If, as Whittier observes, there is a public sentiment throughout all New England, making liquor-selling and drinking disreputable, where shall we find cause for discouragement in regard to the enforcement of legal enactments. While our friend seems to be unnecessarily discouraged by the results of the late elections, and the low moral tone of political leaders, his picture of the growth of temperance among the people at large is overdrawn, for while most persons partook moderately of these beverages at that day, they were not manufactured, sold and drank on the stupendous scale as now, the nation's liquor bill, in proportion to population, would not compare with our time, nor the pauperism and crime resulting, nor the arrests for drunkenness, one to every twenty-five, counting men, women and children, which the city of New York can roll up annually from the filth and scum of her legalized saloons, kept in blast by men, who as yet, do not seem to have seen the propriety of voting as they WM. M. WAY.

pray.

Lyle, Third mo. 5th, 1883. REPORT OF FRIENDS' FREEDMAN'S SCHOOL. The last annual report of this school gives the number of registered pupils as 175, with an average attendance of 160. From the letter accompanying the report we have been permitted to make the subjoined extracts. The letter is addressed to Henry M. Laing, Treasurer of the school fund, and is written by Abby D. Munro, the Principal of the school.

ing the cold weather, almost naked, and begged me to take them in. They are very nice boys. The other is a boy I have known a great while, and had in school several times. His mother is dead, and his father, a longshoreman, had his ribs crushed by a bale of cotton falling on him, and he is unable to work. He came himself and brought the boy, and told me as loth as he was to give him up, he couldn't bear to see him suffer. Neither of these boys had one garment fit to go on their backs again, so to get them comfortably fitted out, has consumed all my leisure I can assure you, and then, they were. so undisciplined when they came in, they need the greatest amount of care and training. The woman who does our work is a widow with two little girls, and she made arrangement to have one stay with her to go to school. Then we have a little boy boarding here from Monday morning to Friday afternoon, to go to school; so, altogether we have a family of twelve children, beside the girl and myself. You will see at once that such a family must have a head. One of the boys helps in the kitchen and dining room which takes nearly all his time out of school. Another takes care of the school building and one of the churches, which occupies his afternoons. A third is a chimney-sweep, and is employed by a contractor one or two afternoons a week and Saturdays, and one cuts wood, draws water, etc. The girls do the chamber work. They are willing to work, and expect to do it. What those who work outside can earn, goes towards expenses. Now as you will suppose, I need all the clothes I can get to keep these boys clothed as well as the little ones, for they have the same faculty that other children have of going through their elbows and knees. Generally our children are stouter than white children of the same age, so that clothes of an ordinary sized man, can with a little alteration be made to fit, and shoes, any size, from sevens to baby shoes I can make "All the bundles have reached me, thus far use of. The pork has been of the greatest No. 30 was the last. The temperance papers help. It is nicer than any I have ever had, come regularly, and I have a dozen copies of and they are very fond of it. Nothing could 'Scattered Seeds' sent me from the publisher come amiss in such a family of children. The besides. I think that is one of the nicest soda biscuits have been as great a treat to little papers ever published for children. them as cake would be to Northern children. The Intelligencer comes regularly. I am The colored people have contributed sweet postill in charge of the "Home" and do not tatoes, enough to serve us thus far. Last Satursee any chance of leaving until we get means day we had a barrel to come in, and they send to put a good white woman here. Since I cabbages and turnips, and such things as they wrote you last, we have had an accession of have. Last week a young man, a former pupil, three good sized boys. Two,-brothers are sent me a quantity of rice straw for beds. Do orphans, their parents I knew well. The you remember Michael, the lame boy, who mother dropped dead of heart disease, and lived with us, and from here went to Croton the father died of consumption about a year Landing? I think he went through Philadelago. Since that time they have just been phia. Not long since I received a letter from knocking about, and at last came to me dur-him, containing five dollars to help cover some

"The country schools have not opened yet, and we are very crowded. The village children I do not want to refuse, and after the country children take such pains to come from five to ten miles, I haven't the heart to refuse them, though it makes very hard work for us all. I try to have all possible pains taken with the country children, their time is so limited.

of the children's wants, as he expressed it. I was greatly pleased to receive it from such a

-source.

"An increase in the family has brought an increase in the expenses, and money has not come in much more than to meet expenditures thus far, but I trust by the time our Spring vacation commences it will be on hand. I mean to make an effort to get individuals or Sabbath schools interested to assume the support of one child a year, estimating it at fifty dollars. I shall be glad of the money you have at any time. The longer I stay here, and the more I see of these children, the stronger my conviction is that this institution is destined to do a good work, and is worthy the aid of those who believe in rescuing the children and saving them from the life of shame or crime, which almost, inevitably awaits such children here.

The preponderence of dark faces and poorly clad people, the one ox-carts driven with bit and line, the single mule primitive plow, the women working in the fields, the room for improvement everywhere apparent, make it hard for us to credit the claim made, that the South Carolina Railroad, connecting Charleston and Augusta, was the first long line operated in this country and the first to use steam locomotives. The man who drove the first engine over this road is still living in Aiken, S. C.

So we are led to moralize-Railroads will not revolutionize society. "Righteousness alone exalteth a nation." A mass of ignorance and thriftlessness floating the scum of non-producing aristocracy is like a stagnant pool. General intelligence must command the army of progress.

For two centuries Friends have been the educators of the communities where they have settled, and the result of their practical labors

What they have been concerned to provide for their own, they have aided in extending to others; facilities for poor children to freely partake of learning to fit them for business. The independence growing out of well directed industry has been encouraged in all. The poorer and more neglected classes have been looked after and helped, by placing within their reach the means of helping and maintaining themselves. The seed thus scattered has taken root in many places where Friends as a religious body are unknown, and occasionally to have our attention turned to some of the fruits, may be an encouragement to persevere in well doing.

"We should be glad of some more of those little bedsteads if any come to your hand. I hardly knew what we should have done with-in this direction can scarcely be over estimated. out them, as nothing of the kind can be obtained here. We have been trying for a long time to get money to buy some settees to use in the room where our temperance society meets. The old benches, which have stood the wear of fifteen years, are so worn out and racked to pieces, they are hardly fit for use. I tried to get some in Charleston, but they never heard of any thing of the kind less than eight dollars apiece and did and did not believe they could be bought less. So getting them here is out of the question. Could you ascertain for me, for what they can be purchased in Philadelphia, such as will seat six or so, of ordinary make. I know I could get just what I wanted in Providence, but the expense of getting them here, would be too great. The children have so set their hearts upon something of the kind, as well as ourselves, we don't want to give it up."

The Home is supported by friends of A. D. Munro, who are interested in the work. And the different articles mentioned are contributions of her friends who have visited the school. The money from Friends is to pay teachers only.

H. M. LAING, Treasurer.

For Friends' Intelligencer. THE SCHOFIELD SCHOOL AT AIKEN, S. C. Less than 24 hours by rail from Philadelphia brings us to the centre of South Carolina, where peach blossoms and pea vines remind us of spring, and 80° in the shade of summer, though it is like mid-winter with the snowbound home folks, who can hardly realize that we ride out without wraps and sometimes sit out on the balcony until 9 in the evening.

The establishment of schools among the lately freed people of the South, like dashing stones into a pond, first ripples the top then stirs up the bottom. Foul gases may escape for a time, but the crust is broken, the general appearance and tone is improved, and things become settled on a healthier basis. The school established by Martha Schofield at Aiken, S. C., in 1868, now in its fifteenth year, has been a blessing which these poor people highly appreciate; not only the intellectual but the moral improvement of the pupils, even more especially is looked after with great care. They have about 300 on the roll, some walk 3, 4, and even 6 miles daily to attend school, some come 20 or 30 miles, club together and rent a room and keep house, or board in the neighborhood for 3 or 4 months, and then return to work in the spring.

The father of two large boys has just come for them with his wagon and pair of mules from 25 miles down country, put up over night and then loaded up their baggage and furniture to take them home. They would like to

SPIRIT, LIGHT, AND LOVE.
BY JOHN WILLS.

O Spirit, who art Light and Love,
Thee to define we vainly try;
Yet all around, beneath, above,

We feel thy presence ever nigh.

And when we question, "What thy name?"
Comes still to us the same reply
That once, of old, to Moses came,-

"I AM!" "No other name have I!"
Who can thy boundless depths explore?
Thy glories all our thoughts exceed :
Upward, on Faith's strong wing, we soar;
Grateful, on Truth's pure word we feed.
O Source of being's shoreless sea,

In star and dewdrop thou dost shine!
Infinite space is full of thee!

The boundless universe is thine!
Yet they alone thy glory see,
Who, pure in heart, in truth abide.
O Light, O Love, we come to thee!
In thee, Almighty, we confide!
Teach us to worship thee aright,

In spirit and in truth to pray;
To dwell in love, to walk in light,-

The light of thine all-perfect day!
As plants drink in the light and air,
So of thy life may we partake,
Of thine immortal nature share,

Our thirst with living waters slake!
Thus, speeding on "from grace to grace,"
From glory unto glory," still
May we the Spirit's footsteps trace,

sons.

fewer than forty other Governments afterwards sent in their adhesion to the Protocol. Surely it was no small gain to have elicited, from some forty civilized Governments of the world, a formal and solemn recognition of a principle which, as Mr. Gladstone said, contained "at least a qualified disapproval of a resort to war, and asserted the supremacy of reason, of justice, of humanity, and religion,' and which elicited such emphatic testimonies of approval from so many distinguished perFor sixty years and more, the Peace Society has been urging this upon the attention of nations and governments by every form of representation that was possible, by lectures, treatises, prize essays (in various languages of Europe); by resolutions passed at great International Conferences, like those held in London in 1843, in Brussels in 1848, in Paris in 1849, in Frankfort in 1850, in London again in 1851, in Manchester and Edinburgh in 1852, and in some of these cases afterwards presented to Governments by deputations or memorials; by petitions to and motions in Parliament, and especially by keeping the matter constantly before the attention of our own rulers. Again and again has the Society brought the matter, by deputation or memorial, before prime ministers, foreign secretaries, and other distinguished men, from some of whom they received very kindly and encouraging replies. Have all these efforts. produced no effect? The answer is this, that since the Society began its operations in 1816, there have been no fewer than thirty-five cases of successful arbitrations between nations. In regard to our own share as a nation, in these, Sir Charles Dilke, the recent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, said lately in a speech delivered to his constituents: "In the In 1856, a deputation from the Peace Society 1820's there was only one case in which a diswaited upon the plenipotentiaries of the great pute between the United Kingdom and a forpowers who were negotiating the treaty of eign power was referred to arbitration; in the peace, in Paris, on the conclusion of the Rus- 1830's one, in the 1840's one, in the 1860's sian war, and presented to them a memorial one; but in the 1870's no less than seven dispraying that, in the new treaty, the principle putes were thus referred. In 1873, Mr. Henry of arbitration as a substitute for war might be Richard, M. P., brought forward and carried recognized. At their request, Lord Claren- a motion in favor of international arbitration don brought the proposal before the congress, in the House of Commons. This was the and the consequence was the memorable Pro- mode of action strongly recommended by tocol XXIII. of the treaty of Paris, in which Count Sclopis (who took so conspicuous and the plenipotentiaries, "in the name of their honorable à part in the Geneva Arbitration), respective Governments expressed the wish as likely to be most effectual in advancing the that States, between which any serious mis- cause of arbitration. When asked his opin-understanding may arise, should, before ap-ion, he replied: "Allow me to press upon you, pealing to arms, have recourse, so far as cir- before all things, to raise proposals in the pocumstances might allow, to the good offices of litical legislatures. I am thoroughly pera friendly power. The plenipotentiaries hope suaded that there is no better way of reaching that the Governments not represented at the any real and positive result." The success of congress will unite in the sentiment which has that motion attracted great attention in other inspired the wish recorded in the present Pro- countries, and, in consequence of it, similar tocol." In response to this invitation, no motions were introduced, and carried, in the

And thy great "law of love" fulfill! From us, "thou art not very far;"

"In thee," we ever "live and move;" Thy glory gleams from sun and star:

Thou, God, art Spirit, Light, and Love! Christian Register.

THE 'SERVICES OF THE LONDON PEACE
SOCIETY.

Italian Chamber of Deputies, by M. Mancini, | floral structure may be sought in the fact that now Foreign Secretary of that country; in each apparent filament is jointed as above the House of Representatives and Senate of stated; that each pedicel is subtended at base the United States; in the States-General of Holland; in the Second Chamber of the Diet of Sweden; in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate of Belgium; and, in a modified form, in the Chamber of Deputies of France. All this was avowedly as the result of the victory gained in our own Parliament. It was, perhaps, somewhat aided by what one of our foreign friends called "a pilgrimage of peace" which Mr. Richard made through Europe immediately afterwards, and which afforded him desirable opportunities for still further advocating and propagating his views. It is some good to have elicited from legislatures, representing some 160 millions of the human race, a formal and deliberate declaration in favor of arbitration as a substitute for war.

NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES.

Poinsettia pulcherrima.-This plant is so named in honor of its discoverer, J. R. Poinsette, the United States Minister to Mexico in 1828. Although the generic name, Poinsettia, will most likely be retained by florists, and as the popular name, yet its proper scientific name at the present time is Euphorbia pulcherrima. There are three varieties of this plant, the common one with scarlet bracts, another otherwise similar with white bracts, and a third called the Double Poinsettia, with an increased number of scarlet bracts which form a more compact cluster.

by a bract on the inner or central side, and that the stamens mature in centrifugal order, that is, those nearest the pistillate flower first. The margin of the cup-like involucre is slightly cleft into numerous narrow, colored divisions, which, having the semblance of petals, are indeed misleading, but we observe that the flowers are without either calyx or corolla. The curious nectariferous gland regularly appears on the upper or inner side of the involucre, and in its native haunts, no doubt, plays an important part in fertilization, as before hinted.-From Wm. Trimble's notes on Botany in Student.

Relative values of disinfectants.-Dr. Koch, whose recent researches in the origin and nature of tubercular disease have given rise to considerable discussion among physiologists and biologists generally, as well as among the medical fraternity, has published an interesting and no less valuable paper on disinfectants, in which an attempt is made to classify them according to the relative efficiencies shown in (1,) destroying the micro-organisms that constitute the disease-producing matter, (2,) the facility with which the development of micro-organisms in favorable nutritive solutions is prevented, and (3,) the readiness with which the germination of spores is checked. To test a disinfectant thoroughly, its action must necessarily be tried under conThe whole stock of the latter now existing ditions exactly similar to those in which it is has probably been derived by cuttings from used in practice. Thus, it is contended, a a single individual, which, according to Hen- disinfectant which does not destroy fungoid derson's Hand-Book of Plants, was sold to an growths would be of no use in contagious English florist, and by him distributed. The skin diseases, and, similarly, one which perbright-colored bracts no doubt have the effect mitted the further development of bacteria to attract insects to feed on the nectar pro- would be inefficient in diseases caused by duced in the gland on the flower-clusters, these organisms. As a result of Dr. Koch's hence, assisting in the process of cross-fertiliza- researches, it would appear that carbolic acid tion. To some extent, also, they perform the | is almost without action on spores of Anthrax function of leaves, that is as lungs to the plaut, since they are provided with stomata or breathing-pores. The apparent flowers are really clusters of flowers, consisting of a cupshaped involucre, from the inner surface of which arise numerous staminate flowers, each constituted of a single stamen, which is raised ou a pedicel, a joint marking the place of union of this pedicel with the single filament, which is surmounted by a broad, two-lobed anther. In the centre of each flower-cluster there forms a single pistillate flower, which appears frequently to remain undeveloped, especially in the central and earliest blooming clusters. Thus it may be seen the flowers are such as are technically termed monacious. The reason for such interpretation of the

bacilli, the most persistent of the infectious spores; but, on the other hand, it is highly efficient as a destroyer of the micro-organism, itself, one gramme of fine carbolic acid being sufficient to completely prevent the development of the organism in question in eight hundred and fifty cubic centimetres of a nutritive solution. In the form of vapor, this disinfectant, when used at the ordinary temperature, does not appear to affect the germinating power of bacilli spores, even after a contact of one and a half months; but at fifty five degrees its destructive action becomes almost immediately apparent, and after three hours' application scarcely any germinating power is longer discernible. No beneficial results were obtained by raising the tempera