A QUAKER JOURNAL (Vol. 2. 1843-1861) Edited by G. E.
Bryant and G. P. Baker The first volume of this interesting personal record, the Diary and Reminiscences of William Lucas of Hitchin, covering the years from 1804 to 1843, has already been noticed at length in The Spectator. Sufficient now to comment on the general effect of this peep into another world. It is a world of disci- plines and restraints which is almost incomprehensible to us today. The contacts between individuals, however intimate and however long matured, were straitened by a reserve and a convention comparable only to the delicacies of approach such as marked Chinese society in its most elaborate developments. A rough word, an indulgence in mood, fell like bombshells. What boilings-up of the spirit must have lurked behind this masked society of the Quakers ; what secret rebellion of youth, of sex, of vanity. How much more exciting, therefore, must life have been then than it is today, when there is no opposition, no authority. How much drama, for instance, can be inferred from this passage : " Our sister Martha has been much pressed by J. B., but, as he is in entire ignorance of her real disposition, which by no means appears to her friends suitable for matrimony, even if any eligible offer took place, all the opposition that could be offered has been. The pertinacity of the man will not allow him to give it up, and her conduct must make it plain that she is flattered by his preference. Altogether it is a very unpleasant business, to our dear parents particularly so."
" Our sister Martha " would probably get very much less excitement out of the courtship today. Apart from personal affairs, this volume of the Journal (Hutchinson, 18s.) covers a period of great economic and industrial change : the Corn Law troubles, the coming of the railways, eve. We frequently find entries to the effect that " the state of affairs in the money market is becoming very serious." This journal, indeed, is a goldmine for the historian as well as for the general reader.
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