place they were sometimes left in want both of food and water, owing to the brutality of the gaoler and his wife, who often abused and beat those who brought them a few necessaries and comforts. The whole particulars of the infamous treatment to which they were subjected, from the misconduct of their unfeeling keepers, are too offensive for recital, and when such abuses no longer exist in our public gaols are best left untold.

We, who live in the middle of the nineteenth century, when the impartial administration of justice extends to all ranks of society, and when the accommodations of our prisons are so vigilantly looked into, can scarcely credit that three respectable Englishmen should have been thus arrested in the progress of their lawful travels thus deprived of their freedom in violation of the laws and thus subjected to the abuse of such a gaoler, without having obtained some redress from the interference of a respectable neighbouring magistrate. Men were so carried away with the heat of religious and political disputes, in those days, that our most valued laws and liberties were violated with impunity, and as long as the prevailing party escaped scatheless, they cared not how they were perverted to afflict their opponents, forgetting that the same precedents might be employed against themselves, whenever the fickle scale of fortune turned the beam in favour of their enemies. How opposite is our present condition; for our rights and liberties are now so well understood and so tenaciously guarded, that factious demagogues, by availing themselves of the quirks and subtleties of the law, are enabled to traverse the land, spreading discontent, and sometimes sedition, and often so unsettling the minds of the labouring classes, as to excite them to outrage, and tumult, and unlawful combinations; and what is still more remarkable, that some individuals calling themselves followers of George Fox, should be found acting in concert with men of this class.

In this pestilential dungeon they were retained till the next quarter sessions at Bodmin, when by sending a remonstrance against the conduct of the gaoler, and stating their hard fate, to the magistrates, an order was issued granting them liberty to cleanse out the place and to purchase whatever necessaries they wanted. Their peaceable conduct soon afterwards obtained for

them a better apartment, and also the liberty of walking in the castle-green.

The peculiar hardship of their case had now attracted general commiseration among the respectable people of the town and the surrounding country, and thus their attention was naturally called to the cause of their imprisonment, and to a consideration of their peculiar doctrine and tenets. Many people on this account attended their religious meetings, held either in the gaol, or upon the castle-green, and not a few of them, struck by the energy of G. Fox's character, and the integrity and simplicity of his manners, returned home Quakers, being convinced by his apt and powerful appeals to the scriptures. Hugh Peters, one of Cromwell's chaplains, told the Protector, "They could not do George Fox a greater service for the spreading of his doctrine in Cornwall, than to imprison him there." Which saying, as we have seen, was fully verified by the result. G. Fox now drew up a statement of their hard case and cruel treatment, which he sent up to Oliver Cromwell, who ordered Captain Fox, the governor of Pendennis Castle, to inquire into the affair, and to punish the soldiers if they had struck them while in their custody. Captain Keat was cashiered for his conduct, and his kinsman was told "that if G. Fox should change his principles and prosecute him, he might take the extremity of the law against him, and might recover round damages." This reproof shows the cowardly feelings which influenced their oppressors, and how ready they were to attack a harmless and defenceless people, whose principles forbade them to retaliate.

For some new offence their inhuman gaoler was dismissed his office, and was soon after condemned to occupy the same dungeon where he had so shamefully abused the Quakers. Here he was put into irons and beaten, and told, "to remember his former wicked conduct to innocent men, and that the same measure he had meted out to others, should now be meted out to him." He died in prison very poor, and left his wife and family in much distress.

About this time some Quaker went to the Protector and offered up himself to lie in prison, even in Doomsdale, for George Fox, provided he would liberate him. Cromwell replied, "that to do

so was contrary to law, and therefore he could not comply with his request," but he was so much struck with the disinterested affection of this offer, that turning round to his council, he said, "which of you would do as much for me, were I in the same predicament?" He then sent General Desborough to liberate G. Fox and his friends; but as they refused either to pay any fines, or to promise to go home and discontinue preaching, pleading their just rights as innocent freemen to dispose of their persons as they pleased; he left them in prison, where they remained till liberated by Colonel Bennet, the 13th of July, 1656.

Upon a general warrant being issued out from the sessions at Exeter, in express terms, "for apprehending all Quakers," and for setting watches to take them up on the highways, he wrote two papers to the magistrates, in which he stated: "And whereas in your said warrant you speak of the Quakers spreading seditious books and papers; I answer, they whom ye in scorn call Quakers, have no seditious books or papers; but their books are against sedition, and seditious men, and seditious books, and seditious teachers, and seditious ways. Thus ye have numbered them, who are honest men, godly men, holy men, men that fear God, among beggars, rogues, and vagabonds; thus putting no difference between the precious and the vile. You are not fit to judge, who have set up your bills, and armed your men, to stand up together to battle against the innocent people, the lambs of Christ, who have not lifted up a hand against you, &c. Therefore, this is the word of the Lord God to you, and a charge to you all, in the presence of the living God of heaven and earth: every one of you being enlightened with a light that cometh from Christ, the Saviour of people's souls: to this light, all take heed, that with it you may see Christ from whom the light cometh, and may see Him to be your Saviour, by whom the world was made, who saith, 'Learn of me.' But if ye hate this light, ye hate Christ, who doth enlighten you all, that through him ye might believe. But not believing in the light, nor bringing your deeds to the light, which will make them manifest and reprove them, this is your condemnation, even the light. Remember, you are warned in your life-time, for this light is your way of salvation, if you walk in it; and this light is your condemnation,

if you reject and hate it," &c., &c. He concludes, "The Jews who were in the letter, out of the life, persecuted them that were in the life of that which they professed in the letter; so now do you persecute them that are in the life, and are yourselves strangers to it, as your fruits make appear. You have numbered the people of God amongst transgressors; but have you imprisoned any of the rogues and transgressors you speak of? You have imprisoned the innocent, and let the others go free. "GEORGE Fox."

CHAPTER IX.

1656-1658. His second interview with the Protector-Publishes a defence of some of his tenets-Travels into Wales and Scotland-His argument against the Calvinistic doctrine of Election and Reprobation -Quakers cursed and excommunicated by the Scotch Presbyterians— Summoned before the Council at Edinburgh-Returns to England.

"And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins."-1 Peter iv. 8.

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is love."-1 John iv. 7, 8.

Undaunted by his late sufferings and long imprisonment in Cornwall, he resumed his ministerial labours immediately upon his enlargement, and travelled up to London with his companions, passing through Exeter, Bristol, and Wiltshire, and holding meetings at all suitable places; for his notoriety was now so great, and the desire to hear him so prevalent, that their meetings sometimes amounted to several thousands, and were often held in orchards or barns, for want of more convenient accommodation. At Exeter, he was moved to visit James Naylor, who in company with many others, was there imprisoned for unbecoming and infatuated conduct. His principal concern was to reprove Naylor and his mistaken companions, who by giving way to heated imaginations, had brought a great reproach upon the Quakers; for which they were afterwards disowned by the Society. Upon this occasion, its character as a religious body was unjustly stigmatized on account of the fanatical errors of a few individuals. G. Fox says, "So after I had been warring with the world, there was now a wicked spirit risen up among Friends to war against. I admonished him and his company."

James Naylor was one of those examples of human frailty