the execution, of the penal laws of Pennsylvania, as founded upon Quaker-principles. So happy have the effects of this new system already been, that it is supposed it will be adopted by the other American states. May the example be universally followed! May it be universally received as a truth, that true policy is inseparable from virtue; that in proportion as principles become lovely on account of their morality, they will become beneficial when acted upon, both to indivi duals and to states; or that legislators cannot raise a constitution upon so fair and firm a foundation as upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

CHAP

CHAPTER II.

Constitution of this

Monthly court or meeting meeting-Each county is usually divided into parts-In each of these parts or divisions are several meeting-houses, which have their several congregations attached to them-One meetinghouse in each division is fixed upon for transacting the business of all the congregations in that division-Deputies appointed from every parti cular meeting or congregation in each division to the place fixed upon for transacting the business within it-Nature of the business to be. transacted-Women become deputies, and transact business equally with the men.

I COME, after this long digression, to the courts of the Quakers. And here I shall immediately premise that I profess to do little more than to give a general outline of these. I do not intend to explain the proceedings preparatory to the meetings there, or to state exceptions from general rules, or, to trouble the memory of the reader with more circumstances than will be sufficient

Τα

to enable him to have a general idea of this part of the discipline of the Quakers.

The Quakers manage their discipline by means of monthly, quarterly, and yearly courts, to which, however, they themselves uniformly give the name of Meetings.

To explain the nature and business of the monthly or first of these meetings, I shall fix upon some county in my own mind, and describe the business that is usually done in this in the course of the month. For, as the business which is usually transacted in any one county is done by the Quakers in the same manner and in the same month in another, the reader, by supposing an aggregate of counties, may easily imagine how the whole business of the Society is done for the whole kingdom.

The Quakers usually divide a county into a number of parts, according to the Quakerpopulation of it*. In each of these divisions there are usually several meeting-houses, and

This was the antient method, when the Society was numerous in every county of the kingdom; and the principle is still followed according to existing circumstances.

these

these have their several congregations attached to them. One meeting-house, however, in each division is usually fixed upon for transacting the business of all the congregations that are within it, and for the holding of these monthly courts. The different congregations of the Quakers, or the members of the different particular meetings, which are settled in the northern part of the county, are attached of course to the meeting-house which has been fixed upon in the northern division of it, because it gives them the least trouble to repair to it on this occasion. The members of those, again, which are settled in the southern, or central, or other parts of the county, are attached to that which has been fixed upon in the southern, or central, or other divisions of it, for the same reason. The different congregations in the northern division of the county appoint, each of them, a set of deputies once a month, which deputies are of both sexes, to repair to the meeting-house which has been thus assigned them. The different congregations in the southern, central, or other divisions, appoint also, each of them, others, to repair

to

to that which has been assigned them in like manner. These deputies are all of them previously instructed in the matters belonging to the congregations which they respectively represent.

At length the day arrives for the monthly meeting. The deputies make ready to execute the duties committed to their trust. They repair, each set of them, to their respective places of meeting. Here a number of Quakers, of different ages and of both sexes, from their different divisions, repair also. It is expected that all who can conveniently attend should be present on this

occasion.

When they are collected at the meetinghouse which was said to have been fixed upon in each division, a meeting for worship takes place. All persons, both men and women, attend together. But when this meeting is over, they separate into different apartments for the purposes of the discipline; the men, to transact by themselves the business of the men, and of their own district; the women, to transact that which

* There may be persons who on account of immoral.

conduct cannot attend.