Quakers in the second generation from themselves. And thus, though,
strictly speaking, irregularities are the immediate occasion of these
disownments, they are ultimately to be attributed to the original and
remote cause as now described.[50]

[Footnote 50: I hope I shall not be understood as involving the rich in
a promiscuous censure. I know as amiable examples among these and among
their children, as among others of the society. But we must naturally
expect more deviations among the rich, number for number, than among
others.]

That this is by no means an unreasonable account, I shall shew in some
measure by an appeal to facts. The American Quakers sprang from the
English. The English, though drained in consequence, were still
considerable, when compared with the former. But it is remarkable, that
the American Quakers exceed the English by at least five times their
number at the present day. Now it must undoubtedly be confessed, that
the Americans have advantages, as far as this fact is concerned, which
the English have not. They have no tithes as a cause of disownment.
Their families also, I believe, increase more rapidly. Many persons
also, as will be the case in a country that is not fully settled, live
in the neighbourhoods of the Quakers, but at a distance from those of
other religious denominations, and therefore, wishing to worship
somewhere, seek membership with them. But I apprehend that a great cause
of this disparity of number lies in this difference of the situation of
the two, that whereas the great Quaker population in England is in the
towns with but a remnant in the country, the great Quaker population in
America is in the country with but a remnant in the towns.[51] And that
the Americans themselves believe, that the place of the residence of
their members is connected in some measure with the increase and
decrease of their society, it is fair to presume, from this
circumstance, that, in several of the quarterly meetings in America,
advice has been given to parents to bring up their children in the
country, and, as little as possible, in the towns.

[Footnote 51: The number of the Quakers is undoubtedly great in one or
two of the cities in America, but the whole town-population is not
great, when compared with the whole country-population there.]

Another of the original and remote causes is education. This, as it
becomes promotive of the diminution of the society, is of two kinds. The
first may