In order to understand the effect of the foregoing Act, it will be necessary to bear in mind, that the summary jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace for the recovery of tithes is conferred by Two distinct classes of Legal enactment; the one relating to the recovery of Small Tithes from persons in general, and the other to the recovery not only of Tithes, but of other Ecclesiastical demands from Quakers. The jurisdiction of Justices in the former case is restricted to sums not exceeding £10; and in the latter to sums not exceeding £50. Dr. Burn long since pointed out the confusion which existed between these two classes of Enactments, and the necessity of distinguishing them: this distinction is maintained by the Act in its amended form. Its objects are fourfold:

1st. To confine all proceedings for the recovery of Tithes under £10, from the public at large, to the summary jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace.

2ndly. To confine all proceedings for the recovery of Ecclesiastical demands under £50, from Quakers, to the summary jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace: with the exception, in both instances, of cases in which the legal Title of the Claimant is bonâ fide in question.

3rdly. In the case of Quakers, to abolish imprisonment for nonpayment of Ecclesiastical demands, in all cases.

4thly. To liberate from custody all Quakers in prison for non-payment of Ecclesiastical demands at the time of the passing of the Act; but with a reservation of the plaintiff's remedies against the Property of the Prisoner.

The Act includes England and Ireland.

To compensate thy readers for the patience with which, I shall take for granted, they have perused the foregoing important but perhaps tedious details, I will imform them, without more saying, that John Williams was liberated from the jail of Carlow on 4th day morning the 24th Inst. under an order directed to the Sheriff* by Lord Morpeth, whose kind and well directed exertions, in behalf of religious liberty, throughout the whole of this affair, deserve to be had in lasting remembrance by every Quaker, and every Yorkshireman,

I am thine truly,

A JURIST.

ART. III.-Extracts from Letters.

1. To M. W: Waterford. "Tottenham, 6 mo. 7, 1827.-We had a quiet Yearly Meeting, which ended (as frequently of late) in little more than a week of public sittings. So greatly are the faces changed, that some of us seem, when we pass through the crowded court, to be surrounded by [quite] another generation.-Young people have been growing up to fill the places of many deceased, who were my seniors.

* This last interference, so timely afforded by the Chief Secretary for Ireland, would not have been necessary, but for the groundless fear of the Sheriff to comply at once with the directions of the Act.

“These latter had their peculiar views of things, in which they were confirmed by long usage: and it was difficult to persuade some of them that our society was improveable in any thing. I observe that Friends of the present generation can bear, better than they could, to differ [in opinion]; and can discuss the doubtful points which yet at times come before them, with much forbearance and good temper. Our speakers, too, keep more to the matter before the Meeting, and we have fewer interruptions. These improvements, with a manifestly better practice as regards the authority and use of the Holy Scriptures, we owe principally under Divine Providence to a better education of the youth. The habits of Friends are becoming less singular, and their manners more polished; without much, if any, loss (in the whole) of real simplicity. Could we get still more out of the spirit of the world, in respect of enterprise in trade and money getting, and the useless accumulation of large fortunes, we should improve indeed !

"The times, I believe, have taught many (who would not believe when told it before hand) that all these things, the right use of them [only] excepted, are very vanity. Our discipline has been restored by a generation which has pretty much passed away: it has been perfected by men who are now becoming an elder class among us: the young must be content, I believe, to keep it unimpaired. I think, what now most concerns us is doctrine. All should know what the society professes; both in general and on particular points, (the latter we insist on sufficiently :) and that from authentic sources. Thus they would be able to judge (in their measure) of what is offered in the ministry: and we should cease to have such peculiar schools of opinion among us. There is but one standard for all by which to measure doctrine-Holy Scripture and this [must be applied] with the due relation of text to context; and of both to the analogy and harmony of the whole. What has taken place, and is likely yet to take place in America, should teach us that there is a danger (not enough apprehended, hitherto) of the revival of a Ranterism not inferior in extravagance to that which was manifested, in some, in the first age of the Society, as well as of the secret prevalence of Infidelity among us, if we do not own, and exalt, and stand by this safe and wholesome test.—Our preaching cannot be too clear and doctrinal: the better education of our members requires it; and I believe many more can now digest strong meat, than some who are nurses [among us] apprehend. Not that I have not a sense of the value of such ministers, in their right place; but that is not always in the seat of judgment. I believe thou wilt rightly understand me, and know how to make allowance for the freedom of these remarks."-L. H.

(To be continued.)

ELCOCK, PRINTER, PONTEFRACT.

ART. I.-A Chronological Summary of events and circumstances connected with the origin and progress of the doctrine and practices of the Quakers.

Continued from p. 172.

A. D. Party violence, and rioting occur (for the first time) at an 1742. Election, in Philadelphia.

Our historian Proud makes his reflections at some length, on this inauspicious change in the conduct of his fellow citizens. He ascribes it to the great mixture of various sorts of people, which was now introduced into the province. That conspicuous Liberty, he says, of which the early inhabitants had in general shewn themselves worthy, had attracted persons of very different principles and manners from those of the first settlers. A spirit of opposition was thus raised and fomented against the old interest, and the defenders of the established free constitution of the province. It was now the time of war; when a large number of sailors from the shipping in the River Delaware, during the election (not being of right in any way interested therein) appeared suddenly armed with clubs, and made a riot at the place; knocking down a great number of the people; Magistrates, constables and others (worthy and respectable inhabitants) who opposed them; and having cleared the ground by such violence, several of the people were carried off for dead.

The Electors returning, the sailors returned to the charge-so that the citizens were obliged to take measures (it is not said, what) to force them back to their ships; and near fifty of the rioters were imprisoned, but soon discharged. So that the conclusion seems inevitable, that some

leaders of influence had set them on; meditating a change from the peaceable government of a body of Quakers, to the dominance of a War-faction. (a)

I shall have very little more, now, of the concerns of this Colony to report from Proud. Governor Thomas resigned in 1747, in tolerable harmony with the Legislative branch; and James Hamilton of Pennsylvania, a gentleman of considerable fortune, and well esteemed (the son of Andrew Hamilton before mentioned) succeeded him. Governor Hamilton resigned in 1754, and was succeeded by Robert Hunter Morris, of New Jersey; son of Lewis Morris, a former governor of that province. To him succeeded William Denney in 1756, and James Hamil. ton, (the second time) in 1760 :-and lastly, in 1763, the Government returned into the family of the Proprietary, in the person of John Penn, son of Richard and grandson of William Penn; with whom (after some little interruption by the temporary administration of his brother Richard) we leave the province in 1771, at the termination of Proud's account of its affairs. (b)

At this period, with the exception of Virginia and Maryland taken together, Philadelphia had the largest trade with the Mother-country of any section of the American colonies: its imports from thence being calculated (on an average of three years, ending 1774) at £611,000, and its exports at £705,500. (c) The population of the province, Proud estimates (for 1770) at about Two hundred and fifty thousand; of whom one in six (in consequence of the poll-tax &c.) contributed to the exigences of Government. The city and suburbs of Philadelphia contained in December 1769, of houses erected upon the plan laid down by its Founder (exclusive of public buildings, stores, workhouses &c.) thirty one thousand, three hundred and eighteen; the City having been not more than eighty-seven years in growing to this extent.

Of Public buildings, mostly plain, but some of them of elegant construction, the historian mentions the State-house, the Prison and Work-house, the Pennsylvania hospital, the House of employment for the Poor-the College and Academy of Philadelphia, the elegant Episcopalian place of worship called Christchurch, and two others of this denomination; four Meeting-houses of the Quakers (three of them constantly occupied ;) four of the Presbyterians; two each, of the Roman Catholics and German Lutherans; one each, of the Baptists, Moravians, Methodists and German Calvinists.

Of Public Institutions, besides the numerous private Schools, two public Seminaries of learning incorporated by Charter and provided with funds; one the beforementioned School of William Penn, the other, the College of Philadelphia; a Seminary of a public nature for the languages and Mechanics, with a Library; a school exclusively devoted by Friends to the instruction of Negro children: the American Philosophical Society; the Library company; a Society for promoting the cultivation of silk &c.; a Society for the relief of poor and dis

(a) Proud ii. 229. (b) Idem. Ch. xxviii. (c) Idem. ii. 272.

tressed shipmasters, their widows and children; an Insurance company, and a number of associations for preventing and extinguishing fires. (d) Proud says, 'There is a greater number of different religious Societies in this province, than perhaps in any other throughout the British dominions. In regard to disputes on religious subjects, and the consequences of an universal toleration of all the varieties of opinion in religion (elsewhere much dreaded) it is apprehended there is not more real harmony any where known, in this respect, even under the most despotic hierarchies, than in Pennsylvania. Here are, 1. The Quakers, who were principally the settlers, and in effect the makers of the province : 2. The Episcopalians of the Church of England: 3. The Lutherans, German and Swedish: 4. Presbyterians and Independents: 5. German Calvinists: 6. Church of Rome: 7. Jews: 8. Baptists, including the Dunkers: 9. Mennonists: 10. Moravians and Schwenkfelders: 11. The heathen Indians, and Christian converts among them. [If we were to notice the various subdivisions, these denominations would become many more.] All these, for a considerable series of years have in general, from the example of the quakers-maintained such harmony and concord among themselves, as approaches nearer to that Universal Love and Charity which Christianity teaches [or rather which Christ's gospel inculcates]-than any thing that has ever been known to arise from the intolerant authority, so predominant in many other Countries.' (e)

My object being Quakerism, I must restrict my attention here to such as hold that doctrine. The Quakers in the city of Philadelphia composed (1760-70) about one seventh part of its inhabitants [and about one third of the Legislature and Magistracy.] The rest of that Society, having their residence principally in the older counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Newcastle, &c. had in the year 1770, between sixty and seventy Meeting-houses for Divine worship in the Province, and in the lower counties on Delaware. But of late [1776-80] they have been much exceeded in number by other societies, complexly taken though they are generally esteemed among the wealthiest and most substantial of the inhabitants."

'The number of religious visits, by preachers of this society, from Great Britain and other parts of Europe (but chiefly from England) to this country-between the years 1661 and 1771, as appears by their own records, was about 132; exclusive of those who from Europe had settled in America, and [there] travelled in that service; which were many.' (f)

As persons allied in religious sentiment to Friends, it may be proper here to notice from Proud 1. The Mennonists, a subdivision of the Anabaptists, who testify against taking oaths and bearing arms, as Unchristian: 2. The Dunkers, also Baptists, and holding the unlawfulness of oaths and war to Christians; but more singular in their manners and customs than the former: some of them making the Seventh day the Christian Sabbath: above 2000 in number and having four Meeting-houses: 3.

(d) Proud ii. 275-282. (e) Idem. 337. (f) Idem. 339, and Note.