FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER. reach whereby our true mission may be per

might be derived from this kind of personal streams which in any other part of the world intercourse.

We have watched with much interest the movements which have been made within the last few years for the abolition of slavery in Brazil. Many of the most influential citizens, who were probably influenced by the example of Russia and our own country, have agitated the question, and now, by the Atlantic Cable, we are informed that on the 8th of this month, the Emperor, Don Pedro, signed the decree, abolishing slavery throughout the Brazilian Empire, to take effect in twenty years. Children born after that day are absolutely free. With the exception of some of the Spanish islands, this barbarous system is now virtually abolished in Christendom.

The New York Tribute has an article on the subject, which, while it contains the gratifying intelligence, gives so much information as to the Brazilian Empire, that we copy it nearly entire :

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would be called rivers of the first class. The Rio Francisco in the East, and the affluents of the La Plata in the South, give fertility and channels of easy intercommunication to enormous extents of country, while in the interior stretch the great grass-grown pampas, with their countless herds of cattle, covering a region seven mines of gold; there is coal in plenty; there is times as big as the whole of France. There are iron; and the annual product of diamonds is not far from $2,000,000. There is not a desert in the empire. The whole is a rich loam, covered with a vegetation unequaled for magnificence and beauty, except, perhaps, in some of the fairy-like islands of the Indian Ocean. Even with her present meagre development, Brazil supplies half the world with coffee, and sends abroad also great quantities of cotton, sugar,

and tobacco.

and sugar

She has exported more of coffee in eighteen months than of diamonds

in eighty years. It is three hundred years since the first permanent settlement of the country by Europeans; yet in all this time, and with all the marvellous wealth of the soil and the charms of a genial climate to tempt immigration, not one acre in a hundred and fifty has ever felt the labor of the husbandman; Brazil has given the death-blow to the wicked and immense regions are almost as unknown tosystem which has been so long both her griev- day as when Pinçon, the companion of Columous burden and her foul disgrace. Henceforth, bus, first took possession of the country in the every child born in the empire is free, and in name of the King of Castile. Nor, for many twenty years the chains will fall from the years at least, has the Government, which is limbs of her last surviving slave. By this one of the best, most liberal, and most progres. decree, nearly 3,000,000 Blacks are raised up sive monarchies in the world, spared any effort from the dust; and though but few of this gene- to attract the superabundant population of Euration can hope to see the day of general eman- rope. Since the Brazilians wrested their indecipation, it is much for them to know that the pendence from the mother country, Portugal, curse which rested on the parents will no longer in 1822, they have devoted themselves zealously be transmitted to the children; it is something to works of social and industrial improvement. that the younger of them have a bright al- They have freedom of education, freedom of though distant future to look toward and to wait the press, and freedom of religious worship. for. Very likely, too, the dying institution They have labored hard to develop their means will not be suffered to linger out the whole of of communication with the old world, having the existence which the new law accords to regular lines of mail steamers to the principal it; as the benefits of free labor to the whole European ports. They have steamers on the country become appreciated, fresh legislation coast and rivers. They have railways, built by may hasten the advent of national liberty and English and American engineers. Their trade justice. with Great Britain, France, and the United The State which has just taken this import-States is large, and constantly increasing. Their ant step in the road of progress, covers about 3,000,000 square miles of the richest portion of the South American continent, being a little greater in extent than the United States. Nature has given it the most magnificent river system in the world. The Amazon rolls its mighty waves through the dense forests of the northern provinces-forests teeming with all the gorgeousness and luxuriance of the tropics, rich in precious woods and valuable fruit bear ing trees, and alive with the most brilliant forms of animal nature; and its tributaries are

imports at the latest date for which we have returns (1863) amounted to $55,000,000, and their exports to $68,000,000. Six or seven years ago, there were already some fifty foreign colonies, founded by the aid of liberal grants of Government lands; but the colonists did not number, all told, more than 60,000; and, at any rate, it is not by banding themselves together in isolated communities that immigrants can materially benefit the country of their adop tion. The infusion of new blood must permeate the whole body politic; and if the old blood

and the new cannot mingle; one or the other | 4,000,000 slaves in the United States, and the will be driven out. virtual manumission of 3,000,000 negroes in Brazil. It is a glorious six years' work32,000,000 of men restored to freedom, and a curse taken off three of the largest empires in the world!

MARRIED, on the 9th of Fourth month, 1867, with the approbation of Green St. Monthly Meeting, EDMUND H. SMITH and REBECCA JANE, daughter of Thos.

and Elizabeth Adamson.

-, at Germantown, on the 24th ult., in accordance with the order of Friends, SAMUEL TOWNSEND to RACHEL WILSON MOORE, both of Philadelphia.

DIED, in the city of New York, on the 18th of Third month, 1867, ELIZABETH M. F., wife of Jas. C. Hallock, in the 62d year of her age.

BREMER AND THE WOMEN OF
SWEDEN.

BY PROF. WM. WELLS.

New World, where pleasant memories of her sojourn still linger in the hearts of her friends.

It is precisely because there was an element in the social and political life of Brazil which repelled these sturdy settlers that the great South American Empire is still so thinly peopled; having only about 8,000,000 inhabitants, or less than a quarter of our own population. The same cause which in this country has uniformly directed the stream of immigration to the Northern and Western instead of to the Southern States, has been constantly couuteracting all the inducements held out by nature and by man to draw settlers to Brazil. Slavery and a wholesome free immigration are natural enemies, and always have been, the world over. Brazil has beckoned to the settler with one hand, while with the other she has upheld the great wickedness that drives him away. The FREDERIKA first colonists enslaved the Indians; and, despite the futile measures of emancipation adop ted by the Portugese crown in 1570, in 1647, The name of Frederika Bremer is extremely in 1681, these unfortunate natives remained in dear to the people of this country and England, servitude until 1755, and would perhaps have but to the wou en of Sweden it is, indeed, a been held to this day had they not proved very sweet savor. Through her friend, Mary Howunprofitable. Negroes were accordingly im itt, we years ago became well acquainted with ported from other Portugese dominions, and a her works, and finally had the pleasure of meetslave-trade with the African coast naturallying her personally in this Western city of the sprang up, and is only just ended. Portugal bound herself by treaty with England, in 1815, to abolish the trade. Brazil renewed the obligation in her own name in 1826. Yet in 1839, it was estimated that 80,000 Blacks were im ported every year; and, ten years later, the Minister of Foreign Affairs reported that the brutal traffic had only been reduced one-fourth. The energetic action of England, declaring in 1815 that Brazilian slave-ships should be amenable to English authorities, led to a long diplomatic contest and threats of war; but it bore fruit in 1850 in a statute wherein Brazil assimilated the trade to piracy, and in 1852 the Emperor declared it virtually extinct. In the meantime, an opposition, not to the slave-trade alone, but to Slavery, too, gradually strengthened itself within the Empire. Manumission became frequent, and the laws made it very easy. A society was organized under the protection of the Emperor, which, every year, in open church, solemnly liberated a number of slaves; and in 1856 the English Embassador wrote home that the Government had communicated to him their resolution gradually to abolish Slavery in every part of the Empire. The grand step which they have now taken has no doubt been impelled by the example of our own country. It is one of the many precious fruits which have sprung, and are destined yet to spring, from the soil which we watered so freely with patriot blood.

Six years have witnessed the emancipation of 25,000,000 serfs in Russia; the liberation of

Mary Howitt's mantle of love towards Miss Bremer fell upon her daughter, Margaret, who went to Sweden two years ago for the express purpose of a more intimate and extended intercourse with this estimable lady, in the home of her childhood, during her declining years. Death soon closed her honorable and beneficent career on earth, and Miss Howitt has favored the world with the collected experience of a year's intimate intercourse with her beloved friend. This work contains many charming pictures of the private life of this celebrated authoress, and gives us most entertaining glances into the relations of social and political life in Sweden, but is mainly devoted to an account of what Miss Bremer did at home toward ameliorating the condition of the women of her country, and improving its educational system for young women.

This feature is the motive and the object of these few lines, as Miss Bremer is too well known in her other relations to need any comment. After earnest and tireless toil had gained her fame and fortune, her most diligent efforts were directed to freeing the women of Sweden from the narrow fetters with which law and custom had bound them-fetters that had made every free development impossible, and placed a ban upon every species of activity that wou'd elevate them above the most ordinary level. With untiring patience and energy she sought to gain the favorable attention of sagacious and

liberal men for the reforms that she was striv-¡ a few of her bosom friends, warmly cherished a ing after; but discouraged here, she finally sort of "Cooper Institute" of Stockholm, in turned to the mass of the people in a most which no less than four hundred and seventyeffective appeal, entitled, "Hertha, or the His- five female pupils received thorough instruction tory of a Soul;" this was a cry of distress sent in drawing, painting, modeling, geometry, lithointo the world for the women of Sweden, cruellygraphy, and the French and English languages, enslaved by the laws of their land. and were thereby enabled to devote themselves to an intellectually profitable and lucrative aɛtivity.

Viewed from an artistic point, this book was inferior to many of the productions of this gifted authoress, but it produced an immense sensation in her country, and at first an unpleasant one, so that to escape the excitement thereby caused, she felt it necessary to make a journey to Switzerland. Without regard to consequences, she exposed the injustice of Swedish laws, which force upon the most intelligent and capable woman the painful alternative of remaining her whole life in a state of degrading minority, or severing the most sacred bands of filial love and obedience. She pictured the consequences of such an arrangement with vivid colors, perhaps, at times, too strong, while smarting under the sense of injustice. Her thoughts and views in relation to the education and destiny of women, were expressed in a manner so new and startling, as to raise a very general storm in society, which seemed struck to the heart.

But Miss Bremer considered all the attacks directed against her as a hurricane, out of which must issue a better epoch for the women of her native land. Though for a time no material benefit was perceptible, the matter was at least brought out into the light, and society was forced to think and speak of it. Thus was the ice broken; and noble men were soon found who recognized the truth of her assertions, but who dared not break through the barriers of long-established custom, or were restrained from taking an active part in the solution of the question, by the fear that the women of Sweden might not be ripe enough for a greater amount of independence, or might not know how to use to profit a higher grade of culture.

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We will dwell a moment on a few of the salient points of Miss Bremer's character and history. At a very early age she developed talent for authorship. In her twelfth year she composed a juvenile opera, which was brought out with great preparation in the dining room of her paternal home. It was a charming little piece, in which shepherds and shepherdesses appeared in marvelous adventures, and the young authoress was greeted with a storm of applause. Nevertheless, she relates that she went to bed almost disconsolate, because those whose applause she most desired and valued-her parents had not let a single expression drop in relation to the daughter's effort. "Perhaps," thought she while restlessly tossing on her couch, "they are now talking of it to each other when alone," and with quick resolve she left her bed, stepped to her parents' room, and with ear against the key-hole listened with suppressed breath to their conversation; she heard enough to know that their hearts had been made glad by her genius, though they had suppressed their feelings in her presence, and she went happy to bed.

Miss Bremer bad a strange presentiment that she would not survive the year '64; not be. cause she felt herself bodily or mentally debilitated, but because of a dream that had made a deep impression on her mind. She set her house in order, completed all unfinished labors, and looked with calmness and composure to her final end. The year, so much feared by her friends, who were aware of her feelings, was drawing to a close, and the gloomy forebodings seemed about to become a deceptive vision.

But even these anxieties disappeared by degrees. A seminary for the education of young ladies was founded; teachers were procured Christmas came, and Miss Bremer went, as who could instruct them in the sciences, which she had so often done before, to a place where hitherto had been regarded as beyond the hori- she was in the habit of gladdening the hearts zon of woman. Scarcely had three years passed, of poor children during the holidays. On when the King and Government granted large Christmas eve she sang and danced with the material aid for the scientific, artistic, and tech-children around the Christmas tree, read stories nical culture of women, and thereby made possible the establishing of an "Institute," in which Miss Bremer saw the realization of her most ardent wishes for the welfare of her sex. This noble champion now felt herself richly repaid for all the attacks which she had patiently suffered on account of the book that had proved so effective, and was rather inclined to value it too highly in comparison with her other literary labors.

to them from Andersen, and rejoiced them with presents. The next day she went to church, and on the way home caught a severe cold, to which she succumbed in a few days.

We may well cherish the memory of the de ceased as one of the noblest champions for justice, truth, and humanity. And it is gratifying to know that she lived to enjoy the pleasure of seeing her most ardent wishes crowned with

success.

She leaves behind her a family of spiritual