The Daily Advertiser

Yesterday, se'nnight the Synod of New-York and Philadelphia broke up, after finishing their business. During their session, they resolved themselves into four Synods, and one General Assembly or Council. The Synods are to meet annually in New-York, Philadelphia, Virginia, and one of the Carolinas, from which places the Synods are to derive their names. The General Assembly is to meet in Philadelphia. In the pastoral letter agreed to by the Reverend Synod, we hear they have strongly recommended the disuse of spirituous liquors—the abolition of negro slavery, with the instruction of the negroes in literature and religion—and the decision of all disputes among the members of their communion by means of arbitration, after the manner of the primitive Christians, and of the people called Quakers. Should this practice become general among all sects of Christians, how much time would be saved, that is spent in idleness, by plaintiffs, defendants, jurors and witnesses at courts—how much drinking and gaming would be prevented, which are practised during the session of the courts,—how much expense, ill-blood, malice, and even hereditary hatreds, would likewise be prevented by it,—all of which are the usual consequences of law-suits.—Who knows but what the effects of this Christian mode of arbitrating disputes may spread from Christians to public bodies, and that it may prove the means of teaching States and Kings the folly and madness of settling their disputes by an appeal to arms. Greater revolutions in the opinions and conduct of men have often arisen from much smaller causes.