The trade of a distiller, or of a spirit-merchant, is considered as
objectionable if in the hands of a Quaker.
That of a cotton manufacturer, who employs a number of poor children in
the usual way, or in a way which is destructive to their morals and to
their health, is considered as equally deserving of censured.[4]
[Footnote 4: Poor children are frequently sent by parishes to
cotton-mills. Little or no care is taken of their morals. The men, when
grown up, frequently become drunken, and the girls debauched. But the
evil does not stop here. The progeny of these, vitiated by the
drunkenness and debauchery of their parents, have generally diseased and
crippled constitutions, which they perpetuate to a new generation; after
which the whole race, I am told, generally becomes extinct. What
Christian can gain wealth at the expense of the health, morals, and
happiness of his fellow-creatures?]
There is a calling which is seldom followed by itself: I mean the
furnishing of funerals, or the serving of the pall. This is generally in
the hands of Cabinet-makers, or of Upholsterers, or of woollen-drapers.
Now if any Quaker should be found in any of these occupations, and if he
should unite with these that of serving the pall, he would be considered
by such an union, as following an objectionable trade. For the Quakers
having discarded all the pomp, and parade, and dress, connected with
funerals, from their own practice, and this upon moral principles, it
is insisted upon, that they ought not to be accessary to the promotion
of such ceremonials among others.
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