Joseph Sturge, he continues, was from home.  At the request of his wife I dined at their house with twenty-five young culprits, whom J.S. has in his Reformatory at Stoke, near Bromsgrove.  They came in a van with horses to spend the day.  They are all such as have been once or twice in prison, mostly for theft.  I addressed them after dinner, and at tea-time I questioned them as to Jesus Christ our Redeemer, on God, Heaven and Hell, how to gain Heaven and avoid misery.  I left them with a more favorable impression than I otherwise should have had.  Severe measures had failed to improve them, but they seemed susceptible of kind treatment, and some of them gave hopes of amendment.

9 mo. 21.—­Visited the Boys’ and Girls’ First-day Schools.  Breakfasted with thirty teachers (young men) at the schools.  About 370 boys present in two rooms.  None are taken under fourteen years of age.  Also a large class of adults.  I addressed the two companies:  then went to the girls; heard them read, and addressed them.  There are about twenty young women teachers, and perhaps 270 to 300 girls.

The morning meeting was large.  I was much pressed in spirit to speak on the nature of the fall of man, and on the necessity of having clear views of gospel truth.  I was told afterwards that there was a Unitarian present.

He attended the Quarterly Meeting at Leicester on the 24th, and the two following days met companies of young persons, who were, he says, “much tendered in spirit.”  After some similar service at Stourbridge and Coventry, he returned on the 27th to Stamford Hill.  He remarks in his Diary:  “I believe the service of the young Friends in the First-day Schools has been a blessing to themselves as well as to their pupils.”

The next month John Yeardley made a religious visit to Hertfordshire, and had two social-religious meetings with the younger Friends at Hitchin; after which he remained at home until the beginning of the Twelfth Month, when he left England for Nismes.

One object in this journey was to revisit the school which had been established by himself and Martha Yeardley in 1842:  another was the renewal of his declining health.  Susan Howland and Lydia Congdon, from the United States, who were then on a visit to Europe, were bound for the same destination, and John Yeardley gave them his company.

12 mo. 6.—­On entering France, he says, we found a sprinkling of snow and frost, but on leaving Lyons we left all the wintry weather behind, and travelled on under a hot sun, and bright, cloudless sky, which seemed to impart to us all fresh vigor and spirits.  S. Howland remarked, In such an atmosphere she felt another being.

At Nismes, the party found Eliza P. Gurney, and Robert and Christine Alsop, on their way home from the valleys of Piedmont.  John Yeardley lodged at the school, spent much of his time with the children, and with the other English and the American Friends gave his aid in some plans for their recreation.