he exclaimed, "Oh! if pardon be granted me at the last hour, it is not that I have any trust in anything I have done: I have been perhaps outwardly upright in my conduct, and have endeavoured to be so in my MARRIED,-At Friends' Meeting, Springborough, deelings with others; I may have been what the Warren county, Ohio, on Fourth-day the 22d of world considers a moral man; but I feel that I last month, SIMON HADLEY, to MARY F. O'NEALL. am a great sinner; I have not one rag of At Friends' Meeting House on Mulberry righteousness of my own to cover me; and if I street, in this city, on Fifth-day the 6th inst., FRAN-am saved at last, remember, it will be all through CIS LIGHTFOOT, to ABI, daughter of Joseph Walton, all of Philadelphia.

At Friends's Meeting House on Sixth street, Philadelphia, on Third-day the 4th inst., JOHN CANBY, to ELIZABETH A., daughter of James Boustead, deceased, both of this city.

the boundless mercy of God in Jesus Christ: I have no other hope, and hardly dare to expect this great mercy:" adding, "there is such a thing as God's Spirit ceasing to strive with man, when perhaps he may have made a scoff of it! If I am spared now, I trust I shall live more

On the day before his decease, he told a near relative, who had waited upon him with affectionate assiduity, that he "felt quite comfortable, peaceful, and happy." He spoke most emphatically of his "many unmerited mercies, and the indescribable consolation it was to feel death so deprived of its terrors;" adding, "Ah! dear -little did I ever before think, that death would bring so little of terror with it, as I now feel to accompany the prospect.'

More was added, which could not be fully gathered; but the words were distinctly heard, "refined and purified! purified and refined!" And a short time before he ceased to articulate, he said, with much emphasis, in reply to an affectionate and filial inquiry respecting his state, "Yes, quite happy."

He died at Dover the 11th of Tenth month 1846, aged 67 years.-Annual Monitor.

R. CLARIDGE ON JUSTIFICATION.

In stating the belief of Friends on the subject of justification, in an argument which he had with an Antinomian Baptist, he says:

"In a word, if justification be considered in its full and just latitude, neither Christ's work without us, in the prepared body, nor his work within us, by his Holy Spirit, are to be excluded: for both have their place and service in our complete and absolute justification.

a spot where never before stepped the foot of man; where heretofore the rushing waters forbade too near approach, they worked safely on dry ground. Rocks which at very low water had sometimes touched the keel of the steamer Maid of the Mist, and for the removal of which the Captain had made liberal offers, were yesterday blown to pieces, and removed with the same ease as though it had been on dry land. The cause of this wonderful fall of the waters of Niagara, can only be accounted for by supposing that the large fields of ice in the lower end of Lake Erie have moved down bodily, and formed a sort of dam between Fort Erie and Buffalo. The water is still low, but gradually rising.—Mercury.

FIRST BOAT ON LAKE ONTARIO.

James L. Barton, Esq., in a letter recently addressed to the Young Men's Association of Buffalo, gives the following account of the first American boat that ever floated on the waters of the great lakes:

In 1789, John Fellows, of Sheffield, Massachusetts, started from Schenectady with a boat, its cargo mostly tea and tobacco, with a design of going to Canada to trade. On reaching Os wego, the commanding officer refused him permission to pass that place. Fellows returned with his boat and cargo up the Oswego river to Seneca river, up that into the Canandaigua outlet, as far as where Clyde is; here he built a small log building (long known as the block house,) to secure his goods in, while he was en"By the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ with-gaged in bushing out a sled road to Sodus Bay out us, we, truly repenting and believing, are, through the mercy of God, justified from the imputations of sins and transgressions that are past, as though they had never been committed; and by the mighty work of Christ within us, the power, nature, and habits of sin are destroyed, that as sin once reigned unto death, even so now grace reigneth, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord. And all this is effected, not by a bare or naked act of faith, separate from obedience; but in the obedience of faith, Christ being the author of eternal salvation to none but those that obey him.". Evans' Exposition.

FALL IN THE NIAGARA. Respecting the late singular phenomenon at Niagara Fall, by which a considerable portion of the river and falls was left dry, the Iris, of that vicinity, has the following:-"Table rock and some 200 yards more were left dry; Islands and places where the foot of man never dared to tread, have been visited, flags placed upon some, the mementos brought away. Judge Porter with his troop of blasters under that active and efficient foreman, James Macafee, was early in the canals, leading to the mills and factories, where the thunder of their blasts were heard all day on

on Lake Ontario. He then went to Geneva, and got a yoke or two of cattle, hauled his boat and property across, and then in this frail conveyance embarked with his goods, and pushed across the lake. He met with a ready sale for his tea and tobacco, and did well. He crossed in the same boat, and landed at Irondequoit. The boat was afterwards purchased and used by Judge Porter in travelling the shore of Lake Ontario, when making the survey of the Phelps and Gorham purchase.

This was the first American craft that ever floated on the waters of the great lakes, now covered with magnificent steamboats and sail vessels, fully employed in carrying on the im mense commerce which passes over them.

Fifty-nine years only since the first American crossed Lake Ontario in a small boat! Let us add forty-one years to that period, and who is bold enough, or sagacious enough to foreshadow the business of that lake?-R. R. Journal.

For Friends' Review. NEW YORK SEWING SOCIETY.

The Sewing Society of New York, which is composed of twenty-two middle aged and elderly Friends, who meet one afternoon in each week at the houses of the members, have held their

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friends, have rendered the evenings seasons of intellectual enjoyment and religious improvement.

To the "Trustees of the Murray Fund," and to our friends, whose liberality has furnished us the means of alleviating suffering, we tender our grateful acknowledgments.

We trust all who have been engaged in this labour of love, separate at this time with kind feelings and best wishes for each other, and if permitted to commence another session, will feel renewed energy and interest in the cause in which we have been so long banded-the cause of the poor, the sick and the destitute.

THE DESERTED SAILOR.

Having arrived at the close of the 16th session of the Sewing Society, we feel that the time devoted to its objects has not been passed without benefit to ourselves, as well as to the recipients of the bounty of which we were the almoners. Until recently, the only stated opportunities Friends enjoyed of mingling together socially, was in attending the meetings of our association, and a similar one for younger members. a committee appointed by the Men's Monthly Meeting for the purpose of noticing strangers, and promoting a social feeling among Friends, have the past winter established meetings, which were held one evening in each week at different Friends' houses; these have brought together the scattered members of our religious society, and by offering occasions for the young and those more advanced in life to associate more freely, have been productive of unity and an in-sity, visited its volcanic shores. creased attachment to our principles. Though at these meetings we had both approved reading and conversation, still the principle inducement for continuing our little society remains with unabated force. "The poor ye have always with you," were the words of Him, who in condemning those on the left hand, said, "I was naked, and ye clothed me not."

For the last two years the greater part of our benefactions have been dispensed to the afflicted children of Ireland. From "the famine that devoureth, from the pestilence that walketh in darkness," they have flocked to our shore as to a city of refuge. While we were enjoying the bountiful gifts of our common Parent, we felt bound to contribute our exertions to add to the scanty covering of destitution and childhood.

On recurring to the minutes of our association from the commencement, it appears that the society was established in 1833, and comprised twenty-three members, six of whom have since been removed from works to rewards. We believe we have received in contributions from our friends about $1500, and distributed more than 3000 garments and some comfortables, which have contributed in a small measure to the comfort of the deserving and the wretched, with which this metropolis abounds.

The reading of some approved work has been continued with but few interruptions. Even when the book has been previously perused by some of us, the remarks which it has elicited, and the information to which it has given rise, have conferred a new value and rendered it more

instructive and interesting. Many Friends' books have been read, as well as memoirs of other pious persons, and tracts, reports of benevolent societies and manuscripts loaned by our

Midway between Africa and Brazil, in the South Atlantic, lies the little island of Ascension. It was discovered in the year 1501, and nothing could be more barren and inhospitable than the aspect which, during the three following centuries, it presented to the navigator, who, impelled by curiosity or neces

Its position, however, in the great highway of the India trade, attracted the attention of the British Government, ever watchful over the commercial interests of its vast empire, and in 1815 this desolate island became the seat of an English garrison, and the reproach of barrenness ceased. The following affecting narrative we find in Chambers's Edinburg Journal. It is there stated that the facts may be considered genuine and authentic. They are contained in a tract preserved in the Harleian collection, which states, in addition, that some months after the poor fellow's death, a ship touched at Ascension and found his journal, and his body, and possessions there."

On the morning of Saturday, the 5th of May, upwards of a century ago, a ship belonging to the Dutch squadron came in sight of Ascension Island. Anchoring at some distance from shore, she put off a boat, which, under the efforts of an active crew, made rapidly for the island. The boat contained, beside the crew, an individual heavily manacled, and a guard. The prisoner, seated at the stern between the two soldiers who guarded him, sat with his head buried in his hands; but gave no further sign of emotion until he was disturbed from his position by the sound of the boat grinding on the white shore of Ascension; when, with an agonized look at his comrades, and at the vessel, he silently rose, and in company with his guard, left the boat, and stepped on to the beach of his prison. A sailor's chest, some bedding, and sundry other articles, were taken from the boat; the prisoner's chains were removed in silence, and the crew and guard re-embarked, leaving him alone on the beach; and nothing moved by his now frantic entreaties to them to return and take him with them,

tribes of melancholy insects awoke with its morning sun, and went to sleep at an early hour in the afternoon. Its shores, fierce-looking though they were, were more lively flocks of

they pulled hard to the ship, apparently anxious to take leave of a scene so painful. Arriving on board, the anchor was presently heaved, all sail set, and the vessel stood out to sea, leaving the unhappy man sunk on the sand in the most" boobies" strutted along its glittering sands, in abject despair. Before noon, she was out of sight; and in every direction nothing was visible but the blue and desolate waters tossing up their heads to the sky. The nature of the crime which was visited by this dreadful punishment, we are not permitted to divulge; but that it was of great heinousness, may be gathered from his own confessions. Some mercy mingled with the sentence, as was manifest in the numerous little articles which were left for him on the shore. Among these was a limited supply of provisions, consisting of a little rice, onions, peas, and meal. He had also a cask of water, two buckets, an old fryingpan, and a fowling piece, but no ammunition. Some paper, a Bible, a few clothes, and some unimportant sundries, completed the list of his possessions.

all the impertinent independence consequent upon unacquaintance with mankind; a vast turtle or two, six or seven hundred pounders, now and then, crawled from the blue waters, and after taking a short walk for the benefit of their health, crawled in again, walking over possibly hundreds of enraged crabs on their way back; and the waters themselves were livelier still, for they abounded in eels, old wives, and rock-cod. The extreme length of the island was a little more than seven miles, its extreme breadth about six, and its general form was oval.

Such were the miserable and most unpromis ing circumstances under which this unhappy man was left to take his chance of perishing utterly, or the more remote one of being discovered and rescued by some passing vessel. The island itself was of a nature so savage As his journal, which he regularly kept from the and repulsive, as was well calculated to impress first day of his landing, has been preserved, we with horror and despair, the stoutest heart con- are able to proceed with the rest of his history. demned to so vast a dungeon. Being of volcanic After recovering in some measure from the shock origin, its surface was strewed with broken of being left alone, and after watching with an rocks, ashes, and pumice; here and there a little aching heart the ship's snowy topsail sink beneath red soil, scorched and sterile, peeped from be- the waves of the horizon, he addressed himself tween masses of rock upon which the traces of to his first labour, which was the construction of fire yet existed. Its shores on one side were a tent. The spot he selected for its site was frightful to approach: horrid precipices of black sufficiently gloomy, for it was beneath one of the lava seemed to fringe the island with mourning, dismal overhanging black rocks of which menand threaten intrusion with death, while at their tion has been made; but it assisted to cover his base were deep chasms, eaten out by the insatia- tent from the weather, and it was close to the ble wave. Further on, the wildest confusion of beach upon which he, and all he possessed, had rocks, whose jagged summits added to the deso- been left. By the close of the first long and lation of the spot, was occasionally relieved by weary day, a temporary tent was raised, into small patches of a glittering, naked beach, white which he brought his chest, bedding, and all his like snow, composed of fragile coral, and frailer other chattels; and here, heavy and sick of shells ground to dust against the iron bulwarks heart, he spent the first night. Rising early the of the island. The other side of the island was following morning, after partaking of his lonely more hospitable, possessing a less frowning meal, he set forth to explore the island. It was coast, a good bay, and a tamer sea-shore. Inland, the first of the week, and around was more than a few acres of plain stretched away between the the stillness of that day-it was the silence of gloomy-looking hills; but even these were either the grave. No "church-going bell," no faint wholly barren, or scantily covered with a weak notes of a village hymn, no quiet tumult of a growth of innutritious plants, such as grass, departing congregation, came to the outcast's ferns, purslain, a few thistles, and a convolvulus. ear-the wind was asleep, the waters were at Not a shrub was there on the whole island; and peace; but in his heart there was no peace, and the only spot refreshing to the eye, wearied with he himself was alone unquiet amid surrounding so long a glance at desolation, was a tall moun- quietude. He searched in vain for some green tain called the Green Mountain, whose verdant thing which might promise him food; he then sides gave the promise, which they did not fulfil returned to his tent, and, to beguile the dull hours, in reality, of supplying something that might set about some alterations in its arrangements; support the outcast during his stay there. The he also covered it with a tarpaulin, which he spot was, on the whole, somewhat like a vast fastened down with stones, thus securing himcinder, spotted here and there indeed with green, self from rain. Towards evening, the solitude but otherwise as dry and burnt as if it had just of the beach was broken by bustling flocks of been vomited from the depths of some vast vol- boobies; on approaching them, he found them so tame as to permit him easily to seize several, which he afterwards killed, skinned, and salted, laying them in the sun to dry. His eyes were

cano.

Yet the place was the habitation of a legion of wild goats, and populous nations of rats and mice overscampered it; and one or two