FRIENDS. 



f. innl \vns soon after charged with the 

 8iipreme direction of the war, with the title of 

 persnnul delegate of the Minister in the Depart- 

 ment of War. His efforts in this sphere, 

 although not attended by success, were marked 

 by grout ability ; and even his political op- 

 ponents, like Goneral Borel, attested to the 

 rare talent displayed by him in this position. 

 After the armistice, M. de Freycinet retired 

 from the administration of the War Depart- 

 ment, and laid down his experience in "La 

 Guerre en Province pendant le Siege de Paris." 

 In 187C he was elected to the Senate from the 

 department of the Seine, and ho has on several 

 occasions held the post of Minister of Public 

 Works. In December, 187fl, he was intrusted 

 with the formation of a Cabinet by President 

 Grevy, after the Waddington Ministry had been 

 compelled to retire. He was selected mainly on 

 account of his intimacy with M. Gambetta, the 

 leader of the French Republicans. The favor- 

 ite idea of M. de Freycinet's life has been for 

 the Government to take the control of all the 

 railroads. He is now in a position to give 

 effect to the scheme, or at least to bring it 

 fairly before the country. 



FRIENDS. A meeting of Friends appointed 

 by some of the American Yearly Meetings was 

 held at Indianapolis, Ind., December 10th and 

 llth, to consider and act upon a proposal which 

 had been made by the Ohio Yearly Meeting 

 for the formation of an American Board of 

 Friends' Missions. The Ohio, Western, North 

 Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Indiana, New York, 

 and New England Yearly Meetings were rep- 

 resented by twenty-six delegates. Fifteen of 

 these delegates were from Yearly Meetings 

 which had fully agreed to the proposal of the 

 Ohio Yearly Meeting. A plan of operations 

 agreeable to that proposal was adopted, to be 

 laid before the Yearly Meetings at their annual 

 gatherings for approval by them, of which the 

 principal features are as follows: The Board 

 of Missions, to be constituted after approval by 

 the Yearly Meetings, shall be called the Amer- 

 ican Friends' Missionary Society. Its object 

 shall be " to promote the work of missions and 

 advance the cause of Christ in the earth by 

 effecting a general and more specific coSpera- 

 tion of Friends everywhere." The Board shall 

 consist of two members appointed by each 

 Yearly Meeting of the Association, with a like 

 number from such Association of Friends in 

 Philadelphia as may unite in the scheme, and 

 shall meet annually, and oftener if necessary. 

 Its duties shall be to procure information in 

 regard to the needs of the various missionary 

 fields, and exercise a general supervision over 

 the work and workers under its care; to re- 

 ceive and consider applications from persons 

 who may desire to engage in the work, and 

 recommend them to such fields for labor as 

 may seem to them to be the best, and under 

 such regulations as it may determine ; to rec- 

 ommend to the Missionary Committees of 

 such Yearly Meetings as may have committees 



of this kind suitable fields for their labor and 

 suitable workers for those fields; to correspond 

 with such committees upon the general and 

 particular needs of the work, and report to the 

 Yearly Meetings through their committees all 

 information that may be of interest to them, 

 or may aid them in furthering the interests of 

 the cause ; and to keep Friends generally ad- 

 vised, through the press, of the progress of the 

 work, and make such application of the funds 

 intrusted to its care as may seem best, either 

 in the establishment of new missions, or in the 

 assistance of those already established by indi- 

 vidual Yearly Meetings. The expenses of the 

 Board are to be borne by means of voluntary 

 contributions. The meeting recommended that 

 a corresponding secretary be appointed by each 

 Yearly Meeting. It also voted that " such 

 Yearly Meetings as are already engaged in mis- 

 sionary work are encouraged to continue in 

 their respective fields; but when they wish to 

 engage in other fields, it is recommended that 

 they do so only with the sanction of the Board, 

 that the work may be properly distributed 

 and the best results obtained by the com- 

 mittee." The committees of the Yearly Meet- 

 ings were requested to make reports to the 

 Board. Among the fields for missionary work 

 spoken of in the meeting were the American 

 Indians, the colored people, the Chinese, and 

 people of other nationalities that are similarly 

 situated. 



The London Yearly Meeting of the Society 

 of Friends was opened May 28th. Epistles 

 were read from most of the American Yearly 

 Meetings, giving accounts of the condition of 

 the Society, erf its work among the Indians, 

 and of the relations borne by the meetings and 

 the members to the questions of education, 

 temperance, etc. Reports were also read from 

 Friends in Australasia, the south of France, 

 Germany, Mount Lebanon, and Denmark. Mr. 

 Barnabas C. Hobbs of Indiana gave an account 

 of visits which he had made to the Govern- 

 ments of Russia and Germany in the interest 

 of religious liberty and of universal peace. A 

 Friend just returned from South Africa gave 

 an account of his visit, and of the religious la- 

 bors of Mr. Sharpe and his companion at the 

 Cape of Good Hope. A deputation was ap- 

 pointed to visit the Friends in Ireland. The 

 reports of the Tract Societies showed that the 

 London Society had issued during the year 

 126,806 tracts and leaflets, making a total of 

 8,282,603 tracts and leaflets issued by it since 

 its formation. 



The thirty-second report of the Friend* 1 

 (English) First-day School Association shows 

 that there are connected with the Union 110 

 schools in 66 places, with 1,800 teachers and 

 20,713 scholars ; and 22 other schools not con- 

 nected with the Union in 21 places, with 128 

 teachers and 1,521 scholars. Of the scholars, 

 12,363 are adults. The returns show an in- 

 crease of 298 junior and a decrease of 40 adult 

 scholars during the year. 



