Quakers in Ireland, 1654-1900 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS87 of Nations for which he had longed, or the beginning of the Angloand Franco-German reconciliation that followed the entry of Germany into the League, he was without question a pioneer in the forces which prepared the way for this notable step forward in international relations. '" The causes for which he laboured have gone forward and time has shown the lasting value of the work he did." The memoir contains not only much that is of value to the student of international relations, but it also embodies the inspiration of a great soul dedicated to the service of his fellowmen. Arthur Garratt Dorland London, Canada Grubb, Isabel. Quakers in Ireland, 1654-1900. London : The Swarthmore Press Ltd. 1927. Pp. 158. $1.10 plus postage. The reader gathers a sense from this book of Irish kindliness and sincere simplicity of spirit. The gentle climate seemed to soften the edges of character and render the English Friends in Ireland lovable and humane to a degree perhaps hardly equalled anywhere. " Men and women spent their lives travelling from place to place, proclaiming the good news of the possibility of immediate communion with God, of first-hand experience of Him, of the non-necessity of any form of ceremony or of human intermediaries. . . . The central doctrine of the Inner Light which they preached does not seem to have exposed these men and women to persecution so much as their deductions from it. The clergy opposed them because they taught the non-necessity of human intermediaries between God and man, and because they declared the Gospel to be free, and that no one had a right to earn money by preaching." The story of Quakerism in Ireland begins with William Edmundson, that strong and authoritative personality, ex-soldier of Cromwell's army, who with his wife and brother, and later four others, " settled " the earliest Friends' meeting in the island in 1654, in Lurgan in the pleasant county Armagh. To this little company George Fox addressed these loving words of counsel : " All, my dear Friends, dwell in the life and love and power and wisdom of God in unity one with another . . . the peace and wisdom of God fill your hearts." The author has a happy turn for word-portraits, as of William Savery, —" a pure noble spirit, possessed of more than ordinary culture, . . . kindly and benignant in disposition, and a very gifted speaker." An amusing account is given of the " White Quakers," who along with their fine qualities had extreme views and called the main body of Friends " Black Quakers." Their leader, " kindly and benevolent to those who did not disagree with him," would not use watches, clocks or bells; dressed all in white, and refused to pay taxes. But this small body at least lived 88 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION out their theories, and they were perhaps a wholesome corrective of the exclüsiveness that was creeping in along with worldly prosperity. Isabel Grubb has gone to the sources, especially the journals of typical Friends, and she has given us a much-needed short history of the religious , social and philanthropic activities of Friends in Ireland. J. Russell Hayes Swarthmore, Penna. Cripps, Ernest C. Plough Cowt—The Story of a Notable Pharmacy, 1715-1927. London: Allen and Hanburys Limited. 1927. Pp. 227. 10s. 6d. This book is the story of two hundred years in the life and history of a great pharmacy business that in trade and influence has girdled the globe. Our primary interest in Plough Court is due to the fact that many of the men who have been the creative builders of this world-wide business have been at the same time among the foremost Quaker leaders of their periods. Joseph Gurney Bevan was in the eighteenth century one of the first of the great Quaker figures. All our present-day children will be glad to know that this saintly man made the best castor oil that was to be had in the world, and their parents will perhaps remember that he edited Piety Promoted. Then in succession came the famous William Allen—the " Spitalfields Genius," who was the friend and companion of Stephen Grellet, co-worker...