THE QUAKERS DIMINISHING.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2497, 6 January 1877, Page 4

THE QUAKERS DIMINISHING.

We arc sorry to see that our old friends, the Quakers, are sadly diminishing in numbers:- It is said that there are only 20,000, in England, the-fourth part of the number whiei) flourished in this country in the daysi of George' Fox, their founder. Jt seems that so soon as thei gentlemen •abandoned the gauut severity of their

bonnets, the popularity of the sect gradually diminished, for there was little left of appeal.to mere vanity. These good people, amiable and just, have deserved a ninche in the temple of heresies; for beyoud calling you " Friend," and somewhat autiquatiug the Queen's English, there was really nothing that could be hazarded against them. They were" Eitualists in dress and in speech, but certainly not so in doctrine : and perhaps they were the only sect in which the laymen and the laywomen wore a quasiecclesiaslical garb. It is an amusing and instructive little fact that the object of their founder was to originate a sect which was to be co.mpletely without ceremonies and; forms; and yet that sect has stoodlont^froin all -btheus in the one peculiatity of dress. It is further curious that their religious fanaticism took the form of extraordinary gentleness ; so that the very expression of the countenance j of a,. Quaker was soothing as a still, shallow stream.- They canonized calm. Many of their men had claims to intellect, such as Perm, Barclay and Naylor ; aud some of their wisman preached well, both in this country and America. However, the sect is dried up; and with the hats and the bonnets and the aprons, their peculiarities of creed have vanished.