76 THE DISPUTE WITH DR. LEEDS CHAP. 



to Dawson in conversation at his table was justified, and was 

 only due to humanity ; and that his words on a like occasion 

 to Lettsom were also justified, as the degree had been given, 

 he believed, by an undue condescension, to a person whom 

 the College of Physicians judged to be unqualified. 



Much to the surprise of Fothergill, the Friends arbitrating 

 decided, by three voices to two, in Leeds' favour, casting 

 Fothergill in 500 damages. The latter was now much 

 perplexed as to his right course. For some time he thought 

 of submitting to the decision, although he believed that the 

 award could be proved to be partial and unjust. But it 

 seemed to be a public duty to secure a more equitable judg- 

 ment, and so clear the society from dishonour. Moreover, 

 he had some grounds for objecting to the procedure. Tune 

 which he had requested for the production of a material 

 witness had not been granted, and no damage had been 

 proved to have accrued from his words ; the arbitrators 

 themselves seem also to have given some countenance to an 

 appeal to another tribunal. After careful consideration and 

 advice he declined to comply with the award, anticipating 

 that the matter would be carried to the final church authority, 

 the Yearly Meeting. 



Leeds now applied again to the Monthly Meeting (November 

 1771) to admonish Fothergill to perform his part. A few 

 days after, he entered the award in the Court of King's Bench, 

 for the issue of a Rule to compel the observance of the bond. 

 Fothergill was not sorry to hear of this, since he felt that in a 

 public court he should obtain justice. For his own protection 

 it was needful for him to enter his defence at the Court during 

 the same term, else it would have been excluded by law, and 

 he would have been liable to imprisonment without bail. 

 Leeds made this act of Fothergill's a fresh ground of complaint, 

 and continued to move both the Monthly and Quarterly 

 Meetings for satisfaction. During the period of two years, 

 in which the matter was in agitation, it came up twenty 

 tunes before the Monthly Meeting, and thirteen times before 

 the Quarterly Meeting, often at special adjournments. Long 

 sittings were held and some party spirit was shown. The 

 most serious and able Friends in London laboured on com- 

 mittees to adjust the difference. It would be injurious, so 

 they felt, to the reputation of the society, that two of its 

 members should be at variance in a public court of law. 

 Much effort was therefore made, both in and out of meetings, 

 to induce the parties to desist from legal action. Fothergill, 

 though at first unwilling, and making conditions that the 



