A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3) by Thomas Clarkson

T >> Thomas Clarkson >> A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume II (of 3)

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The last occupation I shall notice is that of a silversmith. And here
the censure will depend upon a contingency also. If a Quaker confines
himself to the selling of plain silver articles for use, little
objection can be raised against his employ. But if, in addition to this,
he sells goldheaded canes, trinkets, rings, ear-rings, bracelets,
jewels, and other ornaments of the person, he will be considered as
chargeable with the same inconsistency as the follower of the former
trade.

In examining these and other occupations of the Quakers, with a view of
seeing how far the objections which have been advanced against them are
valid, I own I have a difficult task to perform. For what standard shall
I fix upon, or what limits shall I draw upon this occasion? The
objections are founded in part upon the principle, that Quakers ought
not to sell those things, of which their own practice shows that they
disapprove. But shall I admit this principle without any limitation or
reserve? Shall I say without any reserve, that a Quaker-woman, who
discards the use of a simple ribbon from her dress, shall not sell it to
another female, who has been constantly in the habit of using it, and
this without any detriment to her mind? Shall I say again, without any
reserve, that a Quaker-man who discards the use of black cloth, shall
not sell a yard of it to another? And, if I should say so, where am I to
stop? Shall I not be obliged to go over all the colours in his shop, and
object to all but the brown and the drab? Shall I say again, without any
reserve, that a Quaker cannot sell any thing which is innocent in
itself, without inquiring of the buyer its application or its use? And
if I should say so, might I not as well say, that no Quaker can be in
trade? I fear that to say this, would be to get into a labyrinth, out of
which there would be no clew to guide us.

Difficult, however, as the task may seem, I think I may lay down three
positions, which will probably not be denied, and which, if admitted,
will assist us in the determination of the question before us. The first
of these is, that no Quaker can be concerned in the sale of a thing,
which is evil in itself. Secondly, that he cannot encourage the sale of
an article, which he knows to be essentially, or very generally, that
is, in seven cases out of ten, productive of evil. And, thirdly, that he
cannot sell things which he has discarded from his own use, if he has
discarded them on a belief that they are specifically forbidden by
Christianity, or that they are morally injurious to the human mind.

If these positions be acknowledged, they will give ample latitude for
the condemnation of many branches of trade.

A Quaker-bookseller, according to these positions, cannot sell a profane
or improper book.

A Quaker spirit-merchant cannot sell his liquor but to those whom he
believes will use it in moderation, or medicinally, or on proper
occasions.

A Quaker, who is a manufacturer of cotton, cannot exercise his
occupation but upon an amended plan.

A Quaker-silversmith cannot deal in any splendid ornaments of the
person.

The latter cannot do this for the following reasons. The Quakers reject
all such ornaments, because they believe them to be specifically
condemned by Christianity. The words of the apostles Paul and Peter,
have been quoted both by Fox, Penn, Barclay, and others, upon this
subject. But surely, if the Christian religion positively condemns the
use of them in one, it condemns the use of them in another. And how can
any one, professing this religion, sell that, the use of which he
believes it to have forbidden? The Quakers also have rejected all
ornaments of the person, as we find by their own writers, on account of
their immoral tendency; or because they are supposed to be instrumental
in puffing up the creature, or in the generation of vanity and pride.
But if they have rejected the use of them upon this principle, they are
bound, as Christians, to refuse to sell them to others. Christian love,
and the Christian obligation to do as we would wish to be done by,
positively enjoin this conduct. For no man, consistently with this
divine law and obligation, can sow the seeds of moral disease in his
neighbour's mind.

And here I may observe, that though there are trades, which may be
innocent in themselves, yet Quakers may make them objectionable by the
manner in which they may conduct themselves in disposing of the articles
which belong to them. They can never pass them off, as other people do,
by the declaration that they are the fashionable articles of the day.
Such words ought never to come out of Quakers' mouths; not so much
because their own lives are a living protest against the fashions of the
world, as because they cannot knowingly be instrumental in doing a moral
injury to others. For it is undoubtedly the belief of the Quakers, as I
had occasion to observe in a former volume, that the following of such
fashions, begets a worldly spirit, and that in proportion as men indulge
this spirit, they are found to follow the loose and changeable morality
of the world, instead of the strict and steady morality of the gospel.

That some such positions as these may be fixed upon for the farther
regulation of commercial concerns among the Quakers, is evident, when we
consider the example of many estimable persons in this society.

The Quakers, in the early times of their institution, were very
circumspect about the nature of their occupations, and particularly as
to dealing in superfluities and ornaments of the person. Gilbert Latey
was one of those who bore his public testimony against them. Though he
was only a tailor, he was known and highly respected by king James the
Second. He would not allow his servants to put any corruptive finery
upon the clothes which he had been ordered to make for others. From
Gilbert Latey I may pass to John Woolman. In examining the Journal of
the latter I find him speaking thus: "It had been my general practice to
buy and sell things really useful. Things that served chiefly to please
the vain mind in people, I was not easy to trade in; seldom did it; and
whenever I did, I found it weaken me as a Christian." And from John
Woolman I might mention the names of many, and, if delicacy did not
forbid me, those of Quakers now living, who relinquished or regulated
their callings, on an idea, that they could not consistently follow them
at all, or that they could not follow them according to the usual manner
of the world. I knew the relation of a Quaker-distiller, who left off
his business upon principle. I was intimate with a Quaker-bookseller. He
did not give up his occupation, for this was unnecessary; but he was
scrupulous about the selling of an improper book. Another friend of
mine, in the society, succeeded but a few years ago to a draper's shop.
The furnishing of funerals had been a profitable part of the employ. But
he refused to be concerned in this branch of it, wholly owing to his
scruples about it. Another had been established as a silversmith for
many years, and had traded in the ornamental part of the business, but
he left it wholly, though advantageously situated, for the same reason,
and betook himself to another trade. I know other Quakers, who have held
other occupations, not usually objectionable by the world, who have
become uneasy about them, and have relinquished them in their turn.
These noble instances of the dereliction of gain, where it has
interfered with principle, I feel it only justice to mention in this
place. It is an homage due to Quakerism; for genuine Quakerism will
always produce such instances. No true Quaker will remain in any
occupation, which he believes it improper to pursue. And I hope, if
there are Quakers, who mix the sale of objectionable with that of the
other articles of their trade, it is because they have entered into this
mixed business, without their usual portion of thought, or that the
occupation itself has never come as an improper occupation before their
minds.

Upon the whole, it must be stated that it is wholly owing to the more
than ordinary professions of the Quakers, as a religious body, that the
charges in question have been exhibited against such individuals among
them, as have been found in particular trades. If other people had been
found in the same callings, the same blemishes would not have been so
apparent. And if others had been found in the same, callings, and it
had been observed of these, that they had made all the beautiful
regulations which I have shown the Quakers to have done on the subject
of trade, these blemishes would have been removed from the usual range
of the human vision. They would have been like the spots in the sun's
disk, which are hid from the observation of the human eye, because they
are lost in the superior beauty of its blaze. But when the Quakers have
been looked at solely as Quakers, or as men of high religious
profession, these blemishes have become conspicuous. The moon, when it
eclipses the sun, appears as a blemish in the body of that luminary. So
a public departure from publicly professed principles will always be
noticed, because it will be an excrescence or blemish, too large and
protuberant, to be overlooked in the moral character.

CHAP. V.

_Settlement of differences--Quakers, when they differ, abstain from
violence--No instance of a duel--George For protested against going to
law, and Recommended arbitration-Laws relative to arbitration--Account
of an arbitration-society, at Newcastle upon Tyne, on Quaker-principles
--Its dissolution--Such societies might be usefully promoted._

Men are so constituted by nature, and their mutual intercourse is such,
that circumstances must unavoidably arise, which will occasion
differences. These differences will occasionally rouse the passions;
and, after all, they will still be to be settled. The Quakers, like
other men, have their differences. But you rarely see any disturbance of
the temper on this account. You rarely hear intemperate invectives. You
are witness to no blows. If in the courts of law you have never seen
their characters stained by convictions for a breach of the
marriage-contract, or the crime of adultery; so neither have you seen
them disgraced by convictions for brutal violence, or that most
barbarous of all Gothic customs, the duel.

It is a lamentable fact, when we consider that we live in an age,
removed above eighteen hundred years from the first promulgation of
Christianity, one of the great objects of which was to insist upon the
subjugation of the passions, that our children should not have been
better instructed, than that we should now have to behold men, of
apparently good education, settling their disputes by an appeal to arms.
It is difficult to conceive what preposterous principles can actuate
men, to induce them to such a mode of decision. Justice is the ultimate
wish of every reasonable man in the termination of his casual
differences with others, But, in the determination of cases by the
sword, the injured man not unfrequently falls, while the aggressor
sometimes adds to his offence, by making a widow or an orphan, and by
the murder of of a fellow-creature. But it is possible the duellist may
conceive that he adds to his reputation by decisions of this sanguinary
nature. But surely he has no other reputation with good men, than that
of a weak, or a savage, or an infatuated creature; and, if he fells, he
is pitied by these on no other motive than that of his folly and of his
crime. What philosopher can extol his courage, who, knowing the bondage
of the mind while under the dominion of fashion, believes that more
courage is necessary in refusing a challenge, than in going into the
field? What legislator can applaud his patriotism, when he sees him
violate the laws of his country? What Christian his religion, when he
reflects on the relative duties of man, on the law of lore and
benevolence that should have guided him, on the principle that it is
more noble to suffer than to resist, and on the circumstance, that he
may put himself into the doubly criminal situation of a murderer and a
suicide by the same act?

George Fox, in his doctrine of the influence of the spirit as a divine
teacher, and in that of the necessity of the subjugation of the passions
in order that the inward man might be in a fit state to receive its
admonitions, left to the society a system of education, which, if acted
upon, could not fail of producing peaceable and quiet characters; but
foreseeing that among the best men differences would unavoidably arise
from their intercourse in business and other causes, it, was his desire
that these should be settled in a Christian manner. He advised therefore
that no member should appeal to law; but that he should refer his
difference to arbitration, by persons of exemplary character in the
society. This mode of decision appeared to him to be consistent with the
spirit of Christianity, and with the advice of the apostle Paul, who
recommended that all the differences among the Christians of his own
time should be referred to the decision of the saints, or of such other
Christians, as were eminent for their lives and conversation.

This mode of decision, which began to take place among the Quakers in
the time of George Fox, has been continued by them to the present day.
Cases, where property is concerned to the amount of many thousands, are
determined in no other manner. By this process the Quakers obtain their
verdicts in a way peculiarly satisfactory. For law-suits are at best
tedious. They often destroy brotherly love in the individuals, while
they continue. They excite also, during this time, not unfrequently, a
vindictive spirit, and lead to family-feuds and quarrels. They agitate
the mind also, hurt the temper, and disqualify a man for the proper
exercise of his devotion. Add to this, that the expenses of law are
frequently so great, that burthens are imposed upon men for matters of
little consequence, which they feel as evils and incumbrances for a
portion of their lives; burthens which guilt alone, and which no
indiscretion, could have merited. Hence the Quakers experience
advantages in the settlement of their differences, which are known but
to few others.

The Quakers, when any difference arises about things that are not of
serious moment, generally settle it amicably between themselves; but in
matters that are intricate and of weighty concern, they have recourse to
arbitration. If it should happen, that they are slow in proceeding to
arbitration, overseers, or any others of the society, who may come to
the knowledge of the circumstance, are to step in and to offer their
advice. If their advice is rejected, complaint is to be made to their
own monthly meeting concerning them; after which they will come under
the discipline of the society, and if they still persist in refusing to
settle their differences or to proceed to arbitration, they may be
disowned. I may mention here, that any member going to law with another,
without having previously tried, to accommodate matters between them
according to the rules of the society, comes under the discipline in
like manner.

When arbitration is determined on, the Quakers are enjoined to apply to
persons of their own society to decide the case. It is considered,
however, as desirable, that they should not trouble their ministers, if
they can help it, on these occasions, as the minds of these ought to be
drawn out as little as possible into worldly concerns. If Quakers,
however, should not find among Quakers such as they would choose to
employ for these purposes, or such as may not possess skill in regard to
the matter in dispute, they may apply to others out of the society,
sooner than go to law.

The following is a concise statement of the rules recommended by the
society, in the case of arbitrations.

Each party is to choose one or two friends as arbitrators, and all the
persons, so chosen, are to agree upon a third or a fifth. The
arbitrators are not to consider themselves as advocates for the party by
whom they were chosen, but as men, whose duty it is to judge
righteously, fearing the Lord. The parties are to enter into engagements
to abide by the award of the arbitrators. Every meeting of the
arbitrators is to be made known to the parties concerned, till they have
been fully heard. No private meetings are allowed between some of the
arbitrators, or with one party separate from the other, on the business
referred to them. No representation of the case of one party, either by
writing or otherwise, is to be admitted, without its being fully made
known to the other; and, if required, a copy of such representation is
to be delivered to the other party. The arbitrators are to hear both
parties fully, in the presence of each other, whilst either has any
fresh matter to offer, for a time mutually limited. In the case of any
doubtful point of law, the arbitrators are jointly to agree upon a case,
and consult counsel. It is recommended to arbitrators to propose to the
parties, that they should give an acknowledgment in writing, before the
award is made; that they have been candidly and fully heard.

In the same manner as a Quaker proceeds with a Quaker in the case of any
difference, he is led by his education and habits to proceed with
others, who are not members of the same society. A Quaker seldom goes to
law with a person of another denomination, till he has proposed
arbitration. If the proposal be not accepted, the Quaker has then no
remedy but the law. For a person, who is out of the society, cannot be
obliged upon pain of disownment, as a Quaker may, to submit to such a
mode of decision, being out of the reach of the Quaker-discipline.

I shall close my observations upon this subject, by giving an account of
an institution for the accommodation of differences, which took place in
the year 1793, upon Quaker principles.

In the town of Newcastle upon Tyne, a number of disputes were
continually arising on the subject of shipping concerns, which were
referred to the decision of the laws. These decisions were often
grievously expensive. They were, besides, frequently different from what
seafaring persons conceived to be just. The latter circumstance was
attributed to the ignorance of lawyers in maritime affairs. Much money
was therefore often expended, and no one satisfied. Some Quakers, in the
neighbourhood, in conjunction with others, came forward with a view of
obviating these evils. They proposed arbitration as a remedy. They met
with some opposition at first, but principally from the gentlemen of the
law. After having, however, shown the impropriety of many of the legal
verdicts that had been given, they had the pleasure of seeing their plan
publicly introduced and sanctioned. For in the month of June, 1793, a
number of gentlemen, respectable for their knowledge in mercantile and
maritime affairs, met at the Trinity-hall in Newcastle, and associated
themselves for these and other purposes, calling themselves "The
Newcastle upon Tyne Association for general Arbitration."

This association was to have four general meetings in the year, one in
each quarter, at which they were to receive cases. For any urgent
matter, however, which might occur, the clerk was to have the power of
calling a special meeting.

Each person, on delivering a case, was to pay a small fee. Out of these
fees the clerk's salary and incidental expenses were to be paid. But the
surplus was to be given to the poor.

The parties were to enter into arbitration-bonds, as is usual upon such
occasions.

Each party was to choose out of this association or standing committee,
one arbitrator for himself, and the association were to choose or to
ballot for a third. And here it will be proper to observe, that this
standing association appeared to be capable of affording arbitrators
equal to the determination of every case. For, if the matter in dispute
between the two parties were to happen to be a mercantile question,
there were merchants in the association: If a question relative to
shipping, there were ship-owners in it: If a question of insurance,
there were insurance-brokers also. A man could hardly fail of having his
case determined by persons who were competent to the task.

Though this beautiful institution was thus publicly introduced, and
introduced with considerable expectations and applause, cases came in
but slowly. Custom and prejudice are not to be rooted out in a moment.
In process of time, however, several were offered, considered, and
decided, and the presumption was, that the institution would have grown
with time. Of those cases which were determined, some, relating to
ships, were found to be particularly intricate, and cost the arbitrators
considerable time and trouble. The verdicts, however, which were given,
were in all of them satisfactory. The Institution, at length became so
popular, that, incredible to relate, its own popularity destroyed it! So
many persons were ambitious of the honour of becoming members of the
committee, that some of inferior knowledge, and judgment, and character,
were too hastily admitted into it. The consequence was, that people
dared not trust their affairs to the abilities of every member: and the
institution expired, after having rendered important services to
numerous individuals who had tried it.

When we consider that this institution has been tried, and that the
scheme of it has been found practicable, it is a pity that its benefits
should have been confined, and this for so short a period, to a single
town. Would it not be desirable, if, in every district, a number of
farmers were to give in their names to form a standing committee, for
the settlement of disputes between farmer and farmer? or that there
should be a similar institution among manufacturers, who should decide
between one manufacturer and another? Would it not also be desirable,
if, in every parish, a number of gentlemen, or other respectable
persons, were to associate for the purpose of accommodating the
differences of each other? For this beautiful system is capable of being
carried to any extent, and of being adapted to all stations and
conditions of life. By these means numerous little funds might be
established in numerous districts, from the surplus of which an
opportunity would be afforded of adding to the comforts of such of the
poor, as were to distinguish themselves by their good behaviour, whether
as labourers for farmers, manufacturers, or others. By these means also
many of the quarrels in parishes might be settled to the mutual
satisfaction of the parties concerned, and, in so short a space of time,
as to prevent them from contracting a rancorous and a wounding edge.
Those, on the other hand, who were to assist in these arbitrations,
would be amply repaid; for they would be thus giving an opportunity of
growth to the benevolence of their affections, and they would have the
pleasing reflection, that the tendency of their labours would be to
produce peace and good will amongst men.

CHAP. VI.

SECT. I.

_Management of the poor--Quakers never seen as beggars--George Fox began
the provision for the Quaker-poor--Monthly meetings appoint
overseers--Persons passed over are to apply for relief and the
disorderly may receive it in certain cases--Manner of collecting for the
poor--If burthensome in one monthly meeting, the burthen shared by the
quarterly--Quakers gain settlements by monthly meetings, as the other
poor of the kingdom, by parishes._

There are few parts of the Quaker-constitution, that are more worthy of
commendation, than that which relates to the poor. All the members of
this society are considered as brethren, and as entitled to support from
one another. If our streets and our roads are infested by miserable
objects, imploring our pity, no Quaker will be found among them. A
Quaker-beggar would be a phenomenon in the world.

It does not, however, follow from this account, that there are no poor
Quakers, or that members of this society are not born in a dependent
state. The truth is, that there are poor as well as rich, but the wants
of the former are so well provided for, that they are not publicly seen,
like the wants of others.

George Fox, as he was the founder of the religion of the Quakers, I mean
of a system of renovated Christianity, so he was the author of the
beautiful system by which they make a provision for their poor. As a
Christian, he considered the poor of every description, as members of
the same family, but particularly those, who were of the household of
faith. Consistently with this opinion, he advised the establishment of
general meetings in his own time, a special part of whose business it
was to take due care of the poor. These meetings excited at first the
vigilance and anger of the magistrates; but when they came to see the
regulations made by the Quakers, in order that none of their poor might
become burthensome to their parishes, they went away--whatever they
might think of some of their new tenets of religion--in admiration of
their benevolence.

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