their power to promulgate a Quaker-adultery. Nor have the lawyers had an opportunity, in our public courts, to proclaim a Quaker-divorce.

George Fox suggested many regulations on this subject. He advised, among other things, when persons had it in contemplation to marry, that they should lay their intention before the monthly meetings both of the men and the women. He advised also, that the consent of their parents should be previously obtained and certified to these. Thus he laid the foundation for greater harmony in the approaching union. He advised, again, that an inquiry should be made, whether the parties were clear of engagements or promises of marriage to others; and, if they were not, that they should be hindered from proceeding. Thus he cut off some of the causes of the interruption of connubial happiness, by preventing uneasy reflections, or suits at law, after the union had taken place. He advised also, in the case of second marriages, that any offspring resulting from the former should have their due rights and a proper provision secured to them, before they were allowed to be solemnized. Thus he gave a greater chance for happiness, by preventing mercenary motives from becoming the causes of the union of husband and wife.

But George Fox, as he introduced these and other salutary regulations on the subject of marriage, so he introduced a new manner of the solemnization of it. He protested against the manner of the world; that is, against the formal prayers and exhortations as they were repeated, and against the formal

e

ceremonies as they were practised, by the parish priest. He considered that it was God, who joined man and woman before the Fall, and that in Christian times, or where the man was truly renovated in heart, there could be no other right or honourable way of union. Consistently with this view of the subject, he observed, that in the ancient scriptural times persons took each other in marriage in the assemblies of the elders, and that there was no record, from the book of Genesis to that of Revelations, of any marriage by a priest. Hence it became his new Society, as a religious or renovated people, to abandon apostate usages, and to adopt a manner that was more agreeable to their new state.

George Fox gave in his own marriage an example of all that he had thus recommended to the Society. Having agreed with Margaret Fell, the widow of Judge Fell, upon the propriety of their union as husband and wife, "he desired her to send for her children. As soon as they were come, he asked them and their respective husbands,* if they had any thing against it or for it, desiring them to speak. And they all severally expressed their satisfaction therein. Then he asked Margaret, if she had fulfilled and performed her husband's will. She replied, the children knew that. Whereupon he asked them, whether, if their mother married, they should not lose by it. And he asked Margaret, whether she had done any thing in lieu of it, which might answer it to the children. The children said, she

* G. Fox's Journal, vol. ii, 135.

had answered it to them, and desired him to speak no more about that. He told them that he was plain, and that he would have all things done plainly, for he sought not any outward advantage to himself. So, after he had acquainted the children with it, their intention of marriage was laid before friends, both privately and publicly ;" and afterwards, a meeting being appointed for the accomplishment of the marriage, in the public meeting-house at Broad Mead in Bristol, they took each other in marriage, in the plain and simple manner as then practised, and which he himself had originally recommended to his followers.

The regulations concerning marriage, and the manner of the solemnization of it, which obtained in the time of George Fox, nearly obtain among the Quakers at the present day.

When marriage is agreed upon between two persons, the man and the woman, at one of the monthly meetings, publicly declare their intention concerning it. At this time, their parents, if living, must either appear, or send certificates, to signify their consent. This being done, two men are appointed by the men's meeting, and two women by that of the women, to wait upon the man and woman respectively, and to learn from themselves, as well as by other inquiry, if they stand perfectly, clear from any marriage-promises and engagements to others. At the next monthly meeting, the deputation make their report. If either of the parties is reported to have given expectation of marriage to any other individual, the proceedings are stopped till the matter

be satisfactorily explained. But if they are both of them reported to be clear in this respect, they are at liberty to proceed, and one or more persons of respectability, of each sex, are deputed to see that the marriage be orderly conducted.

In the case of second marriages, additional instructions are sometimes given; for if any of the parties, thus intimating their intention of marrying, should have children alive, the same persons, who were deputed to enquire into their clearness from all other engagements, are to see that the rights of such children be legally secured.

When the parties are considered to be free, by the reports of the deputation, to proceed upon their union, they appoint a suitable day for the solemnization of it, which is generally one of the week-day meetings for worship. On this day, they repair to the meeting-house with their friends. The congregation, when seated, sit in silence. Perhaps some minister is induced to speak. After a suitable time has elapsed, the man and the woman rise up together, and, taking each other by the hand, declare publicly that they thus take each other as husband and wife. This constitutes their marriage. A writing is then generally produced and read, though this be not necessary, stating concisely the proceedings of the parties in their respective meetings, for the purpose of their marriage, and the declaration just made by them as having taking each other as huşband and wife. This is signed by the parties, their relatives, and frequently by many of their friends

and others present. By way however, of necessary evidence of their union, another paper is signed in the course of the day, and generally after dinner, by the man and woman in the presence of three witnesses, who sign it also, in which it is stated that they have so taken each other in marriage. All marriages of other dissenters are celebrated in the established churches, according to the ceremonies of the same. But the marriages of the members of this Society are valid by law in their own meeting-houses, when solemnized in this simple manner.

SECTION II.

Quakers marrying out of the Society to be disowned -This regulation charged with pride and cruelty -Reasons for this disownment are-that mixed marriages cannot be celebrated without a violation of some of the great principles of the Societythat they are generally productive of disputes and uneasiness to those concerned and that the discipline cannot be carried on in such families.

AMONG the regulations suggested by George Fox, and adopted by his followers, it was determined that persons belonging to the Society should not intermarry with those of other religious professions. Such a heterogeneous union was denominated a mixed marriage; and persons engaging in such mixed marriages were to be disowned.