(J. p. 225.)

Seaman's Friend Societies.

Societies for the benefit of seamen have existed in the United States under various names since the year 1812. In that year a few benevolent gentlemen in Boston associated themselves together under the name of "The Boston Society for the Improvement of Seamen." The object of this Society was to print and distribute Tracts among seamen, and to encourage the maintenance of worship on board vessels at sea. An edition of several appropriate Tracts was published, and partially distributed, but the Society ceased its operations very much after little more than one year.

In 1816 a Society was formed in Boston called the "Boston Society for the Religious and Moral Instruction of the Poor," a part of whose plan was to provide some religious instruction for the seamen. The Rev. William Jenks, D. D. was employed by this Society as a City Missionary, and on the first Sabbath in August, 1818, a meeting was opened for seamen. It was held in the Sail Loft under the Observatory on Central Wharf. The Rev. Dr. Jenks continued to officiate as the preacher to seamen until October, 1826, when he was installed Pastor of the Green Street Church, in Boston. The Rev. Stephen Bailey succeeded him in preaching to the sailors, and remained about a year. In January, 1828, it was thought advisable to separate the seamen's cause from the City Mission, and a new society was formed called the "Boston Seaman's Friend Society." In September, 1828, the Rev. Jonathan Greenleaf was employed as stated preacher to the seamen in Boston. In the course of the year following the Mariners' Church on Fort Hill was built, which was opened for public worship January 1, 1830. In the same month a church was organized in the Seamen's meeting, of which Mr. Greenleaf was chosen Pastor. In the autumn of 1833, Mr. Greenleaf resigned his charge having been appointed Corresponding Secretary of the American Seamen's Friend Society, and was succeeded by Rev. Theophilus Packard, Jr., who remained at Boston as a stated supply for about six months, when the Rev. Daniel M. Lord was obtained, who has since been regularly installed as Pastor of the Mariners' Church. In the autumn of 1828, a separate effort was made in Boston for the benefit of Mariners, commenced at first by the Methodist Brethren at the north part of the city. A house of worship then vacated by the first Methodist Society was obtained, and the Rev. Edward T. Taylor was engaged as preacher. A Society called "The Boston Port Society was formed, and a new meeting-house has been erected in

North Square, known as the Bethel Church, where Mr. Taylor now officiates.

The seamen's cause in New York owes its origin to the labors of the Rev. Ward Stafford, who was employed in New York city as a Missionary for the poor in the year 1816. He saw the destitute condition of sailors and opened a meeting for them in December of that year. Measures were immediately taken to erect a house of worship, which was accomplished, and the house was dedicated to the service of God in June, 1820. Mr. Stafford left New York about this time, and the Rev. Henry Chase and Rev. John Truair were both engaged to labor among seamen. "The Port Society of New York" was formed to sustain the public preaching at the Mariners' Church, and "The Bethel Union Society," to hold meetings on board vessels, and similar itinerant labors. Mr. Truair left New York in 1826, and Mr. Chase remains the sole minister at the Mariners' church. The assembly there is large, and the institution in a flourishing state.

In Philadelphia, the venerable Joseph Eastburn was the first preacher to seamen. He opened a meeting there in October, 1819. His meeting was held for some time in a sail-loft, then in the lecture room of one of the city churches, and finally in a house of worship prepared for the purpose. Mr. Eastburn labored abundantly for the good of seamen both in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He died, greatly lamented, January 30th, 1828, at the age of 79 years. A little previous to his death the Rev. A. H. Dashiell was employed to aid him in his labors, and finally succeeded him in this work. During Mr. Dashiell's ministry, in the year 1831, a church was organized, and the ordinances of the Gospel introduced into the seamen's meeting. Mr. Dashiell resigned his charge in 1834, and the present minister, Rev. J. L. Elliott was engaged.

The next successful effort was made at Charleston, in South Carolina. Meetings for seamen were held there in 1822, and in 1823 the Rev. Joseph Brown was employed as the regular preacher. Mr. Brown remained at Charleston, officiating to great acceptance, and in the most useful manner, till the summer of 1832, when he removed to New York as Corresponding Secretary of the American Seamen's Friend Society, to succeed the Rev. Joshua Leavitt, who had been General Agent of the Society from its commencement in 1828. He died September 16, 1833, aged 46. He was succeeded at Charleston by the Rev. John A. Mitchell, who remains there to the present time.

The efforts for seamen in Baltimore were commenced about the year 1823. A Bethel Union Society was formed in that year, a house of worship was soon built, and the Rev. Stephen

Williams has been employed as the preacher to seamen from that time to this.

The first efforts for seamen at Portland, in Maine, were of about the same date. The Rev. Jotham Sewall was employed to preach there for two summers in succession, under the auspices of a Bethel Union Society. At length, measures were taken to erect a house of worship, which was accomplished in the summer of 1829. The Rev. Robert Blake officiated for more than a year-after him the Rev. Sewall Tenny was employed until the autumn of 1835, when he left, and Rev. Charles M. Brown, the present minister was engaged. Similar efforts have been made in most of the large ports on the Atlantic seacoast, and regular public worship is now maintained for the benefit of sailors, on every Sabbath, in the ports of Salem and New Bedford, in Massachusetts, at Mystic Bridge, in Connecticut, at Newark, in New Jersey, at Richmond, in Virginia, and during the winter months at Savannah in Georgia, and Mobile in Alabama, in each of which there is a Bethel Chapel, and a minister. Some efforts for seamen are also made in the ports of Eastport and Bath, in Maine, Newburyport, in Massachusetts, Norfolk in Virginia, Pensacola, in West Florida, and New Orleans, in Louisiana. Regular Bethel Chapels, and stated ministers are found in Cleveland, Buffalo, Utica, Oswego, and Troy, for the special benefit of the seamen and boatmen on the Lakes and Canals, and in each of these places, except Oswego, there is an organized church. A similar effort is commenced at Albany, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati. While these things have been going on at home, sustained in every place by some local association, the sailors scattered abroad in the distant foreign ports have not been forgotten. To provide for these it seemed necessary to organize a new Society, which was done in the year 1826, called "The American Seamen's Friend Society." The first annual Report of this Society was published in 1828. In 1829, the Rev. David Abeel was engaged by the American Seamen's Friend Society to preach for one season to the sailors at Canton in China. This work was performed and the experiment was satisfactory. In 1832, the Society engaged the Rev. Edwin Stevens to labor at Canton, where he has remained usefully employed to the present time. In the same year the Rev. John Diell was sent to the Island of Oahu, one of the Sandwich Islands, as a Chaplain to seamen in that place. A chapel has been built there, and Mr. Diell is still officiating as minister. The Rev. Flavel S. Mines was engaged at the same time to preach to seamen at Havre in France, where he remained till the autumn of 1834, when he relinquished his charge, and was succeeded by the Rev. David D. F. Ely, who has been succeeded by Rev. Eli

Sawtell. In 1835, the Rev. O. M. Johnson was engaged as a chaplain to seamen at Rio Janeiro in South America, and has commenced his labors in that place.

This Society is preparing to enlarge the sphere of its operations in foreign ports, and is also about to erect a noble institution in the city of New York for a Seamen's Home. A lot of ground is purchased, and arrangements are making to erect the building.

The American Seamen's Friend Society has published a Hymn Book for sailors, which is now used in most of the Mariners' churches in the United States. They have published also for eight years past the "Sailor's Magazine," a periodical of 32 pages, issued monthly.

The receipts of the Society for 1838 were $14,173. There were then 6 chaplains at foreign stations, and seamen's congregations and preachers in 11 cities and towns. The officers of the Society are Adrian Van Sinderen, Esq. of Brooklyn, N. Y., President; Rev. Jonathan Greenleaf, Corresponding Secretary, and Mr. Charles N. Talbot, Treasurer. Of foreign societies, one only, the "London Seamen's Friend Society," will be particularly noticed, the origin of it being rather interesting.

In 1816, it was found that the master of a collier, lying in the Thames, was accustomed to have morning and evening prayers on board his vessel, to which he invited the crews of other vessels lying in the neighborhood. At the same time many seamen were out of employ, having been discharged on the close of the then late war between the United States and Great Britain, and not a few of them were in circumstances of distress which excited greatly the sympathy of the benevolent and humane. The inquiry arose what could be done, and the meeting continuing on board the collier, in 1817, a man who had been to sea in early life, but was then a minister of the Gospel, understanding the case, resolved on attending himself. He accordingly did attend; upon which, becoming much interested, as the worship was about to close, he introduced himself to the meeting, stating his former acquaintance with a seafaring life, and proposing to sustain, if it should be agreeable, a regular service among them.* The proffer being gratefully accepted, the meeting was continued and enlarged. This led to notoriety and thus to the formation, March 13, 1818, of the "London Seamen's Friend Society," a principal object of which, on account of the growth of the meeting, and the reluctance of the sailors to go to a common

*This man is supposed to have been the Rev. G. C. Smith of Penzance, author of the Tract, "Bethel, or the Flag Unfurled." See Report of the Port of Dublin Society for the religious instruction of Seamen.

church was, to provide for them a Bethel ship, where they might feel at home and come with freedom. Having accomplished its primary object, as it soon did, the society found enough still to be done to benefit the seamen, and they have accordingly continued their operations to the spiritual and eternal joy of many souls. The example of the metropolis being known, it was soon followed in Greenock, Leith, Liverpool, Hull, Bristol, and other ports, in which similar societies were formed and have since continued their benevolent operations.

(K. p. 239.)

Prison Discipline Societies.

The leader in this department of benevolence must ever be acknowledged to be the excellent John Howard of Cardington, England, who for a number of the last years of his life devoted himself and his fortune to the melioration of the condition of prisoners.

The variety and amount of good effected by his exertions cannot here be stated. He lived and died in the last century, was born in 1726, and died in 1790.

From the time of Howard's death the cause seems to have declined, and comparatively little was attempted in Europe or America till about 1824-5. Of foreign societies not much information has been obtained. The London Society has been in operation about seventeen years. In 1827, the receipts were about $8,000, and the expenditures about $12,000.

In Ireland an association is formed at Dublin for the improvement of prisons; and prison discipline societies of this nature also exist in France, at Petersburg in Russia, the Netherlands, and the Prussian Dominions. In Germany the subject is exciting the attention of the public. Dr. Julius of Hamburg is much engaged in this cause.

However the spirit of Howard has not been carried out in foreign countries as it should have been. Indeed, notwithstanding his benevolence, there was wanting in part in his operations and plans, the proper idea of discipline, or the moral improvement and recovery of offenders; and the penitentiary system, strictly speaking, is American, and is probably better carried out in the United States than in any other country. Acts were passed in the Colonies as early as 1699, authorizing magistrates to confine rogues and vagabonds, and