ON THE MORAL POWER OF THE PRESS. VU 



virtue. These little books make a greater impression and in a 

 much wider circle, because, in the true spirit of brotherly love, 

 the Friends wisely exclude every thing", which might offend their 

 fellow-subjects of the other religious denominations. 



These Societies have deemed it necessary to call in the aid of 

 the press, under their own particular directions ; although, in 

 almost every parish in England, piety and learning and eloquent 

 zeal have been employed, for centuries, to pour instruction from 

 the pulpit ; — although public and private seminaries, far more 

 numerous, are as actively employed in education ; and although, 

 in addition to the Societies for distributing the book of the 

 Divine word, many thousand volumes of religious and useful 

 instruction, are continually printing, publishing, and circulating 

 by the booksellers in every part of the realm. Add to this pro- 

 digious mass of means and efforts, the fact that the British 

 people are characterised as a " thinking people," and, with some 

 exceptions, are very generally inclined to acquire knowledge. 



Yet, it may well be repeated, with all this prodigious mass of 

 means and long continued efforts, these two recent Societies, and 

 the Society of Friends did not deem them sufficient. The two 

 former associated separately, to superadd the energies of the peri- 

 odical press on afar more extensive scale, and, with increased faci- 

 lities, to give those energies a due direction. Their high rank and 

 commanding station on the foreground of the State rendered the 

 publicity of their outset, wisdom ; it drew greater attention and 

 gave more effect to the lessons of peaceful instruction, with 

 which, in a movement, like that of the Nile, they overspread and 

 fructified the whole face of the land. The Friends, with an 

 admirable consistency, befitting the primitive simplicity of their 

 principles and practice, proceeded in silence ; like pure well- 

 springs, enriching the fields with a gentle irrigation, and glad- 

 dening the hearts of the husbandmen: without a public declara- 

 tion, without calling for aid ; without show, parade, or bustle; 

 sincerely intending to effect their proposed object, and having 

 the means, the press, within their reach, they diligently employed 

 it in printing and circulating, doing good daily without making 

 any profession. What a lesson for those, in a certain distant 

 county, who " Vox at pi'cBterea nihil," associate, as it were with a 

 flourish of trumpets, declarations, resolutions, and manifestoes in 

 the newspapers, full of sounding promise ; attract attention, and 

 are eloquent at quarterly or annual dinners, on the sovereign effi- 

 cacy of the PRESS as the palladium of liberty, the source of every 

 improvement, and the cure for every evil. Yet, with this uni- 

 versal remedy, the local press, at their disposal, actively deserving 

 and virtually calling for their liberal support, they leave it to its 

 own expensive risk and chance, and having got a feather in their 

 caps, and inveighed against the apathy and indifference of the 

 public, either fall asleep on their posts, or do little or nothing. 

 It would be easy to name towns and cities, where, within these 

 ten years, the lamp of science (judiciously excluding politics and 



