Notes and Queries

36 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. NOTES AND QUERIES An Adjourned London Yearly Meeting.—For the first time, we believe, in history an adjourned session of London Yearly Meeting has been held. London Yearly Meeting held in Fifth month, 1915, adjourned with a Minute reading, " We leave the Meeting for Sufferings at liberty to call together the representatives appointed to this Yearly Meeting, should such a course appear necessary. Such meeting, if summoned, is to be considered as an adjournment of this Meeting , and is to be open to all Friends." In view of the practically certain passage by Parliament of a Military Service Bill, the London Meeting for Sufferings held First month 7th, 1916, decided that an adjourned session of the Yearly Meeting should be held, the date of which should be left to the Yearly Meeting's " Agenda Committee." The dates subsequently fixed upon were First month 28th, 29th, 30th, the latter being First-day. The only subject to be considered was the attitude and action Friends should take in the crisis before them in regard to compulsory military service . The Military Service Act became law First month 27th, 1916, so the issue was directly before Friends. The adjourned Yearly Meeting is said to have been the largest gathering ever known at Devonshire House, every seat on the floor of the large meetingroom , and in the galleries being filled, and the steps and aisles being crowded. A report of the discussions and conclusions will be found in The Friend (London ) 2d month 4th, nth, 1916. See also official " Extracts," etc., 1916. " Our Missions "—The history of this paper is an interesting one. The first magazines issued in connection with Foreign Missions was the Children's Missionary Gazette, 8 pp., illustrated, at the price of one penny monthly, beginning First month, 1876. In 1877 the name was changed to Friend of Missions. From 1892 to 1894 the paper was in abeyance ; but in the latter part of 1894 a monthly was started, known as Our Missions. A new series was begun in 1906, the size enlarged to thirty-eight or forty pages, and the publication made quarterly. With the beginning of 1916 a return to a monthly was made. It is the largest and best purely Missionary paper among Friends but, naturally, it is almost wholly devoted to the work of British Friends. The Editors of the paper have been chronologically, Caroline W. Pumphrey, Jane E. Newman, Mary Hodgkin, Dr. Henry T. Hodgkin and Raymond Whitwell, who is the present Editor . It is the organ of the Friends' Foreign Mission Association . The offices are at 15 Devonshire St., Bishopsgate, London, E. C. NOTES AND QUERIES. 37 PENN'S STATUE ON CITY HALL, PHILADELPHIA. Frances T. Rhoads. Above the busy throngs that crowd and hustle Above the din of traffic's noisy call, Above the jarring thought—the aching muscle, He stands serene and tall. Against the storm-cloud black with coming thunder, Against the heaven's clear blue, or sunset gold, Above our petty life that pulses under, Looms up his figure bold. What would he say, to this, his own " loved " city, Could a great voice speak from that lofty dome? Would he feel pride and joy, or only pity, For his dear " Sylvan " home ? We only know his voice in life was given To check discord and bid all strife to cease; Where truth by warring factions would be driven, He ever spoke for peace. So that tall form, its lofty tower possessing, Our strife still stands above, Its outstretched hand, extended as if blessing The city of its love. Public Ledger, Philadelphia, February 3, 1916. A " Drafted " Friend in 1863. —There died at West Falmouth, Massachusetts, 2d month 29th, 1916, Henry D. Swift in his eighty-third year. His was mostly a quiet life, and yet no common one. He was, with his brother, the late D. Wheeler Swift, of Worcester, Massachusetts, a skilful inventor. The modern clotheswringing machine with its rubber rollers was due to them, and the envelope machine, which cuts, folds, pastes, prints and counts into packs of twenty-five, was also their work. But it is a personal experience with which we...