CHAP.  IV.

Great yearly court or meeting—­constitution of this meeting—­one place only of meeting fixed upon for the whole kingdom—­this the metropolis—­deputies appointed to it from the quarterly meetings—­business transacted at this meeting—­matters decided, not by the influence of numbers, but by the weight of religious character—­no head or chairman of this meeting—­character of this discipline or government of the Quakers—­the laws, relating to it better obeyed than those under any other discipline or government—­reasons of this obedience.

In the order, in which I have hitherto mentioned the meetings for the discipline of the Quakers, we have seen them rising by regular ascent, both in importance and power.  We have seen each in due progression comprizing the actions of a greater population than the foregoing, and for a greater period of time.  I come now to the yearly meeting, which is possessed of a higher and wider jurisdiction than any that have been yet described.  This meeting does not take cognizance of the conduct of particular or of monthly meetings, but, at one general view, of the state and conduct of the members of each quarterly meeting, in order to form a judgment of the general state of the society for the whole kingdom.

We have seen, on a former occasion, the Quakers with their several deputies repairing to different places in a county; and we have seen them lately with their deputies again repairing to one great town in the different counties at large.  We are now to see them repairing to the metropolis of the kingdom.

As deputies were chosen by each monthly meeting to represent it in the quarterly meeting, so the quarterly meetings choose deputies to represent them in the yearly meeting.  These deputies are commissioned to be the bearers of certain documents to London, which contain answers in writing to a [27]number of the queries mentioned in the last chapter.  These answers are made up from the answers received by the several quarterly meetings from their respective monthly meetings.  Besides these they are to carry with them other documents, among which are accounts of sufferings in consequence of a refusal of military service, and of the payment of the demands of the church.

[Footnote 27:  Viz. numbers 1,2,3,4,7,8,9,10,11,12]

The deputies who are now generally four in number for each quarterly meeting, that is, four of each sex (except for the quarterly meetings of York and London, the former of which generally sends eight men and the [28] latter twelve, and each of them the like number of females) having received their different documents, set forward on their journey.  Besides these many members of the society repair to the metropolis.  The distance of three or four hundred miles forms no impediment to the journey.  A man cannot travel at this time, but he sees the Quakers in motion from all parts, shaping their course to London, there to exercise, as will appear shortly, the power of deputies, judges, and legislators in turn, and to investigate and settle the affairs of the society for the preceding year.