FREE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



FRIENDS. 



321 



National Guards of the Seine, but soon returned 

 to Algeria. In the war with Germany he was 

 chief of staff of the Army of the Loire, and 

 together with General de Paladines conducted 

 the battle of Coulmiers. When the insurrec- 

 tion of the Commune broke out, Marshal Mac- 

 Mahon appointed him chief of staff of the Army 

 of Paris, and in this position he remained until 

 1873. He then became General Barail's chief of 

 cabinet, and as such took part in the preparation 

 of the new army organization law of June, 1873. 

 Upon the retirement of General Barail, he be- 

 came the commander of the 12th Infantry Di- 

 vision, and shortly after chief of staff to the 

 Governor of Paris. In this position he re- 

 mained until called to the Ministry of War. 



POTHUAU, Louis PIERRE ALEXIS, who was ap- 

 pointed Minister of the Navy in 1877, held this 

 position in 1875. (See ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA 

 for 1875, page 322.) 



FREE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. The 

 15th annual Convocation of the Free Church 

 of England was held at Spa Fields, London, 

 beginning June 20th. An opening address 

 was made by the presiding bishop, the Rev. 

 Dr. Price, in which the speaker gave a 

 general view of the state of the Evangelical 

 and Ritualistic parties in the Church of Eng- 

 land, and discussed the necessity of pushing 

 forward the work of the Free Church. In re- 

 viewing the course of the Free Church during 

 the year preceding, the bishop referred to the 

 visit of Bishop Cridge, of the Reformed Epis- 

 copal Church, to England, and the service he 

 had rendered in connection with the meeting 

 of the Convocation of 1876, and the consecra- 

 tion of the two bishops of the Free Church. 

 By this consecration, the ministry of the Free 

 Church had been raised to the level of other 

 Episcopal Churches, not excepting that of 

 the Church of England, conferring upon it an 

 authority which even High-Churchmen could 

 not afford to deny ; not that the ministry of 

 the Free Church should be considered one whit 

 more valid than it was before, for the validity 

 of the Christian ministry did not depend on 

 any Episcopal consecration, but on a Divine ap- 

 pointment ; nevertheless, the consecration was 

 upposed to have put the ministers of the Free 

 Church in a more advantageous position to do 

 their work, and should therefore be regarded 

 with interest. The relations between the Free 

 Church of England and the Reformed Episcopal 

 Church were discussed. A correspondence 

 which had been carried on between the two 

 Churches, through their representatives, was 

 read, after which the following resolution, re- 

 ported by a committee appointed for the pur- 

 pose, was unanimously adopted : 



Resolved, That this Convocation, having heard the 

 correspondence with the Rev. M. B. Smith, president 

 of the standing committee of the General Council ot 

 the Reformed Episcopal Church, and referring to the 

 Articles of Union solemnly agreed upon by the Re- 

 formed Episcopal Church and the Free Church ot 

 England, severally, as set forth in the Appendix to 

 the "Journal of the Second Council of the Reformed 

 VOL. xvn. 21 A 



Episcopal Church " (p. 25), while cordially admit- 

 ting the full and perfect right of the Reformed Epis- 

 copal Church to establish itself in Great Britain arid 

 Ireland, or elsewhere, nevertheless deeply deplores 

 even an appearance of division and rivalry between 

 two ecclesiastical bodies so thoroughly one in the 

 great work of evangelization, in the maintenance of 

 Protestant Christian principles, and in Church order 

 and discipline ; and would earnestly and prayerfully 

 suggest to the governing authority of the Reformed 

 Episcopal Church to consider whether it would not 

 be prouiotive at once of the greater usefulness of the 

 two Churches and the advancement of religion in 

 the spheres of their several operations, so to ar- 

 range that they might form in each country but one 

 ecclesiastical organization. And further^ this Con- 

 vocation would suggest, with a view to this desirable 

 endj that a joint committee or delegation of the two 

 bodies might be empowered to meet and consider 

 the subject, and present a report thereon to the gov- 

 erning authorities of the two Churches. 



FRIENDS. The 200th meeting of the Lon- 

 don Yearly Meeting of Friends was held in 

 the Devonshire Meeting-House, Bishopsgate, 

 London, beginning May 23d. At the pre- 

 liminary sitting of the lately enlarged meeting 

 on Ministry and Oversight, several ministers 

 were set free for fields of foreign religious 

 service, among them Mr. Isaac Sharp, who 

 proposed to undertake a long missionary jour-, 

 ney to South Africa, Madagascar, and other 

 distant parts. The yearly meeting was at- 

 tended by ministers from America and Ireland. 

 Epistles were presented from the yearly meet- 

 ing in Ireland, and from eleven yearly meetings 

 in America. These epistles gave accounts of 

 the educational operations as well as of the 

 direct religious affairs of the meetings. Some 

 of them reported a large increase of mem- 

 bership. They contained full accounts of the 

 work of the Friends among the Indians. In 

 North Carolina, it was stated, the yearly meet- 

 ing had doubled its numbers since the war, 

 but help was required for the erection of school 

 and meeting houses. A committee was ap- 

 pointed to consider whether anything could be 

 done by Friends in England to help in this 

 purpose. The statistical statements showed 

 that the present number of members of the 

 Society in England was 14,441, of whom 7,490 

 were female and 6,951 were male members. 

 The increase during the year had been 188. A 

 larger number of members had been received 

 by " convihcement" than in any year since 

 returns had been made, and probably, it was 

 said, than in any year during the last half 

 century. Several closed meeting-houses had 

 been reopened, as the result of Friends being 

 appointed to attend the meetings in them, re- 

 sulting in the gathering of attendants and the 

 addition of several members to the Society. 

 This, it is remarked, was a mode of action 

 which at one time would have been thought to 

 show an unwarrantable dependence on human 

 arrangement. The conclusion was drawn from 

 a comparison of the statistics of the body for 

 several years past, that it had fully overcome 

 the tendency toward decline it had so long 

 manifested, and was now increasing ; but " it 



