The question which was the genuine Society of Friends was more important than it would seem to a mere looker on; for large pecuniary interests were involved therein.  It is well known that Quakers form a sort of commonwealth by themselves, within the civil commonwealth by which they are governed.  They pay the public school-tax, and in addition build their own school-houses, and employ teachers of their own Society.  They support their own poor, while they pay the same pauper tax as other citizens.  They have burying grounds apart from others, because they have conscientious scruples concerning monuments and epitaphs.  Of course, the question which of the two contending parties was the true Society of Friends involved the question who owned the meeting-houses, the burying grounds, and the school funds.  The friends of Elias Hicks offered to divide the property, according to the relative numbers of each party; but those called Orthodox refused to accept the proposition.  Lawsuits were brought in various parts of the country.  What a bitter state of animosity existed may be conjectured from the fact that the “Orthodox” in Philadelphia refused to allow “Hicksites” to bury their dead in the ground belonging to the undivided Society of Friends.  On the occasion of funerals, they refused to deliver up the key; and after their opponents had remonstrated in vain, they forced the lock.

I believe in almost every instance, where the “Hicksites” were a majority, and thus had a claim to the larger share of property, they offered to divide in proportion to the relative numbers of the two parties.  After the separation in New-York, they renewed this offer, which had once been rejected; and the “Orthodox” finally agreed to accept a stipulated sum for their interest in the property.  The Friends called “Hicksites” numbered in the whole more than seventy thousand.

Quakers in England generally took part against Elias Hicks and his friends.  Some, who were styled “The Evangelical Party,” went much beyond their brethren in conformity with the prevailing denominations of Christians called Orthodox.  Many of them considered a knowledge of the letter of Scripture essential to salvation; and some even approved of baptism by water; a singular departure from the total abrogation of external rites, which characterized Quakerism from the beginning.  William and Mary Howitt, the well known and highly popular English writers, were born members of this religious Society.  In an article concerning the Hicksite controversy, written for the London Christian Advocate, the former says:  “My opinion is, that Friends will see cause to repent the excision of that great portion of their own body, on the plea of heretical opinions.  By sanctioning it, they are bound, if they act impartially and consistently, to expel others also for heterodox opinions.  This comes of violating the sacred liberty of conscience; of allowing ourselves to be infected with the leaven