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quently continued in the itinerant ministry as pastor and presiding elder till 1845, when he was appointed chaplain of the Ohio penitentiary. He retained this office till 1849. During his later years he acted as conference missionary and pastor of churches in southern Ohio. His chief works are: “Autobiography” (Cincinnati, 1854); “Wyandotte Mission;” “Sketches of Western Methodism” (1857); “Life among the Indians” (1857); and “Memorials of Prison Life” (1860).
FINLEY, Samuel, an American Presbyterian clergyman, born in Armagh, Ireland, in 1715, died in Philadelphia, July 17, 1766. He arrived in America in 1734, studied theology, and was licensed to preach in 1740. The first part of his ministry was occupied with itinerant labors in promoting a revival of religion. In 1744 he was settled at Nottingham, Md., where he remained seven years, and carried on in addition to his ministerial labors an academy which acquired a high reputation. On the death of President Davies of the college of New Jersey, he was chosen his successor, and removed to Princeton in 1761. The college flourished while under his care.
FINMARK, a bailiwick of Norway, forming the N. E. division of the province of Tromsö, and the northernmost region of the continent of Europe, formerly including also what is now the bailiwick of Tromsö; area, 18,306 sq. m.; pop. in 1872, 20,329. It lies wholly within the arctic circle. Its northernmost point is the North cape, in lat. 71° 10′. Its coasts are thickly indented by long winding inlets, and are bordered by a vast number of irregular islands. It has important cod fisheries. The principal rivers are the Alten and Tana, the valleys of which are fertile and well cultivated. The climate of the coasts is so mild that some of the fiords never freeze. Hammerfest, an active trading place, is one of the principal towns.
FINN, Henry J., an American actor and author, born at Sydney, Cape Breton, about 1785, perished in the conflagration of the steamboat Lexington in Long Island sound on the night of Jan. 13, 1840. He went to England in his youth, on the invitation of a rich uncle residing there, who died without making any provision for him, and he was obliged to resort to the stage for a support. After a few years he returned to New York, subsequently revisited England, and in 1822 made his first appearance at the Federal street theatre in Boston. He was one of the most popular actors on the stage, his forte being broad comedy. He accumulated a competency, and was on his way to his residence in Newport, R. I., at the time of his death. He enjoyed a considerable reputation as a humorous writer, and published a “Comic Annual” and a number of articles in the periodicals. He published a drama entitled “Montgomery, or the Falls of Montmorenci,” which was acted with success, and he left besides a manuscript tragedy.
FINNEY, Charles G., an American preacher and author, born in Warren, Litchfield co., Conn., Aug. 29, 1792. He studied law in Jefferson co., N. Y. In 1824 he commenced the career of a preacher, and labored as an evangelist with great success until 1835, when he accepted a professorship in Oberlin college, Ohio; and in 1837 he became pastor of the first Congregational church at Oberlin. He however continued to preach in New York and elsewhere at intervals, and in 1848 went to England, where he remained three years. In 1852 he became president of Oberlin college, which position he held until 1866. His principal works are: “Lectures on Revivals” (Boston, 1835; 13th ed., 1840; new and enlarged ed., Oberlin, 1868); “Lectures to Professing Christians” (Oberlin, 1836); “Sermons on Important Subjects” (New York, 1839); and “Lectures on Systematic Theology” (2 vols. 8vo, Oberlin, 1847). All of these have passed through several editions.
FINNS, a race of men inhabiting portions of N. and E. Europe and N. W. Asia. The most important divisions of this race, besides the inhabitants of Finland or Finns proper, are the Lapps, Esths, Sirians, Permiaks, Votiaks, Tcheremisses, Mordvins, Bashkirs, Tchuvashes, Voguls, Ostiaks, and Magyars. They thus comprise the extensive group of languages and tribes which ethnologists and philologists designate as the Uralo-Finnic branch of the Mongolian, Turanian, or Uralo-Altaic family. (See Ethnology.) The Finns are related to the Huns, Avars, and Khazars; but it is not positively known when they took possession of their present habitats, and from what direction they moved into them. They are in every respect of the Mongoloid type, having not only its general physical character, but also its mental and temperamental characteristics. They are distinguished by the same gravity of demeanor and concealment of emotions; by deliberation of speech and the absence of violent gesticulation; by the rarity of laughter, and by plaintive and melancholy songs. It was until recently the universal opinion of ethnologists that they were a younger branch of the Asiatic Mongolians, and consequently that they emigrated from east to west. There are, however, reasons for supposing that the Finnic languages represent the oldest forms of speech among the Uralo-Altaic group. They possess, for example, the strongest marked features of the whole family, and bear the closest analogy to the Indo-European tongues. From these facts the conclusion has been drawn that the primitive Finns and Indo-Europeans were neighbors, and that the two families of languages were formed at the same time. The authorities who hold that the earliest home of the Indo-Europeans must be placed where the main body of them is still found, maintain accordingly that the Finns still inhabit their primitive soil, and that they are the ancestors and the stem of the Asiatic Turanians. One of
