360 



FRANCE. 



FRIENDS. 



the protection of children above fourteen years, and 

 of women ; (3), the duration of the day's work to be 

 fixed at eight hours, with one day's rest per week ; 

 (4), suppression of night-work, excepting under cer- 

 tain circumstances to be specified; (5), obligatory 

 adoption of measures of hygiene in workshops, mines, 

 factories, etc. ; (6), suppression of certain branches of 

 industry and certain modes of manufacturing injuri- 

 ous to the health of the workers ; (7), civil and penal 

 responsibility of employers with respect to accidents ; 

 (8), inspection of workshops, manufactories, mines, 

 etc., by inspectors elected by the workmen them- 



The English delegates were unwilling to 

 commit themselves entirely to the principle 

 of state interference, or to that of international 

 combination, and abstained from voting, alleg- 

 ing that they had received no mandate from 

 their constituents to vote for the propositions 

 submitted. Dr. de Pape, a Belgian Socialist, 

 who presided over the meeting, recalled the 

 fact that, in the Congress of 1883, the English 

 had likewise withheld their support from reso- 

 lutions having the same object as these, that 

 of strengthening the hands of the Government 

 of the Swiss Republic in its efforts to obtain 

 international concert in legislation for the 

 benefit of the working-class. He asked why 

 the workmen of England, who, under the in- 

 fluence of trade-unionism, had set the world 

 a glorious example, and who through state 

 intervention had secured a day's rest every 

 week and protection for women and children, 

 should not agree to extend to the Continent 

 principles that they had nobly struggled to en- 

 force at home. 



Colonies. The colonies and protected conn- 

 tries under the dominion of France have an 

 aggregate area of 491,000 square miles, not in- 

 cluding Algeria, nor the Pacific islands and re- 

 gions in Africa added to the French domains 

 in 1885 and 1886. In Asia the colonies of 

 Cochin-China and Tonquin have an area of 

 57,000 square miles and 10,689,000 inhabit- 

 ants, while the protectorates of Annam and 

 Cambodia have a combined area of 59,000 

 square miles and a population of 7,020,000 

 souls. In Africa the colony of Senegambia 

 was extended in 1883 as far as Bamako, on 

 the Niger. The area is estimated at 96,000 

 square miles. The sura of 11,332,797 francs 

 was voted for a railroad in Senegambia in 



1884, and 7,352,603 for general expenses in 



1885. The colony of Gaboon and the occu- 

 pied points on the Gold Coast have also been 

 increased by recent annexations. The exten- 

 sive new possessions on the Ogow6 and the 

 middle Congo were united in 1886 to the col- 

 ony of Gaboon, and Savorgnan de Brazza was 

 appointed commissary-general, or governor, 

 with the power of appointing all civil officers, 

 excepting the French resident. His immediate 

 subordinate is the explorer Ballay., He asserts 

 that the region acquired by his efforts for France 

 possesses valuable natural resources, and that 

 the colony contains 20,000,000 inhabitants. He 

 promises to preserve order with a force of 7,000 

 natives, drilled by 80 French officers. The 



Chamber voted 1,190,000 francs for the first 

 year's expenses. The southern boundary was 

 defined in a decree of the President as extend- 

 ing from N jole across the Ogowe to Kaka- 

 inucka, or Baudoinville, and thence along the 

 frontiers of the Portuguese possessions and the 

 Congo State. 



In June, 1886, the French Government an- 

 nounced that the Comoro islands, which lie at 

 the northern entrance of the Strait of Mozam- 

 bique, between the African Continent and Mad- 

 agascar, had been taken under its protection. 



In America the colony of Guiana, or Cay- 

 enne, is about 47,000 square miles in area, with 

 a population of 20,284 ; Guadeloupe and its 

 dependencies, 730 square miles in extent, with 

 182,866 inhabitants ; Martinique, 380 square 

 miles in area, with 167,119 inhabitants; and 

 St. Pierre and Miquelon, 92 square miles in 

 area, with 5,564 inhabitants. 



In Oceania the undisputed possessions of 

 France comprise New Caledonia and its de- 

 pendencies, having an area of nearly 47,000 

 square miles, with 60,703 inhabitants ; and the 

 small islands of Tahiti and Moorea, Tubuai, 

 and Raivavai, the Marquesas group, and Tua- 

 motu, Gambier, and the Rapa islands, contain- 

 ing altogether 25,580 inhabitants. 



FRIENDS. The five " Eastern " yearly rn^et- 

 ings of Friends in America return 16,165 mem- 

 bers, divided as follow : New England yearly 

 meeting, 4,370; New York, 3,809; Baltimore, 

 815 ; North Carolina, 5,761. The society has 

 enjoyed a large growth during the past twenty 

 years in the West, where the Indiana yearly 

 meeting, with 27,300 members, has been the 

 parent of five yearly meetings, with which are 

 connected 58 quarterly meetings and 53,310 

 members. The whole number of Friends in 

 the Eastern and Western yearly meetings, with- 

 out including the Philadelphia yearly meeting, 

 is 69,476. It has been customary for several 

 years in the New York yearly meeting for the 

 men and women to hold joint sessions for the 

 transaction of certain business, and then sep- 

 arating and holding their formal meetings as 

 the " yearly meeting," composed of men, and 

 the "Women's yearly meeting." In 1886 it 

 was determined that since in religious matters 

 " all are one in Christ," the holding of the 

 joint meeting should prevail, and the separate 

 meetings be discontinued. In the New Eng- 

 land yearly meeting, joint sessions were held, 

 but the formal organization of separate meet- 

 ings was kept up. In the Ohio yearly meeting 

 the question of tolerating outward observance 

 of the Christian ordinances, which has received 

 attention for several years past, was again 

 brought up and considered. The action of 

 the meeting recited that "a minute of the 

 meeting of ministers and elders, reaffirming 

 our faith in the one saving baptism of the Holy 

 Ghost and the spiritual partaking of the flesh 

 and blood of Christ was brought before us, 

 during the reading of which the melting power 

 of the Holy Ghost rested upon the meeting, 



