THE QUAKERS DIMINISHING.

Otago Witness, Issue 1320, 17 March 1877, Page 21

THE QUAKERS DIMINISHING.

(London Catholic Register.) ' " We are sorry to see that our old friends, the Quakers, are sadly diminishing in numbers. It is said that- there are' only 20 000 in Sngland, the fourth part of the number which flourished in this country in the days of George- Fox, their founder. It seems that so soon as the gentlemen abandoned the wide sweep of their hats, and the ladies the gaunt severity of their bonnets, tho popularity of the sect gradually diminished for there was little left of appeal to mere vanity. These good people, amiable ;and just, have deserved aniche is the temple of heresies; for beyond, calling i you-. '/Friend,? and somewhat antiquating the. Queen's Engbsh, there , was really nothing,/ that could be hazarded against. . them.* , . They were Ritualists in dress, and in speech, but certaiuly no.t ;so .in doctrine ; ,and perhaps they were the only sect in which ,the lay* men and the laywomen-wore a quasieoclesiastical garb. It is an' amusing<and> instructive little fact that the object of their founder was to originate a sect which' was to be completely without ceremonies and forms ; and yet that sect has stood out from all others in the one peculiarity of dress. It is further carious that their religious fanaticism took the form of extraordinary gentleness ; so that the very expression of the countenance of a Quaker was soothing as a still shallow stream. They canonized calm. Many of then- men had claims to intellect such as Perm, Barclay, and Naylor ; and some of Jieir women preached well, both in this country and America. However the sect is dried up ; and with the hats and'the bonnets and the aprons, their peculiarities of creed have vanished.

Messrs Baker and Summers, lithographers' George street, have produced a well-executed likeness, printed from stone, t of Prbfestoir balmond. The lithograph is executed da