to watch that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then his one-horse donkey-cart is transformed into a chariot of the sun."

F. ISRAEL described the relations between the late Thomas Garrett, of Wilmington, and his employer as made wonderfully pleasant and profitable on both sides by the justness of the employer. A long and bitter difficulty between Mr. Mundella, an English manufacturer, and his operatives, was amicably settled by arbitration. In Wilmington, there is a Co-operative Association which successfully enables its members to share each others burdens and advantages. Many evils will disappear when we learn that the object of life is not to hoard but to diffuse.

T. P. GALVIN spoke of the need of some legislation which shall enable employers to hold laborers to the obligations of a contract. At present, the responsibility is all on the employer's side. Let the employer be required to give security for wages; but let him retain a certain part of the wages as security that the laborer shall not break his engagement.

After further discussion the Testimony was adopted unanimously.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The Clerk read to the meeting a friendly letter from J. WILLIAMS THORNE, of North Carolina.

CYRUS JACKSON, SALLY MARSHALL and HANNAH MENDENHALL were appointed a Finance Committee. Their final report showed a total of $152.40 collected for the treasury.

A few friends joined in singing the "Portuguese Hymn,"

"The Lord is my Shepherd; no want shall I know,

I feed in green pastures; safe folded, I rest;

He leadeth my soul where the still waters flow,

Restores me when wandering, redeems when oppressed."

A Testimony on "Legal Holidays," presented by CHANDLER DARLINGTON, was taken up, and after a few remarks in favor of it, by F. ISRAEL, it was adopted with an additional paragraph.

The Clerks were instructed to prepare and report to the meeting a suitable reply to the communication of OLIVER Johnson.

A Testimony on "Dress Reform," reported by a part of the Committee, was then read by OLIVIA SHEPARD, who followed it with a very forcible address and an earnest appeal. Not only the wide

spread physical weakness and misery of women, but their servile position and their intellectual and moral disabilities, were declared traceable in part to the constraints and embarrassments of corsets, bands and skirts, and the resulting mental conditions. She was sure that many existing evils in society could never be reached and cured alone; for woman's power is needed in reform, and she neither can nor will use that power till she is emancipated from bondage to dress and fashion.

She was followed and supported in these views with much ability and directness by MARY W. TILLOTTSON; and as these two women came before the meeting in what is called "the reform dress," and thus showed themselves as uncompromising in practice as in speech, their appearance caused a decided sensation.

CHARLES G. AMES said: We can now understand the position of the early Quakers. These women shock the prevailing prejudice and excite hostility in the same way. Perhaps in both cases, there may be ecentricity of manners, mistake of method, and defect of spirit; but in both cases there was a principle to stand for, and a real evil to stand against. Allow that only a part of what is claimed is true; allow that one American woman in twenty is disqualified by dress for happy life and work, and for noble motherhood: This would give us five hundred thousand crippled women— five hundred thousand disabled soldiers in that standing army of women by which God's love ought to hold possession of this land!

FANNY B. AMES felt that there was something extravagant and one-sided in attributing so much evil to this one cause; and something like delusion in hoping to reform the world by changing the dress of women. The dress of the Chinese women is just like that of the men: the same pantaloons and short frock for both. But we women on earth are more degraded, or more despised and oppressed by men. She believed the instinct of difference between the sexes, unfolded and grew stronger as society became cultivated and moral. She detested pantaloons, even on men, as hideous; and wished that they would all put on the Roman toga.

After some further discussion, playful and serious, the Testimony was approved by a majority, though some wished it re-written.

The Committee reported a Testimony on "Child Education and Kindergartens."

FANNY B. AMES, CHARLES G. AMES and J. B. HARRISON gave some account of the Kindergarten, its principles and methods to which the meeting listened with evident interest, the more so

because other topics had brought into view the importance of a wise system of education. The Testimony was adopted without dissent.

A Testimony concerning the Society of Friends and a Salaried Ministry, which was laid over at last Yearly Meeting, was now called up, viz:

"The Society of Friends has done a noble service in testifying against the degradation of the Gospel ministry to the level of a hireling trade; but we believe they have pressed the matter too far, in wholesale censure of all who receive salaries for such service, and in undervaluing learning as a qualification for religious teachers."

T. P. GALVIN thought the Quakers very much like other people in one thing: they want a good thing, and are willing to pay for it in order to get it. They apply this rule to school teachers and lecturers; why not apply it also to preachers?

CHANDLER DARLINGTON said: whatever costs, ought to be paid for: that is common honesty.

R. R. SHIPPEN spoke of the first clause in the Testimony. He described the degraded, mercenary, unspiritual character of the 'English Clergy" in the days of Fox and Penn; and thought it still necessary to stand guard against the same worldliness and formalism. He hoped the ministry would never become so remunerative as to attract self-seeking men to its ranks; but thought the people ought to secure for themselves and their children the largest spiritual advantages, by generously providing the means whereby true and faithful teachers could give themselves without embarrassment to the work.

(As Mr. SHIPPEN was obliged to leave the meeting, he said a few words of kindly farewell.)

LEWIS MARSHALL spoke with clearness and earnestness of the value and need of the Quaker Testimony. The work of the Society could never have been accomplished without it, nor could the Society itself have survived or preserved the results of the movement. George Fox discovered that Cambridge could not make a gospel minister, because the true ministry is of the Spirit. But the Quakers do value sound learning, and no communities are more intelligent.

Dr. SUMNER STEBBINS attacked the whole system of a settled and stated ministry and organized churches, as farcical. "Does religion need to be everlastingly taught?" He would pay a Mohammedan teacher as soon as a Christian, if he offered anything sensible. Why bolster up and perpetuate these costly shams? Let the preachers do

as the lecturers do-go about and say their word; and let them be paid by those who care to hear them. Why have more than one church in a town?

Mr. FRASER [Minister of the Presbyterian Church, Kennett] replied to Dr. SUMNER; and in a fine, free spirit showed the injustice of any sweeping denunciation of men and organizations which are honestly trying to learn and do God's will and to enlighten and save mankind. The plea for 'one church' was against liberty and progress; the breaking out of new movements, or the uprising of earnest souls against old errors and evils, implied and justified the appearance of new sects. Improvements in religion, as in medicine, require more than one school of thought.

THIRD DAY'S PROCEEDINGS.

With a view to bring the matter under consideration to a distinct issue, the Business Committee offered the following substitute for the Testimony laid over from last year:

"In true and affectionate regard for the Society of Friends, we desire to record our protest against the retention in the discipline of the question concerning a "hireling ministry," as that question is generally understood:

1. Because it operates to produce a narrow and hurtful prejudice against other religious bodies, thus preventing the unity of the Spirit.

2. Because it is an unwarrantable interference with personal liberty to deny the right of any soul to judge for itself, and to seek truth and instruction wherever it can be found.

3. Because it is a gross injustice toward many honest, pure and useful ministers, whose consciences are clear in the matter of accepting a regular support from the people for whose welfare they labor."

The reading of this paper brought out the liveliest discussion of the session, about twenty speeches being made in an hour and a half, of which twenty minutes was unanimously given to SAMUEL JACOBS, for the defence of the Quaker position.-SAMUEL MARSHALL, WM. SHIELDS, THOS. WORRALL, WM. BROWN and Mr. STUBBS, favored the same general view; while the Testimony before the meeting was supported by CHANDLER DARLINGTON, MARY T. IVINS, FANNY B. AMES, REBECCA FUSSELL, N. E. BOYD, F. ISRAEL, T. P. GALVIN and CHARLES G. AMES.

Unfortunately no votes were taken; but in general it may be said

that all the speakers conceded the wrongfulness of making merchandise of sacred truth; all honored the Friends for their cleanness of hands in this matter; all agreed that the Divine Light within is indispensable to effectual preaching. Some claimed that the Society had a right to use the questionable clause in the Discipline to protect its members from contamination; others objected that it operated to shut out light and to shut in prejudice. Several salaried ministers complained that the word "hireling" was offensive and unkind; and that it closed the ears of Friends against giving them a fair hearing. On the other hand it was claimed that the whole system of formalism, priestly pretension, ecclesiasticism and wordly conformity is kept up by a salaried ministry; and that the Friends only seek to preserve the purity of their own body and to bear effective testimony against these evils. It was replied, that the Friend's method serves to keep up a wrong feeling toward others, but does not keep out formalism nor secure a spiritual ministry among themselves. On both sides, the Scriptures were freely quoted.

On motion of N. E. BOYD, the whole subject was laid over till the next Yearly Meeting.

The letter of OLIVER JOHNSON was now read again, together with the prepared reply thereto, which was unanimously approved and ordered to be forwarded. It was also directed that said correspondence be printed with the proceedings.

On motion of F. ISRAEL, the Clerks were directed to set forth in these minutes a statement that the discontinuance of First Day or other Meetings, at Longwood, in no way compromises or affects this Yearly Meeting. Also:

Resolved, That friends be earnestly requested to consider the importance of establishing, in the spirit of freedom and truth, a monthly and quarterly meeting, at such places and times as may be most convenient.

ANNA COX, CHANDLER DARLINGTON, AARON MENDENHALL, LYDIAN SICKLES, Dr. HARRY STUBBS, SAMUEL PENNOCK, ABNER MARSHALL and LEWIS MARSHALL, were afterwards made a committee, in conjunction with the Clerks of this meeting, to advise with friends in this vicinity about their future meetings.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

A Testimony on "Political Duties" was adopted unanimously and without discussion.