time; he had been fined for selling gin;-he was not the real John Wesley, for every body knew that Mr. Wesley was dead. Some said he was a Quaker, others an Anabaptist: a more sapient censor pronounced him a Presbyterian Papist. It was commonly reported that he was a Papist, if not a Jesuit; that he kept Popish priests in his house;-nay, it was beyond dispute that he received large remittances from Spain, in order to make a party among the poor, and when the Spaniards landed, he was to join them with 20,000 men. Sometimes it was reported that he was in prison upon a charge of high treason; and there were people who confidently affirmed that they had seen him with the Pretender in France. Reports to this effect were so prevalent, that when, in the beginning of the year 1744, a proclamation was issued requiring all Papists to leave London, he thought it prudent to remain a week there, that he might cut off all occasion of reproach; and this did not prevent the Surry magistrates from summoning him, and making him take the oath of allegiance, and sign the declaration against Popery. Wesley was indifferent to all other accusations, but the charge of disaffection, in such times, might have drawn on serious inconveniences; and he drew up a loyal address to the King, in the name of "The Societies in derision called Methodists." They thought it incumbent upon them to offer this address, the paper said, if they must stand as a distinct body from their brethren; but they protested that they were a part, however mean, of the Protestant Church established in these kingdoms; and that it was their principle to revere the higher powers as of God, and to be subject for conscience sake. The address, however, was not presented, probably because of an objection which Charles started, of its seeming to allow that they were a body distinct from the National Church, whereas they were only a sound part of that Church. Charles himself was more seriously incommoded by the imputation of disloyalty than his brother. When he was itinerating in Yorkshire, an accusation was laid against him of having spoken trea

sonable words, and witnesses were summoned before the magistrates at Wakefield to depose against him. Fortunately for him, he learnt this in time to present himself, and confront the witnesses. He had prayed that the Lord would call home his banished ones; and this the accusers construed, in good faith, to mean the Pretender. The words would have had that meaning from the mouth of a Jacobite. But Charles Wesley, with perfect sincerity, disclaimed any such intention. "I had no thoughts," he said, "of praying for the Pretender, but for those who confess themselves strangers and pilgrims upon earth, who seek a country, knowing this is not their home. You, sir," he added, addressing himself to a clergyman upon the bench; "you, sir, know that the Scriptures speak of us as captive exiles, who are absent from the Lord while present in the body. We are not at home till we are in Heaven." The magistrates were men of sense: they perceived that he explained himself clearly-that his declarations were frank and unequivocal, and they declared themselves perfectly satisfied.

Yet these aspersions tended to aggravate the increasing obloquy under which the Wesleys and their followers were now labouring. "Every Sunday," says Charles, "damnation is denounced against all who hear us, for we are Papists, Jesuits, seducers, and bringers-in of the Pretender. The clergy murmur aloud at the number of communicants, and threaten to repel them." He was himself repelled at Bristol, with circumstances of indecent violence. "Wives and children," he says, “are beaten and turned out of doors, and the persecutors are the complainers: it is always the lamb that troubles the water!" A maid-servant was turned away by her inaster, "because," he said, "he would have none in his house who had received the Holy Ghost!"— She had been thrown into the convulsions of Methodism, and continued in them fourteen hours. This happened at Bath, where, as Charles expresses himself, "Satan took it ill to be attacked in his headquarters." John had a curious interview there with Beau Nash, for it was in his reign. While he was

preaching, this remarkable personage entered the room, came close to the preacher, and demanded of him by what authority he was acting. Wesley made answer, "By that of Jesus Christ, conveyed to me by the present Archbishop of Canterbury, when he laid his hands upon me and said, Take thou authority to preach the Gospel." "-Nash then affirmed that he was acting contrary to the laws: "Besides," said he, "your preaching frightens people out of their wits." "Sir," replied Wesley, "did you ever hear me preach ?""No," said the Master of the Ceremonies. "How then can you judge of what you never heard?” Nash made answer, "By common report."—" Sir,” said Wesley," is not your name Nash? I dare not judge of you by common report: I think it not enough to judge by." However accurate common report might have been, and however rightly Nash might have judged of the extravagance of Methodism, he was delivering opinions in the wrong place; and when he desired to know what the people came there for, one of the congregation cried out, "Let an old woman answer him:-you, Mr. Nash, take care of your body, we take care of our souls, and for the food of our souls we come here." He found himself a very different person in the meeting-house from what he was in the pump-room or the assembly, and thought it best to withdraw.

But Wesley had soon to encounter more dangerous opposition. Bristol was the first place where he received any serious disturbance from the rabble.After several nights of prelusive uproar, the mob assembled in great strength. "Not only the courts and the alleys," he says, "but all the street upwards and downwards, was filled with people, shouting, cursing and swearing, and ready to swallow the ground with fierceness and rage. They set the orders of the magistrates at nought, and grossly abused the chief constable, till a party of peace officers arrived and took the ringleaders into custody. When they were brought up before the mayor, Mr. Combe, they began to excuse themselves, by reviling Wesley; but the mayor properly cut them short by say

ing, "What Mr. Wesley is, is nothing to you. I will keep the peace. I will have no rioting in this city." And such was the effect of this timely and determined interposition of the civil power, that the Methodists were never again disturbed by the rabble at Bristol. In London also the same ready protection was afforded. The chairman of the Middlesex justices, hearing of the disposition which the mob had shown, called upon Mr. Wesley, and telling him that such things were not to be suffered, added, "Sir, I and the other Middlesex magistrates have orders from above to do you justice whenever you apply to us." This assistance he applied for when the mob stoned him and his followers in the streets, and attempted to unroof the Foundry. At Chelsea they threw wildfire and crackers into the room where he was preaching. At Long-Lane they broke in the roof with large stones, so that the people within were in danger of their lives. Wesley addressed the rabble without effect; he then sent out three or four steady and resolute men to seize one of the ringleaders: they brought him into the house, cursing and blaspheming, dispatched him under a good escort to the nearest justice, and bound him over to the next sessions at Guildford. A remarkable circumstance occurred during this scene. One of the stoutest champions of the rioters was struck with sudden contrition, and came into the room with a woman who had been as ferocious as himself-both to fall upon their knees, and acknowledge the mercy of God.

These disturbances were soon suppressed in the metropolis and its vicinity, where the magistrates knew their duty, and were ready to perform it; but in some parts of the country, the very persons whose office it was to preserve the peace, instigated their neighbours and dependents to break it. Wesley had preached at Wednesbury, in Staffordshire, both in the town-hall, and in the open air, without molestation. The colliers in the neighbourhood had listened to him peaceably; and between three and four hundred persons formed themselves into a society as Methodists. Mr. Egginton, the minister of that town,

was at first pleased with this; but offence was given him by some great indiscretion, and from that time he began to oppose the Methodists by the most outrageous means. Some of the neighbouring magistrates were ignorant enough of their duty, both as magistrates and as men, to assist him in stirring up the rabble, and to refuse to act in behalf of the Methodists, when their persons and property were attacked. Mobs were collected by the sound of horn, windows were demolished, houses broken open, goods destroyed or stolen, men, women, and children beaten, pelted, and dragged in the kennels, and even pregnant women outraged, to the imminent danger of their lives, and the disgrace of humanity. The mob said they would make a law, and that all the Methodists should set their hands to it; and they nearly murdered those who would not sign a paper of recantation. When they had had the law in their own hands for four or five months, (such in those days was the state of the police!) Wesley came to Birmingham on his way to Newcastle; and hearing of the state of things at Wednesbury, went there, like a man whose maxim it was always to look danger in the face. He preached in mid-day, and in the middle of the town, to a large assembly of people, without the slightest molestation either going or coming, or while he was on the ground. But in the evening the mob beset the house in which he was lodged: they were in great strength, and their cry was, "Bring out the minister! we will have the minister!" Wesley, who never, on any occasion, lost his calmness or his selfpossession, desired one of his friends to take the captain of the mob by the hand, and lead him into the house. The fellow was either soothed or awed by Wesley's appearance and serenity. He was desired to bring in one or two of the most angry of his companions: they were appeased in the same manner, and made way for the man whom, five minutes before, they would fain have pulled to pieces, that he might go out to the people. Wesley then called for a chair, got upon it, and demanded of the multitude what they wanted with him? Some of them made