Lyceum Phoenix of Friends School - Phoenix Echo Yearbook (Providence, RI)

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to aid American institutions, that I can never cease to be grateful that no money appears to have come from them to build up Zion here. But there is a record of an incidental event of some interest fif- teen years later, in a correspondence between the very same meet- ings. There was, it seems, great scarcity of provisions in England and Ireland, due to Napoleon, perhaps, we are not informed, but the following extract from a letter from the London Meeting to our own tells a portion of the fraternal interest and sympathy rarely called forth from east to west in our denomination: The sums received from the different Meetings on your continent amounted to 58,326-18s-5d, which appear to have been applied to the relief of 81o cases of Friends, and 420 of those not in membership, exclu- sive of the number of both classes relieved in Ireland, which we ap- prehend to be about one-seventh more. The proportion of the above sum received from you was A928-2S-6d. from the attention of our committee we have reason to believe the distribution has been made in a manner conformable to your view, with care and judgment and it is comfortable to us to be able to inform you that the assistance has been in most instances seasonable and very gratefully accepted. This Meeting is now much relieved from its pressure, and in a thankful sense thereof and of your sympathy and benevolence we are your affectionate friends. Signed on behalf of the meeting Geo. Stacey, Qlerk. Meeting for Sufferings of London. Third of oth Mo. ISO2.H This collection of money in the wilderness of America in 1802, to feed the destitute Friends in the metropolis of England, mem- bers of the oldest organizations of the Society, brings irresistibly to our minds Barnabas and Saul bearing relief from the Gentile churches at Antioch and elsewhere, to the poor saints of the mother church at Jerusalem. Acts 11: 29. For it hath been the good pleasure of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor that are among the saints that are at Jerusalem. Rom. 15: 26. Isaac Lawton, during four years, from 1784 to 1788, was the chief and probably only teacher. He was not only a preacher and poet, but he had been clerk of the Yearly Meeting as long as it had been attractive to him, also the first clerk of the first Meeting, for Sufferings i11 177 5. - He received by no means extravagant com- pensation for his services, considering that he was in his proper

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the distress of disastrous war had pressed down upon parents with a burden hard to be borne. They with difficulty secured twenty children, and it is doubtful if the School, while there, ever much exceeded that numberg yet they break out with an indomitable spirit of triumph, in their report in 1786, after two years of ex- perience, as follows: We doubt not but a diligent perseverance in Society, to promote the Institution, will with a Divine blessing, continue the School to be useful not only to this present, but future ge1ieratio11s. -171.for Szgjf, Vol. f, fl. 233. A prophecy how well fulfilled E The Meeting for Sufferings, on the 12th of Third Mo., 1787, ap- pointed Thomas Lapham and Moses Brown to solicit, by letter, do- nations to the School from England. This was their last hope in the critical situation. They had exhausted their resources of ap- peal to their own members. The letter was prepared and presented to the meeting the next day. It was then approved, and Moses Brown was requested to make a fair copy of it and forward it to the Meeting for Sufferings in London. The letter recites the trials arising from the war, paper currency, distracted government, and other things, and then proceeds as fol- lows : It is with reluctance we commence our correspondence on a subject of this nature, being sensible of the exertions of Friends in establishing that highly useful and honorable Institution at Ack- worth. But we hope the reasons mentioned will apologize for the asking for an extension of the charity and benevolence of those, whom Providence has made stewards of those things which their brethren stand in need of, and the spending of which may and we hope will be a means of their enjoying the satisfaction of greater riches. Signed by Moses Brown, Clerk.-XII. for Szj, Vol. f, jf. 2718. The reply from the Meeting for Sufferings in London to the Meeting for Sufferings in New England was presented to the meet- ing in Dartmouth, Mass., on the Tenth day of the Tenth Mo., 1787. They express much cordial sympathy with the Institution in Amer- ica, and with the efforts of their American brethren, and suggest and hope that later they may be able to contribute. Robert Burns has neatly described their condition: A man may tak a neebor's part, Yet hae uae cash to spare him. ' Our English Friends have been so importuned, without mercy,

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person the whole faculty of Friends School. His salary was ,550 a year, exceeding by ten .-pounds that of the village preacher in Goldsmith's Deserted Village : A man he was to all the country dear, And passing rich with forty pounds a year. The School, like most schools and colleges of the present day, soon began to feel the need of more money. This is true now, no matter how much they have, their work grows upon their hands. But Friends School made its little beginning with humble contri- butions of poor people, with widows' mites, and prayer. The times and tides were 11ot propitious, indeed the location proved to be most unfortunate for business. Newport secured permanent land rents to the funds of the School, which were of vital importance to it. These were reduced or lost at once, by very unwise paper currency legislation on the part of the State of Rhode Island in 1786. The result of the forcing act was a complete stagnation of business. Merchants discontinued their dealings, and traders closed their shops. The farmers, who had pledged their lands for the paper bills, to retaliate upon the traders refused to bring their produce to market. -QHzLvf. R. f.,Q1fS. G. Arnold, Vol. ff,fv.5.21.5 Rhode Island did 11ot adopt the constitution, and become a part of the United States, until 1790, and then only by a majority of two votes. Very nearly a condition of anarchy existed at the end of four unfortunate school years, a11d very nearly State repudiation of just debts. A general improvement began in 1790. In the midst of the public distress which prevailed, the Meeting for Sufferings decided to take a vacation, to begin at the time of Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting, in the Tenth Mo., 1788. The School did not open again until the first day of the First Mo., 1819. The unexpected often happens i11 human affairs, and this long va- cation is a striking example of it. Each succeeding year, as Yearly Meeting time arrived, way did not open and the vacation was ex- tended another year, in the hope of better and more settled busi- ness. The subject was referred again tothe Meeting for Suffer- ings in 1790, and a committee on education appointed to wake up the people.- Y. Ill. Rec., Vol. ff, ji. 34. The agitation for the revival of the School was constantly before the Yearly Meeting from 1795 to 1801. Friends are earnestly pleaded with to give to the fund every year. A committee, with Moses Brown at the head of it, was directed to see what could be