THROUGH DEATH TO LIFE.

Have you heard the tale of the aloe plant
Away in the sunny clime?
By humble growth of a hundred years
It reaches its blooming time;

And then a wondrous bud at its crown
Bursts into a thousand flowers;
This floral gem in its beauty seen

Is the pride of tropical bowers;

But the plant to the flower is a sacrifice,

For it blooms but once, and in blooming dies.

Have you further heard of the aloe plant
That grows in the sunny clime,
How every one of its thousand flowers,

As they fall in the blooming time,
Is an infant tree that fastens its roots

In the place where they fall to the ground, And fast as they drop from the dying stem Grow lively and lovely around?

By dying it liveth a thousand fold

In the young that spring from the death of the old. -Selected.

SUMMARY OF NEWS. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.—Advices from Europe are to the 2d inst.

GREAT BRITAIN.-The London Daily News asserted on the 30th ult: that the Russian reply to England's counter proposals had been received, and that it involved the acceptance of the proposals and practically settled in a satisfactory manner the whole question of the Afghan boundary. Maruchak and Zulficar are ceded to Afghanistan. The main features of the work of delimitation, it said, have been fixed, and the Boundary Commission will settle the details. The negotiations have been conducted in a most friendly spirit on both sides. Earl Granville's Secretary subsequently wrote to the News that it had not been correctly informed, and that the negotiations were still proceeding; but the editor declared that although the negotiations were unfinished it would be found, when the Government was ready to make an official statement, that the account was substantially correct.

The Russian Special Commissioner, M. Lessar, will start directly from London to join Col. Ridgway in Afghanistan for the purpose of carrying out the details of marking the Afghan frontier.

The great strike of the Yorkshire miners is ended, the miners finally accepting the reduction in wages which was proposed in the first place at the conference between the workmen and employers.

At a meeting of the Gordon Memorial Committee held on the 30th ult. in London, they decided to abandon the project of building and endowing a Gordon memorial hospital at Port Said, Egypt, free to the sick and injured of all nations, and to adopt some other and more satisfactory form for the memorial. Each member of the committee was requested to send to the next meeting, in writing, his views as to the best and most enduring monument possible to erect; statues of any kind being excluded by the unanimous vote of the metropolitan meeting at which the Committee was appointed.

Agricultural prospects had been thought somewhat dicouraging, on account of the backward state of the crops generally, and the discoloration of wheat; but a favorable change in the weather, following copious rains, inspired greater cheerfulness, and it was found that no lasting injury had been done.

FRANCE. An official decree was published on the 27th, secularizing the Pantheon, which has recently been a Roman Catholic place of worship, restoring it

to its original use as a receptacle for the remains of great men, and ordering that the body of Victor Hugo should be buried there. The Senate on the 30th rejected by a vote of 189 to 67 a motion censuring the Government for this proceeding. The funeral of Victor Hugo took place on the 1st inst. During the previous day, the body lay in state under the Arc de Triomphe, and was viewed by great numbers. The funeral procession was very large, and the streets through which it passed as well as the intersecting ones, were densely packed with spectators. Fears had been entertained that disturbances might occur, as the Communists had proposed to carry red flags, and the Government had formally prohibited such action. The Communists, however, simply carried red banners, and no flags. The ceremonies were completed without the occurrence of any intentional disorder, though many accidents, arising from the crowded condition of the streets, were unavoidable, and some were serious.

SPAIN. Sixty cases of cholera have occurred in the province of Valencia, and several in the city of Valencia. A commission of four doctors has been appointed to investigate the system of inoculation with cholera microbes, to examine persons who have been inoculated, and to report whether the system entails any danger.

ITALY.-The draft of a commercial treaty with Zanzibar has been agreed upon by the two Governments. EGYPT. The emissaries of El Mahdi now daily enter Suakim. The number of sick soldiers at that place is increasing. The rebel forces are beginning to renew their attacks upon Suakim, and tribes hitherto friendly to the English are wavering in their fealty.

INDIA. A terrible earthquake was experienced on the 31st ult. in the valley of Cashmere. The shocks were violent, and occurred at intervals of ten minutes. Serinagur, the capital, was almost destroyed. Fifty persons are known to have been killed and hundreds of the wounded have been taken out, but the total loss of life or number of injured is not yet known, as many are still buried in the ruins. The inhabitants fled to boats or the open country. Much damage was done throughout the valley, the loss in cattle alone being very great. The Indian authorities were sending relief as rapidly as possible. The shocks still continued on the 2d inst., and this much retarded the work of rescuing those imprisoned in the débris.

DOMESTIC.-The public debt statement of the Ist inst. showed a decrease during the past month of $3.350,833.

The total coinage of the U. S. Mints during Fifth month, including $2,401,837 standard dollars, amounted in value to $4,055,437..

The reports received by the Relief Committee of Plymouth, Pa., from the ward committees, on the Ist inst. showed a total of 732 persons sick, of whom 471 were seriously ill. During the previous week, 17 deaths occurred. There are 293 destitute families receiving aid. A hospital has been established, which now has 54 patients. The Borough Council propose to make an effort to improve the condition of the town, which is reported to be very dirty.

A strike of workmen in the iron mills of the Pittsburg district, Pa., commenced on the 1st inst., the refusal of most of the mill owners to agree to the scale of wages proposed by the associated workmen being the cause. Ten out of thirty-eight mills in the district adopted the scale and continued at work. "A careful estimate," it is said, "shows in the district 13,000 men idle and 4,300 working. In the mills west of the Alleghenies, nearly 65,000 men, averaging in wages $2 per day each, have been thrown out of work by the strike."

A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN.

During a visit to London I went out with my friend, Rev. Newman Hall, to spend a day at the delightful mansion of Henry Barclay, Esq., whose wife is one of the celebrated family of the Gurneys. At the dinner table I met the son of the famous Baron Bunsen and his wife, who was also a Gurney. After dinner our hostess drove us to "Upton Lane," the residence of her aunt, Elizabeth Fry, and we were intensely interested in inspecting an old English home that had been the resort of Wilberforce and Clarkson and many of the foremost philanthropists of England. The plainly furnished dining-room had entertained royalty. In January, 1842, the King of Prussia, after going with Mrs. Fry through Newgate prison, rode out to Upton to dine with a woman who was a queen by nature and still more by grace. She was, at that time, one of the most stately and elegant specimens of womanhood in the realm-tall, fair and graceful.

customed to intercourse with royalty, for during her religious tours on the Continent, she had held long conversations with King Louis Philippe, of France, the King and Queen of Holland, and

other wearers of a crown, and had told them some

very plain truths in her plain language.

the little Friends' meeting house, and there I stood From Mrs. Fry's home Mrs. Barclay drove us to on the same pulpit floor from which this wonderful woman delivered some of her rich and devout gospel discourses.

The beautiful Quakeress was about thirty three years of age and the mother of several children, when the idea first arose in her loving heart to go and "preach to the spirits in prison." It was a hazardous undertaking. The governor of the prison told her to leave her watch behind her, and everything else that could be stolen. Taking her friend, Anna Buxton, with her, she entered the loathsome room-clothed on with purity. Holding up her Bible, she told them that she had come to read it to them, and to do them good. Her saintly countenance charmed them instantly, and they flocked around her and listened as quietly as lambs. She dropped her handkerchief and some other articles, but they were picked up by the prisoners at once and handed to her. That day's work wrought the victory, and pioneered a movement of Gospel love which soon spread into other jails and peniten

OUR LONDON LETTER.

Amongst ministering Friends from a distance who are in attendance at our Yearly Meeting this time are: Charles Wakefield, with a certificate from Lurgan Monthly Meeting in the North of Ireland, liberating him for religious service amongst us; Allen Jay, of Richmond, Indiana, who is wellknown to many Friends on both sides of the At lantic; and Edward Sayce, with minute from Melbourne Meeting. John A. Horsfall, also of Melbourne, is now with us, having come to England on a social visit.

An interesting subject brought out by the reports from subordinate meetings to the Meeting on Ministry and Oversight was the evidence of a spirit of inquiry and an openness to receive the principles of Friends evinced in parts of Scotland and Cornwall. For some years past a good meeting, of working men and others, has been gathered at Kilmarnock, and a meeting-house is now about to be erected. This meeting arose quite independently of Friends, consisting of some who were drawn to the views that we profess, without even knowing of the existence of our Society, and of others who were convinced of our principles by meeting with Barclay's Apology.

The subject of our epistolary relations with the different American and Canadian Yearly Meetings came forward at an early sitting of the Yearly Meet ing. It was concluded to refer the whole question to a conference of representatives from the Quarterly Meetings with the Meeting for Sufferings, which is to be held in the autumn.

Epistles were read, as usual, from various Yearly Meetings. Referring to North Carolina, Allen Jay gave interesting reminiscences of his nine years' residence there, and particularly described the excellent work done by the boarding school at New Garden during the trying period of the civil war and subsequently. Some most interesting particu lars were given by himself and by Isaac Sharp respecting the Indians and colored people who have joined with Friends in different parts of the States.

At a later sitting a voluminous report was presented by the deputation appointed last year to visit Friends in Canada. It began with an appropriate reference to the loss sustained in the removal of Thomas Harvey, who died shortly after his return to England. The deputation took especial care to visit both the parties of Friends, by whom they were courteously received, sitting with them in their Yearly Meetings, and arranging that all the meetings for worship in Canada should be visited

by one or more of their number. They found that the unhappy divisions among Friends were due to a variety of causes, owing to the different circumstances of the several meetings. On the whole the impression was conveyed from their report that the divergence of view and of practice had gone too far by this time to admit of bringing the two parties together again-at least for the present. The depu tation had counselled mutual forbearance and love, and had sought earnestly, though without success, to induce the Friends to abandon the further prosecution of their lawsuit. Upon their return to England they issued on their own responsibility an address to "all Friends" in Canada, of which a sufficient quantity was sent out to allow of one being given to every adult member of each party.

After a long discussion the Yearly Meeting concluded to prepare a minute to be sent to each party, recording our thankfulness for the courtesy extended towards the deputation. Besides this (as decided in a previous sitting), an Epistle will be again sent this year to the body with which we have corresponded since the division. Some Friends would rather have had further correspondence deferred for a twelvemonth, until the report from the autumn Conference had been received.

Some features in relation to the gift of Eldership were alluded to in the Meeting on Ministry and Oversight. One Friend specially referred to the service of Barnabas on behalf of Paul,-first in introducing him to the disciples at Jerusalem at a time when they were afraid of him and doubted the sincerity of his conversion, and afterwards in going to Tarsus to find Paul and bring him to Antioch, where for "a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people." We want more Barnabases in our little church in the smaller meetings where there is little or no local ministry exercised, as well as in the larger ones,-men of loving spirit and sanctified judgment, not only to encourage and counsel young and inexperienced ministers, but also to discern capacities for service that may be yet latent and undeveloped from the want (it may be) of attention to the Divine call. One of our Friends from a distant land told us the history of his first ap pearance in the ministry many years ago. He never thought that he should be called to this service; but one day while sitting in meeting an Elder, who had seldom, if ever, opened his mouth in meeting before, rose and said solemnly that if any one present had a message given him (or words to this effect) he hoped that he would not "quench the Spirit." At once the young Friend bowed the knee in prayer, and he acknowledged the hand of the good Lord in thus calling him to this blessed

service.

London, Fifth mo. 26th, 1885.

SELF DENIAL is an excellent guard of virtue, and it is safer and wiser to abate somewhat of our law. ful enjoyments, than to gratify our desires to the utmost extent of what is permitted, lest the bent of nature toward pleasures hurry us further.--Townson.

on Constitutional Prohibition.

BY JOSHUA L. BAILY.

(Continued from page 697.)

SWALLOWING THE CHURCHES.

Philadelphia is a city of churches. There are over six hundred, the total valuation of which is set down at sixteen million three hundred thousand dollars. Compare that with the drink bill of twentyfour million dollars. Do you see that every eight months of the year our people swallow in strong drink the value of all our churches, pulpits, pews, turrets, towers, and steeples, with the cemeteries of the dead included?

But I will not confine myself to Philadelphia; I will speak of some things which concern the people of the whole State.

TWO SCHOOL SYSTEMS.

Pennsylvania has two great systems of public education. One of them, known as the "commonschool system," is annually reported upon by your Superintendent of Education. In his report for the year ending June, 1884, and which I hold in my hand, the Superintendent (Professor Higbee) says: "No worthier object can engage the attention of a State than the proper education of the children

thereof." The whole number of schools of this system is reported to be nineteen thousand nine hundred and nineteen, and the whole number of teachers employed twenty-two thousand four hundred and sixty four.

The other system of public education I shall call the saloon system. It is represented by an equal if not greater number of schools, in which at least double, if not thrice, the number of teachers are employed. I regret that there is no State Superintendent of the schools of the latter class, that we might have, as in the first case, an annual report giving us figures and results which would enable us to speak of the system more accurately than is possible where we are so largely dependent upon esti

mates.

The schools of the first class are intended to teach our children the principles of morality, to teach them science and literature, to fit them for business, and to make them good and useful citiBut the other class of schools are schools of vice and crime and of moral and political corruption.

zens.

While the schools of the first class are open six hours on each of five days of the week, the saloon schools are open all day long and far into the night, and most of them open on Sabbath as well as on week days, all the year round.

In the schools of the first class I see by this report there are nine hundred and sixty six thousand and thirty-nine scholars. In the schools of the other class (the saloon schools), how many scholars there are we know not; as I said before, they do not give us any report. If we could only know how many have entered these schools in the past year, and how many have graduated, it would be a fearful record that would make the stoutest heart

many bright prospects blasted! How many homes made wretched! How many souls ruined!

RELATIVE EXPENDITURES.

Upon the schools of the first class there was expended last year, as I read in this report, nine million four hundred and sixty-three thousand two hundred and twenty one dollars and eighty-one cents, this money being raised by taxation. No money could be raised for a better object, but I am sorry to say that there are people in this State who do not pay their school tax very willingly. For the support of the other schools-the saloon schools -the people pay over sixty million dollars, and this vast sum is paid voluntarily. Six dollars spent on schools of vice and immorality and degradation to every one dollar expended for moral and intellectual elevation! And yet both these school systems are the creatures of law. Both are established and carry out their respective curriculums under the authority of the State.

How can it be expected that the State can prosper in the best sense? How can the best qualities be developed and cultured under two such antagonistic systems of education-one pulling down faster than the other can build up? To recur again to the words of Superintendent Higbee: the State than the proper (I emphasize the word) "No worthier subject can engage the attention of the proper education of the children thereof."

Senators and Representatives, permit me in very earnestness and yet with becoming deference, to press upon you a due consideration of the responsibility involved in your relation as lawmakers to the two school systems of which I have spoken.

THE LIQUOR SYSTEM THE CREATURE OF LAW.

The protection of the people in the enjoyment of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is the chief function of government, and I submit to you that there is no system known among us which is so subversive of all these rights as the liquor system. Yet, strange anomaly! this degrading, pauperizing, vice-breeding system-this system so utterly at war with all that is just and pure and noble and of good report-is wholly the creature of the civil law. True, to restrain and regulate the traffic has always been recognized by the lawmakers of this State as essential to the peace and welfare of the community. And there are now on the statute books of Pennsylvania more enactments in relation to this one subject than there are in relation to any other subject of legislation. At the same time this very attempt to regulate the system is what gives it legal standing. "Natural law," says Blackstone, "requires that we should live honestly, hurt nobody, and render to every man his due." "Common law," says the same learned authority, "declares that no man has a right to use his property to the injury of another." Moral law requires that we love our neighbor as ourselves. All these laws are in harmony with Divine law. But no law can establish or givǝ sanction to such a vicious system as the drink

system without contravening all other laws, whether natural, common, moral, or Divine.

HIGH LICENSE.

A great deal has been said recently in reference to high license, and one or more bills, I believe, have been before this Legislature proposing its enactment, as a means for restricting the drink traffic and of promoting temperance. I have no doubt whatever that these measures are advocated by gentlemen who are honestly and earnestly desirous of promoting the public good. Far be it from me to antagonize any measure which would, in the least degree, abate the gigantic evil which confronts us. But after the most candid and careful consideration that I have been able to give the subject, I feel very well satisfied that there is no relief for the present nor security for the future to be found in high license. Those whom I represent are opposed, on principle, to all license; and they are opposed to this form of license for the additional reason that there is no evidence satisfactory to them that it has ever been tried with successful results. License high, license low, license under every form, has been tried in England for more than four hundred years, and during that period the brewing interest, the liquor traffic, and the drinking customs of society have grown, until England has become the most drunken nation in Christendom. We have tried the system in this country for more than two centuries, and statistics show that we are fast approaching the drunken level of the mother country.

INCREASED CONSUMPTION.

The statistics establish the fact that the increase of the liquor traffic and the consequent greater consumption of intoxicants has been greatly in excess of the increase of population. A comparison of the average consumption of liquors during the past five years with that of the previous five years shows an increase of twelve and a half per cent. in vinous liquors, twenty-seven and a half per cent. in spirituous liquors, and fifty-one and a half per cent. in malt liquors, while, in the meantime, our population has increased less than fifteen per cent. For the same period we find that the inmates of our penal, charitable, and correctional institutions have increased in number in a ratio much greater than that of the increase of population. I cannot speak confidently on this point with regard to States other than our own, because I have not fully examined the subject as to them; but I can assert that the showing is entirely a true one with regard to Pennsylvania. In other words, and it is a startling fact, the population inside the correctional and charitable institutions of Pennsylvania is increasing much faster than the population outside of them. If the If the ratio continues to increase in like proportion, it follows that it must be only a question of time when the majority of our people will be inside of

those institutions.

(To be continued.)

CUNNING is nothing else but the fool's substitute for wisdom.-Skelton.

BISHOP TAYLOR IN AFRICA.

Amanda Smith, the evangelist, writes to Dr. Reid from Monrovia, Liberia, April 1, acknowledg ing first the receipt of money sent through Dr. Reid, and then says:

"Our God-sent Bishop Taylor reached Monrovia February 22, and came on shore just in time to go to church to our regular Thursday eve preaching. Some of those who did not know him as well as I did were surprised at his coming direct from the steamer and preaching the same evening, and going right on the same way for ten days.

"We had a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Many sinners were convicted and converted, backsliders reclaimed and believers sanctified. The work has gone on grandly ever since and there are constant additions to the church. I have also heard that the work was wonderful at Cape Palmas, where the bishop only remained four days, and fifty were converted and some forty seekers were left when he went away to meet the party of missionaries that had come out to join him.

"The Conference was to have been held at Sinae, but after the bishop came it was thought best to change to Monrovia, and I believe it was all of the Lord's ordering, for we have never seen it on this manner. On the Sabbath it was wonderful.

"A week after the bishop left, his son, with the. rest of the missionaries, called at Monrovia. They went into the room occupied by the bishop and kneeled down and prayed and went on their way rejoicing, leaving all in the house rejoicing behind them.

mightiest expedition that has ever gone out since "I pray God to make this the grandest and landed at Plymouth Rock. the time when the Pilgrims crossed the ocean and

"I thought some of going with them, but the bishop said I would not be able to do much without have to master that first, so just now I could do the knowledge of the language, and they would more good among the people where I am, and this looks like the Lord's word to me.

"I have never had a doubt that the Lord sent much to be done, and I am ready to work on for me to Africa. Here in this little republic there is Africa."

Bishop Taylor writes to the Christian Advocate from Congo, West Coast of Atrica, March 13, and says:

"I preached between fifty-five and sixty sermons in the month I was in Liberia-from Muhlenburg, the Rev. Mr. Day's mission, twenty-nine miles up St. Paul's River, to Cape Palmas.

"Liberia is the garden spot of West Africa; splendid soil, well-watered, good spring water for use, salubrious climate, and more exempt from flies and mosquitoes than any tropical country in which I have labored.

"I am very sorry that the Liberian Government has, by bad management, got into debt. I hope