his homage to religious
principle did the authors of these exemptions the highest honour. And it
certainly becomes the Quakers to be grateful for this unsolicited
favour; and as it was bestowed upon them upon the full belief that they
were the people they professed themselves, they should be particularly
careful that they do not, by any inconsistency of conduct, tarnish the
high reputation, which has been attached to them by the government under
which they live.

The second occasion is, when tithes or other dues are demanded by the
church. The Quakers refuse the payment of these upon principles, which
have been already explained. They come of course again under the
cognizance of the laws. Their property is annually distrained upon by
warrant from justices of the peace, where the demand does not exceed the
value of ten pounds, and this is their usual suffering in this case. But
there have not been wanting instances where an unusual hardness, of
heart has suggested a process, still allowable by the law, which has
deprived them of all their property, and consigned them for life to the
habitation of a prison.[35]

[Footnote 35: One died, not a great while ago, in York Castle, and
others, who were confined with him, would have shared his fate, but for
the interference of the king.

It is surprising, that the clergy should not unite in promoting a bill
in parliament, to extend the authority of the justices to grant warrants
of distraint for tithes to more than the value of ten pounds, and to any
amount, as this is the most cheap and expeditious way for themselves. If
they apply to the ecclesiastical courts, they can enforce no payment of
their tithes then. They can put the poor Quaker into prison, but they
cannot obtain their debt. If they apply to the exchequer, they may find
themselves, at the conclusion of their suit, and this after a delay of
three years, liable to the payment of extra costs, to the amount of
forty or fifty pounds, with which they cannot charge the Quaker, though
they may confine him for life. Some, to my knowledge, have been glad to
abandon these suits, and put up with the costs, incurred in them; rather
than continue them. Recourse to such courts occasion the clergy
frequently to be charged with cruelty, when, if they had only understood
their own interests better, they would have avoided them.]

But it is not only in cases, of which the laws of the land take
cognizance, that the Quakers prefer suff