management, and I rather think is a convenient apology or screen for some ulterior mischief. But surely if the Committee cannot afford to pay their just debts, they might at least put on some appearance of fair dealing, by the frank acknowledgment of the public debt on the Institution, under their direction and management, they being the only ostensible parties for raising the means of its liquidation, and so no doubt they would, were it the case of a chapel; but are truth and justice confined to matters “quoad sacra”? In all other Lancasterian Schools, and I have given two examples of considerable ones, viz. Spital-Fields and Tottenham (to which innumerable others might be added), such a fair and open course of proceeding is invariably observed; and even so late as last year, the Report of Tottenham Schools states the need of laying out 1507. in their improvement, and submits the following information concerning it, viz.—“The cost of this erection is estimated at about 150%., and they trust that for the accomplishment of plans calculated to promote the efficiency of the Schools, the friends of popular instruction will not be backward in liberally supporting them." But on the contrary our Scarborough Friends seem rather inclined to pay off their public Debt in the base metal of personal provocation, mystification and rash assertion, than in the sterling coin of honest exertion, and sincere intention to do unto others as they would wish to be done unto, and without respect of persons—whether poor or rich.

Thus far, my dear Sir, we have only just reached the threshold of Mr. Treasurer Stickney's answer to my Letter of business addressed to him; we have hitherto merely examined the exordium or primary cogitations and lucubrations of the Quaker, as far as he understands the case" generally. You will see and acknowledge with me that in all this he has only been going round the tree, and round the tree, and not touching the tree, perhaps from information received from his good friend V. P. Rowntree, and to all appearance determined to give away no chance of effecting his object. Verily if

honest John Bunyan had had to allegorise such characters, he would have been at no loss to designate them by their respective names.

But I forbear; and will next proceed to consider with some attention what the Treasurer is pleased to advance in reply to my distinct and pointed observations touching his yearly accounts-especially the last, of 1840-which my aforesaid business Letter had brought under his official notice. But this I must defer till my next.

I remain, etc.

G. D.

LETTER X.

"Facts and Figures are stubborn things: some persons seem to consider any thing done amiss in private, as nothing; their standard of Morality would appear to consist, not in avoiding Error, but in escaping discovery."

DEAR SIR,

It is peculiarly noticeable, that in the demi-official Letter of the shrewd and wary Treasurer,-so well considered and so carefully compacted, he wanders, nevertheless, from his proper province into much discursive and irrelevant matter, of which he knows next to nothing, except by report of his friend and colleague V. P. Rowntree, and by which nothing is shewn more clearly, than their mutual inconsistency and incapacity for the difficult task they have undertaken, i. e. to prove that a loan of money to a body of Subscribers to a public institution, is not by any means cognizable or allowable by the Committee of such body, but may be indefinitely deferred, disputed, or denied, just as suits the temper, the interests, or the convenience of the dominant party in that Committee, and all this without any stain of reproach or shame attaching to them, either individually, or collectively.

This in few words is the drift, the sum and substance, of this Letter, which I shall hope to make appear to your satisfaction, ere I have done with it; in the meantime, I am thankful to Mr. Treasurer for this discovery and exemplification of the sentiments it contains, because it will help me to lay open their original scheme of concealment, mystification, and

delusion, in a more definite and tangible shape, and enable me to extend these researches still broader and deeper.

To this end, I now advance to the sixth division of this Letter: thus

6. "To proceed however to the principal business in hand.” What had gone before was, it seems, only an introductory or preliminary lecture, subsidiary merely to the main object, a pure work of supererogation; that which now follows relates to the "principal business in hand,”—that which as Treasurer, concerned himself principally;-viz. the examination and rectification of his previous erroneous statements and accounts, and the promise of alteration and amendment for the future. Now let us see how he proceeds in the matter. Does he consult the Committee, or submit himself to any public meeting for their sanction and approval? Does he plead the admission of his yearly accounts, by Auditors duly authorized and appointed by the body of Subscribers for that purpose? No such thing. He, and every one here knows, that his accounts have never been referred to such an ordeal, or attested by any Auditor during the long period of his Treasurership, nor, as far as I know and believe, those of others, from the very first Quaker Treasurer Rowntree, to the present time, embracing a term of thirty years! No doubt their individual character, as men of integrity in private life and in their general business transactions, might at first, seem to render such scrutiny needless; but I confidently affirm, that such long continued practice is altogether unwarranted, and without precedent in the history of Public Institutions. I refer to the "British and Foreign Bible Society," the different "Missionary Societies," and especially to the "British and Foreign School Society," as affording ample ground for my assertion; and further I may say, that it must be always acceptable to such public officers to have their accounts examined, revised and passed by such indifferent Auditors, as affording full satisfaction to all parties concerned. But you will please to observe, that our Treasurer very adroitly passes by all that was advanced in

my official Letter to him respecting his published accounts, without a single observation or remark, thus tacitly admitting their truth and justice; and still considering, and wishing me to consider the affair as a merely personal, not public matter; proceeds thus," when I have next to make out a statement, I may possibly put it into a different form." This may perhaps account for a previous taunt in this Letter, of my "business habits," as it is by these that I have been enabled to detect and expose his fallacies. It is however, you perceive, only a possible thing, nothing of certainty about it, he will not condescend to do right by compulsion, there appears no confession or conviction of untruth or injustice, or any indication of past errors or of future amendment. This, I suppose, would be

considered infra dig. It might possibly lead others to suspect him of tergiversation, or something else too submissive. It might in some degree affect him in his immediate connexion here and elsewhere.

It is certainly very far from being an agreable part of my duty to impute blame to, or inflict pain upon him, or any other public officer, by a deep and probing scrutiny of their conduct, and still less of their motives, or to subject them to the mortification which may arise from a complete and entire exposure of such conduct. I state facts-strong, incontestable, incontrovertible facts, and leave you to judge of their tendency and natural consequences, and I desire that no inferences may be drawn from them, other than such as those facts, and the Original Documents," may strictly justify and warrant.

The writer of the Letter then proceeds to foreshew his views, but in the same equivocal and mysterious manner, thus: "Although I have no hope of pleasing G. Davies in the matter, and if any thing would have prevented me doing it, it would be the threat which his Letter contains, for, as I trust, no promise or persuasion would induce me to publish any thing which did not 'correspond with truth and equity;' on the other hand, no threat of legal proceedings on his part, will ever induce me to swerve from what I believe to be right."