ise, and others a more economical system of expenditure. In the
discussion of these questions and of private bills, week after week, month
after month, was tediously

[Footnote 1: The nature of the charges against the members may be seen
in Thurloe, v. 371, 383. In the Journals, seventy-nine names only are
mentioned (Journals, 1656, Sept. 19), but ninety-eight are affixed to the
appeal in Whitelock, 651-653. In both lists occur the names of Anthony
Ashley Cooper, who afterwards became Cromwell's intimate adviser, and of
several others who subsequently solicited and obtained certificates.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Sept. 22.]

and fruitlessly consumed; though the time limited by the instrument was
past, still the money bill had made no progress; and, to add to the
impatience of Cromwell, a new subject was accidentally introduced, which,
as it strongly interested the passions, absorbed for some time the
attention of the house.[1]

At the age of nineteen, George Fox, the son of a weaver of Drayton, with a
mind open to religious impressions, had accompanied some of his friends to
a neighbouring fair. The noise, the revelry, and the dissipation which he
witnessed, led him to thoughts of seriousness and self-reproach; and the
enthusiast heard, or persuaded himself that he heard, an inward voice,
calling on him to forsake his parents' house, and to make himself a
stranger in his own country. Docile to the celestial admonition, he began
to lead a solitary life, wandering from place to place, and clothed from
head to foot in garments of leather. He read the Scriptures attentively,
studied the mysterious visions in the Apocalypse, and was instructed in the
real meaning by Christ and the Spirit. At first, doubts and fears haunted
his mind, but, when the time of trial was past, he found himself inebriated
with spiritual delights, and received an assurance that his name was
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. At the same time, he was forbidden by
the Lord to employ the plural pronoun _you_ in addressing a single person,
to bid his neighbour good even or good-morrow, or to uncover the head, or
scrape with the leg to any mortal being. At length, the Spirit moved him to

[Footnote 1: Journals, passim; Thurloe, v. 472, 494, 524, 584, 672, 694.
See note (H).]

impart to others the heavenly doctrines which he had learned. In 1647, he
preached for the first time at Duckenfield, not far from Manchester; but
the most fruitful scene of hi