Lucretia Mott speaking at many points. She occupied the
Unitarian pulpit in London and elsewhere. As Mrs. Hugo Reid sat in
this convention throughout the proceedings and met Lucretia Mott
socially on several occasions, we may credit her outspoken
opinions, in 1843, in a measure to these influences.--[EDITORS.

[539] The committee as at first formed, consisted of the following
persons: The very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury, Dr. Alford, Miss
Jessie Boucherett, Professor Cairnes, Rev. W. L. Clay, Miss Davies,
the originator of Girton College, Lady Goldsmid, Mr. G. W.
Hastings, Mr. James Heywood, Mrs. Knox, Miss Manning, and Mrs.
Hensleigh Wedgwood. Mrs. Peter A. Taylor was treasurer, and Mrs. J.
W. Smith, _nee_ Miss Garrett, honorary secretary. A few months
later Mrs. Smith's death left this post vacant, and Mrs. P. A.
Taylor then assumed the office of secretary which she retained with
the aid of Miss Caroline Ashurst Biggs till 1871. No one else could
have rendered such services to our movement while it was in its
infancy as Mrs. Taylor gave. Her gentle and dignified presence, her
untiring energy, the experience of organization and public life
which she already possessed, her influence with an extended circle
of friends chosen from among the most liberal thinkers of the
nation, secured at once attention and respect for any cause she
took up. Many years before she had worked hard for the association
of the Friends of Italy, and on the breaking out of the American
civil war her sympathies and practical knowledge led her to found a
society for assisting the freedmen. In acknowledgment of the
invaluable assistance she rendered, her friends in America sent a
book containing a complete set of photographs of all the chief
anti-slavery workers. When she began her efforts for women's
suffrage, the English Abolitionists were among the first
correspondents to whom she applied, and they nearly all responded
cordially. For years her house, Aubrey House, Kensington, was the
centre of the London organization to which she gave her time,
strength, and money, well earning the title of "Mother of the
Movement," which loving friends have since bestowed.

[540] In 1869, 255 petitions, signed by 61,475 persons; in 1870,
663 petitions, signed by 134,561 persons; in 1871, 622 petitions,
signed by 186,976 persons (75 of these petitions were from public
meetings and signed only by the chairman, or from town councils and
sealed with the official