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FRANCE.

on your acts. It has always afforded them a rigorous sanction, and it is not immediately after the magnificent elections which have just taken place for the municipalities that your entire community of ideas and principles with universal suffrage can be contested.

On February 6th the Chamber disposed of the Press Bill, subject to a second reading, provisions punishing seditious crimes, obscure articles or illustrations, defamation and insults to foreign sovereigns or embassadors havA clause proposing the ing been agreed to. visitation of insults to the republic with from three to twelve months' imprisonment was, after prolonged discussion, rejected by 287 votes to 187, on the ground that the repubstrong enough to defy insults." On the 15th the stipulation was agreed to (by 66 no foreign journal shall be excluded from France except by decis

lic was

66

253 votes to 222) that

ion of a Cabinet council."

M. Léon

On February 7th the Chamber went on with M. Naquet's Divorce Bill, the discussion of which was awaited and followed with intense anxiety and interest. Divorce, expunged from the code civile by the religious reaction of 1816, has ever since been replaced in France by an old law restored, allowing only judicial separation (séparation de corps). Renault, reporter to the committee, vindicated the measure as a revival, not of the law of 1792, which he disapproved, but that of 1803. It restricted divorce, when desired by but one of the consorts, to cases of adultery, maltreatment, or insult, and condemnation to degrading punishments; while divorce by mutual consent was by it subjected to various conditions, such as the acquiescence of the children, the assignment to them of one half the property, etc. As a compromise with traditional scruples, it proposed the indissolubility of the second marriage of divorced persons, and admitted judicial separation as still obtainable. M. Renault urged in behalf of the new measure that divorce, far from favoring heedless marriages, would strengthen tottering unions, while the marriage of the adulterous would be forbidden; and that judicial separations were increasing in France more rapidly than divorces in other countries, the rate of the former being nine per 1,000 marriages, and that of the latter but four per 1,000.

An amendment modifying the system of judicial separation was combated by M. Naquet himself. M. Cazot, Minister of Justice, said that religious considerations were foreign to the debate, and that scrupulous Catholics might still have recourse to séparation de corps; that divorce would do away with forced celibacy, diminish the number of illegitimate offspring, and encourage the creation of new families; that the question at issue was whether certain exceptional circumstances ought not to be sacrificed to the preservation of the institution of marriage the key-stone of social existence; that matrimony was no ordinary contract, but one which, though founded on the free-will of

the parties, when once entered into became in-
dissoluble; and that permanence was what the
vow, nor would any one have then thought of
parties had in view when taking the marriage
divorce but for M. Naquet's project, which, if
of improvident unions, bearing in them the
sanctioned, would determine a marked increase
germs of corruption and dissolution, and dis-
courage tolerance and reciprocal concessions in
law of 1816 was rejected by 261 votes to 225,
existing marriages. The clause repealing the
tem left as the only possible modification of
and the reform of the judicial separation sys-
the present state of things.

The result of the municipal elections in Jan-
uary was favorable to the republicans.

Early in the same month were announced
further incursions of Tunisian tribes in Alge-
and in April the hostile movements of the
ria, which the Bey was powerless to prevent;
Kroumirs against the French troops determined
the appropriation of 5,695,000 francs for an ex-
pedition, of which General Forgemol was ap-
the French Consul-General in Tunis, informed
pointed commander. On the 20th M. Roustan,
the Bey that he would be held responsible for
Island of Tabarca was occupied by the French
any effusion of blood that might occur; the
troops on the 21st, and on the 25th the mili-
tary operations commenced against the Krou-
was asserted in a note addressed by the Turk-
mirs. The suzerainty of the Porte over Tunis
and on May 9th a circular was issued by the
ish embassador to the French Government;
Minister of Foreign Affairs, declaring that the
insure the safety of Algeria.
only object of the Tunisian expedition was to

*

On the 15th M. Jules Ferry announced to ment of the Tunisian question," and expressed the Chamber the "happy diplomatic settlethe hope that the treaty concluded with the Bey would be regarded as "securing legitimate interests without exceeding the limits of justice and moderation." Toward the end of the terminated successfully; but the insurrection month the operations against the Kroumirs of the Algerian tribes, one of which was ably commanded by Bou-Amena, seemed to foreshadow further troubles. An additional apian expedition was asked for by the Minister propriation of 14,000,000 francs for the Tunisof War on June 9th, and voted July 9th. On the 19th Marseilles was the scene of a disturbance growing out of a quarrel, with the Italian residents, about the French policy in Tunis.

The defeat of the scrutin de liste bill (rejected June 9th by 148 votes to 114), and, in Belleville constituency, of which, though ill the August elections, his ill success in his own requited, he has ever been the dauntless chamwhose supineness and embarrassment as prepion, were grave rebuffs to M. Gambetta, world with surprise. mier after November 14th filled France and the

For the text of this treaty, see page 809. + See SCRUTIN DE LISTE. p. 807.

+ See GAMBETTA, Léon Michel, p. 313.

FRIENDS. The later statistical reports of several yearly meetings of the Society of Friends indicate a small gradual increase of members. The London yearly meeting, which had been declining for fifty years, has within a few years past been receiving accessions; and its reports for 1881 indicated an increase during the year of 106 members, the whole number being 14,981. The reports of the Indiana yearly meeting showed an increase of 1,000 members during the year, and a total of 19,342 members. This increase is not, however, observed in all the yearly meetings, some of which still appear to be falling back or stationary. Thus, the Philadelphia yearly meeting had only 5,650 members in 1881 against 6,000 in 1871, and the New England yearly meeting 4,399 in 1881 against 4,403 in 1871. The mission at Matamoras, Mexico, returned 204 members. Its converts were preaching effectively at several places. A series of schoolbooks published by the mission has gained a large circulation throughout the country.

Among the marked features in the recent history of the Society of Friends are the development of a tendency among individual members to conformity with the usages of other denominations, and to occasional participation in their religious exercises, and the toleration which has been accorded to it in some of the yearly meetings. The singing of hymns has been permitted in Friends' meetings; ministers of the society have preached in the pulpits of other denominations; and an English Friend of sufficient prominence to make his case conspicuous has been baptized without provoking any adverse action from the monthly meeting with which he was connected. A suit which was brought in the State of Indiana for the control of the property of the society, and of a legacy which had been left it, involved the question of the legality of departures of this character. The points wherein the "Progressive" party, who brought the suit, differ from the Orthodox party, or adherents of the old order, were defined in the pleadings as follows: The Progressive party deny that Christians should await the influence of the Holy Spirit in conducting religious services, but claim that they should be governed by fixed purposes, or a sense of duty, in such matters; they deny that men have an inward light, such as the light of Christ, till after conversion; they teach that Christ had a human and a divine nature, and that the divine nature or Godhead died on the cross; that the material bodies of the redeemed will be raised; that it is no longer necessary to continue the peculiar habit, dress, address, and forms of worship of the Friends; they hold protracted meetings by prearrangement, and call publicly on persons to speak, or pray, or relate their Christian experience, ask the unconverted to make confession of their sins, setting seats apart for them, and have singing; their Sunday-schools are formally opened and closed, and vocal and

instrumental music is used in them; they hold that marriage is a civil ordinance, and that ministers may marry persons without reference to the inquiry or consent of the society; that ministers should be regularly assigned to the ministry, and money should be systematically collected for their support; they do not discourage the use of titles of address in connection with the names of persons; and their funerals are conducted with reading from the Scriptures, singing, and a discourse from a special text.

In the case referred to, the plaintiffs held that they represented the original and regular quarterly meeting, and that it was recognized as such by the Western yearly meeting, with which it was connected, and which was in orderly communication, according to the custom of the society, with all the other yearly meetings; therefore they were, according to the Friends' custom, a branch of the society in good standing, notwithstanding their alleged departures from the old usage, and, as such, legitimately entitled to the possession of the property they claimed. The defendants, the plaintiffs maintained, who had separated from the quarterly meeting and from the Western yearly meeting on account of their toleration of departures from ancient Friends' usage, and had formed a new quarterly meeting and a new yearly meeting, were not entitled to be recognized as representatives of regular organizations, notwithstanding their adherence to the ancient usage, because they had not received the recognition which was accorded to the bodies of which the plaintiffs were representative, in correspondence with the other yearly meetings. The court held, in answer to an argument on demurrer in which these allegations were set forth, that the highest church organization must decide whether there has been departure in doctrines, and, until the superior organization has so determined, the civil court can not enter upon an investigation of that question; that no organization can be recognized by the civil courts as legal and valid, whether a yearly, quarterly, or monthly meeting, which has not been recognized in accordance with the rules and usages of the Church as having been regularly established. By the averments of the papers as presented in the proceedings, it appeared, in effect, that all the yearly meetings throughout the world hold control over the establishment of each proposed new yearly meeting, not like the Presbyterian Church, through a General Assembly, or, like the Methodist Church, through a quadrennial General Conference, but through correspondence of recognized officers of each yearly meeting, the means only being different, but the end accomplished, so far as the present inquiry is concerned, being the same. Apply ing these principles to the facts stated in the answer, the subject of inquiry in the case was narrowed down practically to the recognized legitimacy of succession of each of the two

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