pality to secure its public utilities. Wisdom and tireless vigilance on the part of the people are essential to the enjoyment of the full measure of benefits, —such, for example, as are enjoyed by the citizens of English municipalities, where public-ownership has resulted in such an enormous increase in public revenue on the one hand and decrease in the cost to the public on the other. And this watchfulness is especially necessary in our own country, owing to the baleful influence which has been exerted by the respectable and leading citizens in establishing a reign of graft through which public servants have been seduced from allegiance to the interests of the electorate.

If the post-office of each city were a law unto itself—that is, if it were operated independently of the central bureau there would be grave danger of extensive demoralization, graft and corruption creeping into the department in many municipalities. In a very real sense every post-office is under the careful supervision of the department, and whenever anything suspicious comes to the attention of the watchful eyes at headquarters, inspectors are sent to investigate the accounts of the office in question.

Now a similar system, while it would be without authority, would, if all the cities joined together, have the same

moral and practical effect in regard to the management of city affairs, particularly in regard to gas, water and street-railroad enterprises, and other public utilities owned and operated by the municipalities. Watchful statisticians at headquarters would know the rise and fall of expenses of these corporations. They would receive copies of bids for new buildings, supplies, and everything else of that nature, and then if there appeared to be a discrepancy, investigation from the central office would be made at once, thus leading to publicity and a new election, as previously suggested. When these matters are left to one man, and when a city acts independently, the result is usually graft in one form or another; whereas in the hands of a committee, especially under the supervision of a general committee, the danger of dishonesty is reduced to a minimum.

What we need in this country is not spasmodic but permanent reform; a reform that under a City League, with a central clearing-house for information, would quickly revolutionize and purify our municipal government and in a reasonably short time place America in the forefront of the progressive nations, in so far as her municipal governments are concerned.

WOLSTAN R. BROWN.

New York City.

DOU

OUBTLESS there never has existed a religious sect that had so warm a place in the hearts of all the people as the Friends or Quakers, the men and women and their descendants who followed George Fox. They were and are universally respected by all denomina

tions and tribes of men. If we look for a reason it is that the Friends lived up to their principles.

Their doctrines in 1665 were two or three hundred years ahead of the times. They were the pioneers in modern culture, true humanity and virtue, and the equal

rights of man. They believed in simplicity of life and lived it. They kept their word-it was as good as their bond, and in all the history of the Friends it will be found that there was an almost complete lack of criminals, and the Friend in good standing was as near a perfect man or woman, according to the Christian standard, as it would be possible to find.

It is a sad fact that these people are passing away. In all England, where there are many distinguished Friends, there are but thirty thousand, and in this country the number in the last census was given as ninety-two thousand five hundred and fifty; and as the years go by a gradual loss is noticed. This number does not include the descendants of Friends, as they are as the sands of the sea, and it can be said that there is not a family in what was really the old American aristocracy that has come down from pre-Revolutionary times in New York, Boston or Philadelphia, that is unallied with the Friends or Quakers. The coming of the Friends was a renaissance of culture and refinement, an epoch in civilization.

This period was one of the most dramatic in the history of our country, and singularly enough, the only monument these Quaker martyrs have, is a tomb at Shelter Island, erected by Prof. Eben Norton Horsford, of Harvard, to his ancestor Nathaniel Sylvester, Christopher Holder, William Rous, Mary Dyer, George Fox, Copeland, William Leddra and other martyrs. The story of these early Friends reads like a gross exaggeration, as it is the story of a contest between ten or twelve men and women on one side armed with "passive resistance," and the Puritans, clergy and their law-making powers, in fact all America of 1657,on the other; yet the Quakers won.

The seed of Quakerism was sown when the sensuous splendor of the Romanists found its most elaborate expression in the seventeenth century. The germ broke its bonds during the Protestant reformation, and in succeeding years, like a cross

sea on a troubled ocean, swept with singular force over Great Britain and the Colonies bearing the wreckage of intolerance to many shores. The doctrine of the Friends, or Quakers as they were called in derision, was the antipodes of the splendid formalism of the time and a reactionary result. The Puritans had fled to Holland, and later to America, to escape the gross intolerance of the era, and in 1657 we find the Friends “experiencing a call" to America to carry the Word to the Puritans and restore to Christianity its primitive spirituality and simplicity, For ten years the Friends had been active factors in England, and despite the aggressive tactics of their enemies had become an influential body and a thorn in the flesh to the Established Church and the Puritans. George Fox and Christopher Holder had tested many jails in England wherever they preached, and to the Puritan the Quaker had become a thing of evil to be plucked from the body-politic at all cost; hence when the ship "Speedwell" arrived in Boston Harbor with two Quakers on board consternation seized them, and there began a reign of terror which found few apologists and can be explained only upon the ground that the spiritual and legal advisers of the Puritans represented the ignorance and bigotry of a period in which clergymen and men of supposed education accepted witchcraft and demonology as facts. Witchcraft and the crimes committed against the Quakers constitute two black pages in Colonial history. The former, widely known from its sensational aspect, has been condoned on the ground of fanaticism, but crimes against the first Quakers are passed over lightly by the historian who finds no excuse for them; hence they are little known except by the modern Friends who have the records of these early martyrs who were branded, scourged, mutilated, hung, banished, robbed and despoiled in a manner only comparable to the acts of the Inquisitors of Spain.

In 1655 Mary Fisher and Anne Austin

went to Barbadoes as missionaries of the Society of Friends, returning by way of Boston, where they were at once arrested as holding "very dangerous, heretical and blasphemous opinions," confined in jail for five weeks, then shipped to England. Hardly had the "Swallow" left the harbor when the "Speedwell" dropped anchor off the little town whose homes were strewn along the shore of the bay. Among the ship's passengers were eight men and women after whose names on the shipping list the master, Captain Robert Locke, had placed a significant "Q". Those indicated were Christopher Holder, of Winterboune, John Copeland, Thomas Thurston, William Brend, Mary Price, Sarah Gibbons, Mary Weatherhead and Dorothy Waugh. The "Q" indicated that they were Quaker ministers; and when Bellingham, the deputy-governor of the colony, saw the list he ordered them searched and refused to allow them to land. Their books and pamphlets were burned, and later the Quakers were manacled and taken before Governor Endicott, who, in reply to their demands for cause of their arrest and detention, replied: "Take heed that ye break not our ecclesiastical laws, for then ye are sure to stretch by a halter"; and after a frivolous examination he committed them to jail and finally banished them. The captain of the "Speedwell" was thrown into jail with them until he agreed to give bonds that he would carry the Quakers back. This he finally was coerced into doing, and after nearly two months in jail the Quakers were sent aboard ship underguard and the "Speedwell" sailed for England. The action of Governor Endicott was illegal and made many sympathizers for the Friends in Boston, who protested against it; but at this time the Puritan clergy was all-powerful; the Rev. John Norton and Rev. John Wilson, pastors of the first church of Boston, were clamorous in their demands that Endicott readily took their advice, and acting on the suggestion, laws were enacted to prevent the coming into Massachusetts

colony of Quakers. The first enactment was dated October 14, 1656. It was directed not only at Quakers, but provided a fine for any colonist who should bring or aid them in any way. Thus began one of the most dramatic and interesting conflicts conflicts in history. The Colonial Puritan government, led by its priests, Norton and Wilson, and its governor, Endicott, reinforced by the machinery of the law, on one hand, and eight Quakers, armed with the sense of conscientious duty and faith on the other. Never were forces more unequal arrayed one against the other. In justice to the Puritans it may be said that the status of human intelligence in the Colonies at this time was low. Fanaticism had its exponents in governor and priests. Roger Williams, a man of high culture and intelligence, had been banished in 1635, founding the liberal colony of Rhode Island, which became a refuge for the Quakers and other victims of Puritan orthodoxy. Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, Rev. John Wheelright, Samuel Gorton and others were also victims, having been driven out of the Colony. Witchcraft, demonology, for a century or more had been believed in by these people and their descendants, later reaching an acute stage.

The Puritans, while seeking the shores of New England, where they could have religious liberty, represented an accentuated type of intolerance. The Colony was essentially religious, and the Puritans surrounded themselves by a maze of rules, regulations and methods of living that were diametrically opposed to the ideas of constitutional rights and freedom of speech, which the Quakers brought and who first planted on American soil the sovereign principles of liberty, freedom and equality. The Puritans stood for intolerance and their own religion; the Quakers for religious freedom and a belief that has stood the test of time in its simplicity, its beauty and its close affinity to the teachings of Christ.

The doctrine of Quakers, if it can be

called such, is well defined by Joseph John Gurney, who said: "I should not describe it as the system so elaborately wrought out by Barclay, or as the doctrines, maxims of Penn, or as the deep and refined views of Pennington, for all these authors have their defects as well as their excellencies. I should call it the religion of the New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, without diminution, without addition, and without compromise." This in itself was not greatly at variance with the views of the Puritans, but there was a conflict in interpretation of the Word. Again, they pretended to see mysticism in the peculiarities of the Friends, when they refused to swear, insisted upon wearing the hat in the presence of officials, used "thee" and "thou," claimed to be equals of the king or governor as men and women. All these eccentricities and more were looked upon as menaces to the true religion as understood by the Puritan clergy, and they determined to rid the Colonies of the Quakers at whatever cost.

As the "Speedwell" sailed, the Colonies were left without representatives of the Friends and the movement was apparently a failure; but the banished ministers, who had been robbed of all their baggage and conveniences by the jailer, immediately began to plan to return, but upon their arrival in London no shipmaster could be found sufficiently courageous to carry them back. Endicott had caused his anti-Quaker laws to be published in England, and ship-masters carefully interrogated all would-be emigrants, refusing to admit any who were even suspected of sympathy with the hated sect. The Quakers were in a quandary, but relief came from an unexpected quarter. Some time previous, in the Holderness district, a sea-faring man, named Robert Fowler, became identified with the Friends, and while Christopher Holder, who was a man of large private means, was endeavoring to hire a vessel for himself and friends to take them to America, Fowler was following his avocation of ship-build

ing. He had a small craft on the ways half finished, when he became suddenly impressed that "he should devote it to some purpose in furtherance of the Truth." The theory of telepathy was unknown in 1657, but Robert Fowler launched his vessel, little more than a smack, christened her the "Woodhouse" and sailed her to London, where the impression coming strong again that his vessel was to accomplish some great spiritual work, he sought out one Gerard Roberts, a shipping merchant, who it happened was a friend of Christopher Holder—the leader of the missionary party.

The meeting seemed providential. The merchant immediately arranged a meeting between Captain Fowler, George Fox, Christopher Holder and others, and it was finally agreed that the ministers should return and enter the Colonies, despite the decree of banishment. The vessel was entirely inadequate for the purpose, and to add to their difficulties, Robert Fowler was but a coastwise sailor, knowing nothing about navigation. At the last moment the crew selected was impressed and carried off to the British fleet then ready to sail against the king of Sweden, who was threatening Denmark. These obstacles did not deter the Friends. They had hoisted the pennant of Faith to the peak, and on the first of April, 1657, the "Woodhouse" sailed with eleven Quakers,-Christopher Holder, John Copeland, Dorothy Waugh, Humphrey Norton, Richard Doudney, Mary Weatherhead, Sarah Gibbons, Mary Clark, Robert Hodshon, William Brend and William Robinson.

The crew consisted of two men and

three boys, none of whom had any knowledge of the ocean, and with this equipment the "Woodhouse" sailed upon one of the most remarkable voyages in history, not only for the methods employed, but for the far-reaching results, as aboard the craft were the founders of the Society of Friends in America, destined to establish a sect that for two centuries should have a dominant influence in the growth and de

velopment of a great nation. Knowing nothing of navigation, the captain looked to his spiritual-minded passengers for guidance, and we have the singular spectacle of a vessel being sailed across the Atlantic, the helmsman each day taking his orders from the ministers, who daily held a silent Quaker meeting for this purpose. During this period one or more of the Friends would invariably receive an impression as to the course to pursue, which at the close of the meeting was conveyed to the captain, who laid the course until the following day. Early in the voyage they were threatened by a foreign fleet which attempted their capture, Humphrey Norton announcing in advance that they would meet with this danger; but he calmed the alarm of the captain by saying, “Thus saith the Lord, ye shall be carried away as in a mist." This was literally true; a fleet soon appeared and chased them, but the wind suddenly changed, and in a fog the "Woodhouse" escaped. One of the ministers then received word: "Cut through and steer your straightest course and mind nothing but me." This they did, holding a meeting each day and having such good fortune that but three meetings were omitted during the long voyage on account of storms. Every day the course was laid according to the results of the meeting of that day, and never did absolute faith find a greater reward, as on the twenty-ninth of May one of the ministers at the meeting of that day felt a conviction that "there was a lion in the way," and on the following day they sighted land, and at the meeting word came to Christopher Holder that they were on the road to Rhode Island. A short time later a boat came off and verified the communication.

The "Woodhouse," despite this remarkable method of navigating without knowledge of latitude or longitude, had sailed into Long Island Sound, and a few days after, two months from England, landed all the ministers at New Amsterdam, with the exception of Christopher

Holder and John Copeland, who, notwithstanding the decree of banishment, determined to go to Boston. They visited Martha's Vineyard first, but were thrust out of the church and ordered to leave the island, every house being closed upon them; whereupon the Algonquin Indians entertained the Quakers and finally landed them upon the mainland, where they walked to Sandwich on their way to Boston. Here the first labors of the Friends in New England began. Here was held the first meeting and the first meeting-house erected. As the result of the ministration of Christopher Holder and John Copeland, eighteen families of Sandwich became the nucleus of a great movement which was to become so important and influential a factor in the development of America.

The Friends held the meetings in private houses, but the spirit of intolerance was abroad; the orders of Governor Endicott had been cried in the town, and so great was the excitement that the two English Friends went to Plymouth where they were arrested, being finally released with orders to "begone out of the colony." They were followed by the constable, who insisted upon their walking to Rhode Island; but they turned south to Sandwich where they were arrested and returned to Plymouth, from which place they were again sent to Rhode Island. The presence of these two ministers in New England occasioned much excitement, and Governor Endicott addressed a communication to the commissioners of the United Colonies, requesting them to ask the coöperation of Rhode Island in expelling the Quakers. But Rhode Island was still dominated by the liberal principles of Roger Williams, and her reply was that none be accounted a delinquent for doctrine"-a decision which speaks for the intelligence of the Rhode Islanders, who by this decree virtually officially offered a haven for the oppressed Quakers.

Christopher Holder and John Copeland now moved slowly north, holding meetings