They have forbidden also the trade of privateering in war. The Quakers consider the capture of private vessels by private persons as a robbery committed on the property of others, which no human authority can make reconcileable to the consciences of honest individuals. And upon this motive they forbid it, as well as upon that of their known profession against war.

They forbid also the trade of the manufacturing of gun-powder, and of arms, or weapons of war, such as swords, guns, pistols, bayonets, and the like, that they may stand clear of the charge of having made any instrument, the avowed use of which is the destruction of human life.

They have forbidden also all trade that has for its object the defrauding of the king either of his customs or his excise. They are not only not to smuggle themselves, but they are not to deal in such goods as they know, or such as they even suspect, to be smuggled, nor to buy any article of this description even for their private use. This prohibition is enjoined, because all Christians ought "to render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's," in all cases where

their consciences do not suffer by doing it; because those who are accessary to smuggling give encouragement to perjury and bloodshed, these being frequently the attendants of such unlawful practices; and ́ because they do considerable injury to the honest trader.

They discourage also concerns in hazardous enterprises in the way of trade. Such enterprises are apt to disturb the tranquillity of the mind, and to unfit it for religious exercise. They may involve also the parties concerned and their families in ruin. They may deprive them again of the means of paying their just debts, and thus render them injurious to their creditors. Members, therefore, are advised to be rather content with callings which may produce small but certain profits, than to hazard the tranquillity of their minds, and the property of

themselves and others.

In the exercise of those callings which are deemed lawful by the Society, two things are insisted upon: first, that their members never raise and circulate "any fictitious kind. of paper-credit with indorsements and acceptances, to give it an appearance of value

without

without an intrinsic reality." Secondly, that they should pay particular attention to their words, and to the punctual performance of their engagements, and on no account delay their payments beyond the time they have promised. The Society have very much at heart the enforcement of the latter injunction, not only because all Christians are under an obligation to do these things, but because they wish to see the high reputation of their ancestors, in these respects, preserved among those of their own day. The early Quakers were noticed for a scrupulous attention to their duty, as Christians, in their commercial concerns. One of the great clamours against them, in the infancy of their institution, was, that. they would get all the trade. It was nothing but their great honour in their dealings, arising from religious principle, that gave birth to this uproar, or secured them a more than ordinary portion of the custom of the world in the line of their respective trades.

Among the regulations made by the Quakers on the subject of trade, it is advised publicly to the members of the Society to

inspect

inspect the state of their affairs once a year: and lest this advice should be disregarded, the monthly meetings are directed to make annual appointments of suitable Friends to communicate it to the members individually. But, independently of this public recommendation, they are earnestly advised by their Book of Extracts to examine their situ-, ation frequently. This is done with a view that they may see how they stand with respect to themselves, and with respect to the world at large; that they may not launch out into commercial concerns beyond their strength; nor live beyond their income; nor go on longer in their business than they can pay their debts.

If a Quaker, after this inspection of his affairs, should find himself unable to pay his just debts, he is immediately to disclose his affairs to some judicious members of the Society, or to his principal creditors, and to take their advice how he is to act, but to be particularly careful not to pay one creditor in preference to another.

When a person of the Society becomes a bankrupt, a committee is appointed by his own monthly meeting to confer with him

on

on his affairs.

If the bankruptcy should appear by their report to have been the result of misconduct, he is disowned. He may, however, on a full repentance, (for it is a maxim with the Society that “true repentance washes out all stains,") and by a full payment of every man his own, be admitted into membership again. Or, if he have begun to pay his creditors, and have made arrangements satisfactory to the Society for paying them, he may be received as a member, even before the whole of the debt is settled.

If it should appear, on the other hand, that the bankruptcy was the unavoidable result of misfortune, and not of imprudence, he is allowed to continue in the Society.

But in either of these cases, that is, where a man is disowned and restored, or where he has not been disowned at all, he is never considered as a member, entitled to every privilege in the Society, till he has paid the whole of his debts. And the Quakers are so strict upon this point, that if a person has paid ten shillings in the pound, and his creditors have accepted the composition,

and