That the Quakers then upon the whole are a declining body, there can be no doubt.[47] While I state it, I lament it.  I lament that there should be any diminution of number among those who have done so much good in the world, and who have so justly obtained the reputation of a moral people.  This consideration will lead me to enquire into the causes of this decline.  It will impel me also to enquire into the means of remedy.  How far I may be successful in the latter attempt, I am unable to say.  But it will always be a pleasing consideration to me, to have tried to prevent the decrease of a virtuous people.

[Footnote 47:  Against this decrease we cannot set off any great increase by admission into membership.  The dress, the language, the fear of being singular, the discipline with its various restraints, the unwillingness of men to suffer where suffering can be avoided, these and other circumstances are great impediments in the way of an entrance into this society; and to this I may add, that applications for admission into it are not always complied with.]

With respect then to the causes of this decline, to which I shall confine myself in this chapter, they will be found in the causes of disownment.  Now of these, some may be called original and immediate, and others original and remote.

Of original and immediate, the first is what the Quakers call mixed marriage.  It has been before stated, that those who marry out of the society are disowned, and the reasons for such disownments have been given.

A second will be found in tithes.  They who pay these are ultimately disowned.  And they are disowned as well for the payment of lay-tithes, as of those which are ecclesiastical.

Of the original and remote, a very prolific cause is the pursuit of trade, connected as it is with the peculiar habits of the society, and a residence in the towns.[48]

[Footnote 48:  Owing perhaps to the causes alleged by the author, the society may have decreased in England, yet it is certain that in this country the number of Quakers has very considerably increased.  AMERICAN EDITOR.]

To shew this I must observe, first, that the poor, comparatively speaking, are seldom disowned, for they know that they[49] shall never be so well provided for in any other society.  I must observe again, that the members of the middle classes are also, comparatively speaking, but seldom disowned.  These must live by trade, but if so, they cannot be better off than as Quakers.  The direct conclusion then, from these observations, will be, that the greater number of those who are disowned, will be found among the rich, or among such as are growing rich.  Hence it appears, that, as far as this original and remote cause is concerned, my enquiry must be, how it happens, that members of this particular class should be excluded from membership more than those of any other.

[Footnote 49:  I by no means intend to say, that the poor do not remain in the society from an attachment to its principles, but that this may be a political motive also.]