In several of the States the Friends are exempted from military duty, in compliance with their religious objections to war, they believing it to be, whether offensive or defensive, unlawful for a Christian. In some of the States they are subject to a small fine for refusing to serve. When this fine is levied, they refuse payment and subject themselves to a distraint.

The Friends have been long known to be averse to the punishment of death for crimes short of murder. Some of them carry their opinions so far as to contend, that no legislature acting conformably to Christianity, can decree its exercise even for that crime. These opinions involve them in a difficulty from which those in England are exempt. The latter are never required to serve on juries, their affirmation not being allowed in law to be equivalent to an oath, for the due exercise of any office. But in the United States, where their affirmation is accepted on every occasion, they must take their turn in serving on juries. To this, they make no objection in civil matters, nor in criminal cases punishable in any other manner than by death; but when the verdict of the jury may be followed by a sentence to the gallows, they conceive that by concurring in that verdict, they would become

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participators in the guilt of infracting the mild spirit of the Christian religion. It is therefore their practice to solicit of the court, exemption from the office of jurymen in all such cases. Sometimes their request is complied with; sometimes they are fined for their refusal to serve.

In their meetings for worship many of their ministers preach in the drawling tone so common amongst their English brethren, and which is so unpleasant to those unaccustomed to it, that strangers sometimes depart abruptly in consequence. I heard a minister at New York during the Yearly Meeting of the society, whose sermon from its extraordinary sing-song caused a general stare of surprise. How much better would it be to speak in a natural, dignified manner! I believe that their ministers are not spoken freely to, in reference to their defective or faulty delivery. The words of Cowper deserve their attention,

"I seek divine simplicity in him
Who handles things divine."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE METHODISTS.

UNDER the denomination of Methodists, I place those only who are the disciples of Wesley; a distinction necessary to be mentioned, because the term is frequently applied reproachfully to those of other sects who are unusually devout. They are, in comparison with the Presbyterians and Episcopalians, not a large body; but as their present rate of increase is I believe greater than that of any other sect, the time may come when they will rank first in number, if not in importance. Some persons in America witnessing their zeal in proselyting, and their tenacity of their converts, have gone so far as to assert, that ultimately there will be only two classes in Christendom, Methodists and Unitarians; or as they are pleased otherwise to express it, those who are influenced by fanaticism, and those who are guided solely by reason. This however, must be admitted to be an extravagant supposition. Still, whether we regard the influence of the Methodists on the populace, or their prodigious increase, they deserve great attention.

Their ministers both local and itinerant, actuated with the zeal of Jesuits, though not with their temporizing principles, have laboured assiduously in all places where vice and wretchedness are congregated. Wherever a society has been settled in such places, a visible reformation has been the consequence. The grosser vices have subsided; and a decent demeanour, combined with I trust true piety, has taken their place. I confess I am no admirer of their pulpit denunciations of fire and brimstone in the gulf of Hell, with malignant devils for tormentors; yet while I see good attend their labours, I infer that the ignorant are more easily roused by such terrible language, than allured by what is attractive in the love, mercy and goodness of the great Redeemer. I was at one of their meetings at a solitary house in the woods of Virginia; the only place of worship it appeared within a compass of fourteen or fifteen miles. The preacher was a young man of that repulsive look characteristic of their ministers. His text was from the Revelations; a book, which from its obscurity, seems to be a great favourite with the whole tribe of mys tics from Behmen to Swedenborg and Joanna Southcote, and with most of those who believe that a spiritual signification is couched under the literal sense of every passage. His exposition,.

though not what I should consider strained, was not quite so clear or so full as might have been expected. The violence of his language was harsh to my ears; but as a number of negro slaves was present, the discourse might be better adapted for the auditory than one more refined. On reflecting on it afterwards, I was led to the conclusion, that some present might have been aroused from careless security, and others animated to a perseverance in the path of devotedness to religion.

The Methodists are almost the only persons who have paid attention to the religious and moral instruction of the slaves. The Catholics, to be sure, who are slave-owners, have converted the negroes on their estates to their ceremonious worship; but their labours in very few instances have, I believe, extended beyond their own estates. The mass of the free coloured population, as well as of the slaves who profess religion, are Methodists; though congregations exist of several other denominations.

The annual celebration of camp-meetings is kept up amongst the Methodists in various parts of the United States, though the practice is discountenanced by their brethren in England. I