A DRESS TO BE HANGED IN.
l'ITE hanging-dress ef John Tawell seems to have been a subject , of more anxious discussion than the marriage-dress of the belle of the season. At first it was rumoured that John, out of defe- rence to the expressed or understood feelings of the Society of Friends, would lay aside the Quaker dress on that solemn occa- sion. John, however, appears to have refused to take the hint couched under this report; for he continued resolute to die in the habit which in life he had been so fond -of. The great question of the hanging-dress was next submitted to the Magistrates; who, after two days' grave deliberation, resolved that John should be hanged, as he had lived, in the Quaker garb.
The Society of Friends have been honourably distinguished by their philanthropic efforts to promote the abolition of death- punishment. But the parties who bestir themselves at present show more eagerness to save a Quaker-coat from discredit than a human being from death. A conclave of Friends is said to have sat on Tawell's case, and to have agreed that, all things considered, it was useless or inexpedient to present in his favour their cus- tomary petition to save criminals sentenced to death from that last penalty of the law. But they have instigated or permitted a vigorous effort to save the Society's uniform from the degrada- tion of being suspended in public view. They have betrayed more sympathy for the outward trappings than for the man who stuffed them out.
It would be curious if the followers of George Fox, whose great aim was to trample on all forms and external badges, should have become the most bigoted worshipers of these things. An excess of
anxiety, however, to preserve the dress by which they are known from being made an opprobrious spectacle, would be more pardon-
able than their eagerness to disclaim communion with an erring brother. No sooner is a Quaker discovered to have done any- thing that exposes him to the vengeance of the law, than he is expelled the Society, lest the Society should in his person be de- graded. Other churches embrace such a moment as the fittest to remind men that Heaven sees and judges the lapses of frail humanity, as with more purity so with more leniency than fellow frail ones. Other churches, aware that the man who has tar- nished an unblemished reputation is apt to grow reckless and plunge still deeper into the mire of guilt, seize such moments to substitute for the sense of worldly honour a conviction of the efficacy of Christian repentance, to rescue him from such despe-_ rate folly. But the Society of Friends, more bent upon pre; serving a fair external show in the eyes of the world than upon saving a weak brother, break the bruised reed by ostenta- tiously proclaiming that he has ceased to have claims of brother- hood upon them. Unmindful of His example who told the penitent thief on the cross, "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise," Friends, even while holding out hopes to repentant sinners, tel them they cannot expect to enter the kingdom of heaven in the company of Quakers.
The Society of Friends pique themselves upon sincerity and plain speaking : they cannot take it amiss if other people at times speak plainly to them.
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