inspect the state of their affairs once a year: and lest this advice should be disregarded, the monthly meetings are directed to make annual appointments of suitable Friends to communicate it to the members individually. But, independently of this public recommendation, they are earnestly advised by their Book of Extracts to examine their situation frequently. This is done with a view that they may see how they stand with respect to themselves, and with respect to the world at large; that they may not launch out into commercial concerns beyond their strength; nor live beyond their income; nor go on longer in their business than they can pay their debts.

If a Quaker, after this inspection of his affairs, should find himself unable to pay his just debts, he is immediately to disclose his affairs to some judicious members of the Society, or to his principal creditors, and to take their advice how he is to act, but to be particularly careful not to pay one creditor in preference to another.

When a person of the Society becomes a bankrupt, a committee is appointed by his own monthly meeting to confer with him

on

on his affairs.

If the bankruptcy should appear by their report to have been the result of misconduct, he is disowned. He may, however, on a full repentance, (for it is a maxim with the Society that "true repentance washes out all stains,") and by a full payment of every man his own, be admitted into membership again. Or, if he have begun to pay his creditors, and have made arrangements satisfactory to the Society for paying them, he may be received as a member, even before the whole of the debt is settled.

If it should appear, on the other hand, that the bankruptcy was the unavoidable result of misfortune, and not of imprudence, he is allowed to continue in the Society.

But in either of these cases, that is, where a man is disowned and restored, or where he has not been disowned at all, he is never considered as a member, entitled to every privilege in the Society, till he has paid the whole of his debts. And the Quakers are so strict upon this point, that if a person has paid ten shillings in the pound, and his creditors have accepted the composition,

and

and the law has given him his discharge, it is insisted upon that he pay the remaining ten as soon as he is able. No distance of time will be any excuse to the Society for his refusal to comply with this honourable law. Nor will he be considered as a full member, as I observed before, till he has paid the uttermost farthing: for no collection for the poor, nor any legacy for the poor, or for other services of the Society, will be received from his purse, while any thing remains of the former debt. This rule of refusing charitable contributions on such occasions is founded on the principle, that money taken from a man in such a situation is taken from his lawful creditors, and that such a man can have nothing to give, while he owes any thing to another.

It may be observed, of this rule or custom, that, as it is founded in moral principles, so it tends to promote a moral end. When persons of this description see their own donations dispensed with, but those of the rest of the meeting taken, they are reminded of their own situation, and of the desirableness of making the full satisfaction required. The custom therefore ope

3

rates

rates as a constant memento that their debts are still hanging over them, and prompts to new industry and anxious exertion for their discharge. There are many instances of Quakers who have paid their compositions as others do, but who, after a lapse of many years, have surprised their former creditors by bringing them the remaining amount of their former debts. Hence the Quakers are often enabled to say, what few others can say on the same subject, that they are not ultimately hurtful to mankind, either by their errors or by their misfor

tunes.

SECTION II.

But though the Quakers have made these regulations, the world finds fault with many of their trades or callings-several of these specifiedstandard proposed by which to examine them— some of these censurable by this standard — and given up by many Quakers on this account, though individuals may still follow them.

BUT though the Quakers have made these beautiful regulations concerning, trade, it is manifest

7

manifest that the world are not wholly satisfied with their conduct on this subject. People charge them with the exercise of improper callings, or of occupations inconsistent with the principles they profess.

It is well known that the Quakers consider themselves as a highly professing people; that they declaim against the follies and vanities of the world; and that they bear their testimony against civil customs and institutions, even to personal suffering. Hence, professing more than others, more is expected from them. George Fox endeavoured to inculcate this idea into his new society. In his letter to the yearly meeting in 1679 he expresses himself as follows: "The world also does expect more from friends than from other people, because they profess more. Therefore you should be more just than others in your words and dealings, and more righteous, holy, and pure, in your lives and conversation; so that your lives and conversations may preach. For the world's tongues and mouths have preached long enough; but their lives and conversations have denied what their

tongues