LONGMAN AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW; I. AND A. ARCH, CORNHILL; HARVEY AND DARTON, gracechurch-STREET; AND E. FRY, HOUNSDITCH, LONDON BOOKSELLERS. MDCCCXXXVII. ART. I.—Tithe as it stands at present: that is, in relation to the Society of Friends. (See vol. iv. p. 363.) London, 30th of 5th Mo. 1836. The YEARLY MEETING of Friends concluded its sittings the day before yesterday, having been occupied ten days on the discipline and affairs of the Society. The part of its business which at present, and in consistency with the design of this work, comes under my notice, is the state of our Testimony against TITHES and other Ecclesiastical impositions-in other words, our Liberty of Conscience. It appears that, since last year's Report on the subject, ELEVEN THOU SAND ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE POUNDS, EIGHTEEN SHILLINGS AND A PENNY, have been taken by force from our Members, almost wholly for the purposes of an Ecclesiastical Establishment supported by the State, in this country and in Ireland. The Society has contented itself, on such a disclosure, with the simple announcement of the fact in its Printed Epistle. Not a remark is made on the amount of our 'Sufferings'-as greater or less than in former years: not a period follows of advice to Friends, to stand faithful in our passive resistance to the demands of a Ceremonial Priesthood, and of the Churchwardens their co-claimants. Nor does it appear to have been in the mind of any Repre VOL. V. B |