xix THE REFORMATION OF 1760 253 



Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly Meetings : the whole 

 fabric was assailed on the plea of the liberty of the 

 Spirit by the Wilkinson-Story schism of 1677, but it 

 weathered the storm, and remained as the outward 

 framework of the church. Much care in the keeping of 

 minutes and registers had helped to preserve its con- 

 tinuity. But now the church meetings had grown lax, 

 and it is said that in some places, especially in Scotland, 

 the " Monthly Meeting," the chief administrative 

 authority, was no longer held, and it could not be known 

 who were and who were not members. 1 Yet during all 

 this time there were many like the Fothergills who were 

 loyal-hearted, who mourned over declension, and who 

 laboured to uphold a higher standard. The more failure 

 they saw among their brethren, the more closely were 

 they impelled to adhere to Quaker practice and tradition 

 as they had learned it from their elders. 



At the Yearly Meeting of 1760 the state of the society 

 came under very serious review, and a large committee, 

 of which Samuel Fothergill was a member, was set apart 

 to go up and down throughout the counties, and to seek 

 to restore the health that was so far lost. At the same 

 time the need for better education of the youth claimed 

 attention. How this latter aim was put forward year 

 after year, and eventually fulfilled by the setting up of 

 Ackworth School at Fothergill's initiative in 1779, will 

 be told in a later chapter. The committee broke up 

 into small groups to visit the several counties or districts. 

 S. Fothergill went to Ireland, where with three other 

 Friends he rode throughout the country during fifty 

 successive days in 1762 visiting all the meetings. Their 

 task was to rouse the brethren : to warn, rebuke, exhort 

 and sometimes in sharp terms ; to restrain the younger 

 and the thoughtless ; and to uplift the old standard of a 

 godly life, deep founded on humility and faithfulness. 

 Their text was the acknowledged profession of the society 



1 M em. S. Fothergill, p. 448. The Earl of Chesterfield once said to Edmund 

 Gurney : " The devil has got among you Quakers : you have lived to con- 

 vince the world that your principles are right, and now you are quitting them 

 yourselves ! " The Friend, Phila. xxxi. 265. 



