The sum for each
county is observed, and noted down. The different sums are then added
together, and the amount for the whole kingdom within the year is
discovered.
[Footnote 29: Distraints or imprisonment for refusing to serve in the
militia are included also under the head "sufferings."]
In speaking of tithes and church-dues I must correct an error, that is
prevalent. It is usually understood, when Quakers suffer on these
accounts, that their losses are made up by the society at large. Nothing
can be more false than this idea. Were their losses made up on such
occasions, there would be no suffering. The fact is, that whatever a
person loses in this way is his own total loss; nor is it ever refunded,
though, in consequence of expensive prosecutions at law, it has amounted
to the whole of the property of those, who have refused the payment of
these demands. If a man were to come to poverty on this account, he
would undoubtedly be supported, but he would only be supported as
belonging to the poor of the society.
Among the subjects, introduced at this meeting, may be that of any new
regulations for the government of the society. The Quakers are not so
blindly attached to antiquity, as to keep to customs, merely because
they are of an ancient date.
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