The subject is English, and is handled without reservation. The concluding paper of the volume is devoted to the procedure of deliberative bodies, and what may be called the economics of business in such associations; and in this country of multitudinous Legislatures, and where the complaint of non-accomplishment of deliberative work is so general, the hints here given will be found important.
James and Lucretia Mott: Life and Letters. Edited by their Granddaughter, Anna Davis Hallowell. With Portraits. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 556. Price, $2.
Aside from the charming interest of this volume as a biographical study, it will be found instructive as a record of social experiences during the last half-century that will be increasingly appreciated in the future. It might properly be called "The Life and Times of Lucretia Mott," because it deals fully with her public influence so as to become a valuable chapter in the history of a peculiar religious denomination, which is closely connected with the great anti-slavery reform that was full of such eventful issues to the country.
The history of the Society of Friends, when it comes to be philosophically written, will be full of instructive interest. That the denomination is declining, is very well known; but it has been a power in the religious and social life of the community, and has unquestionably exerted a liberalizing influence upon the stringent dogmatism of the more orthodox denominations. Mystical, devout, narrow in many things, rejecting religious forms, and yet tenaciously clinging to religious form, the Society of Friends has still been more protestant than the Protestants, and it was in advance of most other sects in working free from the iron dogmas of the old theology. The split that occurred in the society in this country about 1828, in which a large division of the membership organized into an independent society under the leadership of Elias Hicks, was but the result of a growing liberality in the bosom of the denomination. That division, moreover, precipitated the question as to how far it was justifiable for Friends to enter into co-operation with the outside world for philanthropic objects. The society had always been deeply pervaded by the anti-slavery feeling, and had entered its formal protests against the system of African oppression in a much more emphatic way than other religious denominations. There was, therefore, a strong sentiment within the society that drew it into sympathy with the anti-slavery movement which began to take definite and organized shape in the North about 1830. But, notwithstanding the traditional impulses and vigorous tendency of the body to join in the general movement, there grew up an active policy of resistance against new alliances, and a determination to hold the denomination within its old sectarian limits of exclusiveness, under which it preferred to bear its testimonies in its own way. It was in this crisis of the denominational affairs that Lucretia Mott came forward upon the scene, and bore that conspicuous and influential part in bringing the Society of Friends into active participation in the anti-slavery struggle which has made her reputation, and for which she will be remembered in the future. To all interested in these reminiscences the present volume is peculiarly attractive. Its chief subject must be deemed fortunate in her biographer; for, while the book is a loving tribute to personal excellences, and a vivid and charming delineation of character, it has been written with a clear appreciation of the importance of faithfully representing the circumstances and conditions in which Lucretia Mott accomplished her public work. A large portion of the volume consists of letters which have an historic interest as throwing light upon questions, motives, tendencies, and states of mind of individuals, and of masses, in the stirring and exciting times of the early antislavery conflict. Lucretia Mott was first of all, and in her whole nature, a reformer, but she was also from the beginning to the end a Quaker, and that she was a good deal of a politician, or at all events of a tactician, is shown by the shrewd and skillful course by which she succeeded in maintaining her position in the society in a time of revolution, and when there was a strong disposition to disown her, as many other prominent abolitionists were disowned because of their affiliations with non-religious societies. Her liberality of thought in religious matters was
