Articles in Quaker Periodicals

ARTICLES IN QUAKER PERIODICALS51 its fine essential characteristics as democracy, religious liberty, justice to settlers and aborigines, the absence of a militia even for defense, and the abolition of oaths. Minor regulations are referred to, such as the use of prisons as an instrument of reform rather than vengeance, the limitation of lawyers' fees, and the education of poor children at public expense. Later chapters tell of Pennsylvania as Penn found it and as it grew under his constitution, of his treatment of the Indians (one of the longer chapters), of difficulties in the actual government, of the beginning of injustice to the Indians and its resulting complications, of pressure from the outside due to the rivalry of England and France, which led to the popular feeling that a standing army was a practical necessity; and finally of the withdrawal of Friends from politics in 1756. Thus the "Holy Experiment," markedly successful as long as the Founder's principles were followed, did not succeed in maintaining itself in the world as it then was, and was deemed to have failed. The book is intended as a sort of primer from which one may judge whether it really failed, or whether the world about it failed. The answer will depend on what one means by "fail."TKB ARTICLES IN QUAKER PERIODICALS The Friend (London) HPENTH Month 28, 1938, pp. 920-22. As background information for the special peace issue of The Friend (London), John L. Nickalls, Librarian of Friends Reference Library, has an article, "The Quaker Peace Testimony: Some Notes on its History." He traces the varied expression of Quaker peace principles, from the absolutist position of Fox's day to the humanitarian activities of the present, and maintains that an effective peace program must be based on an inner religious experience. Eleventh Month 4, 1938, pp. 959-60. "Friends Service, Some Historical Notes on a War-time Committee," recounts some of the early steps in 1915 by which a "Friends Service Committee" was formed to deal with the problem of a peaceful service as an alternative to combatant service. This committee was the original form of the present Friends Service Council in England and the inspiration for the organization of the American Friends Service Committee. Eleventh Month 11, 1938, p. 992. Cutlers' Hall, one of the units in the group of medieval buildings which belong to Friends in Bristol and are known as Quakers Friars, has recently been restored. It was re-dedicated on Saturday, November 5, 1938, with ceremonies recalling its use by Dominican Friars in the fourteenth century, by the Cutlers' Guild in Queen Elizabeth's time, and by Friends since 1845. 52 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION November 18, 1938, pp. 1018-19. In an account of the 250th anniversary celebration of the Winchmore Hill Meeting House, Tottenham Monthly Meeting, Middlesex, it is recalled that Thomas Shillitoe was a member of the meeting, and that Dr. John Fothergill was buried at Winchmore Hill in 1780. December 2, 1938, p. 1091. Plans are being drawn up to commemorate, on either June 24 or July 1, 1939, the tercentenary of the birth of Thomas Ellwood at his burial place at Jordans. It is also hoped that a new edition of Ellwood's autobiography will be forthcoming during this year. The Friend (Philadelphia) PLEVENTH Month 3, 1938, pp. 154-55. In an article on "The Value of Quaker Biography," Ernest E. Taylor, an English Friend, emphasizes his conviction that interest and inspiration are the rewards of reading in the extensive literature of Quaker lives. His list of the twelve "best" Quaker biographies is a highly individual one, drawn up primarily to arouse discussion. Twelfth Month 15, 1938, pp. 211-14. The Germantown Friends Library was for fifty years after its founding in 1845 the only public library in Germantown, according to an account of its history by Elizabeth Gray Vining. Fiction has been excluded from its shelves by reason of early conviction and the specific restriction of some of its endowment funds, but the Library has not suffered from lack of popular patronage as a result, and it is increasingly the "intellectual center and the resort for youth" that its...