in person and estate; and how well my dear wife was given up to suffer with me, for the blessed Truth's sake, in those days. But the Lord our God supported and comforted us under those trials; as we were with one accord resigned to his will, to bear faithful testimony for his holy name and ever living Truth, which He had made us partakers and witnesses of. Blessed be his glorious Name for evermore !"

SECTION XVI.

Suffering state of the Society at the death of Charles II.-Repre sentation of it by an interview with king James II. and address to him.-List of the sufferers-Second interview with the king, and full representation of the Quakers' case addressed to him and to the parliament-The king grants a general warrant for the release of the prisoners.-Commission granted on George Whitehead's application to the king to inquire into the dishonest practices of the informers-Their suppression-One of them in distress applies to George Whitehead, and is relieved by him.

The period of the death of Charles the Second, appears to have been the extreme point of suffering to the Society of Friends. Notwithstanding his character for good nature, and the frequent expression of his intention to relieve them, they were persecuted to a great extent, under the laws made against Papists in the reign of Elizabeth; whilst the immediate objects of those statutes were, under the king's favour, enjoying comparative liberty. Probably the worshippers of UNIFORMITY would not have been satisfied without some victims for their idol; and it was no doubt more agreeable to the king to sacrifice the poor nonconforming protestants, than to allow the insane fury of the people to fall upon his immediate friends.

The prisons of England were crowded with honest and industrious people, whose only crime was a tender conscience, and against whom it might truly be said, that no occasion was found, except concerning the law of their God.

No less than FOURTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY of the people called Quakers were at this time in the prisons of England and Wales, in many places crowded together without respect to age, sex, or circumstance, in cold and filthy holes and dungeons, where many had died, and faithfully earned the crown of martyrdom.

Not a few of these were fathers and mothers of families, which were thus left destitute of their natural guardians and protectors: indeed it is difficult to say whether the suffering within the walls of the prisons, intense as it was, was not exceeded by that endured by the numerous relatives and friends of the prisoners. The cruel separations of husbands from wives, and fathers and mothers from their children, were generally preceded or accompanied by robbery and spoil, and not unfrequently the entire ruin of the family as regarded their means of outward support. The true order of government was directly inverted, governors being a terror to those who did well rather than to those who did ill.

Apologizing to the reader for these introductory observations to the present chapter, I proceed to give the substance of George Whitehead's account of his own and his friends' proceedings, immediately after the accession of James the Second to the English crown.

Much fear was now entertained as to what would become of protestant dissenters, many anticipating an increase of persecution, under the government of a professed papist. George Whitehead however, whose elastic mind never seemed to sink, had a lively impression which he communicated to his friends, that they should have ease under this king's reign;-and certainly he spared no pains to bring it about.

A few weeks after the death of Charles, he presented to his successor, in company with Gilbert Latey and Alexander Parker, the following truly courteous but unflattering address.*

"TO KING JAMES THE SECOND.

The humble Application of the people called Quakers. "Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God, by whom

* Echard in his history has given a very different but altogether spurious address to the King. The object of the composition ap. pears to have been to place the Quakers in a ridiculous light.

kings reign, to take hence the late king Charles the Second, and to preserve thee peaceably to succeed, we thy subjects heartily desire, that the Giver of all good and perfect gifts, may please to endue thee with wisdom and mercy, in the use of thy great power, to His glory, the king's honour and the kingdom's good. And it being our sincere resolution, according to our peaceable principles and conversation, by the assistance of Almighty God, to live peaceably and honestly, as becomes true and faithful subjects under the king's government, and a conscientious people, that truly fear and serve God, we do humbly hope, that the king's tenderness will appear, and extend with his power, to express the same; recommending to his princely clemency, the case of our present suffering Friends hereunto annexed."

The case of the suffering Friends referred to in the petition, contains so simple and affecting an account of their situation that it is well worthy of perusal.

“The distressed case and request of the suffering people commonly called Quakers, humbly presented.

Showing,

"That according to accounts lately given, above fourteen hundred of the said people, both men and women, are continued prisoners, in England and Wales, only for tender conscience toward Almighty God that made them.* Many under sentence of premunire, and many near it, not for refusing the duty or substance of allegiance itself, but only because they dare not swear; others under fines on the act for banishment; many on

*The following list of the number of prisoners in each county is curious, as showing the wide spread of the society at this time throughout England and Wales. We have no means of ascertaining the total number, but large as it no doubt was, the number of sufferers, including the families of the prisoners and those who suffered the spoil of their goods, must have formed a large and affecting proportion of the whole Society. No doubt also, such was the

writs of excommunication; besides some hundreds have died prisoners, many by means of this long imprisonment since the year 1680, as it is judged; thereby making widows and fatherless, and leaving poor innocent families desolate, in distress and sorrow. These two hard winters' confinement tending also to the destruction of many in cold holes and gaols, their healths being greatly impaired thereby besides, the violence and woful spoil made by merciless informers, on the conventicle act, upon many convicted, unsummoned, and unheard in their own defence, both in city and country. As also on Qui Tam writs, and other processes, for twenty pounds a month, and two-thirds of estates seized for the king; all tending to the ruin of trade, husbandry, and industrious families; to some not a bed left, to

sympathy as well as courage of this branch of the Church of Christ at that day, that it might be almost said: "Whether one member suffered, all the members suffered with it."

An account of the number of the said prisoners called Quakers, in the several counties.