PART III.] JOURNAL. 519 



968. " What! nothing to the Parson!" some 

 of my old neighbours will exclaim. No : not a 

 single stiver. The Quakers manage their affairs 

 without Parsons, and I believe they are as good 

 and as happy a people as any religious denomi 

 nation who are aided and assisted by a Priest. I 

 do not suppose that the Quakers will admit me 

 into their Society ; but, in this free country I can 

 form a new society, if I choose, and, if 1 do, it 

 certainly shall be a Society having a Chairman 

 in place of a Parson, md the assemblage shall 

 discuss the subject of their meeting themselves. 

 Why should there not be as much knowledge 

 and wisdom and common sense, in the heads of 

 a whole congregation, as in the head of a Par 

 son ? Ah, but then there are the profits arising 

 from the trade! Some of this holy Order in 

 England receive upwards of 40,000 dollars per 

 annum for preaching probably not more than five 

 or six sermons during the whole year. Well 

 may the Cossack Priests represent Old England 

 as the bulwark of religion ! This is the sort of 

 religion they so much dreaded the loss of 

 during the French Revolution ; and this is the 

 sort of religion they so zealously expected to 

 establish in America, when they received the 

 glad tidings of the restoration of the Bourbons 

 and the Pope. 



END OP THE JOURNAL. 



