What shall we make of these fourteen lines? If the Reader will take the pains to scan them on his fingers, he will find that with very little exception (occasioned chiefly by the admission of the mute e into the measure) they run in very regular Pentameters-yet certain it is, they are any thing but English poetry, or English prose; and by no means devoid of sense, either! "You laugh-the moral, well applied, Shall make you laugh on 't other side.' How many passages might we not presently find, in pieces of writing called poetry,' full of periods well enough turned, and passages that fall musically on an English ear, from which a Foreigner would not be able to collect nearly as much meaning, in proportion to the words, as is exhibited in the specimen before us! Writers of poetry, or of those early attempts common to young persons of genius' which too easily pass for it, should be reminded not only that sound is not sense, but that even words well arranged may convey little or no meaning. Young masters and misses should indeed be taught to write something of their own heads' about nothing (and then burn it) in order, that, when they come to riper years, they may know how to put pen to paper about something. To publish such effusions is however quite another consideration: and should any of my Friends of more tender age be caught attempting this, let them be satisfied by reference to passages of real poetry, in some good author, under a proper comment, or by making them write over again in terse prose what they have thus penned, that vain are all human aspirations after immortality, from such precocious labours. If this will not cure them, shew them a Caricature! We may find hereafter a thing fit for the purpose, more easily than write one. Ed. Beware, my son, th' attempts of him who spies Man's every purpose out with jealous eyes: Still hide, perforce, within thy prudent breast Each thought-each movement of the tongue arrest That flexile member promptly follows still 'Tis most in thought, ere words have pass'd the tongue, Or the light purpose trembles on the lip) For here, unseen, the lurking foe secure Where, heedless of his wiles, th' untutor'd stray. ADVERTISEMENT. Professor Lee has published, at Cambridge, A Third letter to Mr. Joseph Storrs Fry, a Member of the Society of Friends, on the question, whether a Christian can reasonably and conscientiously object to the payment of Tithes, in answer to a Tract, professing to be 'Strictures, &c.' on a Second letter to that gentleman on the same subject.' For the reason given in a former number, where this controversy was last mentioned, I forbear any further notice of my Friend's publications. I believe the main arguments to be now fully gone through, between the parties concerned. Ed. ERRATA. The Editor is sorry to be obliged, in consequence of his distance from the press at the time, to present to his Reader's notice the following list in No. XL. Page 244, line 15: Hanibal read Hannibal. 252, 253, 254, 27 charge read change. Shawnoctown read Shawnoetown. 16 and 8, each from bottom: omit the quotation marks. 255, line 7 from bottom: shrew'd read shrewd. Communications may be addressed, rost PAID, “ For the Editor of the Yorkshireman," at the Printer's, Pontefract; at Longman and Co's, London; John Baines and Co's Leeds; and W. Alexander's, York CHARLES ELCOCK, PRINTER, PONTEFRACT. THE YORKSHIREMAN, A RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY JOURNAL BY A FRIEND. PRO PATRIA. No. XLIII. THIRD DAY, 15th FOURTH Mo. 1834. PRICE 4d ART. I.—A Brief statement of Facts respecting the Quakers. I deem it seasonable, although there is now running on in successive portions, in the pages of this work, a more ample Summary of our history, to present to the Reader at this juncture the following official document of the Society, of the date of 1818. It contains some remarks not found in the short publications usually given away by Friends and may not only furnish a few hints to reflecting minds, applicable to proposed changes in the condition and relations of the Religious establishments and dissenting Bodies of our country, but also serve to introduce some portions of documentary matter and historical inquiry, on the subject of the Marriage ceremony, Burials and Registers, as formerly and now in use among us. It was composed at the instance of the Meeting for Sufferings; and many copies were distributed (both in English and in French) to persons of eminent rank, or in official stations, soon after it had received the approbation of that Meeting: which also, in 1827, directed it to be printed for the use of our own members. Ed. "A Brief Statement of Facts, respecting the Origin, Persecutions, and successive steps to Toleration, of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers. London: Printed by William Phillips, George-Yard, Lombard-street, 1827. "There are in England several communions or bodies of Christians, who dissent from the Church by law established, who do not frequent its worship, nor use its ceremonies, nor submit to its ministers and its discipline, but who in these respects associate only among themselves according to their respective opinions: by which they are classed under different denominations, as Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Friends, commonly called Quakers, &c. The same thing may be said of Scotland, in which country the kirk or church established by by law, differs somewhat both in doctrine and discipline from the Church of England, and where also several bodies of Christians exist separate from both churches, on one or both of these accounts. "The separation of the Dissenters from their fellow-citizens in matters of religion, does not prevent their associating freely with them in the common intercourse and offices of civil society and Christian beneficence, although they are incapacitated by law on account of their dissent, from bearing offices of trust or profit under the government. Thus, while in the state they are subjects and citizens, without being legislators or magistrates, they form several churches or communions distinct from the national church. Each of these has its own places of worship, its own ministers, and its own discipline: and in the regular and peaceable exercise of these, the law protects them in the same manner as it does the worship and ministers of the established church, to the manifest advancement of the peace and prosperity of the kingdom. "The people called Quakers agree very nearly in many essential points of doctrine with the church of England: but in respect of ceremonies they are most remote from it, as likewise in their mode of worship. They were formed into a society between the years 1650 and 1660, about an hundred years after the first appearance of the Puritans, or Non-conformists, in England; and chiefly in consequence of a number of such persons of similar opinions being brought to know each other by the travels and preaching of an individual, named George Fox, whose memory and character are still held in high esteem by this people. From their first beginning to associate together they were opposed by the national priests, and at length severely persecuted by the magistrates, first in the time of the Commonwealth, and afterwards under Charles II. They suffered more in this respect than` other non-conformists, because they did not dare to flee from the trial, or to abandon their meetings for the worship of Almighty God; at which they were always to be found at the times appointed. Here they were often interrupted by the civil power, and sometimes assaulted by the military; who were in vain employed to endeavour to subdue their firmness. In the reign of Charles II. in particular, the prisons were filled with them, and many died through the sufferings they endured: endeavours were also used to suppress them by banishment to the West Indies. In New England the magistrates, at the instigation of some priests (who were not themselves of the church of England, but of those who had separated from it) made a law to banish them on pain of death, and they proceeded to hang some of them for returning after banishment; though no crime save their religion could be laid to their charge but the King on being applied to, speedily put a stop to these executions. Such was their early reception in a part of that extensive country, now the territory of the United States of North America, in which they have eminently prospered, and in which they now enjoy all the rights of citizens. "In some of these States, particularly those of Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Ohio, and Indiana, their numbers are very consider RESPECTING THE SOCIETY, &c. 291 able. In the first of these, their settlement is to be dated from the time when William Penn acquired from Charles II. the grant of that district. The new Province, which thus owed its origin to the favour of a monarch under whom the Society had suffered much (but in which members of that Society had long the principal sway) gave, from its first establishment, a bright example to the Christian world of the admission of entire liberty of conscience. "But to return-It is necessary, in order to account for such peculiar severities against them, to state, that their religious opinions included some points, which particularly exposed them to the effects of the intolerant spirit which then too much reigned, both within and without the established church. Thus, by refusing to bear arms, and to swear (both in obedience, as they believed, to the express commands of Christ) they subjected themselves to punishment by the magistrates; by declining the ceremonies of the national church, and refusing to pay tithes and other demands of an ecclesiastical nature, claimed by its ministers, they incurred the general dislike of this body; and in consequence of some peculiarities, dictated as they conceived by Christian simplicity and a regard to truth, in their language and manner, they offended the people, and especially the great who looked at that time for outward marks of respect and reverence, with a more severe and jealous eye than in the present age. "But through all these sufferings and trials the Quakers, so called, were supported in Christian meekness and patience, and preserved in a quiet, innocent, and useful course of life among their fellow-citizens. There is not one instance known, of their having ever united to resist those who used violence against them, or of their having joined in any unlawful combination or conspiracy, against the government or the peace of the country. The hearts of their fellow-Christians were in consequence gradually opened towards them; and while their numbers increased, way was also made for the interposition of the executive government in their favour. They were not wanting to themselves, when under suffering, in soliciting this: and on many occasions, when their deputies have appeared before the sovereign with petitions or addresses from the body, he has assured them of his good-will and protection. "The penal statutes and severe proceedings of magistrates against them were in consequence gradually relaxed, and at length by an Act of Parliament (a) made in the first year of William and Mary (after the abdication of James II. and the Revolution) they were exempted, in common with the other denominations of Protestant Dissenters, from the operation of former laws by virtue of which they had been persecuted. And shortly after a law was passed (b) for affording them (a) Entitled "An Act for exempting their Majesties' Protestant Subjects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the penalties of certain Laws." 1 William and Mary, Stat. 1. Cap. 18. The 12th Section of this act specially relates to the people called Quakers. (b) The first Law on this subject was enacted in 1695. The present form of Affirmation, completely free from any expressions objectionable to them, which |