The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-01-19 00:00:00

QUAKER JESUITISM.

Friend William Howitt, a quaker, and the author of a trum-
pery book on priestcraft, has been elected an alderman of the
borough of Nottingham. Speaking of that sect, old Butler
says:—
_ .

" Quakers, (who, like to lantern's, bear
Their light within 'ent,) will not swear:
Their gospel is an accidence,
By which they construe conscience,
And hold no sin so deeply red
As that of breakint, Priscian's head;—
These, thinking they are obliged to troth
In swearing, will not take an oath."
To show friend Howitt's sense of the obligation imposed by a
declaration, which is supposed to, be as binding as an oath, we
copy from a Nottingham radical journal a speech delivered by
the newly made quaker-alderman respecting his " new light"
as to what was meant by the legislature when it required con-
formity to a specific declaration from all who should become
members of the new corporate bodies.
"Mr Howitt stated to a meeting of the electors last week
his intention to subscribe to it (the declaration) at once, and
occasioned a good deal of merriment by his mode of demonstrat-
ing it. Ile declared that had it been an unqualified declara-
tion, no motive whatever should have induced him to accept it,
but, as it was strictly and avowedly " official," the words " by
virtue of your office," confining its operation to the council-
room, and leaving him at perfect liberty, as before, to act against
the church in his private capacity, he should not only take it,
but strictly and actually act upon it. If this church was to be
thrust upon every honest man when he entered office, like some
old woman who had lived so riotously as to have disabled her legs
with gout, and must have supporters, why, in egice he would
even tolerate her presence. He would not say a word about
her in the council chamber; no; if he were asked a question
about her, he would not answer it; he would say :
" Olt no! we never mention ber
Her name is never heard ;"
But the moment he got out of doors then he would thunder
against her with all his might. In the council-room, he would
not hurt this poor old beldame; but the moment he got out, he
would catch her in the larding-place, pitch her down, and break
her neck. This was his male of reasoning. It required no
compromise of any principle; no one would suspect him of a
desire to prop the establishment; it only required him to close
his mouth on one subject, in one room, and that only till the
law was altered, and left him and all beside to act upon it.
Here we have a very pleasant, luminous, anti witty interpre-
tation of a quaker's opinion as to how he can conscientiously,
"without the compromise of any principle," make a declara-
tion, keep it to the word, and break it to the sense. But, we
have a quaker alderman in Liverpool. We would ask him
whether he adopts or disavows friend Howitt's jesuitism? Whe-
ther he enters on civic duties, inconsistent with his religious
opinions, with the full concurrence of the society of which he is
a member? And, lastly, we would ask the society of friends,
generally, whether they are not called upon to repudiate the
doctrines held by Alderman Howitt if they have the slightest
wish to preserve the world's respect? If they do not do this
they will richly deserve all the contempt that has been thrown
upon them as jesuits in disguise.