Wesley purposed to visit Ireland in 1781, but was prevented doing so; and, hence, the months he was accustomed to spend in that island were spent in an irregular itinerancy through England and Wales. He now entered on the seventy-ninth year of his age; and, to obtain something like a correct idea of his amazing energy and toil, it may be useful to trace his footsteps more minutely than we have been wont to do during the last few years.

He writes: “January 1, 1781—We began, as usual, the service at four” (in the morning) “praising Him who, maugre all our enemies, had brought us safe to the beginning of another year.”

At this period, his nephews, Charles and Samuel Wesley, were attracting great attention by their musical performances. They had won the friendship of the great musical composers, Dr. Boyce, Dr. Nares, and Dr. Burney. Lords Le Despencer, Barrington, Aylesford, Dudley, and others, were enraptured with them. The Earl of Mornington, for some years, breakfasted weekly with them. Dr. Howard, the distinguished organist, declared concerning Samuel, that he seemed to have “dropped down from heaven.” Charles was introduced to George III., with whom he became a great favourite. The result of this unparalleled popularity was the institution, in Wesley’s brother’s house, of the series of select concerts, already referred to, which were continued for several years, the regular subscribers varying in number from thirty to fifty, though eighty persons were often present; including not a few of the English nobility, besides the Bishop of London, and the Danish and Saxon ambassadors. On January 25, Wesley was there, and wrote: “I spent an agreeable hour at a concert of my nephews. But I was a little out of my element among lords and ladies. I love plain music and plain company best.”

It was during this brief sojourn in London, in the beginning of 1781, that Wesley wrote his stinging sermon on “Little children, keep yourselves from idols”;⁠[384] and his able discourse on, “For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” In the former he terribly belabours the man of business, who retires from the activities of town to the laziness of country life, where his only employment is altering, enlarging, rebuilding, or decorating the old mansion house he has purchased, and improving the stables, outhouses, and grounds, without ever thinking of the God of heaven any more than he thinks of the king of France. In the latter sermon, he strikes a heavy blow at the heresy of Dr. Watts, which Benson, at the conference of 1780, had been accused of embracing. He writes:

Both these sermons enriched the Arminian Magazine for 1781. In fact, it is to the establishment of that periodical, that we are indebted for many of the most elaborated sermons that Wesley ever published. Besides the two above mentioned, Wesley, during the year 1781, wrote at least three others. His sermon on “Zeal” is a remarkable production, and was not inappropriate to the circumstances of a period when so much excitement existed concerning popery. He says:

Another of his homilies, written in 1781,⁠[386] was his able discourse on the province of reason in matters of religion; and another was his unique sermon on “The Brute Creation,” in which he unhesitatingly propounds the doctrine, not only that the brute creation will live again, but likewise, that, when restored, they will possess a far higher state of being than they possess at present; in fact, that they will then be made what beasts, birds, insects, and fishes were when first created.⁠[387] This may seem a wild theory for an octogenarian to advance; but it deserves more attention, on that account, than if it had been an imaginative rocket let off by a stripling in his teens.

While on the subject of sermons, it may be added, that it was now Wesley published, in his Arminian Magazine, his remarkable discourse on the “Danger of Riches,”—the first of a series on that subject, which he continued to issue to the end of life, and in which wealthy Methodists and others are lashed with terrific power. “I do not remember,” says he, “that in threescore years I have heard one sermon preached on this subject. And what author, within the same term, has declared it from the press? I do not know one. I have seen two or three who just touch upon it; but none that treat of it professedly. I have myself frequently touched upon it in preaching, and twice in what I have published to the world: once in explaining our Lord’s sermon on the mount, and once in the discourse on the mammon of unrighteousness. But I have never yet either published or preached any sermon expressly upon the subject. It is high time I should; that I should at length speak as strongly and explicitly as I can, in order to leave a full and clear testimony behind me, whenever it pleases God to call me hence.”

One extract from this striking sermon must suffice.

Before we recur to Wesley’s journal, an unpublished letter may be acceptable.

The preachers now labouring in the Sheffield circuit were James Rogers, Alexander M‘Nab, and Samuel Bardsley. Mr. Rogers writes: “One of my fellow labourers did not lovingly draw in the same yoke, and soon after left the connexion. The uneasiness occasioned in the society by his disaffection, for some months, threatened us with disagreeable consequences; and our enemies expected a considerable division among us; but ‘He that sitteth above the waterfloods’ found means to prevent it. So that instead of losing in our number, we found, at the end of the year, an increase of ninety-seven members.”

Of course, this refers to Alexander M‘Nab, who had rebelled against Wesley’s authority in 1779. Samuel Bardsley was a man of peace, and, moreover, one of the most laborious preachers Wesley had. Besides his pulpit labours, he had rendered great service to the Sheffield society, by a preaching excursion, undertaken for the purpose of obtaining subscriptions for their chapel. His collecting book is before us, with a list of the collections he made, and the donations he obtained, in a tour extending from Sheffield to York, thence to Hull, and thence, along the east coast, to Newcastle on Tyne. Altogether, he gathered the sum of £89 15s. 11d.; and, in doing this, made thirty-one public collections, amounting, in the aggregate, to £30 15s. 6¾d., and begged the balance of £59 0s. 4¼d., of considerably more than three hundred different subscribers, including in this number the inhabitants of not fewer than forty-four towns and villages, whose munificent donations are lumped together. When Bardsley had completed his tour, Wesley wrote him as follows.

On the 12th of February, Wesley set out on a week’s excursion to Norfolk and back again to London, preaching at least ten sermons on the way;⁠[389] and, in wintry weather, travelling more than two hundred miles.

Having spent a few more days in London, he then started, on Sunday, March 4, (as he thought,) for Ireland, but spent a fortnight in the vicinity of Bath and Bristol. Leaving Bristol on March 19, eleven days were occupied in reaching Manchester, during which he preached more than twenty sermons, some of them in the open air.

On March 30, he opened the chapel in Oldham Street, Manchester. He writes: “Friday, March 30—I opened the new chapel at Manchester, about the size of that in London. The whole congregation behaved with the utmost seriousness. I trust much good will be done in this place. Sunday, April 1—I began reading prayers at ten o’clock. Our country friends flocked in from all sides. At the communion was such a sight as I am persuaded was never seen in Manchester before: eleven or twelve hundred communicants at once; and all of them fearing God.”

Thus began the history of a building, which, next to the chapel in City Road, is the most interesting Methodist edifice in existence. First of all, the Manchester Methodists had been located in a miserable room on or near the present site of Bateman’s Buildings. Removing thence, in 1750, they worshipped for thirty years in their first chapel, which, up to a recent period, was a warehouse in Birchin Lane.⁠[390] Among the first members, in that old chapel, were: Mary Bromley, for seventy years a Methodist, who died happy in God, at the age of eighty-nine, in 1826:—Mrs. Leech, an upright follower of Christ, who expired in the full assurance of a blessed immortality in 1770:—John Morris, whose autobiography, in the Arminian Magazine for 1795, will be found to be full of more than romantic interest:—Mr. Fildes, who, in the same year in which Raikes began his work at Gloucester, opened a Sunday-school in a Manchester cellar, a second in a garret, and a third in the first room in Manchester built expressly for Sunday-school purposes, a room erected at Mr. Fildes’ own expense, behind his own dwelling house, in the neighbourhood of London Road:⁠[391]—Adam Oldham, a feltmaker, one of the first trustees of Birchin Lane chapel,⁠[392] who lived in a house on the site which the Albion Hotel now occupies, for many years a useful Methodist,⁠[393] but afterwards a rich backslider, to whom Oldham Street owes its name:—Richard Barlow, who, for sixty-five years, rose at half-past four in summer, and at five in winter:—Mr. Brierley, a member of Peter Kenworthy’s class, the leading singer in Oldham Street chapel, and afterwards a magistrate:—John Moseley, a poor hatter in Millgate, the grandfather of Sir Oswald Moseley, from whom Moseley Street derived its name:—and Mrs. Bennett, a relative of John Moseley’s, and the first female classleader in Manchester.⁠[394] We wish we had space for details respecting these old Manchester Methodist worthies, who deserve far more honourable record than they have yet received.

From Manchester, Wesley went to Bolton, where he writes: “The society here are true, original Methodists. They are not conformed to the world, either in its maxims, its spirit, or its fashions; but are simple followers of the Lamb; consequently they increase both in grace and number.”

This was a high compliment to pay to George Escrick and his friends. Their old chapel in New Acres had been converted into cottages; and, in 1776, they had built another in Ridgway Gates, though not without a united and great effort. The Rev. Mr. Fowles, a clergyman, had the management of a sandbed from which they had to obtain their sand; and hearing of their intentions, he announced, that, after the expiration of five days, the sand would be charged half-a-crown a load. This, to the poor Methodists, was a serious matter; but George Escrick was a man of too much energy to be easily defeated. Accordingly, he, at once, requested all the Methodists, young and old, strong and feeble, active and otherwise, to repair with him to the sandpit, and to dig and convey away all the sand they needed. To a man, they obeyed George’s injunction, and, in a single day, got as much as their intended chapel was likely to require. Michael Fenwick was then their preacher, and kept running over the half-a-mile distance, between the site of the new chapel and the clerical sandbed, encouraging the people in their task, and, at one time, wanting to sing the hymn beginning with “Before Jehovah’s awful throne”; but blunt George Escrick, the weaver, imperatively stopped his spiritual superior, telling him to take a spade in his hand, for there was a time for all things, and this was a time to dig.

In this old Ridgway Gates chapel, William Grime used to conduct a band meeting every Sunday morning at four o’clock; and, beneath it, Parson Greenwood, one of the circuit preachers, whose only home was two neighbouring attics, used to keep his victuals.⁠[395] The head of the circuit was Liverpool, and the following were the munificent sums contributed quarterly, by the several societies, in 1776, when the chapel was completed. Liverpool, £5 8s. 9d.; Bolton, £7 14s. 7d.; Preston, 11s.; Wigan, £1 10s.; Meols, 11s.; Top of Coal Pits, 17s.; Edgeworth, 10s. 6d.; Moulden Water, 7s.; Shackerley, 10s.; Aspul Moor, 7s.; Chowbent, 10s. 6d.; Warrington, £1 1s.; Northwich, £1 1s.; Budworth, 12s. 3d.; Little Leigh, £1 9s. 6d.; and Lamberhead Green, 7s. 6d. Such was Liverpool circuit in 1776; and, out of these Methodist contributions, three Methodist preachers and their families had to be supported. No wonder that the cupboard, beneath the pulpit of the old chapel, was big enough to serve Parson Greenwood for a pantry.

From Bolton, Wesley went to Wigan, and preached a funeral sermon for Betty Brown, one of the first members of Wigan society, “beloved of God, the delight of His children, a dread to wicked men, and a torment to devils.”

Leaving Wigan, Wesley proceeded to Chester, and thence to Alpraham, where he did for “good old sister Cawley, a mother in Israel, and a pattern of all good works,” what he had done for Betty Brown. Arriving at Warrington, he says: “I put a stop to a bad custom, which was creeping in here: a few men, who had fine voices, sang a psalm which no one knew, in a tune fit for an opera, wherein three, four, or five persons sung different words at the same time! What an insult upon common sense! What a burlesque upon public worship! No custom can excuse such a mixture of profaneness and absurdity.”

Desiring to reach Ireland as soon as possible, Wesley embarked at Liverpool, on the 12th of April; but, on getting out to sea, was overtaken with a storm; and, in an hour, was so affected as he had not been for forty years before. For two days, he was unable to swallow anything solid larger than a pea, and was bruised and sore from head to foot, and ill able to turn himself in bed. The sea grew rougher; the horses of Wesley and his companions became turbulent; and the hatches were closed. Water, three feet in depth, was in the hold; the ship refused to obey the helm, and was furiously driving on lee shore. Wesley says: “I called our brethren, Floyd, Snowden, and Bradford, to prayers; and we found free access to the throne of grace. Soon after, we got, I know not how, into Holyhead harbour, after being sufficiently buffeted by the winds and waves for two days and two nights. The more I considered, the more I was convinced, it was not the will of God I should go to Ireland at this time. So we went into the stage coach without delay, and the next evening came to Chester.”

Baffled in his purpose to visit Ireland, Wesley set out on a preaching tour to Whitchurch, Shrewsbury, Brecon, Broseley, Worcester, Brecknock, Carmarthen, Pembroke, Haverfordwest, Tracoon, Newport, Narberth, Llanelly, Swansea, Neath, Bridgend, Cowbridge, Cardiff, and Monmouth. On the 16th of May, he got back to Worcester, having completed the circuit in a month, and preached about thirty times.

He now proceeded to Kidderminster, Salop, Whitchurch, Nantwich, Northwich, and, on May 18, arrived in Manchester, having preached each night and morning.

At Manchester, he writes: “I preached a funeral sermon for Mary Charlton, an Israelite indeed. From the hour that she first knew the pardoning love of God, she never lost sight of it for a moment. Eleven years ago, she believed that God had cleansed her from all sin; and she showed, that she had not believed in vain, by her holy and unblamable conversation.”

Molly Charlton was the sweetheart of good old Samuel Bardsley, the only one he ever had. They wished to marry; but the difficulty of providing for married preachers was so great, that Wesley and Pawson interfered, and the nuptial engagement was broken off. In four quarto manuscript volumes, containing Bardsley’s diary, and in Pawson’s letter concerning this business, and likewise the letter of poor disappointed Molly (all in the writer’s possession), there are some racy facts, and traits of personal character, which may be given to the public at some future time.

Leaving Manchester on May 21, Wesley made his way to Warrington, Chowbent, Bolton, Kabb, Blackburn, and Preston.

In reference to the last mentioned place, he writes: “May 24—I went on to Preston, where the old prejudice seems to be quite forgotten. The little society has fitted up a large and convenient room, where I preached to a candid audience. Every one seemed to be considerably affected.”

Who was the founder of this little society? Twelve years previous to Wesley’s visit, John Wood, one of the first Methodists at Padiham, attended Preston sessions, to obtain a licence to preach. Having granted it, one of the magistrates, a clergyman, seeing a number of rude and noisy people outside the sessions house, said to John, perhaps with more sarcasm than sincerity: “There, go and reform that crowd!” John bowed, thanked his worship for his licence, left the court, entered the crowd in full authority, and preached in peace.⁠[396] Six years after this, in 1775, Samuel Bradburn formed the first Methodist class in Preston;⁠[397] and now, in 1781, Martha Thompson, Roger Crane, William Bramwell, of immortal memory, and a few others, had hired an old calendering house, in Lord Street, for a place of meeting, and had fairly begun a work in proud Preston, which, despite the popery of the place, has grown into one of the most prosperous societies in the kingdom.

Wesley next proceeded to the Isle of Man, where he spent eight days, “visited the island round, east, south, north, and west”; preached, at least, a dozen times; and, in a population of thirty thousand, found above two thousand Methodists, with a score of “stout, well looking” local preachers, not surpassed in England. “I was thoroughly convinced,” says he, “that we have no such circuit as this, either in England, Scotland, or Ireland. It is shut up from the world; and, having little trade, is visited by scarce any strangers. Here are no papists, no Dissenters of any kind, no Calvinists, no disputers. Here is no opposition, either from the governor, from the bishop, or from the bulk of the clergy. One or two of them did oppose for a time; but they seem now to understand better. So that we have now rather too little than too much reproach. The natives are a plain, artless, simple people; unpolished, that is, unpolluted; few of them are rich or genteel; the far greater part, moderately poor. The local preachers are men of faith and love, knit together in one mind and one judgment. They speak either Manx or English, and follow a regular plan, which the assistant gives them monthly.”

On leaving the Isle of Man, Wesley proceeded to Newcastle, preaching, on the way, at Cockermouth, Ballantyne, and Carlisle.

Can it be that this flying evangelist was an old man of nearly eighty? No wonder that he sometimes sang⁠—

Without work, Wesley could not live. The following unpublished letter, written at this period, is strongly characteristic of the man. It was addressed to Samuel Bradburn, at Keighley.

Wesley spent eight days at Newcastle, and in its vicinity, and preached, at least, ten or a dozen times. He then visited his societies between there and York. At Thirsk, in a letter to his brother, Wesley wrote:

Two days after this, Wesley arrived at Epworth, and wrote: “I have now preached thrice a day for seven days following; but it is just the same as if it had been but one.” Twelve days were spent in Lincolnshire, during which he preached more than a score of sermons. Among other places, Grantham was favoured with his ministry. He writes: “July 9—I preached at Grantham, in the open air, for no house would contain the congregation; and none made the least disturbance.”

At the village of Welby, the Rev. W. Dodwell was minister; and, in his church, Wesley preached twice on the day before he preached at Grantham. Mr. Dodwell was the pastor of Welby parish for nearly half a century, and died in 1824, when he presented, by deed of gift, £10,000 to the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and an equal sum to the British and Foreign Bible Society.⁠[400] He was present at Wesley’s conference of preachers in 1782.⁠[401]

After visiting many other societies in Lincolnshire during the next ten days, Wesley, on July 23, “passed into Yorkshire,” and preached at Yeadon, Bradford, Halifax, Greetland, Huddersfield, Longwood House, Mirfield, Daw Green, Birstal, Tadcaster, York, Malton, Scarborough, Beverley, Hull, and Pocklington; and, at the beginning of August, arrived in Leeds, for the purpose of holding his annual conference; but, before giving an account of its proceedings, two letters to two ladies, both written on the same day, will be acceptable. The first was to his niece, Miss Sarah Wesley, then a young lady about twenty—​afterwards a personal friend of a large and distinguished literary circle, including Mrs. Hannah More, Miss Porter, Miss Aikin, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs. Barbauld, and others,—and who died in 1828, at the age of sixty-eight, some of her last words being, “I have peace, but not joy.”⁠[402]

The other letter was addressed to Miss Bishop, who became a Methodist about the year 1767, and who, from that time, had been one of Wesley’s correspondents. Many of his most spiritual letters were written to this Christian lady, who, though poor, was a gentlewoman. For some years, she had kept a school in Bath or its neighbourhood; but, in 1777, had been seized with spitting of blood, and had been thrown upon the kindness of her friends in Bristol.⁠[404] Recently, however, she had commenced another school at Keynsham, which, said Wesley, “is worthy to be called a Christian school;”⁠[405] though, it would seem, some of the Bristol people wished to make it more fashionable than Wesley liked.

Two or three other letters may be given here. The first is copied from the original now before us, and, we believe, has not before been published.

Wesley had told his niece, that, if she took his advice with respect to sleep, she might hear from him again. It seems, the advice was adopted; hence the following letter, written seven weeks after the former one.

Though Miss Wesley was now in her twenty-first year, and had yet to begin Kingswood English Grammar, still, assuming that henceforward she acted upon the advice of her venerable uncle, it is not surprising, that she ultimately became the well informed woman which her father’s biographer says she was. Her brother Charles was three years older than herself; her brother Samuel six years younger. The brothers were musical prodigies; their uncle took a deep interest in their welfare; and wrote to Charles, on August 4, and September 8, 1781, as follows.

Charles Wesley, junior, who had been already introduced to the court of George III., lived to become the organist of George IV., and the musical preceptor of the long lamented Princess Charlotte. He never married; but resided, first with his widowed mother, and then with his sister Sarah,—was a man of deep devotional feeling, an attendant at Methodist chapels, a lover of Methodist preachers, and died, in 1834, humming Handel’s music, and was buried in the same grave as his father and mother in Marylebone churchyard. Poor Samuel was seduced into the popish church before he arrived at the age of twenty; and, thereby, brought the grey hairs of his father with sorrow to the grave. He composed a high mass for the use of the chapel of Pope Pius VI., and received that pontiff’s thanks.⁠[409] Like many others, he found it an easy step from popery to infidelity, and wrote: “In this life, my only consolation is in the belief of fatalism, which, although a gloomy asylum, is as bright as I can bear, till convinced of that truth which a launch into the great gulf only can demonstrate.” He survived his brother Charles and his sister Sarah; in his last days became a penitent; died in 1837; and was buried in the sepulchre of his parents.⁠[410]

The conference of 1781 was a memorable gathering. It was preceded, on Sunday, August 5, by a service in the parish church, at Leeds, such as was probably never witnessed within its walls, either before or since. Wesley preached; eighteen clergymen, inclusive of himself, Coke, and Fletcher, were present; and, at the Lord’s supper, there were about eleven hundred communicants, the ordinance being administered by Wesley and ten other ministers.⁠[411]

Connexional affairs created anxiety. Thomas Taylor, in his manuscript diary, remarks: “I feel much concern respecting several things; but how to have them remedied I cannot tell. Many things are exceedingly wrong; but whom to trust to attempt amendment I know not. I sometimes think, the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.”

Wesley writes: “August 6—I desired Mr. Fletcher, Dr. Coke, and four more of our brethren, to meet every evening, that we might consult together on any difficulty that occurred. On August 7, our conference began, at which were present about seventy preachers, whom I had severally invited to come and assist me with their advice, in carrying on the great work of God.”

The burden of so many preachers being present was found to be greater than the Leeds society could conveniently bear; and it was agreed that every preacher should pay the expenses of his horse keep during the conference sittings. There were more preachers’ wives in the connexion than there were houses to lodge them, or money to find them maintenance; and it was resolved, that no more married preachers should be admitted, except in cases of necessity.⁠[412] Some of the preachers had printed, both in verse and prose, without Wesley’s consent or correction. Among others, James Kershaw had recently issued a quarto sized book, of 134 pages, entitled, “The Methodist; attempted in Plain Metre.” It was thought, that these productions had brought a reproach upon the Methodists, and had hindered the spreading of more profitable books; and it was determined that, in future, no preacher should print anything till it had been corrected by Wesley, and that the profits thereof should go into the common stock. Wesley’s Notes on the Old Testament had now been published sixteen years, and yet the edition had not been sold. To get rid of the remaining copies, it was directed that they should be sold at half price.

A number of Methodists at Baildon, in Yorkshire, had written to Wesley, stating that, in accordance with his instructions, they attended the services of their parish church; but their minister preached what they considered to be “dangerously false doctrine,” inasmuch as he publicly declared, that men “must not hope to be perfected in love, on this side eternity”; and this had made them doubt whether they ought to hear him. Wesley laid their letter before the conference, and, as the difficulty applied to many others besides the Methodists at Baildon, he invited a friendly and free discussion. It was unanimously agreed: (1) That it was highly expedient, that all the Methodists, who had been bred therein, should attend the service of the church as often as possible. But that, (2) If the minister began either to preach the absolute decrees, or to rail at, and ridicule Christian perfection, they should quietly go out of the church; yet attend it again the next opportunity.” Wesley adds: “I have, since that time, revolved this matter over and over in my mind; and the more I consider it, the more I am convinced, this was the best answer that could be given. Only, I must earnestly caution our friends not to be critical; not to make a man an offender for a word; no, nor for a few sentences, which any who believe the decrees may drop without design.”⁠[413] “It is a delicate and important point, on which I cannot lay down any general rule. All I can say, at present, is, if it does not hurt you, hear them; if it does, refrain. Be determined by your own conscience.”⁠[414]

But this was not all that occurred, on the Church question, at the conference of 1781. One of the principal Methodists, in Leeds, was William Hey, now in the forty-fifth year of his age, a medical man of great repute, an intimate friend and correspondent of Dr. Priestley, and who had been a Methodist for seven-and-twenty years. Mr. Hey intimated to Wesley his desire to address the conference, and to offer some suggestions and advice; declaring, at the same time, that, if his proposals were rejected, he could no longer remain a member of the Methodist society. By Wesley’s permission he began to read a paper, to the effect, that Dissenting ideas had been, for many years, gradually growing among the Methodists. In proof of this, he held that the Methodists preached in places already supplied with pious ministers; that meetings in some instances were held in church hours; that the intervals of church service were so filled up with public and private assemblies, that there was no time for suitable refreshment, nor opportunity for instructing families; that many of the largest societies rarely went to church, and some never carried their children there; and that church ministers, who formed societies for private instruction, were looked upon with an envious eye. Such were the complaints which Mr. Hey intended to lay before the conference; but, as he proceeded, the marks of disapprobation were such that Wesley interposed, and said: “As there is much other business before us, brother Hey must defer reading the remainder of his paper to another time.”

Brother Hey forthwith left the society; a few months later he was elected alderman; and, more than once, filled the office of chief magistrate in the town of Leeds. Of his ability and piety there can be no question; but Wesley was not prepared to allow him to be the dictator of the Methodists.⁠[415]

No sooner was the conference over than the venerable Wesley again set out on his gospel wanderings. He preached at Sheffield, and then, taking coach with Dr. Coke, travelled day and night till he arrived in London. Two days were spent in the metropolis, and then off he set, on Sunday night, August 19, by coach to Cornwall. We need not follow him. Suffice it to say, that, in eight days, he preached in Cornwall, at least, thirteen sermons, five of them in the open air, and one in Gwennap Pit, to a congregation computed at more than twenty thousand people.

On September 6, he got back to Bristol, in the neighbourhood of which, according to his custom, he spent a month. While here, he wrote the following characteristic letter to Mr. Elijah Bush, a young schoolmaster at Midsomer Norton, who wished to marry a lady to whom his father and mother objected.